[mythtv-users] Questions about XBox front end

[Jack Madison]

On Wed, 2007-05-16 at 12:25 +0100, Nick F wrote:
> On 5/16/07, Jake Vickers <jake at v2gnu.com> wrote: 
>         Does anyone out there have an XBox for a front end? I'm
>         looking for
>         something quieter than the ML8000 I have in my bedroom now
>         (okay, so the 
>         wife is) and read that MythTV ran on XBoxes and that they were
>         relatively quiet. Seems all the fanless Via boards really balk
>         at
>         watching TV. I haven't owned a game system since Playstation
>         came out so
>         I'm looking for someone to offer some tips. I've also read
>         that MythTV 
>         doesn't run that nicely on the XBox, so I'd like to find out
>         now if that
>         is so before I brave Ebay to buy one.
>         Can anyone out there offer some experiences up with the XBox?
>  
> I bought an X-box to use as a myth frontend from ebay.  I did a
> soft-mod (Splinter Cell) and installed Linux without too much pain.  I
> subsequently gave the x-box away.  For me it was waaay too noisy
> (sounded like a small jet engine in the corner - it's orders of
> magnitude louder than a playstation) and I found it dog slow running
> mythfrontend .  Using XBMC was much better - it was much more
> responsive, and could play  back myth - but then I lost the fabulous
> mythfrontend interface.  I've replaced it with a P4 2.8 laptop that
> had a broken screen (it's connected to a LCD TV) and I find it much,
> much better as a frontend.  So - yes the X-Box works, but I wouldn't
> recommend it.  You apparently can open it up and change the fans but I
> didn't bother.  YMMV.
> 
>  
I'll add my 2 cents.  I also bought an xbox for this purpose, $100 at
gamestop.  I ended up installing a mod chip instead of going the soft
mod route, but that shouldn't matter.  After installing linux I also
found MythTV to be annoyingly slow, but even worse it was unstable.  I
then went the xbmc route which was nice and quick and works just fine
for videos and music, but as mentioned you lose the MythTV front end and
much functionality.  A couple weeks ago my modchip apparently died
(still boots fine as a normal xbox, but no way to get to xbmc or any
other mod-chip functions).  Instead of spending $30 or so for another
chip I'm looking to buy something else and going with a real MythTV
setup.

Unless you already have an xbox and don't want to spend any money I'd
recommend against an xbox setup.