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Microsoft

Xbox Media Player Contest 187

Posted by CmdrTaco from the get-your-hack-on dept.
mliu writes "Xbox Media Player, the GPL application that turns everyone's favorite hackable console (the Xbox) into a set-top-Divx/Xvid-playing- Shoutcast-radio-streaming- lean-mean-Mp3/Ogg-music-playing-all-while- sporting-a-pretty-user-interface-machine is holding a contest. They're in desperate need of help in terms of more developers and are holding a giveaway of 25 top of the line X2 Pro modchips for the 25 best patch submissions between now and March 31. If you don't know what Xbox Media Player is and/or feel the need to ask why bother hacking the Xbox, you have definitely gotta check it out. It turns the Xbox from Bill Gates' insidious plot to get into the living room into a set top box that can play practically everything even while sporting a sleek black look that won't stick out in your home theater system, and a user interface that your grandmother could use. And you can even run Linux on it in your spare time. It's no $100,000 but it's for a cause that is both more practical and useful if you ask me." The X-Box has proven itself an entertaining platform for hackers, and the XBMP is really excellent. When it has visualization plug-ins, I think it'll be a great way to put MP3s in your stereo.
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Xbox Media Player Contest More

Xbox Media Player Contest

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  • XBox and media... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by KefkaFloyd ( 628386 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @10:29AM (#5258635) Homepage
    The XBox would be a nice media player, yes, but wouldn't this sort of take sales away from MS Media Center machines?
    • Perhaps that is the point. Heh. Oops. *thwaps self*
    • If it would take sales away, would that really matter? Thats just Microsofts problem, if you ask me - its like saying that people upgrading an old computer will take sales away from new computer sales. Im sure the media center units will be sporting greater hardware than is in the XBox.
    • No, because there is no TV tuner support for the X-Box. Especially considering the XP Media Center Ed. only supports a couple chipsets, somebody would have to come up with some type of USB solution, which of course would be ridiculous to use for PVR functions since the X-Box doesn't support USB 2.0.

      • Re:XBox and media... (Score:5, Informative)

        by doofusclam ( 528746 ) <slash@seanyseansean.com> on Saturday February 08, 2003 @11:05AM (#5258776) Homepage
        There are already mpeg2 USB solutions for win32 that could be used for the xbox with an adaptor, including those by hauppauge. You could also put one on the ethernet port though that would need different hardware. I'm personally waiting for hauppauge dec-2000t support, this usb box picks up mpeg2 from digital terrestrial transmissions in the UK and passes them thru USB. It's not impossible and people are already looking at it.
      • ummm...most people hook their X-boxes up to the TV, so they can probably get by without the tuner.
    • No, IIRC XP Media Center is more like a TiVO.
    • The people that would hack an Xbox are not the same kind of people that would be willing to buy Microsoft's media center pc. They would be much more inclined to just build their own machine to do it.

  • just a question (Score:5, Insightful)

    by quick_dry_3 ( 112334 ) <steven AT quickdry DOT net> on Saturday February 08, 2003 @10:32AM (#5258650)
    given that you need a mod-chip in order to run your own code on an Xbox, wouldn't the Xbox hackers that are interested in the contest have chips already?

    • Re:just a question (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JBark ( 170224 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @10:36AM (#5258670) Homepage Journal
      I'm sure they do, but since they have been hacking at the XBox for quite a while, they probably have one of the first gen modchips that don't support a lot of the newer features available on something like the X2.
    • Thats true you need a modchip to develop anyway but many people like myself have first generation mod chips that aren't particularly compatible with xbox live. If you need live then it's useful but otherwise i'd agree.

    • Re:just a question (Score:2, Interesting)

      by d7o3g4q ( 648760 )
      So mod your second xbox. :) Actually, we're just happy to have someone donate something so that we can have a contest.
    • It should compile on any x86 I would think. Since the Xbox is just a pentium 3. I guess it depends on what code you're working on for it.
      • Not trying to split hairs but, I thought the Xbox was running a Celeron processor.
        • Actually, it's neither of the above. From what I remember reading, it's somewhere in between those two. I don't have the actual specs at hand, or I'd post them. I think they started with a P3 and stripped it down a bit.

