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Some explanation:
GentooX is a version of Linux that can be installed and run on a modified XBox. MythTV is an open source Linux project which turns a Linux PC into a free PVR provided you have a video capture card, etc in the PC..
As refurbished XBoxes can be had for around $119.00 from various sources, this makes for one really cheap PVR. Or, it sounds like soon Friendtech will be offering modified complete XBox PVRs using MythTV at http://www.friendtech.com, probably for slightly more that you would pay to install the mod chip, drive and software yourself. The really cool part is that these media centers that they are saying are being developed will have all of the benefits of a modified XBox too. They will run Linux applications and games, or some windows equivalents using Wine, or emulators and homebrew software developed for the XBox, or XBox games. I have an XBox that I modified myself with an Xecuter2 2.3B+ Pro chip (soldered it myself and all), I have an unmodified XBox which I use to connect to XBox Live as Microsoft has employed a mechanism that detects if an XBox has been modified and denies modded XBox service with XBox Live. They have said that they really don't care that the XBox was modified so much as they care that everyone playing on the XBox Live service have equal systems so that play is not unfair for the people using non-modified systems. I also have a Friendtech DreamX-733 which I use solely for media storage and retrieval and Internet streaming using the XBox media center. Personally, I couldn't be happier with the thing and I liked it so much that I ordered an upgrade kit for the non-Friendtech XBox that I modified myself and it is now further modified and has 128M of RAM (instead of the usual 64M) and a 250G hard drive in it.
The only gotcha that you have to look out for if you intend to modify an XBox yourself, is when you buy the XBox, it is better to get refurbished in order to make sure that you get a version 1.0 to version 1.5 motherboard based XBox. I have hear that the newer 1.6 motherboard based XBoxes have changed a lot of the circuitry on the motherboard and thus is harder to modify (actually, I think there are people still working on it.) Refurbished XBoxes are the way to go at this point for modding. If you are artistic, there is tons of information available on painting XBoxes and XBox jewels and lighting them up with LEDs and such.
Anyway I think that this is a fairly interesting development for the PVR world. I doubt that XBoxes will replace my TIVOs anytime soon, but they can enhance my overall PVR experience and even provide me with more PVR storage and the ability to archive what I store to DVD if I so choose.
BIll T.
-------------------------------------------
Here is some news quoted from http://www.xbox-scene.com:
Friendtech Media Center (MCE) screenshots available
>> From ShALLaX on http://gentoox.shallax.com:
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A picture says a thousand words... so imaging what a whole forum post of them says! Also a video has been released demonstrating how MCE can cope with DVD ripping whilst playing back a pre-ripped movie! Check it out here.
All images captured and hosted by Kris of xboxrepairguide.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(July 29 13:36 GMT+1) - (direct link to article)
(Posted by:: XanTium)
Announcing a new project... Friendtech Media Center
>> From ShALLaX on http://gentoox.shallax.com/:
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!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(July 28 05:40 GMT+1) - (direct link to article)
(Posted by:: XanTium)
GentooX is a version of Linux that can be installed and run on a modified XBox. MythTV is an open source Linux project which turns a Linux PC into a free PVR provided you have a video capture card, etc in the PC..
As refurbished XBoxes can be had for around $119.00 from various sources, this makes for one really cheap PVR. Or, it sounds like soon Friendtech will be offering modified complete XBox PVRs using MythTV at http://www.friendtech.com, probably for slightly more that you would pay to install the mod chip, drive and software yourself. The really cool part is that these media centers that they are saying are being developed will have all of the benefits of a modified XBox too. They will run Linux applications and games, or some windows equivalents using Wine, or emulators and homebrew software developed for the XBox, or XBox games. I have an XBox that I modified myself with an Xecuter2 2.3B+ Pro chip (soldered it myself and all), I have an unmodified XBox which I use to connect to XBox Live as Microsoft has employed a mechanism that detects if an XBox has been modified and denies modded XBox service with XBox Live. They have said that they really don't care that the XBox was modified so much as they care that everyone playing on the XBox Live service have equal systems so that play is not unfair for the people using non-modified systems. I also have a Friendtech DreamX-733 which I use solely for media storage and retrieval and Internet streaming using the XBox media center. Personally, I couldn't be happier with the thing and I liked it so much that I ordered an upgrade kit for the non-Friendtech XBox that I modified myself and it is now further modified and has 128M of RAM (instead of the usual 64M) and a 250G hard drive in it.
