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XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox

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Re: XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox

#81

Post by hellotheretoday »

ryandrake wrote: post #41
phantasmish wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never been able to get another family member to successfully use XMBC/Kodi. Most folks have low tolerance for “this thing has wasted a whole-ass minute of my time trying to do something basic”. I tried this several times, for months at a time. Nobody but me ever used it. Even I sometimes used to manage to get lost in some editing-mode or end up with my movie still playing in the background but the whole XMBC UI…

I've also been a Kodi user since it was XBMC (I originally bought an X-box purely to run XBMC). In my view, its biggest UX drawbacks are 1. how it works with remote controls, 2. playback reliability, and 3. importing content. 1. Remotes: Most remotes now don't have dedicated stop/pause/play/forward/rewind buttons, so we have to map those functions to a single "do something" remote button, or at best a single "do some…

On #3 you can use jellyfin/plex/emby to manage your content and import it into kodi with plugins (jellyfin for kodi/plex for kodi/etc). This makes the media content portion of kodi MUCH easier as you now can centrally manage it through the superior jellyfin (or whatever) app which is better for administering metadata and utilize kodi which is better which is much better than most jellyfin client apps when you don’t have to worry about managing content libraries.

Especially so when you get a good skin and device that makes the whole thing worthwhile. My primary playback system is kodi + arctic zephyr reloaded but I haven’t evaluated skins in awhile so maybe there’s something new that’s better. The hardware is a ugoos am6b+ flashed with coreelec which afaik is the only thing that can natively play all profiles of Dolby vision correctly which is great bc my primary tv is an lg oled. Having a jellyfin database as the backend means that all my new media just shows up when I start it up and I also have the option for jellyfin client apps on other devices in the home and remotely. It’s the best option all around, though it does have headaches: ugoos locked the bootloader so hdmi cec doesn’t work with power on very well (I just send a wake on Ethernet through home assistant when the tv and avr come on to circumvent this) and there are some other hdmi cec hiccups (it tends to “steal focus” during things like airplay)

Re: XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox

#83

Post by nirav72 »

I remember paying $250+ to some company out in CA and shipping my Xbox to them. Recommended by some friends. A week later it came back modded and a new HD installed. Along with a 10 page guide on how to use xbmc. Including mounting a remote windows share using smb. Or transfer the media files to the Xbox via FTP. This was around 2004. At the time, there wasn’t any easy way to play downloaded or ripped content on a TV from over the network. So a modded Xbox was a game changer.

Re: XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox

#84

Post by emilbratt »

I remember modding my Xbox and putting XBMC on it. One of my fondest memories is actually playing games directly off the hard-drive. One of the great "side-effects" of that was basically cutting loading times almost in half.

I especially remember the loading animation in the game Crash Bandicoot - Wrath of Cortex. Crash Bandicoot himself would keep falling during the loading screen. (note: PS2 version had another looking version). The game loading screen for Xbox was designed so that the camera movement nicely panned throughout it during the time the loading took, but due to the loading time being shorter the "animation" was cut short.

..just a fun little thing that stuck with me. :)

EDIT: Oh! I found videos on youtube demonstrating the "difference".

Here is the original experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1327&v=jLf9EZWLins

Here is the experience when cut short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1157&v=Vk8AuLhnu58

Re: XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox

#85

Post by hapticmonkey »

phantasmish wrote: post #24
rightbyte wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ye I used it with Samba network drives to watch movies on the TV. Like, I have yet to encounter such a good interface for a "smart TV" or whatever you could call it. It worked flawlessly.

I’ve never been able to get another family member to successfully use XMBC/Kodi. Most folks have low tolerance for “this thing has wasted a whole-ass minute of my time trying to do something basic”. I tried this several times, for months at a time. Nobody but me ever used it. Even I sometimes used to manage to get lost in some editing-mode or end up with my movie still playing in the background but the whole XMBC UI…

I started out using XMBC on the original XBOX. Eventually evolved it to Kodi and various HTPC setups when HD video became popular.

These days I’ve settled on AppleTV 4K with Infuse. It’s just so much more polished and reliable than anything else.

While I appreciate what Kodi can do, it’s UX is stuck in 2005. And decisions like how it handles the BACK button while playing is just so odd to me.

Re: XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox

#86

Post by [deleted] »

TapamN wrote: post #73
jsheard wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could output analogue 720p and 1080i for sure, but the CPU had a hard time keeping up with HD video decoding. It was only a 733mhz Pentium 3 after all. Although to go on a tangent, it turned out that you could swap the soldered BGA processor for a socketed 1.4ghz Pentium meant for a desktop PC, using an incredibly cursed interposer setup to redirect the CPU pins to the right BGA pads, and it somehow actually worke…

Wow, you're not kidding saying that it's cursed. I thought it would adapt a socket to the BGA pads, but it looks like the pins of the replacement CPU just sit naked on the interposer. https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=95704

[deleted]

Re: XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox

#87

Post by stuaxo »

bombcar wrote: post #42
phantasmish wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never been able to get another family member to successfully use XMBC/Kodi. Most folks have low tolerance for “this thing has wasted a whole-ass minute of my time trying to do something basic”. I tried this several times, for months at a time. Nobody but me ever used it. Even I sometimes used to manage to get lost in some editing-mode or end up with my movie still playing in the background but the whole XMBC UI…

We got tons of people to use XMBC, even moms and similar. But Kodi, Kodi even I couldn't figure out, Jellyfin + Infuse is bog simple.

Which is funny because Kodi is XBMC.

I have a similar issue and just don't get on with Kodi.

Re: XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox

#89

Post by jsheard »

TapamN wrote: post #73
jsheard wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could output analogue 720p and 1080i for sure, but the CPU had a hard time keeping up with HD video decoding. It was only a 733mhz Pentium 3 after all. Although to go on a tangent, it turned out that you could swap the soldered BGA processor for a socketed 1.4ghz Pentium meant for a desktop PC, using an incredibly cursed interposer setup to redirect the CPU pins to the right BGA pads, and it somehow actually worke…

Wow, you're not kidding saying that it's cursed. I thought it would adapt a socket to the BGA pads, but it looks like the pins of the replacement CPU just sit naked on the interposer. https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=95704

I think Pentium 3 sockets were through-hole, so to use one they would have had to fit two different footprints on the bottom side of the interposer without any overlap. It might not have been physically possible.
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