x-box the best standalone media player? say it ain't so!

[Xayd]

But it looks like it is from everything you can do with it.

I'm looking around and seeing a simple software fix to enable progressive scan output, the ability to get component video and digital audio output simply by getting new cables, an open source software player that by virtue of being software and not hardware can do really anything that you want it to, including all forms of MPEG-4 video without regard for a decoder chip's support for various features.

What am I missing here?

How does the X-Box's video output quality compare to a progressive scan DVD player? If it's even comparable, I see no reason to own any other stanalone device for a media player, including DVD.

[snowcrash]

I have no experience with the XBox personally, but you're making a persuading case for it as a media player. I'm starting to wish I would have bought one the other day when Frys had them for $130. What's the best option now for modding it and what does it cost?

Also, someone mentioned in another thread that they had problems with it reading DVD+-R discs above 2GB or something like that. So, can anyone comment on the XBox drive's ability to read CDR, CDR/W, and the different varieties of DVD recordables?

[Xayd]

I've been looking around at the various mod chips this evening while @ work, and while there are solder-less solutions a soldered add-on still looks to be the best solution (the solder-less mod chips just press against the PCB, that can't be very durable especially for me being a smoker, electronic componentry in my apartment doesn't stay dust free by any means ;)).

You're looking at having to solder 11 contacts onto the unit's motherboard for a permanent and durable mod chip installation. The prices I've seen for all of the various modchips are in the 50 dollar range (70 for the solder-less one).

For me, though, I'd do that in a heartbeat. Hell I've fixed motherboards that had busted caps by soldering in new ones, it's the same principle, not rocket science.

It looks like the X-Box has a 733mhz x86 CPU, so despite having a hack to enable progressive scan, there's no way that's enough CPU horsepower to output 1080i or maybe even 720p (although 720 is a possibility I suppose). An Athlon 1400 chokes on 1080i playback, so I figure on second thought that those resolutions are out of the question even if the mod makes it possible to "try" and output them.

My main questions are how does it's image quality compare with a low end progressive scan DVD player @ regular ole 420i, and can it reliably output 720p with the hack done (and if so how does the quality compare again to a medium grade standalone progressive DVD player)?

If those answers are "yes" and "good" I think I'm sold on buying one ;)

[Clixo]

i am one happy owner of an xbox special edition with an executer2 pro mod, my box has an samsung dvd reader and it is able to read ALL cds and dvds i put in it ! i mean ALL,

To buy it, was the best thing i did ! i was getting tired of reencoding all the things i get from divx to mpeg2 so i could play it in my standalone... now i just have a network cable in my livingroom, my xbox is in my private network and i play all from my pc ... the results.... simply GREAT.

[sarahjh69]

A cheapmod can be purchased for about $10 and does the
same as all the other mods do. XBMP v2.3 (xbox media player)
can only read the first 2 gig off an iso 9660 dvdr, and that
is a little bit of a problem.....hopefully this will be fixed in
later versions (its an XBMP problem, not an xbox problem)
If you have a samsung dvd drive in your xbox it will read all makes
of cdr/cdrw/dvd-+r/rw. I usually store all my divx/xvid files on the
80 gig hard drive I installed (any HD up to 120 gig works in it) by
networking them from my pc to my xbox hard drive. You can also set
up your xbox so it can view/play all the media files on your pc over
the network. I have chucked my cd/dvd player and now play everything off my xbox.
Its a region free dvd player, divx, xvid, mp3, audio cd player all in one.
It occasionally gets used for games too!
You don't need to worry about the processor power, it uses dedicated chips, and is about 2x the power of a pc of the same frequency because of this.

[Xayd]

Looking at the list of features from XBMP it can be set to auto-launch another app (in this case the original Xbox software dvd player) when a DVD is inserted.

You mean it has problems with reading regular ole data from burned DVDs then? Not video?

Also if either of you have compared your Xbox to a DVD player on a HDTV I'd be interested in hearing your opinions about the image quality.

[Dr_Colossus]

I've recently modded my xbox and while I haven't played any DVDs on an HDTV (the standard player doesn't support progressive scan, and even with a hack it doesn't perform 3:2 pulldown, XBMP supports vobs but I haven't tried it). I have played a 2 CD Xvid encode that looked very good in 480p (my friend's HDTV). I haven't tried 1080i yet in XBMP because I've heard it's buggy even in the newest release (2.4). Post processing is available but it's allways sharper when not enabled with movies/videos that have a high enough bitrate.

