Configuring XBMC to play back your media is something that can seem from its description to be somewhat complex. It really isn’t. What I’m going to describe in this article is the process of:

• Exposing your media in a way it’s safe for the Xbox to obtain
• Setting XBMC up so that it can see it as you want it
• Getting it playing

Continue reading “XBMC: making it sing (Part 2 – Configuring)” →

I’ve noticed for a while that my grossly inadequate XBMC setup guide is one of the most popular articles on this blog, and it’s something that has long required rectifying. XBMC has been changed a lot recently, and it’s now moved to a different configuration system – plus, if you want XBMC to talk with Windows Vista, you require a 2007 version.

Thus, I’ve created here an all-new XBMC setup guide – Vista-safe, up to date, and with absolutely no XML editing required. This, however, will be done as a series of parts:

1. Installation and updating (which follows)
2. Setting up your sources list
3. The little things

Continue reading “XBMC: Making it sing (Part 1 – Setup)” →

I've never had a media centre, as such, before modding my Xbox. I've had setups like having my PC connected to my hi-fi with a 10m phono cable, but that was never handy for controlling the thing.

The modded Xbox changes this by the fact that it sits comfortably under my surround amp (connected by a short optical wire) and next to my TV, and is controllable using the Xbox DVD remote control. The DVD remote came with my second hand Xbox when I bought it, and while the Xbox is completely useless as a DVD player when unmodded – at least compared with my multiregion Pioneer – the remote comes into its own once you can use it with XBMC.

XBMC is the Holy Grail of open source software – it's a piece of open source software that actually seems to have been written with people keeping an eye on the user interface, something which many other such projects fail at miserably (GIMP, anyone?). Thus it has an efficient and self-consistent UI by default – the Project Mayhem III skin – which is endlessly customisabe if you really want to do so. It plays back MP3s, DVDs, DivXes and Xvids effortlessly, and with full IMDB, freedb and Allmusic integration. It is, truly, fantastic.

A setup guide follows after the break.

Continue reading “The XBMC experience: Setting up” →

It’s easy and it’s quick and it works surprisingly well, although you wouldn’t know it from most of the tutorials and forums out there. So I’m going to add one more to the pile – the way I did it, and how to replicate my findings.

[Update 8th May 2007: a video going through this guide is now available on YouTube. Thanks Ben!]

You need:

• an Xbox (quite easy to get hold of, new or second hand)
• a memory card (the hardest bit to get hold of)
• Action Replay/Xploder/GameShark/etc. USB to Xbox memory card converter
• the original version of “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell” (£2 or less second-hand at your local Game, GameStation or pawn shop, not any of the sequels, some “Platinum Hits” or similar versions may not work)
• Halo 2 or a later Xbox Live game
• mininova.org or your favourite Xbox-containing torrent site
• few hours download time, about 10 minutes modding time
• the content after the break

Continue reading “HOWTO: Softmod your Xbox” →