ok original question

another answer Umax Kazuki DVD-7400X MPEG4/DivX/DVD Player - SVP £35.24 region free

 

I've recently got a yamada 6800x plus to replace my old 6600. Great player if you just want something which'll work out of the box.

Sadly doesn't seem to be available from UK, but I got mine from Germany no worries:

http://www.newsell.de/shopUK/ .

Firmware's upgradable if you're into tweaking...

My-Yamada.co.uk :: Index

 

I reckon the Xbox is the perfect answer to the original question

Mostly, if you're looking for Divx/Xvid support then your movies are already ripped to magnetic storage. Why burn them to optical storage before being able to watch them? With a modded Xbox you can use the LAN to parse a movie share on your home PC and play everything. Perfect solution for me.

Only issue, for me, is the normal crap with eBay living in Ireland - no one really uses it much here, and UK based people come up with some ridiculous (up to 70 quid for an xbox with 10 games....... ) postage charges for delivery to Dublin. Currently browsing German and Swiss sites - much more reasonable there

Re. the standalone DVD players: AFAICT after my investigations yesterday - if you can upgrade the firmware on a given player, someone will have a hacked version that removes region protection. Search and ye shall find.

Richard

 

argos in ni ?

 

Yeah - maybe. But Swiss auction sites are selling 2nd hand Xbox *much* cheaper than UK....gonna watch a bit

I think the UK Argos deal ends 14 January, yes? 50 quid for console and 4 games from memory.

Cheers, Richard

Edit to add: I have cheap shipping from Swissieland to here still

 

Another question re. the Xbox; will it play subtitle files in sync with the movie? All formats?

Thanks
Richard

 

I believe so but I've never tried it. XBMC has options for dealing with subtitles.

 

yes it plays subtitles fine

but better getting your native language films instead

subtitle support is really good ive found now in XMBC especially the latest builds, and as long as the subtitles are tagged correctly they will play in perfect sync

 

Cool, thanks.

Anyone know anything about the SmartXX modchip? Looking at one with a 2MB LT OPX version installed.

Thanks, Richard

 

Never seen one or used one but reports I've read are that the later chips are very good. at the end of the day if you can load a BIOS on it then you're pretty much good to go.

Quick check here and it's one of the latest chips. Should be fine.

Xbox-Scene.com - Xbox Modchips Xecuter2.2 X-B.I.T Xodus Chameleon - Gamesave Dashboard exploit - Evolution-X Avalaunch MXM Dashboard - X2 & EvoX bios - Copy Xbox Hacks & Cracks tutorials - OpenXbox PC-BioXX Enigmah Cheapmod

 

Just bought one of these with HDMI output

SAMSUNG's Digital World - DVDPlayer | DVD-HD860

 

Nice, how much was it?

I hopefully sourced an Xbox for 25 quid from someone on 22B - need to get DVD remote and modchip and away we go; hope to get delivery next week.

 

Novatech are doing one

Nissan DIVX slimline 37.99



Mart

 

How much?

Cheapest i can find them is £67 delivered: SAMSUNG DVD-HD860/XEU DVD PLAYER from Laskys.com

 

Nevermind, just phoned my brother who gets allsorts of electrical stuff as hes a manager at some wholesale place.

Hes getting me HDMI, region free, DivX, USB, card reader dvd player for £20

 

I'm now the proud owner of a 2002 v1.0 Xbox (excellent price, and delivered in person [someone from 22B was coming over on business and brought it with them ]) and have ordered the Xecuter 2.6 CE and a DVD remote.

Still a bit confused about what to do after I've fitted the new bios, but I've enough time to read up until it arrives. What is not clear to me is what BIOS will be on the Xecuter? I think first thing I need to do is flash a new BIOS, then add a dashboard (Evolution X seems popular?) and then install XBMC. Although it also seems I can use XBMC as the native dashboard too. Really need to learn more....

Thanks for all the advice I received!

Richard

 

looks cool might invest in one of them

 

Install chip. Chip contains a 'loading' BIOS (Cromwell BIOS if I remember). This allows you to use a DVD or CD-RW to flash the chip with the modified MS BIOS which allows you to run unsigned code ie XBMC.

Check Xbox Scene for guides on how to make your BIOS Disk and where to find the files (Xbins)

You then need to get a dashboard running. You have a few options here.

You can create a DVD with the dashboard on (EvoX is a good one). This will allow you to boot to the dashboard from the Disk. The Dash will then allow you to create an FTP link to your PC (Crossover cable if direct connection). Once you can see the HD in the Xbox you can FTP over the XBMC files and as you say run that as your native dashboard. All guides can be found on Xbox scene.

