XBMC Killer Media Center!

[djdiggla]

This just came out for mac too, but I plan on doing the soft mod for my old xbox which has been collecting dust. I remember vaguely that the disc drive seemed finicky so I hope it maintains, but if not I will just replace it or try cleaning the lens....

 

Mac:

xbmc-turns-your-mac-into-the-ultimate-media-center

 

Old Xbox

transform-your-classic-xbox-into-a-killer-media-center

 

Here's what you'll need:

 

* A classic Xbox (duh)—Those of you without an Xbox but interested in building a media center on the cheap, you could easily score one on eBay for under $100.

* An original (not a copy) of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell game.—(Not the Pandora's Tomorrow or Chaos Theory versions.) Other games work, like Mech Assault and 007: Agent Under Fire, but I used Splinter Cell (the Platinum Hits edition) so that's the only one I can vouch for. (I had the game already, but there are a ton for sale at Amazon, many for under 10 bucks.)

* The Action Replay kit—Action Replay is a USB interface to an Xbox memory card that lets you load pre-saved, unlocked games and cheats onto the card. You see where this is going. I snagged one on Amazon for about $40.

* A home network router with a free Ethernet port and a network cable. Chances are you've already got one of these. Plug one end of the cable into your router, and the other into your Xbox.

 

 

Install the softmod and Xbox Media Center

 

Once you've got the materials together, you're most of the way there. Onto the modding.

 

1. Determine the location of the softmod installer and XBMC downloads. Never in my online life have I had to go through such a rigamarole to get ahold of files. (Update: The softmod installer binaries are technically illegal to distribute for reasons I don't quite grok; but I'm reprinting instructions on how to obtain them which were freely available and printed in full at this popular tutorial.) In short, you have to log onto an IRC channel, issue a command to query the FTP server location, and get temporary login details in order to acquire the files (the equivalent of finding hidden door and using a secret knock). So, using your favorite IRC client (I went with the Chatzilla Firefox extension), type:

 

/server irc.efnet.net

 

 

Once connected to EFNet, type:

 

/j #xbins

 

 

Then:

 

/msg xbins !list

 

 

You will receive a private message with 2 sets of FTP login details. One is for the softmod installer, the other is for XBMC.

 

2. Download and extract the softmod installer and XBMC. Whether it's FileZilla, FireFTP, SmartFTP or Transmit, use your favorite FTP client to hit up the first file location you got from xbins and download the softmod archive, which is located at:

/XBOX/Console Based Applications/exploits/Packages/Softmod Installer Deluxe/Softmod.Installer.Deluxe.v2.0.Xbox-Hq.rar

Then, disconnect and login to the second FTP server to grab the XBMC archive, XBMC-2.0.1-FINAL-FAT-T3CH.rar. Using your favorite RAR extractor (I recommend 7-Zip), extract the files to your PC.

3. Move the saved game exploit onto a memory card with Action Replay. Now, break out the Action Replay software that comes on CD in the package and install it on your PC. Plug in the USB cable and the 8MB memory card that came with it. From your Softmod.Installer.Deluxe.v2.0.Xbox-Hq folder, drag and drop two files into the "PC Database" column of the Action Replay software: the one named SID.Splinter.Cell.v2.0.NTSC.Xbox-Hq.zip, and the one named SID.Splinter.Cell.v2.0.Xbox-Hq.zip. (Note: If you're in the US, you'll need the NTSC version of the first file; UK folks, go with the PAL version.) That will add a "LINUX_Profile" saved game to the Splinter Cell folder, as well as a "Linux Installer" folder. Drag and drop the Linux Installer to the Memory Card column, as shown (click to enlarge):

4. Transfer the Linux Installer to your Xbox hard drive. Pop the memory card out of the Action Replay kit and plug it into one of your Xbox's controllers. Make sure the disc tray is empty and start up the 'box. Go into the Memory area and drill down to the controller's memory card. When you see the Linux installer saved game, hit the right button pad once to select the game, then select "Copy" from the menu to copy it to the Xbox's hard drive, as shown.

 

Shut down your Xbox and head back to your computer. Repeat the same process with the Splinter Cell LINUX_Profile: copy it to your Memory Card (you'll have to delete the Linux Installer first, the card isn't big enough to accommodate both), then plug the card into the Xbox controller, boot up the 'box and copy the saved game to your Xbox's hard drive. Turn off the Xbox. Now the magic happens.

5. Use the Splinter Cell exploit. Insert the Splinter Cell game disk into your Xbox, and start the game. When it comes time to choose the profile, underneath your regular aliases, you'll see a new one named "Linux":

 

Select Linux and then select "Check points" (not "Levels"). After a few seconds, Your Xbox will display an UnleashX intro screen and control panel. This is the Linux-based Xbox dashboard, which will look like this:

 

Before we hit that magical menu item—Install Softmod—do two things first. Hit up the "Create MS Backup" item first, and when that's complete, hit the "Create Mod Backup." (Better safe than sorry.)

 

Finally, the moment you've been waiting for: select the "Install Softmod" menu item. Don't turn off your Xbox during the process, and when the status bar completes and disappears, you're all good.

 

Now choose "Install UnleashX" from the menu to replace the standard Microsoft dashboard with UnleashX permanently. Restart your Xbox and pat yourself on the back. UnleashX will boot up instead of the Microsoft dashboard, and it's got all sorts of goodies in store for you:

 

Using only the UnleashX dashboard and its default apps, you can watch DVDs using your controller, and under Applications, you can rip DVDs to your Xbox's hard drive. But what we're really interested in is its FTP server.

