[mythtv-users] Xbox Versions

David Levine curiouskangaroo at gmail.com
Wed May 4 17:46:11 UTC 2005


On 5/4/05, Mudit Wahal <mwahal at gmail.com> wrote:
> Calvin,
> 
> Please visit
> http://www.xbox-linux.org/
> 
> There is FAQ which discusses about various xbox version numbers. I
> think anything older box (pre 2003) is required. And version 1.6 is a
> no-no. It also tells how to do a software mod and a hardware mod.
> 
> I am thinking to get xbox as frontend. I also found that the haupagge
> (sp?) media MVP also has good potential for a front end. Though its
> limited by its memory (16mb). It has h/w mpeg decoder and a nice
> remote. Visit http://mvpmc.sourceforge.net/idx.php?pg=main for more
> information. I just bought it, but still struggling to get my backend
> running (HDTV card was little flaky, getting a replacement soon).
> 
> Thanks
> Mudit
> 
> 
> On 5/4/05, Calvin Harrigan <charriglists at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> >     I've been looking for an economical way of setting up a couple
> > frontends.  I currently run a combo be/fe which has served me well for
> > over a year.  I though perhaps getting a couple used XBoxes would be a
> > decent route.  I've been skimming the archives and one thing that keeps
> > popping up is a discussion/mention of versioning on the XBox.  What is
> > the easiest version of the XBox to mod to allow it to run mythtv?  Does
> > it require a hardware modification?  How do the xboxes perform
> > displaying SD TV encoded at 480x480?  Any comments?  Thanks for the feed
> > back.
> >
> > Calvin

I have a v1.6 XBox which has been soft-modded (no mod chip).  I'm
running Xebian 1.0.3 and Myth 0.16.  Runs just fine.  Only issue is
that there's no overscan support for the new video chips, so you have
to use the MythTV setup to reduce the size of your GUI and adjust its
placement.

That being said, I later bought an older PC for another front-end, and
it was: cheaper than the XBox, faster than the XBox, and easier to
setup.  While a new XBox is around $149 (will probably come down what
with the new XBox coming), I got my PC front end at $90 on eBay.  It's
an HP eVectra, P3-933 MHz.  The only real issue is that there's no
TV-out, so you either need to be watching on a computer monitor, or
you need an external VGA-to-TV converter.  If I get yet another
front-end, I'd definitely go for another PC like this instead of
another XBox.


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