Xbox XBMC Media Centre Setup in 2025

[BreadFang]

Call me old fashioned, but this is still a genuinely good setup to this day. Made a purpose built Xbox setup on my bedroom TV for watching movies in bed. I ripped a bunch of my DVD boxsets and movies 1:1 remux quality and copied them onto the HDD, it plays real nicely with the 128mb RAM.

Takes quite a bit of setting up and fine tuning. Screws are still out because I intend on getting a bigger HDD, 500gb wasn't enough.

I'll take this over a streaming service or a smart TV any day!

1.4
128mb RAM
Cerbios
Component cables
Modified eeprom to do NTSC at 480p (was originally PAL)

This all came about because I did a 128mb mod out of boredom and didn't know what to do with it after the fact lol. In the end it turned out to be a great idea

[prtscn]

What software you use to reencode video?

[BreadFang]

MakeMKV. Proper 1:1 copy

[prtscn]

On 5/11/2025 at 12:49 PM, BreadFang said:

MakeMKV. Proper 1:1 copy

h264? 1GB is very low for dvds.

I rip blurays, 4k movies. mpeg4, some longer movies need bitrate adjusted, still better quality than dvd, and file size maximum 3.9GG what xbox can handle without going crazy and not above fatx limit.

 

 

 

Edited June 11 by prtscn

[GoTeamScotch]

Right on! XBMC is still pretty viable for SD and 720p content, even 20 years later.

The upcoming version of XBMC, version 4, should be a nice improvement for media library features too.

Are you running your Xbox at 720p? It looks like it, but your post only mentions 480p.

[ded]

I remember then reading that XBMC supports Universal Disk Format version 1.02, Maximum 1 GB on CD

FATX support Maximum 4 GB on hard drive

Edited June 12 by ded

[Bowlsnapper]

Can the stock CPU handle 720P in ANY format at all? I would love to put downscaled blu-ray rips on there. DVDs are not true 720. I believe they're 720X480, max. I believe early widescreens were just anamorphic.

[BreadFang]

On 6/11/2025 at 11:21 AM, prtscn said:

h264? 1GB is very low for dvds.

MPEG2. 1:1 as in it's an exact copy of the discs video file. Not 1GB lol

On 6/11/2025 at 7:27 PM, GoTeamScotch said:

Are you running your Xbox at 720p? It looks like it, but your post only mentions 480p.

480P over 3rd party component. I would go 720p but the TV in my bedroom is an early flatscreen that doesn't do HD well at all, it looks horrible. I've also heard that running it above 480P can make chunkier video files play worse.

15 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Can the stock CPU handle 720P in ANY format at all?

I might give it a go. I've only been watching 576p PAL DVD rips as of yet.

[BreadFang]

On 5/11/2025 at 12:51 PM, prtscn said:

What software you use to reencode video?

Oh wait I see what you meant now. I don't reencode the DVDs at all. I just 1:1 rip them and throw them on the harddrive full size. If a movie is above 4GB I use MKVToolNix to chop it in half at the middle chapter 

[BreadFang]

Since this post a few things have changed. It's got an 8tb harddrive in there now which should be plenty. It's taking an AGE to rip 20+ years of DVD movies and boxsets I've accumulated since childhood. Some boxsets do that thing where every episode is smashed together in one video file with it all being separated by chapters, those are awful to work with.

Does XBMC do chapters at all? When I try to change them it just kicks me back to the file list.

[prtscn]

3 hours ago, BreadFang said:

Since this post a few things have changed. It's got an 8tb harddrive in there now which should be plenty. It's taking an AGE to rip 20+ years of DVD movies and boxsets I've accumulated since childhood. Some boxsets do that thing where every episode is smashed together in one video file with it all being separated by chapters, those are awful to work with.

Does XBMC do chapters at all? When I try to change them it just kicks me back to the file list.

XBMC does support chapters. But why not using PS3, since its a multimedia beast? Modded, it can support external NTFS drives and load ISO directly.

 

[BreadFang]

I do have a PS3 but I never touch it. I used OG Xbox because I love the console and I had plenty of them on hand. Using a PS3 isn't a bad idea though.

[PRince404]

4 hours ago, prtscn said:

XBMC does support chapters. But why not using PS3, since its a multimedia beast? Modded, it can support external NTFS drives and load ISO directly.

Does every PS3 revision support that or only the Phat?

[prtscn]

2 hours ago, PRince404 said:

Does every PS3 revision support that or only the Phat?

every, simply mount iso file and it will show up as real disk. But iso files need to be decrypted first.

+it can run movies in 24p if tv supports this mode.

[GoTeamScotch]

On 6/12/2025 at 8:46 AM, Bowlsnapper said:

Can the stock CPU handle 720P in ANY format at all? I would love to put downscaled blu-ray rips on there. DVDs are not true 720. I believe they're 720X480, max. I believe early widescreens were just anamorphic.

Sure, it's just a trade-off between resolution and bitrate.

720p on stock CPU and RAM console will get you noticeable macro-blocking artifacts. It's a more crisp image, but there's less information to make up that bigger picture so you see a bit of noise. Some people prefer 480p at higher bitrates and have it be stretched to fill out the screen, which gives a softer image but with less artifacts.

Edited Friday at 08:17 PM by GoTeamScotch

[prtscn]

also, discovered that calibration in xbmc is incorrect and is impossible to make it good. Normal video setting in media player.

used AVS HD 709 overscan test downscaled to 720p. I couldn't make frame in the video to touch all corner no mater what.