Update: softmodding the Xbox and installing XBMC were surprising easy. I did a little bit of preparations prior (googling and reading) but the actual work took no more than Friday evening (even with child-induced interruptions). XBMC is a rather refined software, playing back DivX/XdiV works very well, despite the fact that game controller is far from ideal for audio-video. Scanning fast foreward and reverse work very well both on streaming (SMB) and on the Xbox HDD, far better than playing back DivX files (burnt on DVD-R/RW) on my Toshiba DVD player (take minutes to start up and unusable FF/Reverse). Zooming/stretching of various resolution and aspect ratio for different video files and TV is superlative. Haven't tested HD (1080i) playback yet, just ordered the HD cable today.
One big disappointment is that MKV playback is unusable. The audio works normally, but the video playback is frozen most of the time. Theoretically the XBMC team would/should continuously support new formats/codecs, but probably in reality it's not going to be better or worse than Microsoft/Sony. Also managed to set up the NAS (network attached storage) over the weekend. It's now set up for BT download, SMB file sharing, multimedia station. I haven't turned on the other functionalities yet (DLNA/UPnP, Web server) since I am probably happy enough with it now. It's a little expensive in the sense that I spent $200 just so that I can turn off the PC while having these services. But I am happy with it, assuming it doesn't create its own set of reliability problems. ZY Ho wrote: > file. I pretty much avoid mkv if I can. Yeah, at least for the short term, MKV files only playable on the PC (and perhaps Linux and Mac?). Anyhoo... my experience with XBMC tells me that (many) consumers and (some) companies will find a way around DRM. If anyone is still holding on to stocks of music and movie studios, better dump now. Even the big tech companies which are mostly married to DRM, MS, Sony, Philips (my employer), Toshiba etc should be considered high risk. Apple is an interesting case since they are pushing against DRM, sometimes, when it's to their advantage to do so. Would be interesting to see how Bandai/Sunrise deals with DLNA (for lack of a better term). I can foresee a big drop in DVD sales just like the music studios suffered a big drop in CD sales for the last few years. Wonder what will the legal R1 anime scene be like 2-3 years from now. (side note: Newtype USA mag is stopping!) -- Dr. Core -------------------------------------------------- The Gundam Mailing List MK-II [email protected] Archives: http://www.gundam.com/gml Help: Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this in the BODY: help list
