i am thinking of getting a second xbox for the simple reason to use it as a media center. i am debating if i should just get a pc and load everything i have on that instead. i could get better performance with a pc and have the abiltiy to upgrade easer.
for those of you using xbmc i would love to hear about the kind of performance you get and how much media you have loaded on your xbox. also, what size hd you are using?
cheers.
i have a 2nd xbox purely as a multi-media/entertainment center. it replaces my radio/cd player/dvd player & even my photo album as i now download all my photo's onto the xbox to display on the tv.
xbmc is stunning and getting better and more feature packed all the time. the only area (at the moment) where xbmc lacks is in the playing of other audio/video streams than just shoutcast that you would use windows media player to listen to or watch.
other than that, which i'm sure will come later, i find it irreplacable now as the centre of my home entertainment system.
by the way, i made a donation to the xbmc project (more will come too) and hope others will do the same to such a worthy & hard worked on project.
i found using xbmc a much more convenient solution. being in the uk it already had rgb out via the scart and the remote worked straight off. most people i would say that use it seriously as a media center don't store their media on the xbox itself. i have a pc running as a server in a closet with 1.2tb of space (most of it used already!
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unless your looking to play high-def material which the xbox can't cope with there is very very little that xbmc can't handle.
as someone who has both a pc and a modded xbox in my living room, i say there is no contest.
the xbox will give you at least the following advantages:
ease of use (use xbmc as dash)
integrated, hassle free remote support
fast boot time!
silent running (get a recent model fluid bearing hdd)
excellent tv out
plays just about everything you throw at it without having to worry about codecs or players.
sure you may loose out somewhat in flexibility, but many of the things above, you will only get with expensive addons to your pc (low operating noise, good ir suport etc)
thanks for the details everyone. i will have to get another xbox and problaby have all my media on other machines on my network.
cheers.