XBOX questions

[samsonlonghair]

I know there are other threads about oXBOX, but they don't address all my questions.

I recently ebay'ed an original XBOX on the cheap. I'm planning on softmodding it very soon, and I'd like to ask a few questions.

I mainly want to use my XBOX to play roms and videos I download. I also want to be able to add new hacks later on. I think that I want to run the unleash X dashboard, and then launch XBMC from there; is this the best setup for me? Can I play emulators from Xbox media center? What's the best way to send files from my PC to my Xbox Hard drive? How can I avoid using my Thompson DVD drive? Can I download XBOX iso images from bitgamer (or a similar bittorrent tracker) then put those images on my Xbox hard drive?

[Hatta]

You want Auto Installer Deluxe..

Yes, this is the best setup to start with. You may even want to use XBMC as your dashboard, if you don't use any of UnleashX's features. But that's an extra step, and probably not worth the effort.

Yes, you can launch anything you want from XBMC.

You can load isos/roms/avis/whatever over FTP.

I *never* use my DVD drive.

I think that covers it.

[avrame]

This is just my two cents, but go ahead and install XBMC as your primary dashboard. I see no reason to keep unleashX as your dash, aside from the fact that it looks closest to the original oXbox dash.

Everything you are concerned about is easily configured in the XBMC settings, and as far as I know, anything runnable in unleashX is runnable in XBMC.

I have my Xbox accessible via Samba in XBMC, and it is pretty easily to drag and drop new media in with plain old Windows Explorer.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[samsonlonghair]

I can just use Samba to send files to my XBOX? I thought I had to use FTP. Samba would make things much easier.

The only reason I want unleashX is to future-proof my XBOX installation. I want to be able to use any new hacks which come out for unleashX. What can unleashX do that XBMC can't do?

[t0yrobo]

I've always found ftp to be more reliable with my xbx, but both are usable. Afaik there's no big benefits to using unleashx besides it being a little faster. If you plan on using it as a media center definitely go with xbmc, if you plan on using it more for games then unleashx might be better. You could always start unleashx from xbmc also. I have xbmc on mine, I used to have others on there but I never ever used them. If there's anything xbmc can't do (while being better looking, but a tad slower) that other dashboards can I haven't ran into it.

[samsonlonghair]

Okay, looks like I won't really need unleashX. I will just use XBMC as my main dashboard.

So what do I need to run XBOX games from my hard drive? Do I need certain file formats? Will any hacked dash run games from the hard drive?

[Hatta]

Yes, any dashboard will do. You just need to extract the files from the ISO and ftp the whole tree over. AFAIK you can't just run an iso. The Xbox file system is a little different, so you can't use normal ISO tools. I use Xdvdfs tools. (I think, it's been a while since I installed it, but I think that was the package I used)

[samsonlonghair]

Yes, any dashboard will do. You just need to extract the files from the ISO and ftp the whole tree over. AFAIK you can't just run an iso. The Xbox file system is a little different, so you can't use normal ISO tools. I use Xdvdfs tools. (I think, it's been a while since I installed it, but I think that was the package I used)

Is Xdvdfs tools a program that I install on my PC or on my XBOX?

[Niode]

I prefer to use Unleash X and have XBMC as an extra option on my main menu. The menus are XML so you just need to edit the menu xml file and you can have all your emulators in an 'emulators' folder on your startup screen, I can then choose what console I want to load (SNES, NES, Megadrive, N64) from there, they all have their own custom little console picture and logo done in the same style in photoshop. It's so much better than having XBMC as your standard dashboard, plus it loads much much quicker.

[vlame]

fyi, i rent a softmod kit