Hi All

Having made a purchase based on the thread about Humax PVR's, and finding it to be the most useful thing since a bread slicer; I assume at least some of the people here know what they are talking about.

Essentially is there a techy box of tricks out there that would allow me to play video media (divx, avi, mp4, etc) from my external hardrive, in the same way that i currently do through my xbox 360?

I've seen DVD players with USB in but am concerned about compatibility etc with the files. These also seem to be about £90 whereas a second hand xbox (which would be the obvious replacement for an xbox) is about £50 on ebay?

Any ideas?

A computer?

I ran an old modded xbox for many years running the very good XBMC (Xbox Media Centre) software and I never came across a file format it couldn't play!

Obviously I would recomend getting a bigger hard drive in there but there is still plenty of information on the net about how to modify these old beasties. I had a 200GB drive in mine which was plenty for a few movies, couple of games and some music.

It has now been replaced by a media centre PC so that we can play HD video but if you are on the budget then go for the eggbox!

Phil

Edit:

Some info here on XBMC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC

A computer?

Thanks Philje

I know of a person looking to get rid of an old school xbox too...

I shall investigate further

Thanks Philje

I know of a person looking to get rid of an old school xbox too...

I shall investigate further

No worries.

Aye see if they will part with it for a few quid.

You can softmod them I believe if you have an aversion to a soldering iron but always seemed a bit of a faff.

I used a chip called Executor I think which worked like a charm.

Like I say have a search around and there should still be loads of info of all the stuff you need and i seem to remember following some step by step guides to get it all working.

Phil

Thanks Phil

Think a DVD which you simply plug in and plug the HD in and it does it all for me would still be much easier

Yeh it would but not as good/fun! hehe

We have a chepo upscalling dvd player in the bedroom which has a USB socket on the front and TBH it's next to useless!

It only plays DIV-X and even then it can take some fiddling around to get the resolution and framerate etc to get it to play which obviously requires re-encoding the video files etc.

What about something like this:

PC World

Nice and simple and cheap to leave some money to buy a chep DVD player if you still need one of those.

Phil

So, you want a media streamer? I'm getting a slingbox soon so I can watch all my computer stuff in the bedroom.

We have a chepo upscalling dvd player in the bedroom which has a USB socket on the front

That's the lines i was thinking along but though "next to useless" might be the result

What about something like this:

PC World

For that kind of cash i'd just buy a second xbox 360 from ebay

That's the lines i was thinking along but though "next to useless" might be the result

For that kind of cash i'd just buy a second xbox 360 from ebay

Fair enough... Don't have a clue what they go for these days so maybe that would be a viable option then?

They play DVD's too don't they?

Phil

yup they tend to get expensive cos people bundle them with controllers and games and other stuff.

All i want is a console, a power pack and a AV lead - i already have the rest - and they seem to crop up on eBay for about £50

I used a chipped X-Box for years which was fine for standard definition TV , and the DVD remote worked just fine for media playback.

Now I use a PS3 for the same job with HD TV , but you can also get media players that will use files on a USB stick or drive.

http://www.ebuyer.com/cat/Home-Entertainment/subcat/Media-Players-&-Wireless-Streaming

is a good place to start looking.

I have my PS3 hooked up to the TV.

Then on the computer I have installed a very nifty bit of software called "TVersity" that acts as a media server and I can stream, and convert, all videos on the fly.

e.g. "purchase" the latest episode of Heroes online, turn on PS3, go into the media server, find the file and it streams and converts on the fly, even stupid XVID files.

Thats probably your best bet, PS3/ XBOX (not familiar with how it works), then just get a cheap-*** barebones PC and stick a HUGE hard drive in it.

Sorted.

Then on the computer I have installed a very nifty bit of software called "TVersity"

Check out 'PS3 Media Server' - much better than TVersity.

I've gone full circle with media centers, from original Xbox to full blown HTPC. Most of the stuff I watch is HD nowadays and I've just forked out for a HDX-1000. Essentially the same as a popcorn hour but looks better.

Pricey, at £160 but an amazing piece of kit. Factor in the fact that it's also a NAS, bit torrent client etc etc and the price gets more reasonable.

Probably overkill for what you're after though.