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motherface
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Posts: 3407
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 Posted: 11/12/05 - 23:21 Post subject: Min PC specs to make a decent MAME/MythTV box?
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I want to make a MAME/MythTV box to hook up in the living room. Any thoughts on minimum specs? I have an old 800 mhz Athlon somewhere, and while I'd really like to put it in a case that would fit in the space where my old DVD player currently is, I also want to do it for like $200 or less, so I'm stuck mostly with what I can scrounge.
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kireol
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 02 Aug 2003
Posts: 9517
Location: Royal Oak, MI
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Posted: 11/12/05 - 23:27 Post subject:
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if it helps any, an xbox is good enough to run 480p in playback, but not 720p or 1080i.
in conclusion, if building it for anything less than HD, you are fine. Building it for anything over 480p, you need better than a Pentium III 733 MHz and more than 64MBs of Ram which is what an xbox is.
my $.02
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motherface
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Posts: 3407
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Posted: 11/12/05 - 23:38 Post subject:
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| kireol wrote: | if it helps any, an xbox is good enough to run 480p in playback, but not 720p or 1080i.
in conclusion, if building it for anything less than HD, you are fine. Building it for anything over 480p, you need better than a Pentium III 733 MHz and more than 64MBs of Ram which is what an xbox is.
my $.02 |
Hmm...
Are the Xboxes that are currently on the shelf able to run Linux without physical mods? And if not, how hard are the mods? I'm seeing Xboxes at like $150 now, and if it can do everything I want, and fits under the TV then that may be the way to go.
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kireol
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 02 Aug 2003
Posts: 9517
Location: Royal Oak, MI
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Posted: 11/12/05 - 23:46 Post subject:
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To soft mod an xbox and install linux, you need to do the following.....
Buy the "original" spliter cell. not the platinum hits one. or the first 007. Like $6 used usually at EBX or whereever. And an xbox memory stick, around $10-15. If a friend has a modded xbox....that's all you need. If no friends with one, you also need a game shark to xfer the files over to the card. Go to any torrent site and DL the soft mod.
1) Either with game shark or already modded xbox, copy mod files to memory stick.
2) boot xbox and copy files from stick to HD
3) boot up in splinter cell.
4) load saved game you just xferd over.
5) click "backup xbox". wait 5 secs for it to copy shit
6) click install soft mod. wait 3 secs for it to copy shit
7) Click install evox or unleash X. wait 15 secs for it to copy shit.
reboot.
DL GentooX or Xebian.
Copy to HD.
done.
Once your memory stick has the files on it, you can then mod all your friends boxes for a fee and make your money back. takes all of 2-3 minutes to mod once your stick is done.
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kireol
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 02 Aug 2003
Posts: 9517
Location: Royal Oak, MI
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Posted: 11/12/05 - 23:48 Post subject:
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oh ya, I think all versions of xbox are modable. but buy a used older one just to be sure.
I think Myth works fine with it, but you'll need a USB video digitizer and a Usb to xbox joystick adapter. 2 adapters if you want a mouse and keyboard like i did.
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kireol
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 02 Aug 2003
Posts: 9517
Location: Royal Oak, MI
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Posted: 11/12/05 - 23:52 Post subject:
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ahhh according to this website, you run your PC as a backend to encode, and the xbox as a front end to watch it on.
http://www.cyber-fish.com/mythtv/
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motherface
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Posts: 3407
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Posted: 11/12/05 - 23:55 Post subject:
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I hate buying used shit, I'll have to look into the current series' modability. Looks like there's some extra hardware etc that I'd need to buy but it will still probably come out under $200 if I can find some deals. Are those games that allow you to soft-mod still readily available? Or did they pull them off the shelves?
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kireol
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 02 Aug 2003
Posts: 9517
Location: Royal Oak, MI
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Posted: 11/13/05 - 00:04 Post subject:
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games are readily available. check http://www.xbox-scene.com/ to see if a brand new one is soft modable or not. post here cuz I'd like to know too
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motherface
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Posts: 3407
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Posted: 11/13/05 - 00:19 Post subject:
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This site owns:
http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Getting_Started
| Quote: | There are two methods of using Linux on a v1.6 Xbox:
You may fit a modchip to your Xbox and flash it with Cromwell, a free, legal bios replacement capable of running Linux.
You may modify your Xbox to run unsigned code without opening it by using a software exploit. Xbox Linux does not currently provide a software exploit which work on v1.6. More infomation can be found at Xbox Scene (http://www.xbox-scene.com) Warning this site might contain information about homebrew software of unknown legality. |
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halfbent
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 2944
Location: Kentwood, Mi
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Posted: 11/13/05 - 11:07 Post subject:
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Modded Xbox 4tw. Even if the only use I get out of it is for media player, and the occaisional party game.
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halfbent
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 2944
Location: Kentwood, Mi
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Posted: 11/13/05 - 11:13 Post subject:
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also iirc, the 1.6b's (the last version I knew of) had issues with messed up video with the softmods, so you may have to buy a modchip as well.
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Kurel
RealPoor Sensei
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 1877
Location: Cali
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motherface
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Posts: 3407
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Posted: 11/14/05 - 02:01 Post subject:
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Xbox doesn't have a coax TV connector does it? That sucks.
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Mogling
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 29 Dec 2002
Posts: 2451
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Posted: 11/14/05 - 14:53 Post subject:
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you gotta buy the better cables seperatly, like 20-30$ iirc. Hell even monster makes a HD xbox kit. But yeah XMBC and all the roms ever is a great combo to put on the xbox.
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kireol
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 02 Aug 2003
Posts: 9517
Location: Royal Oak, MI
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Jukas
Toomuchtimeonhands
Joined: 19 Mar 2003
Posts: 896
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Posted: 11/20/05 - 12:42 Post subject:
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I think you're going to have trouble soft modding the 1.6 versions to run with Linux, but check out the Xenium mod chips. They were making a completely solderless clip in for the 1.6 gen xbox's which beats the solder install I did on mine hands down.
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