Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 8:13 pm Post subject: Great application for the X-Box
I just setup a Pluto Home system (smarthome + media server, plutohome.com, free open source). It’s really cool. It has a streaming movie server, music server, pvr. Plus it does home automation and controls a/v equipment too. There’s only 1 problem…
You designate 1 PC to be the server; they call it the core. It exposes a network boot image for any other PC in the house, so your PC becomes dual purpose—normal pc, or net boot and it’s a set top box. You control it with Bluetooth mobile phones or web pads. And all the set top boxes in the house work together. Your media even follows you as you move from room to room if you keep the phone on. The problem is I don’t have enough media pc’s for all the rooms in my house, and buying a full PC for each room is too expensive. Plus there’s no video cards for the PC that have component video output—which is the only way I can get HDTV into my tv.
The X-Box seems perfect as a media director. It’s a PC inside, right? So why couldn’t it boot like normal as an Xbox, or net boot as a pluto media director? Then it would be part of a whole house solution that did everything. I could even use the Xbox to turn on my sprinklers if I wanted, and do all sorts of stuff with it. Plus, since Pluto gives it a network boot image, space is no longer an issue—all the software could be stored on the main server. And the XBox has component video and it’s quiet and cheap.
Does anybody have an idea if it would be possible to use the XBox as a media director like that, doing a network boot? Then I could just buy a few of the XBox’s rather than having to buy regular PC’s.
forahobby Administrator
Joined: May 22, 2003 Posts: 23912 Location: NSW, Australia
Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 4:28 am Post subject:
I wont say it cant be done because it can.. But it would definately take some hard work mate..
Why dont you just have all xboxes in the house anyway.. You can stream from any PC HDD in your house on the same network to each and every xbox.. I dont know about all those extra feature your mentioning but hell. Im not that rich.. heheh lol
There is also a prpgram available for your PC that is very similar for NON-MODDED XBOXES... Its called M$ Xbox Media Center or something like that.
Most guys here run a pc with shared drives.. Then they just watch whatever is on the pc's hdd directly from the xbox..
Maybe you could do something similar with what you are talking about.
Anyway, ive bumped your topic now.. Hopefully other members here may know more and can reply.
kilroytheguumba Xbox-HQ Member Xbox Version: 1.0 Modded: 007.AUF now, X3 HW soon
Joined: Jan 01, 2005 Posts: 77
Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:23 pm Post subject:
I use a program called RelaX on the PCs to stream to the XBOX through an XNS share, since I could bever get the SMB stuff to work right. The program is available through a link in a post in these forums, but I forgot what post specifically so I can't link it. I'm sure if you search the forums or google it, you'll be able to find it easily.
Just remember to keep your PC HDDs defragmented if you're streaming content through your house, since fragemnted drives tend to suffer long access times and the occasional corrupted data. _________________ XBOX V 1.0 (softmod)
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