[ashlar]

I just like to add that I totaly disagree with that argument, the Xbox homebrew scene/community is HUGE, (much larger than the Sega Dreamcast scene and that is still going strong I hear), and according to a Microsoft announcement on the 10th May 2006, over 24million Xbox consoles have been sold worldwide. As other people get tired of their 'old' Xboxes more are becomig available on the used market MAKING IT EASIER to get hold of fully working consoles, for less and less as each year goes by. Which is great for us 'modders' that know the potential it still has, with XBMC. I for one am not getting rid of my Xboxes, and everyone I know who know about XBMC are also getting more than just one Xbox.

You might be right in the short run. In the long run this view doesn't hold a candle to reality... I repeat, consoles break down and they don't get produced anymore. As time goes by, XBMC is going to become ever more a niche product, which I feel would be sad, given its quality. Do you really want XBMC to be relegated in a somewhat larger niche than Dreamcast?

Furthermore, dismissing HDTV playback might make sense today, but again... what about in a couple of years?

I wish to stress that my point of view is strictly out of love for what you've done. There's *nothing* that touches XBMC on the market for what it can do.

[spiff]

e.g. a license for mp3 costs $90,000. since msft charges money for distribution using this thing, they can't distribute anything that break ip laws.

oh, and other formats are way more expensive....

finally, i really don't get what you are on about. it's not like we have said 'we won't port it'. we just can't port it using this c#.net based tool. as it wouldn't be a port, it would have to be a rewrite....

[ashlar]

e.g. a license for mp3 costs $90,000. since msft charges money for distribution using this thing, they can't distribute anything that break ip laws.

oh, and other formats are way more expensive....

finally, i really don't get what you are on about. it's not like we have said 'we won't port it'. we just can't port it using this c#.net based tool. as it wouldn't be a port, it would have to be a rewrite....

Hi spiff, I'm just trying to understand what the team is considering for the future. That's it. Nothing more.

And, specifically, nothing against you, the rest of the team or any decision you might take. It's *your* project, you donated it freely to the public and for this you'll always have my sincere admiration and gratitude. I can only wish you a continued success for it and that's why I'm asking about future developments beyond current XB hardware.

Peace.

[drakethegreat]

Just for the record my NES still works after 2 decades! Not to say the Xbox will but hey if you treat your shit right it continues to work! I prefer a 200- dollar media center over a 400+ one. Just to say, the homebrew Xbox community is STRONG and its the biggest homebrew community as far as I know. At the moment there is nothing better to port XBMC to and its not worth the effort because anything else costs more anyways.

[ashlar]

Just for the record my NES still works after 2 decades! Not to say the Xbox will but hey if you treat your shit right it continues to work! I prefer a 200- dollar media center over a 400+ one. Just to say, the homebrew Xbox community is STRONG and its the biggest homebrew community as far as I know. At the moment there is nothing better to port XBMC to and its not worth the effort because anything else costs more anyways.

I take strong exception to this. The NES had *no* moving parts and it was a simpler machine by an order (or more) of magnitude. Its processor produced pretty much zero heat, the same for the video chip. Compare and contrast with a machine that has a DVD-Drive (you can substitute it), an hard drive with a controller for it, a processor that emits substantial heat, a GPU that does the same.
Face it, sooner or later XBMC *will have* to migrate somewhere else. I'd prefer sooner, you'd prefer later. I have clear reasons for preferring sooner (HD contents playback), developers have clear reasons for wanting to wait for the ideal solution (I agree with them on this, now that I understand). What I fail to understand is other users' protectiveness of XBMC on standard Xbox. It's not that by developing a version for a more powerful platform your Xbox would instantly vanish in a cloud of smoke...

PS I treat my shit with maniacal care, probably even too much!

[drakethegreat]

Ok so obviously the Nintendo is not the xbox. The point remains that even so I have a generation 1.0 Xbox and have had zero problems with it. You are correct it WILL DIE and there is no doubt about that. However ashlar, you missed the most important statement in my post. THERE IS NOTHING BETTER. The PS3 is not practical because its not even out yet and its more expensive then custom built media centers. So all in all it would make for the most expensive media center option that has no tuner included anyways. Same goes for the 360, while being slightly cheaper, its still not a great option.

Everyone keeps pushing this crap but has real good ideas of what to port it to. As every developer has seemed to have said at some point as well, XBMC is xbox code and therefore relies on Direct X. Non programmers don't understand but porting this to anything Linux based is just not going to happen. The only real porting options at the moment seem to be a PC or the 360. Both of which are not really better options. The xbox for what i have said and the PC port has already been done with not much luck.

People can continue to pound this issue into the ground but ultimately its up to the developers on what they think they can and what they want to do. There's no money to be made here so porting it is asking a lot of people to put in a lot of energy on something that might not even make it.

[Sojurn]

XNA doesn't allow you to use the network in your games... To be honest I can't imagine they will ever allow it, Ironically, That could be down to xbmc, The last thing they want is such applications undermining their Media Center, And XBMC on 360 would definitely undermine windows media center. I can't think of any application they would be more afraid of, And would not be surprised if that is the reason for the XNA restrictions.

[Sojurn]

a) xbmc is written mainly in c/c++ - we would have to port it (and possibly all the libraries we use) to another language to use it with this thing
b) even if we did it, do you really think ms would let us distribute it through their service? hint; ip violations

Although Media Portal built on C# so it would seem that the majority of that work is already done.

Seeing as Media Portal has it's roots in XBMC, and Media Portal is open source, It would be interesting if somebody could try their hand at adapting this to XNA.

[spiff]

you guys do know that the xna doesnt allow the user to access the network, rite?

its a utterly useless piece of hype from the looks

[ashlar]

you guys do know that the xna doesnt allow the user to access the network, rite?

its a utterly useless piece of hype from the looks

How hard would it be to port XBMC directly to PC, then. I mean the real one, I know all about Media Portal and don't find it up to par.

[nate12o6]

How hard would it be to port xbmc to 360 being that the 360 has backwards compatability? Or does that not even matter?

Just currious. Thanks

[jiz_king]

Right now it's impossible.

The 360 can only run signed code.

[El Piranna]

Right now it's impossible.

The 360 can only run signed code.

You can re-flash DVD unit to allow run non-signed code... It's not easy and it's dangerous, but it's possible.

[SleepyP]

100% incorrect, El Piranna...

[Jabbah]

Just to increase the knowledge base slightly

The DVD hack allows you to run backups of signed code. eg you have a game that you can copy onto another DVD but it will not run until you hack the DVD firmware as there is a little bit that tells the drive what type of media the code is allowed to be executed off. As SleepyP said, nothing to do with running unsigned code.