[Youbecha]

i've just got to quieten the bloody xbox down now!

?

mine makes no noise at all. unless playing games.

when i play movies etc, the hd shuts down (all streamed over network)...only when i hit the remote, does the hd come back on...

[Jet5y]

mine makes no noise at all. unless playing games.

the hard drive isn't the noise maker, it's the stupid 50p fan that's in it. it's like having my full pc set up sitting in the living room. no good at all for watching movies, no good at all.

i've replaced the fan now however and it's fine.

[Zikor4]

mine makes no noise at all.  unless playing games.

the hard drive isn't the noise maker, it's the stupid 50p fan that's in it. it's like having my full pc set up sitting in the living room. no good at all for watching movies, no good at all.

i've replaced the fan now however and it's fine.

you could have just gone to the system settings in xbmc, and set the fan speed to 5% if you are using one of the newer builds....

[Jet5y]

i did and while it was better, there was still this droning noise coming from the fan. maybe it was just my box but i could still hear it in another room!

plus the temp went up to pretty much what it is now, about 68 degrees c!

[Gamester17]

suggestions; buy a new fan (doesn't cost much nor hard to install, see xbox-scene) or put the xbox in a tv cupboard with glass doors

[Youbecha]

mine makes no noise at all. unless playing games.

the hard drive isn't the noise maker, it's the stupid 50p fan that's in it. it's like having my full pc set up sitting in the living room. no good at all for watching movies, no good at all.

i've replaced the fan now however and it's fine.

i honestly don't hear mine at all...sometimes i forget and leave the xbox running for long periods of time...with tv and stereo off.

[stim]

i've tried converting my dvds to xvid, but i've had problems with them freezing (they look great though), so i've been forced to use divx (which doesn't look as good). i've heard that it is a problem with the codec in xbmc, but from what you guys say, it should be working fine... what did you guys do to get it to work?

[Jet5y]

@youbecha: i've just put the vantec stealth mod in and albeit a bit noisier than before, the temp is now 59 degrees. much better than before! i'll just have to put up with it i guess. the main prob was that beforehad there was only the dvd and mvp box which basically made no noise at all. now i've got this thing with a fan in it so it's a big difference!

@stim: i play allsorts of 'premade' xvid files and they're all fine. no probs at all really, occasional *slight* stutter but not much. what are you using to encode them with? autogk?

[Norm In Norman]

can an x-box running xbmc be used as a replacement for a progressive scan dvd player?  i've been wanting to softmod my xbox and install xbmc but have been worrying about buying a rather expensive component switch so i can switch between my dvd player and the xbox.  if i can still get the same quality from my xbox as my progressive scan dvd player then i wouldn't need the switch and i could move my current dvd player to another room.  i already have the hd pack and guess i need to get the dvd remote. will it play all of my movies (including some backups on dvd-r)?

here's the catch though: my wife needs to be able to play a dvd with it.  if it takes her too many steps to do it she'll just end up getting pissed at me.

another question: can i use xbmc as my dashboard (with a softmod) and still play my xbox games?  if not, i may as well not go through with it.

[seven5]

these are the posts that just make me happy.

first off yes! it makes a great dvd player replacement!! do it now.

as for the wife worries, i hear ya. my fiance has gotten the hang of xbmc, although i have been at it for quite some time now, and she loves it. once you get her past the initial "it's different" stage, she'll love the freedom of not having to pick out a dvd to watch, and instead browse for it

i think tivo owners all had the same thing happen,

wife: "ugh what is this tivo thing, its stupid."
** two weeks later **
wife: "get off of my tivo!"

definately make xbmc your default dash. you may find that softmodding your xbox + using msdash for dvd playback is a bit cumbersome at first, i'm in the middle of my first softmod right now for a friend's 1.6. you will want to use the msdash as a dvd player since xbmc does not have dvd menu support. the key to xbmc is making it easy enough for your wife to use (and like), thats my goal at least, when you have done that, you have a pretty sick setup. if you want something easy, pick up a no solder modchip or flash your tsop, tsop flashes are what i prefer personally, its cheap and easy and can be done on the spot without waiting for a chip to be delivered.

hope that helps.. good luck!

[Norm In Norman]

i thought that the ms dashboard would not give me more than 480i output. is this correct? i want to have at least the quality of my progressive scan (480p) dvd player (on my hdtv). i don't really care about the menus as long as the movie plays fairly easily. i can see from the screenshots that there is something called "play dvd", but i dont' really know what comes next.

eventually i would like to put all of my movies into xvid, but that will take some time that i don't have.

[seven5]

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/5724/progr...-available

[recoil]

the answer to your question is

"it depends on what kind of dvd quality you want."

if you are looking for a sub $200 dvd player, then sure, i think it would be fine. but in spite of what a lot of people probably tell you, yes you can see a difference between a $100 dvd player and a $400 dvd player.

if you have a great home theater, don't let the weak link be your dvd player, and go out and get a solid denon, pioneer or panasonic (whose players get better and better each quarter). if you just need average quality, then the xbox will work fine. i have watched dvds on mine and it looked ok.

[DoughBoy]

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/5724/progr...-available

i tried that and the dash is progressive but when i insert a dvd, it switches to 480i

i have a hacked dashboard which i patched to 480p. the only problem is that i have had to revert to original dash to play some dvds that contain xbox demos etc. (eg. van helsing i think is one of them, and also star wars trilogy extras dvd).

[jsd]

xbmc is not a great dvd player at the moment. it doesn't support menus, and some dvd's it just can't play at all (scrambled video, or just won't even start).

i like the ms dash dvd player altho of course it requires the dongle + remote. the remote is also useful in xbmc so it's not a waste to get it.

third option: dvd-x2 which is region-free but doesn't support the remote at all.

if you're going to use msdash or dvdx2 you need to patch the binaries so that they support 480p. read how here:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?s...52822&st=0

once the devs finish upgrading xbmc to support full dvd menus it will be the ultimate solution of course. until then you'll have to make do with these stopgap ideas.

also, you may want to read this article, i found it very interesting:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/480i_vs_480p.htm