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Xbox Media Center & Linux; is there a way around modding?

Mason

Member
I'm not going to hardware mod my Xbox. But with a memory stick and the USB drive, is it possible to do anything? All I want to do is be able to run XBMC (or whatever it's called) so I can watch DivX movies and things of that sort on my Xbox.
 

rastex

Banned
Yup, that's exactly what I do.

All you have to do is pick up a copy of Mech Assault, non Platinum-hits. Then get the proper gamesave (very easy to find). Then all you ahve to do is load up MA, then run that save, and bam, you have XBMC running, meaning you get FTP access and can stream all your media. Then when you quit, your Xbox never knows the difference, it's beautiful.
 

Mason

Member
So my Xbox has to be on a network with my PC? Because mine isn't. :\ I figured I could use DVD-Rs and CD-Rs to watch stuff.
 

tedtropy

$50/hour, but no kissing on the lips and colors must be pre-separated
I realize this isn't an answer to your X-Box mod question, but you may want to look into one of these...

DVP642_17_product_main.gif

http://www.divx.com/hardware/detail.php?p=7#

It'll play just about anything you can throw at it (DVD/DivX 3/4/5/MPEG4/MP3/JPEG/VCD/SVCD/Audio CD/etc.), plus you don't have to mess with any save-tricks and it's certainly alot less noisy than the X-Box. You can find them for around 60 bucks if you shop around. May not be idea for what you're after, but it's a suggestion.
 

DaCocoBrova

Finally bought a new PSP, but then pushed the demon onto someone else. Jesus.
^^^

Unless that thing has a NIC inside (network access), I don't see the point.
 

tedtropy

$50/hour, but no kissing on the lips and colors must be pre-separated
DaCocoBrova said:
^^^

Unless that thing has a NIC inside (network access), I don't see the point.

There's alot of DIVX movies that I burn to media to save on HD space. It's nice to be able to just throw it in set-top box and play it on my TV now and then. If I felt like modding my X-Box, yeah, I'd probably me more inclined to go that route...
 

Renegade

Banned
Even when relating to only media playing capabilities the Xbox owns that... thing.

My cousin uses the Agent Under Fire one, but either that or Mechassault (NON PLATINUM HITS) will work. Basically, just upload the correct gamesave onto the memcard. You should download Xbox Media Center then delete any extra skins that come with it to get it to fit on a 32MB thumbdrive.

Put Gamesave on ThumbDrive (Herein referred to TD)

Rename the XBE of Xbox Media Center to the exact one of Evox (Which should be evox.xbe) and overwrite it in the same directory. You should be able to just highlight, drag and drop all the contents of the XBMC zip into the folder and press overwrite at the prompt.

tedtrophy: If you want me to mod your Xbox so all you have to do is boot it up or want me to give you a mod to quiet your Xbox Hard Drive just tell me.
 

rastex

Banned
Ya, the one downside to the temp-modding is that you can't open the dvd drive without resetting the system, meaning you can't put in any of your own DVD-Rs or CD-Rs. Just get it connected to your network, it makes things a million times easier and gives you FAR more options.
 

Renegade

Banned
To your second post: CD-Rs no, CDRWs and DVD-Rs yes. DVDRWs as well. Anything but CD-R.

Still, nothing as awesome as streaming though.

Also, you can do almost anything you can as if you were modding your Xbox's hard drive itself. From web browsers to linux to emulators. BUT you will have to learn XML to some extent to edit XBMC's/EvoX's file pointing so it autoadds off of H:\
 

Renegade

Banned
rastex said:
Ya, the one downside to the temp-modding is that you can't open the dvd drive without resetting the system, meaning you can't put in any of your own DVD-Rs or CD-Rs. Just get it connected to your network, it makes things a million times easier and gives you FAR more options.
If he is doing the Phoenix mod then you can open the disk drive, as long as the BIOS permits.
 

Renegade

Banned
If there's nothing on the Xbox Hard drive there is positively no way you can get in any kind of trouble with this mod. The new BIOS even disallows you from going on Live while it's enabled.

Sorry people whose accounts get banned because their "Little brother flipped the switch when going on LIVE". There's no excuse now.
 

rastex

Banned
So wait, does the Pheonix bios have to be installed? Or can you just boot it up with MA? Right now the way I have it setup is that there's a save in MA called "Run Linux" it has been modified to run the XBMC dash, so when you choose that save, the screen flickers for a while and then XBMC shows up. From there I can FTP, play emulators and stream media. However, as soon as I open up the disc drive the box reboots back into the original dash. Is there a way around this so I can put in my own discs without installing any exploits?
 

Renegade

Banned
rastex: You are using the 'plain Jane' hack that only allows for the dash to load. At xbins you can find a PBL/Evox gamesave. Replace the save you're currently using with a PBL/Evox save, and replace evox with XBMC as you seem to have done already.

now when you choose the save first the screen flickers, then the Phoenix logo pops on screen, then some DOS-like text spews on screen, then the screen flickers again and you're in XBMC.

Now, if you want faster bootups with BIOS loading then get Pheonix Boot Loader Lite and replace your phoenix files within the gamesave with it.
 

joaomgcd

Member
Wait, so does this mean I can also play in NTSC video modes (progressive scan) with this mod? And how would I put the savegame onto the thumb drive? After it is formatted on the Xbox, Windows doesn't seem to recognize it.

Oh, and thanks for all the great info, by the way. :)
 

Renegade

Banned
joaomgcd said:
Wait, so does this mean I can also play in NTSC video modes (progressive scan) with this mod? And how would I put the savegame onto the thumb drive? After it is formatted on the Xbox, Windows doesn't seem to recognize it.

Oh, and thanks for all the great info, by the way. :)
Yes it does, but you have to be playing a NTSC game.

Use this magical device called the Mega-x-key. It easily transfers any gamesaves to the device.

http://www.xboxsaves.com/

You can get Mega-x-key, the needed saves and an Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth of other complete game saves there.
 

Renegade

Banned
upon further research, it appears that it's only being worked on. Sorry, no DVD fix as of yet. Still upgrade to Pheonix Bios Loader and perhaps soon the issue will be resolved :(
 

jobber

Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
so can 1 use this other than play music/movies? i.e. play emulators that are saved on my pc drive? also, could I FTP the box?
 

jobber

Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
I got ya. So with the new BIOS loaded on, I can turn it off and use Live without getting banned?
 
There are several different versions of the software mod out there. I did the Mech Assault/Evos one, but once you have FTP access to your XBox you can do whatever you like. I now use Avalaunch as my main dashboard. The only issues are you have to CD swap (custom soundtrack exploit), and this XBox must NEVEr access XBL. So do not hook it up to the network unless you have intialized the mod. If you have specific questions PM me....
 

Renegade

Banned
When the bios are enabled, when you try to access live with the hacked BIOSes on, you will get an error message. It's almost fool proof.
 
Vagabond said:
To your second post: CD-Rs no, CDRWs and DVD-Rs yes. DVDRWs as well. Anything but CD-R.

Still, nothing as awesome as streaming though.

Also, you can do almost anything you can as if you were modding your Xbox's hard drive itself. From web browsers to linux to emulators. BUT you will have to learn XML to some extent to edit XBMC's/EvoX's file pointing so it autoadds off of H:\


Unless he has an XBox with the Samsung drive........
 
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