I have been looking into apple tv but i am wondering if i can use my Xbox360 in a similar way.

Currently i have the Arcade version of the 360. Can i connect a portable hard drive to it and copy a load of movies/music over to it on my mac then plug it into the xbox to play them through my tv/amp??

Also is it possible to somehow share my itunes library with the xbox wirelessly?

I am guessing i would need the wireless adaptor for the xbox but mine is "modded" so i am not sure if this would throw up any problems?

I am thinking the easiest way would be to plug the external drive into my mac, copy everything that i want to listen to or watch across then plug it back into the xbox to use it?

I would like to rip all my dvds to the drive then just play them through the xbox but not sure what format they need to be in either?

Cheers

You can play films from USB drive yes, but if they're anything bar standard MPEG-2 then you'll need to go on Xbox live to update the Xbox, which will get you instantly banned for having a console that's f*cked about with.

So, basically... no

I run a similar systm on a standard xbox - all movies and all my music is stored on a Maxtor 500GB hard drive and plugged into the rear USB slot, then simply selected via the correct menu and played.

Although it does have to be mac formatted to pic up more than 40GB!

It also connected itself to a media centre on a new Vista laptop we bought although theres nothing media wise on that!

As Babs said you will probably have to upgrade the xbox running system to play video (AVI's work fine on mine) which requires xbox live and with a modded console i think you'd be on a rocky road

I did managed to update the console when i got the HD DVD add on, but i downloaded it from somewhere on the net and burnt it to a disc to update that way. Wonder if there's a way i can do something similar.

I managed to get the update and putit on a usb stick. Started the xbox360 up with the usb stick inserted and roberts your mothers bother.

Except that the part of the update that allows divx playback can only be downloaded online.

Anyway i risked an instant ban. Used my laptop to connect the 360 to the internet and did the update for divx playback.

All i need to know now is what are the ideal settings to convert my dvd's to. What audio should my divx files use to allow playback via the 360.

They're fine as MP3 audio