Gah!

[andrewducker]

Have spent the entire evening pointlessly wrestling with tech.

time_for_tea gave me a DVD with a bunch of Heroes on it. Which my AVI-playing DVD player refused to play. And my computer seems to think they don't have any sound.

Three hours later I'm giving up and going to bed.

If anyone would care to recommend a streaming device that happily copes with DivX, XVid, MPEG, etc. then I'd appreciate it...

Comments

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

Ever tried VLC Media Player? I haven't found much it can't deal with.

[andrewducker]

Streaming _device_. That will play stuff on my TV...

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

Chipped. Xbox.

[andrewducker]

Ok.

So I have an XBox.

How do I get it chipped? And what else do I need to do?

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

Actually "chipped" isn't strictly true. It's possible to softmod an xbox. There's a fair amount of faffery involved, but considerably less if it's done by someone with a modded Xbox. Essentially, what you need to do is chuck me a tenner. I would use this money to buy a memory card and a copy of Splinter Cell. Splinter Cell is one of a handful of games that has a security hole allowing unsigned code to be executed. The unsigned code would be on the memory card.

After that point you will have an IP address and the ability to FTP software accross a new desktop so that you can boot into a media center like XBMC. After that the xbox becomes just another device on your network. Any SMB shares can be accessed and XBMC supports pretty much every video and music format. XBMC has nifty features like the Apple Movie trailer browser, and of course the ability to install emulators like MAME.

I'm not saying it's an easy option. It might take a day to set up. But there is plenty of step by step information on how to do this online, (jyust type "xbox softmod" into Google) and at the end of the day you'll end up with a really good media Centre PC for pocket change.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

In fact, screw it. If you can get your xbox to my house somehow, alongside a £10 note I'll do the whole thing for you.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

Or, in fact, an Xbox 360 and some transcoding software.