  • why not? (Score:5, Informative)

    by doofusclam ( 528746 ) <slash@seanyseansean.com> on Saturday February 08, 2003 @10:35AM (#5258662) Homepage
    Maybe but if it turns out the developers of XBMP are making a product that the public want, without all that DRM crap, then why shouldn't they take sales away from MS?

    I use XBMP daily and it absolutely rocks - the only thing missing is MPC audio support but divx/xvid/mp3/jpg playback is nearly flawless and everyone who sees it is amazed (I even have my home videos I took with my DVCAM on there converted to XVid and its so much nicer than whipping out a VHS videotape)

    seany

  • sorry (Score:1, Funny)

    by DeepZenPill ( 585656 )
    I would help but I just can't... stop... playing Halo.

  • Visualizations Smisualizations (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tunders ( 259809 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @10:38AM (#5258677)
    When it has visualization plug-ins, I think it'll be a great way to put MP3s in your stereo.

    Is it just me who thinks that visualizations are completely unneccessary? When I am listening to music, I don't want some annoying repetitive picture flickering away in the background. They are an interesting toy, but add nothing to the experience.

  • Sponsored in part by a generous donation from M$ (Score:4, Funny)

    by pr0f3550r ( 553601 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @10:42AM (#5258690)
    How ironic the the banner I get this morning on the slashdot site is for Microsoft SBS2000 preloaded on an HP. Which technically means the advertising for the XBox contest is funded by M$. Man, they do have their hands in everything.
  • It seems as if mictosoft made a good move with the xbox. It seems to attract a great deal of the people that don't want to use windows. But for some reason a restricted computer by microsoft sounds good to the same people here. What's the catch here, could someone tell me?

    • It seems as if mictosoft made a good move with the xbox. It seems to attract a great deal of the people that don't want to use windows. But for some reason a restricted computer by microsoft sounds good to the same people here. What's the catch here, could someone tell me?

      Microsoft loses money on every unit sold (like Sony and Nintendo). They make money from selling you games (like Sony and Nintendo). When the XBox is hacked / moded to run Linux, you're not using it the way they intended (ie. you're not buying the games). What you end up with is a great piece of hardware, subsidised by Microsoft. Which is why we like it :)

  • What SHOULD Happen (Score:1, Interesting)

    by NeoMoose ( 626691 )
    Microsoft would be doing themselves a favor if they would release a downloadable dashboard update over live that adds support for VCD's and other Media functions. Official support always seems to work out better than community support.
    • Always? Substantiate that.

      Linux seems to be doing alright. It's replacing commercial OS's... if you missed the news, IBM is replacing AIX (commercial) with Linux (community). That, alone, is a pretty solid counter-example to your statement.

      I'd like to hear why you think "official" support is so much better?

  • Linux? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Amsterdam Vallon ( 639622 )
    Personally, I'd rather stick to my guns and go ahead with a Linux jewkbox than to give in to the massive Microsoft histerea surrounding there X-BOX gaming system.

    Why would we line the pockets of MSs's corporate bottom dollar when we could simply utilize the foundation of Linux upon traditional X-86 hardware components like soundcards and high-speed motherboards??

    The answer is also the question, and the question in this case is LINUX.

    • Re:Linux? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by doofusclam ( 528746 ) <slash@seanyseansean.com> on Saturday February 08, 2003 @10:59AM (#5258752) Homepage
      Does everything have to turn into a religious turf war where MS are concerned?

      Listen: XBMP is a damn fine project running on damn fine and CHEAP hardware. It's ideal for running Linux or Win32 ports 'cos its essentially standard x86 hardware and it's officially the coolest way to play *media* (very vague term that) in the living room. You may be an uber-geek but most of us don't want big fat beige PCs from WalMart next to our TVs.