[snowcrash]

XBox seems like a nice solution, but the following limitations still bother me:

(taken from XBMP FAQ)

Q: Why can't XboxMediaPlayer read/play files larger than 1GB from a UDF DVD-R/RW media?
A: This is due to a Xbox™ limitation reading UDF128 (this is not a XBMP issue or our fault).

Q: Why can't XBMP read/play files from UDF DVD-R/RW media after 4GB written on media?
A: This is due to a Xbox™ limitation reading UDF128 (this is not a XBMP issue or our fault).

Q: Why can't XBMP read/play files from ISO DVD-R/RW media after 2GB written on media?
A: This is due to a XBMP limitation reading ISO 9660 (the code was designed for CD-R/RW).

Q: Why can't XboxMediaPlayer read/play files larger than 4GB from the Xbox™ hard disk drive?
A: This is due to a Xbox™ limitation in the FAT-X format (not a XBMP issue that can be fixed).

[sarahjh69]

I write my dvdrs as iso 9660s and it can play
files of 1.4 gig (normal divx) from the start
of the dvdr but not files after about 2 gig.

As I now network all files from my pc to my
xbox (approx 5 mins) this has ceased to be a
problem for me.

[htc10825]

You've forgot the Limitation of all software DVD players:

the switchable subtitles of SVCD(incl. CVD & SVCD style)

I dont see any chance in the future to get better.

[Doom9]

the switchable subtitles of SVCDwho needs those anyways :devil: But the 2gb iso limitation really sucks.. at least those divx capable dvd players can handle the full DVD capacity.

[Xayd]

Yeah I don't care about subs either, I'm in the states and speak english so those aren't a big deal.

The file size limitations and the shotty drives not handling all types of media on the x-boxes is definitely a bad thing though :(.

[Dr_Colossus]

You can always use UDF. It can be read by all the latest OS'. and 4 GB should be plenty for most.

[Doom9]

well.. if you want to put 6 CDs worth of DivX on a DVD, you need more than exactly 4 gigs. What filesystem do they use on Xbox games btw? They are dual layer after all, are they not? So there should be a filesystem where no such limitations exist.

[Ookami]

>You've forgot the Limitation of all software DVD players:

Not all. IIRC, SthSVCD supports SVCD subs, but I haven't used since the beginning of last year or so, and back then only for testing as the playback quality is horrible.

http://planetenumerique.free.fr/Download/sthsvcd.exe

Sigh, still have to add it to the Freeware list...

[fubarduck]

X-Box is indeed the ultimate media player for me. I don't have a crazy HDTV so the progressive scan situation doesn't matter. I have a cheap standalone DVD player which handles my DVDs, and everything else (DivX, XviD, any other format you can think of) gets plopped in my DVD-Rom drive on my PC (or is already on my hard drive) and gets streamed to my X-Box through the network. The set-up is perfect for my lust of unreleased Buffy episodes and various Anime. XBMP has played every non-DVD format I have thrown at it with no issues whatsoever, it's really a godsend. If you're really concerned about the progressive scan stuff (I would be if I had a crazy TV) just get a standalone player for that and the X-Box for everything else. It's a good combo!

And if you're not interested in installing a hard drive in your X-Box and doing all that complicated stuff, you can just do what I did--get a DVD-RW or DVD+RW disc so that you can always have the newest XBMP burned and ready to go. All you need for this is a simple mod.

Hooray for X-Box!

[htc10825]

I dono what is IIRC, but the SthSVCD does not suport the basic function of VCD spec 2.0(no PBC, no chapters no ...) - not to mention the many SVCD extras. So you cannot say it is a software (S)VCD player, just a mpeg-2 file player(like wmp) with 2 extra features of SVCD.

Anyway, It is not a software DVD player in normal sense: no DVD menu and chapters. The wmp did play the VOBs too, but a normal user will not say it(wmp 6.4) is a DVD-player. Perhaps it is normal for a abnormal ppl.
who needs those anyways I need the SVCD Subs because I've created many Karaoke-SVCDs with sync hilighted subs(I-Author deluxe did it), and up to mid 2002 all my Movie-SVCDs with 2 or more subs. Thou I will not create movie svcd with subs any more because I can put it on DVD for better player support, but all the movies to reencode is also not a good idea.

For Karaoke-SVCDs there is no substitute jet. Nowhere in the manual/doc of scenarist has mentioned the possiblity to create the syncr hilighted subs. I'm sure also for all other DVD authoring software.

The standalone dvd players of Poineer, Mustek, Yukai, etc can display the syncr hilighted subs correctly. But many others(50% and more) do not.
We do need a softwre player with this feature!

[Xayd]

Originally posted by Dr_Colossus
You can always use UDF. It can be read by all the latest OS'. and 4 GB should be plenty for most.

