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Author Topic: Friendtech Media Center  (Read 404 times)

Bwsk8

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Friendtech Media Center
« on: July 27, 2004, 10:57:00 PM »
QUOTE

Developed in collaboration with Friendtech, both I (the developer) and CyKiller (the coordinator) are proud to announce "Friendtech Media Center". Based upon "Gentoox" and the tried and tested "MythTV(info)", the media center currently allows for playback of videos and audio while offering more advanced features such as an image gallery, DVD ripping and encoding, CD ripping and encoding, web browsing and weather forecasting. All the time an FTP server and SAMBA server are running in the background to allow you to upload new media and even download ripped media to/ from your Xbox.

The project itself is still only in BETA stages and has been in development for under a month. The release of BETA 4 brings Gentoox and the Media Center together in one package - when installing the Media Center, it will ask for a Gentoox CD and install both in one go. This means you can either boot straight into the media center to watch some movies, or boot into Gentoox to use instant messaging clients/ chat such as GAIM and Xchat (irc). Basically, this turns your Xbox into a complete computer and then some. Remember, the emphasis of the project is on ease of use. There is no messing around trying to set the software up - it works straight out of the box! Just run through the fully automated installer and you'll be up and running in no time... Linux has never been this easy.

"So whats so great about this?", you may think. Legalities. XBMC/ XBMP, while being very good piece of software, are illegal. This is because they have been compiled with illegal, stolen software development kits (XDK) and require illegal, hacked BIOSes to load them. Friendtech Media Center (or MCE for short) only requires a special version of Cromwell(info) to boot. Cromwell, as many know, is a clean implementation of a custom BIOS for the Xbox which was designed specifically for booting Linux and nothing else.

While the software is indeed in its early stages, it is full functional and (hopefully!) unhindered by bugs. The software also comes with a quick and automated rescue feature, so in the unlikely event of something going wrong - you can recover from it without even getting out of your seat to change CDs. MCE has been thoroughly tested by myself, CyKiller and a few other select testers who have all deemed it to be a great step forward. MCE can be operated entirely from a remote control, though a keyboard and xpad are HIGHLY recommended. Plans include PVR support in the future among other things.

"So what will this cost me?". Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The founder of Friendtech, Paul Hu, has generously decided to give this piece of software away free to the community and it will be shipped as standard with all future Friendtech Bravo Xbox machines and with their DreamX line by customer request.

"Ok, when can I get it?". Current plans schedule the release of BETA 4 for July 31st 2004! Be patient until then, and keep watching Friendtech's Xbox Homepage and here for updates!

Now for some technical information:
* You will need at least a 20GB hdd installed in your Xbox.
* You will need a raincoat flashable modchip/ TSOP with a 256K bank for this to work. (Xenium/ SmartXX will NOT work).
* MCE formats your F: drive COMPLETELY to a Linux recognisable format - it will no longer be FatX and you will no longer be able to backup games to it. If you have anything on F:, BACK IT UP FIRST! The decision to make it Linux Native was based on two factors, legality and speed. Native filesystems are faster than loopbacks and if you are using your Xbox legally, you have no need for F: to be accessible by your standard Xbox software.
* Gentoox will require 3.5-4.5GB of space on E: depending on whether you choose "Home" or "Pro" respectively.

Thats all for now. Please do not contact CyKiller or Friendtech regarding this project, all details will be posted later on their site. If you do have some urgent questions, feel free to contact me via this website.

*Update*
I've opened a new set of forums for MCE discussion. Just click the forum link on the left and scroll down!


I think it will be a failure because you need to upgrade your hdd to a 20gb and have a 3rd gen modchip to run it. Most people have xbox mods so they can backup games but you wont be able to do that with the media center so who would want it?

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ShALLaX

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2004, 11:45:00 PM »
Note the emphasis on "legal".  The whole point of this is to be a legal solution that can be freely distributed with new Xbox units or installed legally by users.  I dont care about all you warez kiddies who want to *cough* "backup" games.  As for the modchip issue... yes I will need to clean this up.  I'll probably make the BIOS flashing non-compulsary so that people can flash it by hand (in the case of the Xenium and SmartXX).