      I don't care if MS lose or make money from my purchase - I just want to use the best tools for the job and XBMP on the XBox is this. In my house the Xbox remote control is used as much as the TV remote which says a lot about how useful non-geeks find it.

      So is there any chance of quitting this sort of crap? I don't care about kernels, beowulf clusters or Linus I just want to play my media and the Xbox does it magnificently. Credit where credits due eh?

      seany
    • ... a Linux jewkbox ...

      A jukebox that doesn't eat mayonnaise?
    • Hmm...

      The X-Box has a motherboard running a VIA chipset, Intel CPU, nVidia graphics processor; the only difference is the BIOS has a protection on it to prevent running unsigned code.

      • Re:Linux? (Score:3, Informative)

        by TheCrazyFinn ( 539383 )
        Nope, it's an NForce based chipset, but with a GeForce3.5 GPU and an Intel P3 based processor (It's not quite a celeron, not quite a P3). No Via guts to be found.

        BIOS is custom, and there's no legacy support in the chipset.

    • Personally, I'd rather stick to my guns and go ahead with a Linux jewkbox

      Hey just because Linux is cheap doesn't mean we should start using ethic stereotypes to describe it. ;)

    • Why?

      Because MS looses big money on every XBOX they make. The console business is all about selling GAMES. It's like printers. Give the printer away and make money on the consumable items (mainly cartrages but paper too). Consider this. You buy an XBOX and you run Linux on it. You just caused MS to loose money on the console with no chance of making money on a game. It's no wonder MS wants to stop this kind of thing.
      • How long have you been working for Microsoft, astroturf division? :D

        Oh yeah, let's get those numbers up. Office didn't destroy its whole competitive market until a lot of pirated copies were seen to be out there...

  • don't give Microsoft the numbers (Score:5, Interesting)

    by g4dget ( 579145 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @10:53AM (#5258731)
    What Microsoft needs most is sales numbers for XBox: that's what they need to attract developers. If you give them that, they will take over this part of the computer market as well, and you can bet that they sooner or later figure out how to make their consoles secure. Then you can kiss GPL or open source projects on that platform goodbye. Or do you think Microsoft is just kidding with Palladium?

    If you want a low-cost system for playing music and videos, get yourself a Mini-ITX system [mini-itx.com]; they start at around $200. For gaming, pay a little bit more and get yourself a real PC with a high-end graphics card.

    • Re:don't give Microsoft the numbers (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward


      M$ does not make any money on the Xbox hardware, they make it on the software. If you saw last weeks post they lost around 380 million on the Xbox.

      A few of us buying an Xbox and modding it will not make their Xbox (home entertainment) division profitable.
      • Microsoft doesnt manufacture hardware, but they're redefining the arhitecure of PC hardware. That is scary.

        I agree with previous poster that Mini-ITX-style low-end PCs are definetely the way to go with mp3/divx etc. boxes. They cost about the same as XBox and both Linux and WindowsXP run out of the box.
      • You're missing the point. I don't necessarily agree with the parent (parent) post but his point was not that buying an Xbox to mod it would make Microsoft money right now.


        The reason MS is (supposedly) taking a loss on the consoles is to get them out there and have numbers to show game developers, "See, you can reach X million eyeballs if you release for our console! We'll throw in a dev pack for free!". That was the original poster's point. Every Xbox you buy adds to the number used to sway developers, and if they start going for the X-box in waves you can bet MS will be raking it in hand over fist.


        My opinion: It's not likely that the number of geeks with modded Xboxes will really make a difference.

      • M$ does not make any money on the Xbox hardware, they make it on the software. If you saw last weeks post they lost around 380 million on the Xbox.

        And why do you think they do that? Microsoft has enough cash to give an Xbox to every American home for free. But they need the actual marketshare and sales numbers in order to get developers to move over to their side.

        A few of us buying an Xbox and modding it will not make their Xbox (home entertainment) division profitable.

