tomshardware.com review of "The Ultimate Multimedia Center"!

[Cyberace]

Tom's Hardware Guide (http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20040511/index.html) yesterday posted a review of "The Ultimate Multimedia Center" that is XBMC (http://www.xboxmediacenter.com). The famous tech review site now offers the first full review of XboxMediaCenter which they call "the ideal home playback system for audio and video". The review also features XBMC tested on FriendTech's DreamX-1480 (http://www.upgrade123.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=65) (Xbox modded with a 1.4 GHz processor and 128MB memory, twice the spec on a normal retail Xbox). The review concludes that nothing beats the price/performance ratio a modded Xbox with XBMC, but they forgot to also mention XBMC on Xbox convenience, flexible and compatibility (as then they would have nicely summed up what XBMC is all about).

Full Review: Modding The Xbox Into The Ultimate Multimedia Center
(http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20040511/index.html)German translation link: Mit Xbox-Modding zum Multimedia Center (http://www.tomshardware.de/consumer/20040506/index.html)


Personaly I loved the review (http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20040511/index.html) but I have some corrections for it, (hope I don't come out all defensive):

correction needed on page 01 section "The Xbox Mod" as sentence "Boosting the Xbox' performance and harnessing its potential largely hinges on a modded processor" does not fit in on that section at all, if you are referring to a modchip then it should not mention 'performance' as a modchip has nothing do with performance and also "modded processor" in the same sentence refers to FriendTech's DreamX but putting here sound like it's the modchip, so think you should move that sentence to the FriendTech section on page 02, or alternatively change the whole sentence to something to "Unleashing the power of the Xbox and harnessing its potential largely depends on applying a modchip" ;-)

Under the picture of the remote control you say "is a must for using the Xbox as a media center" which is not true, it's not a requirement as you can fully use XBMC with a gamepad, however we recommend a remote control for optimal ease of use =)

btw, the DreamX are all already pre-modded so no need to open them up, (on a side-note to page 04 new large 7.200rpm harddrives actually run cooler than Xbox default 8GB drives =P )

Personally would have suggested that under "Codecs: Divx, Xvid, WMA And QuickTime" add link to full official compatibility list: http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/info_project.htm

On page 08 you say "Practically all settings on the XBMC are made via an xml file", that is not true, most used settings are done from GUI under "Settings", basically only the 'network' and 'shares' settings is in the XBMC and those many end-users don't even have to touch, not if not stream from network anyway.

Reason for the WebServer right now is for remote control and then not from noteboot/laptop editor but ideally from a WiFi connected PDA (there are different skins available that fit PDA's better), in the future full setting/configuration will be added to the WebServer to so there will won't be a need to edit the XML file in a text editor.

Also, you totaly forgot to mention that one can of course use XBMC on a normal retail Xbox (once modded), it's just that one do get the impression from the beginning of this this specific review that it only works on DreamX boxes =(

Finally motion compensation optimizations for better HDTV playback will prorbebely be added to XBMC v1.1 ;-)

again hope I didn't come out to defensive, if so I apologise =)

@Non-Xbox-owners, a Windows PC port of XBMC is already available, it's called Media Portal (http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net) ;-D

PS! I also sent this bellow in a mail to Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos, the authors of the review but I guess they haven't read it yet?)

[smiller667]

One small correction to your post: in the first line, it should read "the infamous tech review site" ...

[Cyberace]

Originally posted by smiller667
One small correction to your post: in the first line, it should read "the infamous tech review site" ... no, I really mean famous. Infamous is a negative word unless your in a anti-hero comic or movie :p


BTW, the review has been slashdotted (http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/05/13/1755250.shtml?tid=127&tid=129&tid=186&tid=188&tid=211) and was even a top story on slashdot.org (http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/05/13/1755250.shtml?tid=127&tid=129&tid=186&tid=188&tid=211), plus it's on the Hot! section of THG, but it didn't even a slight mention on Doom9.net news page (http://www.doom9.net) though I think it should have been :( ...I get the feeling Doom9 either got something against XBMC / XBMP or it's so stubborn on being against everything Microsoft that it didn't post it therefor or any previous news about XBMC/XBMP for that matter (even though XBMC/XBMP is not MS made but only related by the fact that it runs on Xbox)? ...at the very least one would have thought that Media Portal would be mention as it's a new free open source media center software for windows :D

[zag2me]

This is no-where near the "Ultimate Multimedia Center" as the review states.

- The Xbox is ugly
- The Xbox is loud and produces lots of internal heat
- The Xbox is limited in its remote control
- The Xbox needs to be chipped, which is apparently illegal in some countries.

Therefore I suggest that the xbox is not the ultimate multimedia center imo.

:rolleyes:

[CrashUK]

dont think its cheap.. $500 for the one in the review and $100 if you what thr 120 gig hd.. divx player around £100.

[Cyberace]

I don't know why THG only tested DreamX, because you absolutly do not need one to use Xbox Media Center.
A new Xbox console go for $150, solderless modchip is under $40 but it's possible to use XBMC without one :cool:

[CruNcher]

Originally posted by zag2me
This is no-where near the "Ultimate Multimedia Center" as the review states.

- The Xbox is ugly
- The Xbox is loud and produces lots of internal heat
- The Xbox is limited in its remote control
- The Xbox needs to be chipped, which is apparently illegal in some countries.

Therefore I suggest that the xbox is not the ultimate multimedia center imo.

:rolleyes:

Yep but it's very close to a optimal solution
more feedback of what you expect from a NexTGen Standalone or SetTop Box would be apreciated keep it going :)

[Atamido]

There are two reasons to use the Xbox (or some other prebuilt console) as the basis of an HTPC.

1. Hardware compatability. You don't need to play around with any driver settings or look for bugs if every system is identical. One build will fit everyone's system.

2. Price. Using a console like the Xbox is cheaper because the price is subsidized by Microsoft. This is not possible for someone selling just an HTPC because they need to make their profits on the original sale.

Given this, I might buy something like the Xbox to play videos and such. However, if someone is selling an HTPC directly, I would prefer to build my own and load the software on it. This way I get the best price for the components that I want.

For things that I really see missing in the HTPC arena is good integration with Digital-TV cards. If its terrestial or satellite, both should work. You can't beat capturing a digital stream directly. Sadly the DTV support from these HTPC packages seems to be very lacking/buggy.

[[NEX]]

Well i got an Xbox for games, modded it and now its my media payer, but as i said, its cool that a game console (specially coming form M$) can be such media player, and you can still play Ninja Gaiden on it jeje.
So you got a two-in-one.