The only gotcha that you have to look out for if you intend to modify an XBox yourself, is when you buy the XBox, it is better to get refurbished in order to make sure that you get a version 1.0 to version 1.5 motherboard based XBox. I have hear that the newer 1.6 motherboard based XBoxes have changed a lot of the circuitry on the motherboard and thus is harder to modify (actually, I think there are people still working on it.) Refurbished XBoxes are the way to go at this point for modding. If you are artistic, there is tons of information available on painting XBoxes and XBox jewels and lighting them up with LEDs and such.
Anyway I think that this is a fairly interesting development for the PVR world. I doubt that XBoxes will replace my TIVOs anytime soon, but they can enhance my overall PVR experience and even provide me with more PVR storage and the ability to archive what I store to DVD if I so choose.
BIll T.
-------------------------------------------
Here is some news quoted from http://www.xbox-scene.com:
Friendtech Media Center (MCE) screenshots available
>> From ShALLaX on http://gentoox.shallax.com:
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A picture says a thousand words... so imaging what a whole forum post of them says! Also a video has been released demonstrating how MCE can cope with DVD ripping whilst playing back a pre-ripped movie! Check it out here.
All images captured and hosted by Kris of xboxrepairguide.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(July 29 13:36 GMT+1) - (direct link to article)
(Posted by:: XanTium)
Announcing a new project... Friendtech Media Center
>> From ShALLaX on http://gentoox.shallax.com/:
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!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(July 28 05:40 GMT+1) - (direct link to article)
(Posted by:: XanTium)
10 Replies
·
3967 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Cutting Edge
I created this thread on the original Edgecutter Cutting Edge Forums site. It's simply a place for those to review the latest software available for those using Windows 10 and Windows 11. To date it has received 112,559 views. I have been asked by staff to continue this thread here.
521 Replies
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47179 views
To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.
For niche use cases, yes I agree. Kali for ethical hacking and security testing, and running a Cacti server for network monitoring are the two things I have experience in. Plus thousands and thousands of other things, but for every day use I just can't see it. The owner of the GMRS repeater that I pay to access is changing the Tx DPL tones tomorrow, while Chirp is available on Linux, the software to program my MXT500 is not.To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.
I run Fedora and Ubuntu in VMWare, honestly I don't care much for the UI of either of them and I don't feel like spending days/weeks to customize the UI to make it look Windows-like when I could just use Windows. The cartoonish dock at the bottom of the screen reminds me of Apple products.
As I said above, and, FWIW, I run Win11 Pro and Arch on separate 250 GB NVME drives, using F8 to select which I boot to, with a 1TB SSD for storage, accessible to both OSs and a third formatted Nvme I want to use to learn Kali. It was much faster to setup Arch than it was to strip down Windows. Windows still takes much longer to boot.
For some reason, the satelliteguys.us site is loading a lot slower than usual on both Chrome on my Asus laptop and Safari on my iPhone.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
527 Replies
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17905 views
Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat. 
WTF… …What the Foxbat!Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat.
S
wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming youWTF… …What the Foxbat!
I know. Here's what Scott has in store for me if I get out of line:wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming you
Help, I'm a little confjused on the activation process.
I purchased the Joey 4 from Solid Signal and shipping box has Call 866 726-4282 to Avtivate new Receiver. That number is Solid Signals number.
