I would rather not say who I am referring to here, but I have knowledge of a Microsoft XBOX with a mod chip installed on it, and loaded with the XBMC, XBox Media Center software. The Xbox is able to see a windows server on a home network (or any pc on the network for that matter) and all the shared drives. It can play nearly every type of media tested. It has a really slick interface and when used with wireless joysticks it makes a really nice addition to your A/V system. The system I experienced was using the Component break out cable which produces RGB component video and analog audio. The system was hooked up to a 50" plasma display capable of HD.
When an DVD rip or HD TV capture was played on the system, it was nearly indistinguishable from HD shows coming over the cable box.
The cost on the used Xbox was $50, the mod chip was $60. It has no built in copy protection or rights management. It will play DVD movies and play all xbox games as well (pirated or not). It will play iso images of games and dvd's over the network !
Although I cant really say who has this system, I would highly reccomend it. The user of the system can create and maintain an iTunes library on a 300GB network drive and the xbox can see the drive and play the songs instantly after being added to iTunes.
Your thoughts on this system ?
