McLaren-related content, on your TV

[F1 monster]

Along these lines, I recently got a plasma screen TV, and I would love to be able to use it to watch McLaren-related stuff. I have a lot of stuff on my PC, so I have been burning VCDs and DVDs, and watching them by popping in the CDs into my DVD player. When I am not using my Xbox, that is!

This works, but is a bit convoluted and annoying. I would prefer to be able to connect to my PC directly. I dont feel like stringing a VGA cable from my PC and switching my PC's output between my monitor and my plasma TV. A wireless video transmitter could do the trick, but it would be expensive and require switching, and since I have a dual monitor setup, I would probably run into problems. Also, I wouldn't be able to control or change anything unless I went to the PC and used the keyboard and mouse.

So...I just had a crazy idea--there's an X-box hack/mod that lets it run Linux, and then it can act as a media server. One of my projects in the very near future will be to mod my Xbox and then wirelessly network it to my home network so it can access the pictures, videos, and music on my PC, and then it can play them on my TV. This is not as hard as it sounds--I have a friennd who's done it already, so it's just a matter of buying him lunch.

I actually intend to watch a lot more of my family pictures then McLaren-related stuff, but I will document it so that you can all do similar things to get your PC stuff showing on your TV, if interested.

Here's a useful link for the networking part:
http://www.computingunplugged.com/i...0001038001.html

You could of course just get another PC, network it wirelessly, and hook it up to the TV, but again, apart from the expense, you'd need to get a wireless keyboard and mouse to control it, and it would need to be hidden nicely. I hate clutter, so I think it's better to have the Xbox control gaming and media PC functions, if possible.

[theflinger]

Definitely a cool thing to do. I've seen many that work.

Be warned that some hacks can 1) damage if you fuck up 2) be seen and silently handled without warning or consent by microsoft during XBOX live

I can dig up the article about 2) if you like, at some point.

[F1 monster]

Yeah, aware of the danger. Would appreciate a link to your info, though. Many thanks.

[theflinger]

Quick google reveals MS had a patch that prevents you from playing illegally begotten games multiplayerly. So this doesn't apply to you


http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/index.php might be a good place to start