MysticGogeta
The Robot Devil
Premium
join:2005-03-14
League City, TX
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| I like the idea
I record TV on my computer and I would like to watch it in my living room, I can see why they say alot of pirated content would pop up on there but who cares? Oh wait the RIAA there breaking in my house now  |
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digitalfreak
join:2005-12-09
49533 | Waste
The fact that it's tied to Viiv makes it pretty much useless. I already own a MCE PC and am not going to buy another one just to take advantage of this. |
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bassjunky
join:2005-05-12
Aubrey, TX
| Modded Xbox FTW
My choice, I just soft-modded my Xbox and think it's awesome. Using XBMC, which has a gorgeous interface, I can stream my entire library of music and movies from my server to the living room. Upgrading the drive, I could copy my library locally and take it wherever. Plus, I can play every single old school console game imaginable through emulators, and then, of course, Xbox games.
I dunno, from someone who didn't turn on their Xbox for a couple of years, now I can't keep my hands off of it. I think it's the perfect component to keep in the living room to playback all of your digital media, and then some. |
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jjoshua
Premium
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ | XBOX running MythTV for me.
Whole house solution for TV, videos, music, and photos.
WAF achieved.
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Raptor
Not a Dumptruck
join:2001-10-21
London, ON
·Rogers Hi-Speed
 ·Bell Sympatico
| Just Chasing Their Own Tails
Whatever providers, governments, manufacturers, or DRM nazis push, there will always be those that will find work arounds, be they for the bettering of personal freedom. Granted, that can incur both positive (fair use imo) and negative uses (piracy), but the homebrew will always exist and eventually be created.
People don't want to be told what to buy, what to play it on, and how often they can watch/play it. It's restrictive, and when people are restricted, they want to break out. It's human nature. Perhaps all these corps should hire a psychologist the next time they implement DRM. 
This whole Viiv thing, what a joke.
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....where's my fiber? |
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MysticGogeta
The Robot Devil
Premium
join:2005-03-14
League City, TX
clubs: | reply to jjoshua
Re: Modded Xbox FTW
I have a old xbox I wouldent mind doing this cause I dont use it anymore |
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JSRoman
Premium
join:2005-03-10
Callahan, FL
| Oxymoron anyone
"Apple hopes to grab the common man's attention in this market."
I'm sorry but I don't think Apple will be doing much of reaching the common man especially the price conscious common man. Besides for their mp3 player they are not known for wide adoption rates. One thing you can count on is that Apple will have the nicest looking streaming device out there.
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A shotgun blast to the head will clear that right up. |
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maartena
Stacked.
Premium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| Make your own!
I just pulled one of my computers that I no longer used, installed Windows XP Media Center 2005 on it, bought a Media Center remote for $40, and added a USB wireless 802.11b adapter to it, and hid the thing somewhere behind my TV. The USB infrared receiver I placed on top of the TV, and now I can play all my downloaded content straight on the TV.
The main reason to do this by the way was LEGAL content from uitzendinggemist.nl - so I can watch TV in Dutch from my couch instead of on the PC. But it does play any other content as well. I have a DVR to record regular TV, but I have had a few instances that the DVR had 3 things it wanted to record and it could record only 2.... and it decided for itself which program to dump. If that happens I go and fetch the Divx version through a torrent site to watch it anyways.
Oh sue me! If the networks would simply repeat their main shows in the middle of the night I would be happy too as I can just record it then. But since they don`t...
A Media Center pc doesn`t have to cost a lot. An old PC you no longer use that can run Windows XP should be enough. A remote control is nice, I bought mine for $40. The NVidia Geforce 4 MX card (cheapy) that came with it already had composite tv-out on board. That card can still be bought for like $50 or so should you need it. Windows XP Media Center Edition OEM edition you can buy with the Media Center remote for about $100, check pricewatch.com. You can also use Linux and a free Media Center alternative program, there are several you can download for free. Then you only have to worry about the right hardware, and the remote control if you don't want to get up from the couch.
If you have the right hardware and don't mind an illegal copy of Windows or using Linux and a free Media Center alternative, you could be in business for as little as $40 for the remote. Set your resolution to 800x600, big fonts.... and it reads just fine on your TV too.
The biggest advantage over a Netgear and D-Link device is obvious: You are in control on what can be played. DivX, XVid, Quicktime..... any hacked codec you would like to play, and hell.... you could see YouTube.com on your PC, or Google Videos for that matter.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -
Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father. |
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mrbobbio
join:2001-12-20
Canton, MI
1 edit | reply to bassjunky
Re: Modded Xbox FTW
A modded XBOX w/XBMC and a 300+ GB drive is the only way to go, if you haven't converted to HD. My 250 DVD's (mostly kid related) that I own are in the Divx format. Plus it can stream content stored on my 2 DVR's ( ReplayTV's). The best part of this is I never have to mess with any media, when I get a new show. Its ripped and downloaded to the xbox, the original is then stored in case something happens. Even the wife loves the XBOX media center, no DVD's to mess with |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| reply to maartena
Re: Make your own!
