If you’ve ever followed the original XBox “scene” you may be aware of the projects that went on there. It was quite possible to apply a couple of patches to the unit that would let you play ‘backed-up’ games and make the system a multimedia system – playing movies, streaming radio, mp3s. The latter was called the XBox Media Centre. If you’re interested, there’s a video article how to do this on Instructables.
I was able to try this software out for a while – the unit had a 120gb HD and 5.1 output added and I have to say, it made a compelling argument not to try and buy / build a media PC – there are of course limitations that the XBox’s maximum resolution is NOT HD… It supports 480p but that’s about it. Since the launch of the XBox360, the “scene” has been buzzing with ways to make these sorts of things happen with the new console. Microsoft have also been aware of what’s been going on and have built several layers of protection into the unit, as well as providing their own media centre built standard into the console.
To date they (MS) have been successful at blocking any modifications made – and there ARE modifications available. The trouble (?) with these modifications is that once they connect the unit to XBox Live! The unit is banned and no further online gaming is possible. There are now rumours that a project called iXtreme has been successful at breaking this protection. They suggest that “…if you are planning on backing up your purchased games, please try to use samsung with schtrom 360 xtract or XBC for the most reliable replica possible!!!! This *could* mean the difference from being banned on xbox live, or not.“. For more low-down on this interesting development visit the Xbox-Scene site.
On a side note, I have tried to use the 360Media Centre with my PC (because, unlike the XBox I evaluated, you cannot have a large and just dump movies and songs on it to play from the 360MC) and have to date been unsuccessful in streaming anything to it – both from XP and Vista. I believe the problem lies in my LinkSys WRT54GS. There are a number of suggestions on how to fix it, but nothing conclusive. Those suggestions included firmware updates (including custom ones), making the 360 have a static IP address and use port forwarding, change the MTU… The latter I have tried and managed to kill all connectivity to every device connected (restored later by accessing the linksys console and resetting the MTU value followed by a hard reset).
If anyone has been successful using this router with the 360, please let me know how you solved it!
Paul's Thought Emporium 