Your other option is to find an Auto-Installer Disk such as Slayers. Oncew you have flashed your chip with the modified BIOS you put the Auto Installer disk in and is will give you various options. The main one being to install a dash and various other useful apps. Does it all for you. Only drawback is the apps may not be the latest versions.

HTH

 

2.6 has flash bios 3 - will load bios via http

A.I.D 3 - has all the latest apps including xbmc -

easiest way for me was

install chip
test chip before putting hd and dvd back
connect to network
get ip
http flash new bios
when working use AID 3 select install XBMC

Job done (bout 30mins for the chip fit and 15 mins to flash and install)

I have some links to picture installs if you want

 

Thanks Both,

Should have checked here before opening the damned thing up

Stupid X2 5035 BIOS; sure, I can connect via IP to reflash from the Cromwell to something decent, and it uses DHCP. I put the latest and recommended X2 5035 BIOS on it. Goes on perfectly.....but no longer supports IP. How hard would it be to to include IP support for all BIOS'? Now I can go no further via IP and have to burn a disk.....

Tried buring and old copy of Evox to a DVD+RW disk that my v1.0 xbox didn't read; does it have to be CD-RW to burn a decent dashboard boot disk (so I can get IP connectivity back)?

Am downloading an auto-installer now too (Auto Installer Deluxe v3.04 from Xbox-HQ), but assume the same question applies; what type of media must I burn it to.

Oh, physical install went real easy, and I thought my luck was in when I got native IP support from the cromwell BIOS.....

Close.....but no cigar
Richard

 

once the bios is on I always go from disc - mine seem to be very choosy over media depending on the drive - I always use a certain dvd-r cd's and +rw dont seem to work for me.

 

Thanks - off to find a blank DVD-R then. I'm installing the thing so I don't need to keep burning stuff to silver coasters

Richard

 

Thought I'd chime in here as I'm looking at modding my xbox (2004 v1.6). When it comes to the media you can use it all depends on the type of dvd-rom drive your console has. Have a look at this as to what drive supports what media. This will show you what dvd-rom drive you have in your console. From what I've read the samsung one is usually the best, the thompson the worst when it comes to reading different types of media.

 

That tends to ring true about the DVD drives. My Thompson however has read pretty much every DVD I've thrown at it. It just wont read CD-R's which was maybe an issue a while ago but the price of DVD media these days I'd say it's not so much.

 

DVD-R worked, and XBMC is cool! Just installed it as a dashboard and away I went. Took a little while to set-up the share access to my desktop as the console interface kept asking for username/password; but then connected via http and added a bookmark using correct syntax.

One downside I can see currently; if I go into movies, I cannot launch a picture or audio track. Is there a way to set it up so it is associated with relevant file types? And will the DVD remote I've ordered also operate the XBMC gui?

Thanks for all the help - I'm really impressed. Cost a bit more than I intended (25 quid for Xbox, 25 quid for modchip (shipping....) and 9 quid for remote control); but 59 quid and a few hours of my time is pretty reasonable given it's functionality. Especially given I can still play games on it too Now, where are those Oddworld files.....

Richard

 

told you it was an excellent solution. Not sure what you mean about the pictures or audio? They are seperate in places in XBMC. mp3s etc stream over and you can have a visulisation on screen. Same with photos but you just set up a slideshow.

Yeah think the remote can be used.... not 100% sure on that though.

You'll save that cash in a year on DVD's

 

Problem is if I go into my movies section, it does not recognise pictures or audio files. I just have a single share entry point for all multimedia on my desktop PC, and in places audio, videa and images are all in the same location. It would be nice to have XBMC recognise the different formats, rather than having to access via my movies, my pictures or my audio. I'll RTFM - it can probably be sorted easy enough.

Remote arrived today, so will find out if it functions tonight. Should have bought a wireless controller....

Richard

 

Right I understand... Not sure if you can view everything unless you use a filemanager where it just views what's in your shared folder. I think it's split down because of things like the movie feature where you can have the DVD cover image showing for the film. Have a play though as you say. you can fine tune it to do most things to your liking.

What version of XBMC are you running? The last stable point release?

 

Ah, no - whatever version came on AID v.3 with 3.04 update pack. I check, now that I have IP access it will be easy to update.

 

Get on Xbox Scene and go to the grey scene releases tab. the latest compiled version should be in there. search for it on your favourite torrent site and download. As you say. Just FTP the files across and job done.