Did you need to use a "high end" video card for said PC? I ended up needing to use an Nvidia GeForce 6600 (I am 99% sure this is the card) as it could support the 1752x958 resolution that i had to use for my HDTV. Most of my videos are on a server I keep in my basement and I used gigabit ethernet for connectivity.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. |
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Elcabong
Cuba SI, Castro NO
join:2000-03-09
Philadelphia, PA
·Comcast
| What's the Big Deal?
I just run a cable from my video card t.v. out and a cable from my sound card to my t.v. and watch movies all I want, so what's the big deal?
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»www.thereligionofpeace.com/ |
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maartena
Stacked.
Premium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to pnh102
Re: Make your own!
I don't have a HDTV, so I used the card that came with the PC which was a Gefore 4 MX.
When I buy a HDTV, I may have to replace the card for one that supports 1980x1080, but even those cards are not expensive anymore. And it just needs to play video, its not a gaming console. 
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -
Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father. |
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Camelot One
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-21
Sarasota, FL
clubs:
| reply to MysticGogeta
Re: I like the idea
I have been using my Buffalo media player for over a year now to do exactly this. Yes, HD material over the Wifi gets choked, but hardwire it runs just fine. The XBox is a bit of a pain, what with it not supporting AVI files without 3rd party software, but it too does work. (granted, I'm wired there too)
So the issue isn't getting media from the PC to the TV, its just getting HDTV from the PC to the TV wirelessly.
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AMD X2 4800+ @2700Mhz/ MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum SLI/ 4x 1024Mb Corsair XMS PC4000/ WD 74Gb Raptor/ PNY 7800GTs SLI/ Antec 550 True Control/Custom water cooler |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| reply to maartena
Re: Make your own!
said by maartena  :And it just needs to play video, its not a gaming console. Heh... you say that... but there's something to be said about playing UT on a big screen TV. 
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. |
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nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
·Comcast
| reply to Elcabong
Re: What's the Big Deal?
said by Elcabong :I just run a cable from my video card t.v. out and a cable from my sound card to my t.v. and watch movies all I want, so what's the big deal? the whole idea is to get rid of the cables. I imagine it would be a pain if your computer was upstairs and your TV downstairs.
Also, for HD, I would imagine long HDMI cables are expensive. |
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LilYoda
Feline with squirel personality disorder
Premium
join:2004-09-02
Mountains
1 edit | reply to maartena
Re: Make your own!
I think I tested the most popular PVR softwares (Sage, BeyondTV, MythTV, XP media center...) So far my favorite is still GB-PVR.
Freeware, there's a ton of plugins, and if all you're looking for is DivX playback, DVD, live TV, recording TV and MP3 playback, it's doing the job perfectly.
Add a MediaMVP from Hauppauge for $50, and you don't even have to live with a PC in the living room, the mediaMVP communicates with the GBPVR server running on your PC in the den/home office/basement/wherever...
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"the two most abundant things in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." (Harlan Ellison) |
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Chiyo
Save Me Konata-Chan
Premium
join:2003-02-20
Minneapolis, MN
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to mrbobbio
Re: Modded Xbox FTW
Agree'd I modded my xbox 4 years ago and been using XBMC since then, I've created a media server with 600 gigs of space I've got all kinds of complete series of shows and all I have to do is turn on my xbox start XBMC point to videos SMB network share and pick my TV share and pick what I want to watch and enjoy.
I do own the DVDs for many of the shows I have pirated copies of, I'd rather have good quality xvid over the large DVD rip.
I love XBMC and I wouldn't trade it for some peice of streaming hardware.
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"Sure there have been injuries and deaths in boxing - but none of them serious."- Alan Minter, Boxer"I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada."- Britney Spears, Pop Singer |
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Elcabong
Cuba SI, Castro NO
join:2000-03-09
Philadelphia, PA
·Comcast
| reply to nasadude
Re: What's the Big Deal?
said by nasadude :said by Elcabong :I just run a cable from my video card t.v. out and a cable from my sound card to my t.v. and watch movies all I want, so what's the big deal? the whole idea is to get rid of the cables. I imagine it would be a pain if your computer was upstairs and your TV downstairs. Also, for HD, I would imagine long HDMI cables are expensive. I see your point, I don't want to see cables either.
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»www.thereligionofpeace.com/ |
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Penny3000
join:2003-11-24
Oak Ridge, TN
1 edit |  reply to Chiyo
Re: Modded Xbox FTW
Yeah, I also modded the xbox, and put XBMC on there also. The latest version plus the xbox360 layout makes it more user friendly for the wife. I also use smb shares from a computer that just servers video and audio at any given time. I would also like to upgrade the hard drive to maybe 500 gig from 160 gig. But what I am having a hard time finding the right program that converts dvd format to xvid or divx with ac3 audio. I have a stupid fast system, but converting takes me an hour to convert an hour of dvd format footage to xvid. I am currently using SuperC, what do you use? Oh and I swear, I use the Media Center side of the Xbox more than I play games. :P |
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mrbobbio
join:2001-12-20
Canton, MI
| I use AnyDVD & DVD decrypter for ripping. As for XVID / DIVX I'm currently using DR. DIVX , I know Dr. Divx isn't the greatest and has some audio issues ( I don't have a surround system so the 5.1 and AC3 issue don't apply to me) I really like the batch functions and the easy of use. The speed isn't that great either on a AMD3200 it takes about 3.5 hours to do a 2 hour DVD |
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