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[mrklaw]

I'm not really one to fiddle with my modded xbox, but I want to start getting it sorted for being a nice music hub.

Mp3s stored on my PC, and possibly copied over to the xbox hard drive.

I want to get it so the wife can use it. So probably boot straight into XBMC, and use the remote control. Thats it.

I think I can sort the autobooting - it was set up by a friend, but I forgot the key shortcuts - anyone help there? (unleashed dashboard, I think avalaunch launcher?)


Also, is there a way to get media center to auto start playing music, or go to XNS shares more easily than the current file explorer type interface?

any hints and tips appreciated.

 

[Drexon]

Well, to start off, to boot your box directly to XBMC all you have to do is copy the default.xbe and the "XboxMediaCenter.xml" from the XBMC folder, put it in C: and rename the default.xbe to wichever xbe is the one that boots avalaunch (real logical, you'll figure it out). Dunno about that auto-start music thing, but I heard it can be done, try to find the manual (searh google). As for the XNS share, use SAMBA instead. You can find a tut on the Xbox-scene forums. When you've done that all you have to do is clock the music avatar in the dash and right there'll be all the stuff you've shared.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

I see no point in making XBMC your dash. The ftp client alone makes that a no-no for me.

This is how I have my XBMC music share set up.

On my PC, I have a Music share, Video share, DVDRipz share and a Pictures share.

I modified my mediacenter.xml file to point to those shares.

I use SMB, but would like to explore other sharing methods. I'm not too keen on apps doing the serving/sharing for me however, and would like to keep it simple.

 

[Marty Chinn]

What kind of chip do you have? Ideally, it would be best just to set up one that can have multiple bioses to be able to just set a bios that boots media center and leave that as default. Then if you want to, you can change it to boot to something else as you need.

I would just set up SMB media shares as it was explained. It should be pretty easy for her to navigate. All she does is select My Music, and then select what songs she wants to play, or even better, you could set up a playlist for her and she can just click on the playlist.

 

[mrklaw]

I think maybe I could autoboot to XBMC, but hold down a trigger for unleashx, so its easy for my wife to use, and I can still get in to the normal dash when necessary.

Can you skin XBMC like you can the unleash dashboard? That way maybe I can add buttons to do direct music play etc? With the standard layout my wife would take one look and give up. She doesn't like technology much, which is fair enough - its a tool for her.

I think I'll switch from relax to the windows share one (is that SMB?) - just because relax doesn't support shoutcast from XBMC anymore.

Any other tips? Internet radio for dummies would be cool - couldn't see anythign in XBMC fo that, but XBMP had something for shoutcast directly. Which is odd because I switched to XBMC when everyone was raving about it.

 

[mrklaw]

EvoX chip, with avalaunch, so I can change what dashboard I boot to on startup (I just can't remember what keys to use for that, as I never used it once it was set up

Seriously though, even 'navigate to my music and select SMB' is too much. I think I want something she can just switch on, and use the remote.

Also, if I can get that working, I might pick up another xbox just for music in the bedroom.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Well, Dell sued the XBMC folks (or threatened them at least), so the coolest skin no longer is supported. The default one is yucky.

It is skinable although I've never messed w/ it.

Seriously though, even 'navigate to my music and select SMB' is too much. I think I want something she can just switch on, and use the remote.

Well then, you need to get one of those overpriced retail devices that handle music sharing.

I was reading the manual to XBMC and I was shocked to find out that there's no way to fast forward songs! Why can you seek video which includes audio, but not audio by itself? Why can't the GUI that pops up when you hit 'Y' during video playback, just do the same for audio?

 

[Marty Chinn]

How do you expect her to navigate through songs if she can't even select My Music? It doesn't get any more straight forward than that.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Considering the XBOX was designed to do some totally different sh!t, I think you need to just get over pushing a button two extra times.


Anyone know how to do playlists in XBMC? I knew in XBMP (just hit 'Y' I think), but I can't seem to do it in XBMC.

 

[Ecrofirt]

DaCoco, I'm pretty sure in the My Music section you can just add a song to your playlist (At least, I'm pretty sure you could with the Media Center skin. I haven't been using it as much with the Project Meyhem skin.)

mrklaw, check out the Xbox-Scene forums. There's an XBMC section. Ask for help with changing the skin there. You could probablt add a link right to the home screen that will go to your SMB music share (and I highly recommend SMB over XNS). So your wife could click the link and go right into music.

Heck you could even have the link say "Honey, click for music" or something

 

[mrklaw]

How do you expect her to navigate through songs if she can't even select My Music? It doesn't get any more straight forward than that.

Its not how I expect her, its how she expects.

If it can't be done, then I'll stump up for one of those creative streamers with the track info on the remote - they look pretty good.

 

[Uncle Dukey]

I was reading the manual to XBMC and I was shocked to find out that there's no way to fast forward songs! Why can you seek video which includes audio, but not audio by itself? Why can't the GUI that pops up when you hit 'Y' during video playback, just do the same for audio?

You can fast forward/rewind songs by using the FF/RW buttons on the remote. If you don't have a remote, then just set two buttons to those functions in the xml file with the key mappings.

 

[mrklaw]

K, switched to SMB, and slashed and burned the shortcuts so only DVD and the network is shown

Now just to get the media player launching easily - I'll try getting it to be the default action in Unleashed first. Then she only has to press enter on the remote.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

I have another question. This one drives me nuts.

I have images in each and every music folder. Album covers mainly. Why is it in XBMC that some album cover images will come up, while others, most actually, won't?

Common sense tells me it's the dimensions of the image. But I've taken an album cover that does show up, and resized one that didn't to match it exactly. To no avail.

Any ideas?

 

[Killthee]

I have another question. This one drives me nuts.

I have images in each and every music folder. Album covers mainly. Why is it in XBMC that some album cover images will come up, while others, most actually, won't?

Common sense tells me it's the dimensions of the image. But I've taken an album cover that does show up, and resized one that didn't to match it exactly. To no avail.

Any ideas?

Try the scan button on the left.