        No, but it will make the alternatives, including PC games, less profitable. And in the long run, that will make the Xbox division profitable and narrow our choices.

    • Re:don't give Microsoft the numbers (Score:4, Interesting)

      by blitzrage ( 185758 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @01:13PM (#5259365) Homepage
      But THIS console, which does all I want it to do, ISN'T controlled by Microsoft. In the future, if I can't hack it, I won't buy it. Then the bottom end drops out and they are stuck. I think the hacking is what is putting the xbox in the living room. I like the look of the xbox way better in my living room, and it's basically a cheap computer I just bought, with the advantage of having games specifically made for it, and it's online. What more can I ask for, not much other than more network capable games that rock.

      If you are TALKING about THIS xbox, then MS has no control, and I don't feel bad about using it. I am an avid linux fan, but damn this thing is slick.
  • "Tt turns the Xbox from Bill Gates' insidious plot to get into the living room into a set top box that can play practically everything even while sporting a sleek black look that won't stick out in your home theater system, and a user interface that your grandmother could use."

    How does this turn Gates' plot into anything else? Seems to be furthering his cause - more Xboxes in the living room for him to make software profits off of. ;)
    • more Xboxes in the living room for him to make software profits off of.

      umm, but isnt' the point to buy the Xbox at a loss from M$, then install XBMP and load up the hard drive with media, avoiding buying any more software and giving M$ a profit? hell, the only Xbox game I'd waste my money on is Halo anyway..
    • wait...did they say...sleek? have they seen the xbox?
    • Yeah, really... way to defeat his nefarious plot of getting in your living room by, um, putting him in your living room. WTF?

      It amazes me that any of you guys can still pretend that software profits are Gates' first priority. Do you think he created the Office phenomenon by insisting on cashing in on every copy in use? Just as a personal favor try not to be complete fools, OK? He'll pay you to help him have Microsoft-produced hardware everywhere you look. ESPECIALLY the living room. If I was him I'd be laughing my ass off at you 'use lots of Xboxen, it costs Gates money!' people. You gotta give it away to get people used to it, your revenue stream comes from the additional currents swept along by you IDIOTS rushing to make 'damaging' use of these things. You're his best helpers and don't even know it. Furrfu!

  • GPL violation - mplayer (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ddbsa ( 526686 )
    See here [mplayerhq.hu] for a post in the dicussion. I haven't kept up with more (such as if they have fullfilled the terms of the gpl by releaseing source).

  • Visualization (Score:2, Informative)

    by d7o3g4q ( 648760 )
    When it has visualization plug-ins, I think it'll be a great way to put MP3s in your stereo.

    I'm working on a dll interface for the viz api. This is one feature that I'm very interested in finding some talented viz programmers, so if you're interested, please feel free to contact me on the xbmp forums.

    Thanks

  • Dreamcast... (Score:4, Informative)

    by EverStoned ( 620906 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @11:12AM (#5258797) Homepage
    " turns everyone's favorite hackable console (the Xbox) "

    Hey! The Dreamcast Scene [dcemulation.com] is just as hot right now, especially now that SDL [libsdl.org] has been ported!
  • Last time I looked, I got the impression you could only compile XBMP using a warezed copy of the Xbox SDK. This was going to be the case until the OpenSDK project reached some maturity. This is why the XBMP website only supplies source and I have to scavenge binaries from Usenet or IRC.

    Assuming I was right in the first place, is this still the case? Be kind of a bummer if the only way to test your patch for this competition is via an illegally ripped MS SDK.

    • Mod Parent UP (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 )
      Last time I looked, I got the impression you could only compile XBMP using a warezed copy of the Xbox SDK.

      At the risk of sounding like an AOLer, I'll chime in with my "me too!".

      I agree the XBMP certainly looks neat, and an inexpensive box that can play DivX movies would kick mucho ass, but I don't have the paitence to hunt down a mod chip from a respectable seller, find the proper "warezed" BIOS image I need and then find the binaries so I can burn an XBMP CD.

