HD on the Xbox port of XBMC

There was a discussion on Lifehacker about the end of life for XBMC on Xbox support this past friday, and a discussion was raised about HD on your XBMC enabled Xbox.

I for one want to make the most use out of my HDTV without having to spend a lot on a PC that just does media playing. There's cheaper ways, and having a softmodded Xbox also provides disk-less gaming, whether it's actual Xbox games, or emulators from past consoles. Last summer, I was poking around eBay and saw auctions for component cables for the original Xbox. I knew nothing about the capabilities of the Xbox, as I had a generation gap from the Dreamcast until I played a PS3.. Been out of the loop! I saw that some games were HD capable.

How this relates to XBMC: I started seeing things about how Xbox can't handle HD movies, and I know in it's raw form it cannot. Hell, you need a semi-decent machine (plus VLC) to handle a raw MKV Blu-Ray rip. So my first thought was, how then do I convert my *obtained* rips to a format that will work good on the Xbox? I found out about Handbrake, and continued to Google along trying to find the best settings. Here's my older blog post relating to this. In short, you crop off the 1280 width to 960, while keeping the height the same. You also knock the target file size to 3/4 of the original. Less data to send, but the video quality stays virtually untouched. Be sure 2-Pass encoding is also selected! Obviously I had no clue at first, and now it's still a little trial and error, but it's generally relating to the audio stream and passing it through to the receiver.

The cables on board:

I purchased Psyclone's Component cables for the Xbox, which also features a Optical out. This runs directly to my 5.1 capable stereo receiver. I also kept the Audio RCAs plugged into the TV so that I could still have audio if the Toslink was being used by the HD cable box (only one optical input)

Picture settings:

I kept the TV in frame for a few pictures to prove the concept here. I'm also running an Xbox-Optimized Confluence theme which was missing from the Xbox ports. That and other Xbox friendly HD-ish themes can be found here. As you can see, once the cables are plugged in, you should be able to go into the Unleash X dash and change your resolution, as well as in XBMC. 1080i is NOT recommended, as it does not seem to play nice with the RAM. Notice my TV says the output is 720p.

What are your thoughts? Yes, it's not TRUE HD. As in, not what a Blu-Ray can do. But this is darned near close to it. Think of it as the Xbox friendly skins are, but for your video files. Everything still outputs at 720p, plus I get 5.1 surround! These video files have been tested on both a wired connection and wirelessly via an Airport Express. It can be done via wireless just fine, but I always recommend a wired connection.

DD-WRT, we meet again...

Long time no blog eh? It's been busy since graduation has kicked in, but only lately have I had a ton of work to do. Most notably, I've done a revamp on my whole server setup. The old media server that has been on this blog for a long time has been re-purposed into a Hackintosh. This still has some bugs to fix, but I'll explain it in a later post when I finally get everything worked out.

This morning, I woke up to the equivalent of a nuclear holocaust on my network. Everything was down, nothing was connecting to nowhere. Eventually, I tracked it down to my old Buffalo router which I've had running for 3 years with DD-WRT. I gave it a hard reset, and it seemed to do, but it seemed like there was still something not right.. I updated it from v24 to v24 SP2, and it was nice to upgrade it but I was still missing my WDS with the ASUS router I have in the basement.

Then I googled upon this: http://ftp.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=315423&sid=cc6c26062a9e0dec854c9f3ad42bfc26 and the solution at the bottom pointed exactly to what I had going on. I was using WPA2 Mixed Personal, but it seems there's a bit of a connection issue with that and WDS. Once I changed the settings on both routers to WPA Personal, they saw each other again, and all is well in the world... mostly.

I also now need to etch in stone some static addresses, namely for my Server and Desktop!

Obsessed with USB

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/get_your_hack_on?page=0,1

I was browsing Lifehacker today and found an inspiring article. I'm going to totally make a few USB accessories ASAP. Progress to follow

Upcoming Projects

I may not have things to post all the time, but stay tuned.. In about 2 weeks, I'll be moving back to school for one more semester, and the apartment will be a media heaven by the time I get done with it :-D

Also, I'm currently trying out the MobileNavigator iPhone app, and comparing it to xGPS. So far it has some ups, but there are still some small things that xGPS does better. I'll have my final thoughts real soon.

