External hdd to tv for watching amv's:)

lister007 · Post by **lister007** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:24 pm

Hi basically what the title said, I have all my amv's on an external hdd and I'm looking for the cheapest way to play them from the hdd to the tv. I don't want to connect it via the laptop. I don't want to burn them to dvd first. I have looked into media centre, with build in hdd which is the cheapest and most efficient I can find so far. Like this sort of thing http://www.amazon.co.uk/ATMT-HV355-DIRE ... B000GTQJ78
is there a better and easier way? Remember it will have to handle mp4 like xvid and I guess even wmv, anything that occurs on this site, any extra formats would be a bonus. Think a cable of some kind is out. Heard there is a phillips media thing where you can transmit wirelssly from the pc to the tv, is that any good?. Cheers for your help on this one guys!!!!!

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:51 pm

Well, there's always building a media center from mostly discarded, donated, or cheaply purchased components and a decent enough video card.

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:49 pm

You can modify an Xbox to act as a media center as well, however it's support for more high demand codecs like h.264 is limited due to it's 733mhz Pentium 3 CPU and reliance on mostly open source decoding software.

I recently even modified an Xbox to run Debian Linux and use VideoLAN to be a streaming video set top box.

lister007 · Post by **lister007** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:04 pm

Is it possible to pm or email me with how to do that, xboxs are prettty cheap these days sounds like a good solution!

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:07 pm

I would suggest you just google for 'Xbox Media Center'.

It runs natively on the Xbox's own operating system and would be much more efficent than running Linux on it, since it's a lot closer to the bone.

As for modding the Xbox, you can do it without even opening it up, I had to buy a $40 'Action Replay' memory card writer to do it however.

Joe88 · Post by **Joe88** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:36 pm

dont you need to buy slinter cell or some other game also to do the softmod ?

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:44 pm

Yes, my 'Xbox Shopping List' included finding the original release of Splinter cell $6.99 used at a EB games, an Action Replay for $39.99 from Zellers and $90 for an Xbox from a pawn shop a friend works at.

However you can mod the Xbox without the AR if you have a friend with a standard memory card and a modded Xbox himself. The AR is just needed to copy files downloaded from the net from the PC to the memory card to the Xbox. It's good if you're being all 'Do it yourself'.

...Of if you're like me and had no idea what the hell you were doing at first and had to rewrite the memory card like 10 times... :/

lister007 · Post by **lister007** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:52 am

can I do this with a ps2?

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 1:46 pm

AFAIK Sony produced a 'PS2 Linux' kit bit it's out of production or something and it's little 300mhz CPU probably wouldn't be much use.

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:41 am

DJ_Izumi wrote:AFAIK Sony produced a 'PS2 Linux' kit bit it's out of production or something and it's little 300mhz CPU probably wouldn't be much use.

From http://playstation2-linux.com/

My First Build of MPlayer For PS2
PlayStation Applications - beter_hans - 2006-Oct-29 10:27
Yo~
here's a very early build. CLI MODE Only.
you can play MP3 WMA etc.. with any bitrate.
and its also with AVI MPEG DIVX XVID ..etc support. but don't try it.
the PS2 system is too slow for it

There is always the PS3 - runs Linux, fairly powerful, but expensive. You could get a Mac Mini or a similar Windows PC knock-off (AOpen Mini PC) for about the same price. These solutions are about double the price of the item lister007 linked to, but they are fully functioning machines that are able to do much more than just play video and audio.

Then there is Apple TV.