6. Configure the Xbox's network settings and start the FTP server. The first order of business is to get your Xbox talking to your PC so you can start transferring files. First make sure your Xbox is plugged into your working, online home network router. Then, using the soft pad to navigate UnleashX menus and the green A button to select items, go to System > Settings > Network. There make sure Enable is set to Yes, Type set to DHCP and FTP Server is set to Yes, as shown:

 

Note: These are the most common network settings, but yours may differ depending on your home network.

 

Restart your Xbox to save your settings. When you boot back up into UnleashX, you should see your Xbox's new IP address appear on the lower right hand corner of the screen. Take note of it.

7. Install XBMC on your Xbox. Back at your PC, fire up your favorite FTP client and log into your Xbox. The server location will be the IP address shown on the UnleashX screen, and your username and password will be in the Xbox's network Settings (xbox/xbox, by default.) Navigate to /E/Apps/ folder. Back on your local machine, extract the XBMC archive you downloaded, and from the XBMC-2.0.1-FINAL-FAT-T3CH folder you unrar'ed, grab the entire XBMC subfolder and FTP it to the Xbox's /E/Apps/.

 

Restart your Xbox. When it's up, navigate to the Applications section, and you'll see Xbox Media Center listed. Select it to launch.

 

 

Revel in how much you rule

 

From here you get treated to XBMC's beautiful and (mostly) intuitive interface for navigating your Videos, Music, and Pictures.

 

To access your media library, you can either move files onto the Xbox hard drive itself (which has its size limits), or browse and play media on a shared drive on your network. Using Windows built-in sharing (or Mac OS X's Windows Sharing), you can use XBMC's SMB (Samba) support to play videos that you record with your PC's capture card in the den or download via BitTorrent from the Mac in the bedroom. As you'll see, XBMC is very configurable and full of useful features.

 

Check out a quick screenshot tour of XBMC goodness below:

 

* XBMC Welcome Screen XBMC Welcome Screen

* XBMC Browsing Videos XBMC Browsing Videos

* XBMC Choosing Music Source XBMC Choosing Music Source

* XBMC Photo Browsing XBMC Photo Browsing

* XBMC Apple Movie Trailers (D-War!!!) XBMC Apple Movie Trailers (D-War!!!)

* XBMC YouTube Support XBMC YouTube Support

* XBMC On-screen Keyboard XBMC On-screen Keyboard

* XBMC File Browsing XBMC File Browsing

* XBMC Last.FM support XBMC Last.FM support

 

My XBMC has only been online for a few hours so I've only scratched the surface here. UPDATE: Get details about upgrading XBMC, installing scripts, updating album and DVD cover art and more screenshots at Soup Up Your Xbox Media Center.

 

 

References and thanks

 

This has to be the zillionth Xbox softmod tutorial that's ever been posted online, and I have to thank all the forum users and prior tutorial writers for providing the information I needed to get the job done. However, the two best references that finally got me off my duff and really held my hand through the process include:

 

* Modding the Xbox in 10 minutes [Techfreaks]—great, thorough howto that only lacked details on using ActionReplay, and didn't address XBMC. However, couldn't have done this without this post.

* XBMC Wiki—the comprehensive resource for working your XBMC. I'm still pawing through this wiki customizing my new media center.

 

Thoughts, questions and tips about modding the Xbox and XBMC? Hit us up in the comments.

 

Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, just fell in love with her Xbox all over again. Her weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

[djdiggla]

My god. I am about to stab myself in the face with this shit. I can't download this crap.... At first my computer wouldn't connect to the IRC then I finally got it but kept getting disconnected so I requested the link again and got booted... WTF!

 

Could someone PLEASE download the softmod installer and XBMC and up them for me ?? PLEASE?

 

I'm doing the old xbox, not 360...

[Face Melt]

dude why u tripping on an old model xbos??

 

shit is outta date like mad styles.

 

oh yeah

[panama slim]

dude why u tripping on an old model xbos??

 

shit is outta date like mad styles.

 

oh yeah

 

A super cheap media center perhaps?

[djdiggla]

^Yup. DVD player, stream video, pics, music from any computer in the house, etc.

 

Got the media center installed last night. Also NES emulator with 250 roms. Got a emu for Turbo Graf 16 and 2 Sega systems but no roms yet. Tried for like 2 hrs to get the SNES roms to work but they were not showing up in the emu for some reason.

[panama slim]

That great you have the NES emu working! Dork fest this weekend i guess. Sucks about the SNES though, any idea why?

[djdiggla]

LOL... I got it working now. I was making headway but just couldn't get it to work... so I actually dreamed about it when I went to bed and dreamed another idea of why it wasn't working and got up in the middle of the night and fixed it! WHOOP!

 

I also got component cables for it yesterday for $5! haha! I also got the Sega Master System working on it too. Thought about Atari and Turbo Graf 16 but whatever... I'd never play either of those. Might do N64 eventually.

 

Anyways...Wanna ball tonight then nerd it up??

[djdiggla]

I had basically stopped using my XBMC except for when peeps came over that wanted to play classic video games. Then I saw that this Hulu plugin came out. I just installed it and it's AWESOME! STREAMING TV AND VIDEO!!

 

http://lifehacker.com/5134070/simple-plug+...lu-to-your-xbmc

 

There is also a firefox plugin that alows you to send web videos to your xbox with one click but for some reason they made it only available to members of some forum and I joined but still couldn't access it... but that seems pretty cool too.