      The mod chips I have seen are also priced a far cry from the original $8 bucks or so I paid for my PS1 modchip back in the day. All costs considered, I could ALMOST buy a PC with TV-out for just about the same price.

      Not that this project isn't cool... It's just not really that cost effective.

      • Re:Mod Parent UP (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Glyndwr ( 217857 )
        Actually, I replaced my Win2k (I hadn't discovered mplayer when I built it) based DVD/DivX/mp3 box with a Xbox.

        Reasons? The Xbox was a lot smaller, it had an IR remote (this was a big thing), it had good codec support out of the box (XBMP is based on mplayer so plays pretty much anything). It's noisy but not much more noisy. I recycled the PC to a family member and couldn't be happier with the result. The biggest plus is the hard drive I have chock-full with SNES, Genesis and MAME ROMs, all complete with a decent joypad to play them with.

        I reckon you can now put together a chipped Xbox with a suitably big hard disk for about £300 or so, and at that price, I think it's a very compelling device.

  • Why would my grandmother mod an Xbox? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by GoofyBoy ( 44399 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @11:14AM (#5258805) Journal
    >It turns the Xbox from Bill Gates' insidious plot to get into the living room into a set top box that can play practically everything even while sporting a sleek black look that won't stick out in your home theater system, and a user interface that your grandmother could use.

    How about just making a Linux box like that?

    Get one of those tiny MiniATX motherboards/cases, pick and choose other hardware and install Linux.

    Much more easier than modding an Xbox.
    • Yes but it has an excellent 3d video sub-system, with top tv-out quality (better than most PC TV outs), dolby digital *encoding* from all sources, a remote control for $20, it's quiet and it plays games.

      MiniITX is good though and at least you put some thought into your response rather than saying 'use a linux cluster instead it rocks' like some people round here. I just prefer something with a bit more video horsepower than the average £200 walmart beige-thing.

      seany

  • broadq Qcast Tuner for PS2 (Score:5, Informative)

    by nuxx ( 10153 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @11:17AM (#5258816) Homepage
    Although slightly off topic, if you are interested in something like this for your PS2, check out the broadq [broadq.com] QCast Tuner [broadq.com] for PS2. It too plays MP3s, OGG Vorbis, DiVX/xvid, MPEG-1, etc. It doesn't require a mod chip, which is nice, but it does requre the ~$40 PS2 network adapter. The developers are also extremely active on the forum, making it simple to get help.

    And no, I'm not a broadq employee, I'm just a really satisfied customer.

    -Steve

    • Wow. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 )
      Somebody mod this up, and then go look at the thing nuxx is talking about. It's ingenious - and as near as I can tell, every bit as elegant as the Xbox solution, if not more so. If you really want your media on your TV, why even bother with the complexity of a separate 'computer'? This thing will stream anything to your PS2 from your existing computer.

      I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I like this solution a whole lot better, philosophically. It's cheap too.

    • Your forgeting that you need a networked computer with a shared hard drive to actually send the data to the ps2. Thus the xbox is a better solution.

  • MS is planning their own Xbox media player (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    and you don't have to mod the xbox to run it. http://www.zdnet.com.au/gamespot/news/story/0,2000 011229,20271141,00.htm [zdnet.com.au]

  • error...does not compute (Score:3, Funny)

    by sstory ( 538486 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @11:39AM (#5258911) Homepage
    Was there some sort of malfunction on Slashdot which caused 1000 words to appear where there should have been a summary?

  • 1 complaint (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    My one minor complaint about XBMP doesn't really have to do with any serious bug in the code. It's really an excellent piece of software, and I'm really thankful that someone did take the time to put it together. However, and maybe I'm missing a setting here, I do wish I could get the menus to fit on my tv. It seems to be set for PAL displays, which isn't a problem in movies because it allows the setting of the playback field, but does mean information like the current song title is cut off in the menu. Again, terribly minor, and trivial (especially if you're in the UK), but aside from the normal developmental strides that will no doubt take place it's the only thing I would really like a "fix" for.

