(no subject)

[rhu]

A project that I'd like to undertake,
Not spending too much time, nor money, though,
Is getting something in our family room
To play back video stored on a disk
Located elsewhere on our household LAN.
I'm hoping someone here can point me to
Instructions somewhere on the World Wide Web
On how, e.g., to take a used Xbox
or PlayStation, and load Linux thereon.
Then, with a network card, one would (I think)
Be able to browse mounted network drives,
Select an MPEG file, and click on "Play".
Dost thou, O Gentle Reader, have a tip
On where I might find such an F.A.Q.
Instructing me on how I might proceed?
Thanks in advance for reading this, my screed.

Comments

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

If you want to cheat and just buy something, there are remote devices (like the Media Center Extender ~$250 which I worked on ). I think Dell sells a stand alone device but I can't seem to find it right now. Do you want something that plays H.264 (MPEG4 Part 10) or not? The older devices are a bit limited that way.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Happy I would be to simply cheat
And buy a Linksys, if 'twould solve the case.
Alas, the product that you cite above
(Which I considered) fails two of my goals.
To wit: Its price exceeds one hundred bucks,
And it requires that the server run
On MS Windows Media Center.*

* - I'm trying to abide by "blank blog week"
But sometimes trademarks simply do not scan.
So who's to blame for that line's awkward stress?
At least within this post, I fear iamb.

[maxh42.livejournal.com]

A ReplayTV can be used to do this -- I currently have over 500 shows on my server upstairs that I watch through my two networked Replays. A ReplayTV 5504 can probably be had pretty cheap now, although there is an activation fee of $13/month, but that includes program listings for 12 days, updated daily. If you want to try it out first, I have two that I bought for practically nothing after rebate for parts (since they recently stopped making them), you are welcome to try one. However, they encode and decode only MPEG-2 files and require two smaller associated files with metadata, although there are free apps that convert most files to the ReplayTV format and generate the metadata files.

But to address the question you actually asked, I found a list of links about modding an Xbox here (http://www.poopli.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2062&&postid=17431#post17431), on a board I moderate. On another ReplayTV board, someone mentioned www.fixmyxbox.com (http://www.fixmyxbox.com/).