I googled and that search said call Dish to activate. I assume that is correct unless this requires a 2 step process.
Please let me know.
Thanks
I purchased the Joey 4 from Solid Signal and shipping box has Call 866 726-4282 to Avtivate new Receiver. That number is Solid Signals number.
I googled and that search said call Dish to activate. I assume that is correct unless this requires a 2 step process.
Please let me know.
Thanks
6 Replies
·
190 views
All good called Dish and new Joey 4 is activated and working.
Old Joey 2 deactivated and no need to return.
Old Joey 2 deactivated and no need to return.
S
i bought mine straight from dish as it was only $ 100.00 bucks!!! had the protection plan they came out removed and deactivated the 4k joey and activated and installed the joey 4.All good called Dish and new Joey 4 is activated and working.
Old Joey 2 deactivated and no need to return.
Supporting Founder
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Apple has finally released their Apple TV 4K with built-in Siri and a microphone so it can respond to your queries even if you don't have the remote. It also increases in price, to $299. I had been planning on updating my current Apple TV 4K streamers, but that's $600 for the two of them, and that's a pass at this point.
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
Apple TV 4K
Apple TV 4K. New Siri AI and hands-free control. Stunning picture and immersive HomePod surround sound. Works with your Apple and smart home devices.
www.apple.com
14 Replies
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173 views
S
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
they all do that anyways.. ever notice your cell phone slows down when you come up for an upgrade..
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
The new curated multiview is now live.
While on many of the sports channels and non sports channels there is a multi view option button. It will pull up a side bar with many different multi view options.
While on many of the sports channels and non sports channels there is a multi view option button. It will pull up a side bar with many different multi view options.
3 Replies
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157 views
Supporting Founder
Really excited for this season with Kentucky having a new coach and some really exciting recruits. Probably won't last long, but here's hoping this season is great.
141 Replies
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1346 views
Supporting Founder
Lifetime Supporter
This thread is a place to discuss the 4K events that appear on channel 540. We are getting, at this point, one college football game a week. Let's hope there is more coming.
1931 Replies
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298850 views
Hmmm, I'm not seeing anything like those events in our Hopper 3 guide for tonight or Saturday.
I went into the Tools menu and requested a Guide Update. I'll try looking at it after the update completes.
edit — I now have the 148-01 4KFox events for Saturday, but not anything for 148-02 or 148-03 which don't even show as available channels. I do have 148-04 4KUSA.
As I recall you have the Flex package. Do you sub to multisport? -02 is FS1 and -03 is ESPN. -01 is Fox so you would get that if you sub to locals.Hmmm, I'm not seeing anything like those events in our Hopper 3 guide for tonight or Saturday.
I went into the Tools menu and requested a Guide Update. I'll try looking at it after the update completes.
edit — I now have the 148-01 4KFox events for Saturday, but not anything for 148-02 or 148-03 which don't even show as available channels. I do have 148-04 4KUSA.
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87N42NxLPC0
Direct YouTube Link - 8 U.S. States Sue OpenAI Over Safety Concerns With Younger Users
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87N42NxLPC0
Direct YouTube Link - 8 U.S. States Sue OpenAI Over Safety Concerns With Younger Users
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
·
10 views
Pub Member / Supporter
On Tuesday, I recorded the first episodes of the new season's NCIS shows on CBS (Dish provided, not OTA). The new New York series and Origins will both do Auto Skip, but the original, now season 24 does not. What's stranger, when I do a search for NCIS, Origins and New York show the current recording and the next episode it will record, but the original show only shows the current recording and some other channel showing the very first episode of season one. It makes no sense. When I set up the timers, I was able to use search for Origins and New York, but for the original, I had to scroll ahead in the guide until last Tuesday when the show was airing. Then set the timer from there. You can see its timer type is DVR where the other two are Seek. What am I missing?
Thanks!
Thanks!
20 Replies
·
390 views
