The old girl’s still got plenty to give. With hardware that’s now 10 years old you’d be forgiven for thinking the xbox classic’s time is up, however the old girl has still got plenty to give. True enough a lot of people now have HTPC’s, standalone media players or the latest games consoles to stream in true HD to their big screens. This however certainly doesn’t mean the demise of our trusty old xbox… Where else could you buy a media center that’s able to stream content from the internet (or locally) in a wide variety of formats, have an amazing library function, double up as an arcade machine and boot up in seconds? And all for the price of a couple of pints of beer! Yes these great warhorse machines can be picked up second hand for amazing prices, I know I’m not the only one to have picked one or two up for as little as 99p from a certain auction site.

So how do you use your xbox these days, are you still using it as your main media center? Obviously not everyone has an HDTV, in which case the xbox is still unbeatable but for those of us that do what happens to your xbox once you’ve upgraded to newer hardware? Personally I have one in every bedroom and also one in the shed (so I can sit in the garden and watch movies/football with a few beers in the summer). With a simple network connection (homeplugs are a great choice if you don’t like wiring) you can have all your media located on one dedicated machine and stream from there. Whether it’s a dedicated server, NAS or simply a PC you can store all media on that one device and then scan it all into your xbox libraries meaning thousands of movies/tv shows but only one large HDD needed. Of course you could just use the xbox to stream directly from the internet – how do you use yours?

Courtesy of Whufclee

Ten years ago today, the XBOX console was first introduced to North America. Since then, it has seen the release of many great games, including many of the best selling video game series’ of all time, and one of the largest online communities for games which allows gaming online, downloading new games/content, and tv, movie, and music streaming. The XBOX is now one of the top selling consoles of all time.

Even more impressive however, are the efforts of people who receive no compensation for their work other than the thanks of like minded people. Shortly after the release of this console, a modding community was founded and has been growing steadily since then. XBOX users are now able not only to play XBOX games, but games from nearly every console up to the 5th generation through emulators. There are also full versions of Linux running very well on this console.

XBOX users also have access to arguably the best media center application on any platform. XBMC started because the XBOX needed a good media player, but it evolved into something so much larger. Streaming media files from the network with library organization, weather support, XBOX game trainers, a game/program launcher, and an entire build of python to run a plethora of scripts which can be created by anyone. XBMC has been unsurpassed by many other media applications, some of which you must pay for.

The best part about all of this? It is available completely free and open-source, made by other XBOX users in their free time.
I think it’s high time to congratulate everyone who has contributed to make this console come as far as it has.

Thank you Mwaterbu for allowing me to post this on the front page as I don’t believe I could have written it better.

Happy birthday Xbox Classic and thanks for all the good times.

Xman.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a bit of a write on the front page but here I am. As most of you know, we have hit over 2000 members and this is rising by the day which is always good to see. I’m always amazed at the versatility of “the old black box” as it hits it’s 10 years of reliable service. I only wish they made P.C.s with such reliability, something I don’t think Microsoft intended when they designed these machines.

There has been much development since the last stable release and Arnova and Exobuzz are continually improving on the way XBMC works for us all. It’s always good to check out how the latest builds perform on your machine with there smoother operation and extra features. Just make sure to read up on the forum on how to upgrade your build and it’s a relatively simple operation. It’s also good to try the different skins other than the default 3 that come with each new build. Simply grab the skin or skins you’d like to try and add it in your skins folder in the XBMC folder and select it in your XBMC appearance settings and your XBMC’s appearance will change to that of the new skin. I also like to change the sounds but that’s a more in depth procedure that is best left to the forum.

Anyway, I’d like to welcome all the new members that have joined the forum since I last welcomed new members and look forward to there input and comments on the forum.

Xman.