Softmodding Xbox

[Harrison]

I've setup the latest XBMC for Xbox today and I'm impressed. I had tried the XBMC media centre on the PC a few times before but was never that impressed with it compared to other media players for specific things such as MediaMonkey for music, and the build in Windows Media Centre offers nearly identical features.

However on the Xbox itself XBMC makes a lot more sense. It is fairly streamlined and fast to navigate around, and has a lot more functionality compared to other Xbox dashboards such as EvoX. However rather than replacing my softmodded Xbox's standard EvoX dashboard I installed XBMC as an application so I have both at hand.

It finds networked computers and NAS drives without issue and all media I've tried so far has streamed and played flawlessly. Accessing my whole music library on my NAS is useful as I can now leave the Xbox on without needing the PC to play anything, which after all is the purpose of a media centre. And DivX files with 5.1 audio encoding play correctly, switching my receiver into the correct 5.1 or DTS modes. Picture quality also looks really good on the TV, when the source quality and resolution of most is considered.

If you have a modded Xbox and want to give XBMC a try don't download it from XBins as they only have some very out of date versions on there. Instead grab the latest version from http://t3ch.yi.se/, current release is 9.04.1 Babylon. And is 63MB.

[Harrison]

Also just a quick mention about FTP. I couldn't believe how easy that way. Kust load up any FTP client, and point it to the IP of the Xbox and use Xbox as both the user and pass and you are in. A full partition list of the Xbox's HD is shown as directories and you can do whatever you like with the files on the Xbox HD. So easy and it just works.

[Loftus]

Thats funny harrison, i did the exact same thing last month to my xbox! For the exact same reasons haha! Which is mainly for being able to emulate on the comfort of a nice big TV with a wireless controller!

It was all very easy to do once you follow the newest walkthroughs. I also thought it was something I couldnt personally do due to horror storys and reading older FAQs.

XBMC is AWESOME! But is there a way of getting the xbox to boot straight to it coz with that on there i cant see the point of the evo X dash?

The stage I am at now is upgrading the HDD. I've tried to use a program called Chimps 2.4, seems easy enough. I just need a hard drive that isnt full of bad sectors haha!

[Demon Cleaner]

If I'm right, over 3 years I didn't use the XBox though, you can set in the options what to boot, f.ex. a game directly. If so, I guess it would be possible to also boot to the XMBC.

[Harrison]

No, I think you have to actually change the dashboard files. I read a guide last week about this. The custom default dashboard is booting because it replaced the original Xbox dash files. To replace it with another Dashboard you have to FTP into the HD and overwrite them with a different dash.

It can potentially mess the HDD up so backup before trying it. If I find the guide again I will post a link.

[Loftus]

Thanks harrison, if you could find one that would be great. I'm struggling to get my head around it!

[Harrison]

Here you go

http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/xbox...rd-w-pics.html

All you basically need to do is create a new shortcut file that points to the neww dashboard you wish to boot from. The program to create this shortcut is linked to from the tutorial.