If you buy a Friendtech Bravo, it will come with an upgraded HDD, so thats not an issue.  

There are also many many possibilities since its built entirely around opensource architecture and MythTV is modular.

Its amusing how fast people are to respond to news, though ;)

This post has been edited by ShALLaX on Jul 28 2004, 07:08 AM
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Bwsk8

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2004, 12:02:00 AM »
You basically called the whole xbox-scene warez kiddies.
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ShALLaX

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2004, 12:06:00 AM »
Oh no(!)

This post has been edited by ShALLaX on Jul 28 2004, 07:12 AM
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gbazone

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2004, 12:19:00 AM »
Since when was this scene about being legal? Gentoox is very slow and looks like shit on a TV, XBMC rocks. I think these guys are wasting their time. Who the fuck wants to take up that much hard drive space for just the player? Who the fuck wants to boot gentoox every time they start their xbox? I had the latest version of Gentoox on my xbox and it couldnt even play my DVD rips without lagging.

Nothing against you ShALLaX...

This post has been edited by gbazone on Jul 28 2004, 07:22 AM
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cykiller

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2004, 11:32:00 PM »
For Bwsk8, your not understanding this here, Friendtech sells modified systems that improves quality and now are introducing the software with the system for commercial usage. Anyone with brains know a highly commercial company has to have everything LEGAL or it bring many problems.

For gbazone, take advice i gave Bwsk8 for legal issues. You've stated that you've had chppy dvd playback for gentoox but you haven't tried it on MCE so you don't know excactly what's going on. XBMC rocks as I know this also but MCE is powerful enough to actually Rip a full size dvd and stream a movie all at once on an retail xbox with no skipping. Gentoox is a little slower at it becuase it uses rootfs which is a partition inside of a partition but works fine. If you don't know what's going try to keep the bad mouth talk limited.

This software is intended for the Bravo system (733mhz P3 256K cache with 128MB ram) but works perfect (slower of course but) and is 100% stable.

CyKiller
muhaha.gif
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gbazone

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2004, 12:39:00 AM »
XBMC requires like 30mb of space, this will take a few gigs. Linux on Xbox is not practical.
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cykiller

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #7 on: July 27, 2004, 11:52:00 PM »
gbazone, this is why people have choice, if you choose not to use it just sit back and enjoy XBMC. Enough said then and have a nice day. Any other questions or random childish unmeaningful comments? I am not here to argue which is better and yada yada, just to announce and answer any questions the scene has.

CyKiller
muhaha.gif
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ShALLaX

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« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2004, 12:56:00 AM »
It takes up "a few gigs" because it uses the hdd as storage for your media.  For people who want to keep things legal and use their Xbox as a media center and PC, there is no other alternative.  XBMC doesnt have dvd ripping which can be run in the background whilst doing other things.  MCE is not part of Gentoox at all, so you dont have to boot up Gentoox and click icons to get it to work.  It runs perfectly on a stock Xbox with a modchip.

Also, XBMC doesnt have the facilities to be a PVR or to connect to a backend which records shows for you.  After some testing, the Xbox will be able to record tv shows on its own with a USB TV card.  Also with the addition of Gentoox being part of the package, you have things such as GAIM for instant messaging, which xbmc doesnt have.  Dont bad mouth it until you try it please.  If you're not willing to try it then you have no room to complain.

As CyKiller said, Friendtech have to keep things legal, they cant go around saying they support illegal software and they especially cant go around distributing it.

If you dont care about keeping things legal, then fine... thats a moral (or rather lack of) issue with you.  There are a lot of people like myself who would like to use the Xbox as a media center and PC replacement whilst keeping it legal.  If this product isnt for you, fine... but dont say theres no one out there that it would suit.  Ive said it with Gentoox and I'll say it with this.  Ill be happy even if I'm the only person that uses this software.