  • This REALLY bothers me ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SuperDuG ( 134989 ) <be&eclec,tk> on Saturday February 08, 2003 @11:53AM (#5258965) Homepage Journal
    Every freeking time on slashdot ...

    I think it'll be a great way to put MP3s in your stereo.

    Since when has this been a problem? Is the minijack to rca converter plugged into the line in of your stereo that shoddy of a setup? Does the numerous articles on putting a computer in your home entertainment center seem "too hard" or "not as cool" ??? As far as mp3's with a set top box, my DVD player, dreamcast, and laptop (which are all hooked up to the entertainment "glop" in my room) all have the ability to play mp3's I don't need another solution.

    I'm not bashing the article I'm all about hacking, but the constant fucking comments about "my home entertainment center needs something to play mp3's" has been solved!! I don't know of any reason why anyone would need another solution??

    • Yes but it's all in one box. Some of us don't want a lot of boxes in our living romm, especially big beige ones. Further, DVD players are notoriously picky about the mp3s they play and rarely support other codecs and features such as replaygain, VBR and id3 tags.

      Let me relate my situation: I have ~800 albums on my PC hard drive (all of my cds by the way). Theres a decent enough stereo system in my computer room but the home theatre setup in my living room is better. Any time me and my friends are listening to our Pink Floyd or Britney or whatever it's a pain having to leave the living room.

      With the tunes on the xbox its just so much nicer and convenient sat on my sofa with the remote control. Also, to watch a DVD I don't even need to find it as it's probably already been XVid encoded and stuck on the hard drive.
    • checkout GDAM [ffem.org], you can mix mp3's in real-time etc....

  • Slight problem? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by op00to ( 219949 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @12:28PM (#5259096)
    If you're developing for the Xbox, isn't it pretty much assumed that you HAVE a modchip already? Why would they be giving out modchips to people that are guaranteed to have one? Why not just give out cases of beer or something that the coders really need?

  • Questions. (Score:4, Informative)

    by AftanGustur ( 7715 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @12:33PM (#5259124) Homepage


    I have been thinking (and I certainly am going to) about building a system out of PC/Linux/Pinnacle DC10 compresor card.
    But if I can get a working system for only 300 Euros That'l be cheaper..

    My question to anyone who actually has a XBox : Does it make a lot of noise ? A friend lent me his PS2 for a week and it was the loudest piece of hardware in the appartment .. I.e. (IMNSHO) unusable as a movie player.

    • it's louder....much louder...
    • Too all of you people saying its louder than the PS2. Stop being misleading. Yes, it's a little louder than the PS2. BUT the PS2 doesn't make that much noise to begin with. My XBox is quieter than Tivo which is the dominate noise making box in the room. (An even that isn't too bad)
  • Sony has the PS2 Linux Kit, why doesn't Microsoft something comparable? Oh wait, it has to do with actually making money off the hardware! ;-)

    That's what I don't understand: If Microsoft had designed the XBox so that they could of made a slight profit just selling the hardware (instead of a massive loss), and allowed anyone to hack on it, they WOULD have a lot more developers - both Amateur and Professional. More developers = More software. Plain and simple.

    Interestingly enough, MS and nVidia just recently settled a dispute over pricing [cnn.com] of parts!

    Cheers
    --
    #30794h SYSEVAL
  • They're in desperate need of help in terms of more developers ....
    Mmmm....perhaps the 'free market of developers' is telling them something?

    for the 25 best patch submissions...
    So they want help for patches, but not for the actual design, building of new features etc? What, no one wants to clean up the messy stuff?

    No offense intended, I just thought it was interesting that no one had commented on the community aspects of this story.

  • while sporting a sleek black look that won't stick out in your home theater system

    *cough* *splutter*

    This is the same Xbox we're talking about here right? The fug ugly great plastic lump with green crap all over it? Oh please, if by some miracle you didn't see the thing you'd hear it's fans from the other side of the house!

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