I'm not so much worried about the DVD limitations, as long as it can play an actual 4.37 gb burned DVD that's fine.

The main thing that changed my mind after originally looking at them is the shotty drives that don't read CDRs well if at all. I burn all my DivX/XviD files to CDRs and play them back that way, I don't keep them on a hard drive for any length of time.

If it can't reliably play back a video from a CDR as well as a PC can it's not very useful to me :(.

[Ookami]

>I dono what is IIRC, but the SthSVCD does not suport the basic >function of VCD spec 2.0(no PBC, no chapters no ...) - not to

IIRC = If I remember (recall) correctly. It really doesn't support chapters? I seem to recall it differently, but, it's freeware so anyone can try it out anyway.

>mention the many SVCD extras. So you cannot say it is a software (S)>VCD player, just a mpeg-2 file player(like wmp) with 2 extra >features of SVCD.

You seem to be the only one who is claiming that. So, Power DVD doesn't support SVCD, because it has no subtitle support? AFAIK, SthSVCD, is the only software player wich supports CVD etc. subs. And, IIRC, it supports quite alot of SVCD features + some very exotic ones.

>Anyway, It is not a software DVD player in normal sense: no DVD menu >and chapters. The wmp did play the VOBs too, but a normal user will >not say it(wmp 6.4) is a DVD-player. Perhaps it is normal for a >abnormal ppl.

I forgot to add that I don't view it as a DVD player, because of the lack of features, but sorry for mentioning it anyway. And a "normal" person would not imply that everyone who has an different opinion is abnormal, but that's only my abnormal view of things :rolleyes: .

Whatever...

[Clixo]

@ Xayd: if you get one with an samsung drive you dont need to wory, it will read everything!

[htc10825]

Please remember: we talked about the software dvd player, but you gave me the "SthSVCD" as an exception... I had to refresh(or wake up?) your memory and point out that is just a (mpg)file player, not a dvd or svcd player, because the dvd/svcd are disk formats with many features. SthSVCD treats only files, no disk-features(such as PBC,PGC,menus,chapters etc) will be interpreted. So it is not an example as you wanted...

[Ookami]

Originally posted by htc10825
Please remember: we talked about the software dvd player, but you gave me the "SthSVCD" as an exception... I had to refresh(or wake up?) your memory and point out that is just a (mpg)file player, not a dvd or svcd player, because the dvd/svcd are disk formats with many features. SthSVCD treats only files, no disk-features(such as PBC,PGC,menus,chapters etc) will be interpreted. So it is not an example as you wanted...

You are correct, I should've clarified my thoughts. Agree that the mentioned player isn't a DVD player.

But, my memory seems really to play tricks on me, as I really think that the mentioned software player incorporated features like chapter support etc. (and I'm too lazy to check it) *shrugs* Anyway, sorry for making a no-use posting and thanks for correcting my error.

Cheers,

Mijo.

[htc10825]

If there are many tracks(therefore many files) on the disk, then SthSVCD can treat these as "chapters", you can switch between them, just like most other media file player, nothing more. But this can cause one think it has "chapter support".

Only DVD has real chapter points within a title(track/file), VCD 2.0 and SVCD have only "entry points"(with some limitations) within a track, but we call them also "chapters".

[howardholton]

For those of you just wanting to use the xbox as a media player you can have the TSOP flashed - this flashes the on-board bios so you can NEVER play Xbox live, but otherwise you have all the features of the xbox hacked - you can install a larger HDD, stream from your network, whateve with no soldering, addt'l mod chip hardware... I had my TSOP flashed and HDD installed for $25 and it took about an hour.

You can get more information at http://www.xbox-scene.com

[StoneRoses]

The 2gb limitation of ISO DVD is going to be fixed soon. And in the mean time you can use "Stacking multiple video files" features.

If you have video file that larger than 2GB split it to multiple file and rename it using this convention:

yourmovie-CD1.avi
yourmovie-CD2.avi
...

XBMP will show and play all the files as one file.

[StoneRoses]

From http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/newweb/news_latest.php

XBMP breaks its 2GB ISO9660 limitation!

Finally, thanks to [SNK], the one thing that most people been annoyed with has been solved and integrated into XBMP's CVS (source code). The fix code submitted here enables Xbox Media Player to read and play media files written after the first 2GB on a ISO 9669 formatted DVD's. This was previously one of the very few limitations of XBMP as you can see here with this quote from our FAQ's:

"Q: Why can't XBMP read/play files from ISO DVD-R/RW media after 2GB written on media?
A: This is due to a XBMP limitation reading ISO 9660 (the code was designed for CD-R/RW)."