Thanks
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fff

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2004, 01:41:00 AM »
I'm not sure that MCE will be a success.
Why? of course it has the great advantage to be totally free but it requires huge space and you'll have to forget about the F drive...
Shallax, you say that it's not for people who dwl games, but excuse me, i've got some xbox games and i've back them up on my HD. Without the F drive, i would have lost one of my games since a dvd a broken.
In fact, i think that MCE is designed for people wanting a low cost computer. For people wanting to keep playing games on their Xbox, it's xbmc.
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cykiller

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2004, 12:59:00 AM »
QUOTE (fff @ Jul 28 2004, 03:41 AM)
In fact, i think that MCE is designed for people wanting a low cost computer. For people wanting to keep playing games on their Xbox, it's xbmc.

Finally we have someone with a positive state of mind but a little revision needs to be noted. For one that is great that you are using the F: for backing up your titles but I must ask and excuse me for being impolite. How excactly are you backing up your games if your xbox dvd-rom is broken or are you simply using warez?? Come on man be honest to this situation, there should be NO way you are backing up your games if your dvd-rom is not working. You are not talking to ametures here my friend, but i like your idea of trying to cover yourself. Read the title under my name to the left there my friend, it shouldn't be X-S hacker but legend (hint Xantium) but enough of being full of myself (joking, humor is always good).

Hmm, now to cover that quote, you have a nice idea of what a user has and that is simply choice. We are not saying "hey choose MCE over XBMC", as Shallax and I has stated before this software was made for FRIENDTECH SYSTEMS AS A MEDIA CENTER AND GAMING SYSTEM LEGALLY. We are not here to challange XBMC\XBMP as the idea as introducing this legal media center was actually given to me from an hierarchial XBMC member (dev). It is all about helping eachother in the scene to keep it a community not a challange war. We have accomplished a lot in the past month (only 1month in development) and have come a long way and still aren't finished.

CyKiller
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ShALLaX

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« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2004, 02:14:00 AM »
Yep, ill wager you used xbmc/ evox to backup the game which are illegal.  But I agree, this software is more for people who want to play games they have bought (i.e. they have the original DVD) and want to use their Xbox as a media center and PC.  There is no illegal bios included that will allow users to boot backed up games.  

In the UK, there is no "fair use" clause to allow users to have backups of games, so providing this as a feature would mean Friendtech could not export to the UK.
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FastShow

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« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2004, 03:12:00 AM »
Wow, how can people bitch so much about something that's being provided completely free of charge!?  I think the whole project sounds like a great idea - we all know much of the populous of Xbox-Scene has a different take on what's 'legal' to do and what isn't - but an entire legal media centre, for free, how can that be anything except a great thing?

Good luck with the project guys, I've very much looking forward to seeing it in action.
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clown88

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Friendtech Media Center
« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2004, 03:19:00 AM »
This sounds great. Although I don't like losing my F drive. My Dvd drive IS broken, but I luckily had backed up all my games first.
(When I originally started modded my xbox it was so I could backup Halo. My disc was scratched and The Maw wouldn't load.)

I really like the DVR idea though.
Maybe I'll buy a laptop drive so I can switch them.
In that case, is there any way to have 1 full partition covering the drive?
Also, whats with the 256k TSOP? I'm running a 512k switch mod, so where does that leave me?


As for the piracy/fatx arguement. I think its sad that MS must jerk everyone around. I sat there with my mouth open for a good minute when I found a linux tute on the official PS site.
Its a pain in the arse that linux doesn't run natively on Fatx, I paid $388 dollors for my xbox, and in my opinion that price included the filesystem.
But the bottom line for all you haters is, if you don't like it, code it yourself.
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Cosworth

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« Reply #14 on: July 28, 2004, 03:44:00 AM »
I find the "legal" discussion somewhat moot as dvd-ripping and cd-ripping is forbidden in many countries. I'm assuming MCE includes some basic DeCSS feature for DVD's and similar for CD's. UK has been mentioned (Even modchips are illegal in the UK now), but basically the same goes for the rest of the EU. ANY software/hardware that circumvents a copy protection scheme is illegal.
While that law is silly if implemented to the full extent, it IS the law.

"Legal" is not a synonym for "ethical".
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