Trying to conquer the stream!

After getting my music library all sorted out, I've now moved on to fixing my movies to have them all stream smoothly and of the best quality possible. I recently acquired some component cables for my X(bmc)box and the quality is AMAZING! So now, how to carry that HD-ish quality over the network without the choppy-ness I've been accustomed to dealing with so far?

Obviously I can accomplish this with the ever popular Handbrake. If you don't have this software installed you're missing out. So far, I've been a retard when it comes to encoding videos properly. I've never taken the time to sort it all out and put two and two together, until now.

Best forum post I could find was this: HandBrake • View topic - XBMC on Xbox: optimal HB settings to convert 720p x264 mkv?

Most of my HD quality videos start off as .mkv (Matroska) files. While it's a great format for high quality movies, it's a bitch for Xbmc to decode. Hell, anything besides an avi is chancy ;-) I've started to take notice of which encoding to use, and what seems to work best is Xvid/MPEG-4, with a slightly dialed down resolution from the 720p standard. Mix in the audio right (for those pesky DTS audio codecs, use the mp3 to at least salvage 2ch stereo, otherwise use AC3) and voila! In some cases, Xvid was still sloppy, so I tried FFmpeg. I'm giving the Xvid another shot with the dialed down resolution and see if there's still chop. I can't fast forward on the FFmpeg videos!

Your mileage may vary, but I am enjoying Transformers and other 720p/1080i movies on my Xbox currently :-D

Fixing the Notes app on the iPhone

When I upgraded my iPhone to 2.2.1, I did a full restore on my phone. I backed up everything and wiped the phone clean. Man, it was fast! Check out this link to keep your iPhone in top shape:

How to have a blazing fast jailbroken phone

Anyways.. after I did this, my phone was indeed fast. However, all my notes that I had in the Notes app was un-editable. In fact, I couldn't create any new notes, or delete the current notes. 2 weeks later, I finally get time to fix the issue. Here's how you fix it: (Thanks to the MMI forums)

SSH into your iphone go to /private/var/mobile/Library and change the owner to the Notes directory and it's files:

Open up terminal in WinSCP, and type:
chown -R mobile Notes

and test if you can save or modify any note.

PS2 Softmod.. Whew what a mindblower!

So 2 months ago roughly, I acuired an Xbox and a PS2 off my cousin-in-law Billy while my father and I were up in Detroit. Both were in decent shape, and the first thing was do XBMC with the Xbox. That has been a killer softmod, and the guys and I love it here at the apartment for movies.

http://ashholt.googlepages.com/ps2softmod

It's only been until recently that I went through with softmodding the PS2. I bought an 80GB Maxtor which is the recommended HD to use for the Network adapter. This weekend I did some research, and with limited places to look, I ended up with an OLD school Gameshark 2 to use as the swap disc initiator. After much researching, it seems that there was only certain USB drives that could work to swap data from the USB to Mem Card. Without the data on the Mem Card, nothing will work.

After much consultation with my work buddy Josh, we found a burnable install disc (Here:http://blog.e-tutorial.info/2008/10/how-to-install-ps2-memory-card-exploit.html) that would work with the Gameshark to get the data onto the Mem Card. Everything went through, and now we can harness the power of the 80GB HD and HDLoader!

Follow what both guides have done, the only variance is the cheat system you use (Codebreaker, Action Replay Max, Gameshark, etc)

Use a PS1 game that you never use! The game will have to stay in as the trigger if you run the PS2

Been a month or so, but I has updates!!

First bit of info is only this... It's amazing how much difference it makes when you un-kink a coaxial cable:
from 200KB/s to 1.1MB/s like it was when we first moved in. Can't belive I didn't notice it until now.

Second thing.. I recently started fresh on a new hard drive and found out that transferring all the program data over to the new HD isn't all that hard, but the trickiest thing was iTunes and my iPhone. Make sure you have program folders and your documents and settings folders backed up!! I never realized how many things are located in application data.. especially iTunes. Windows Address Book saved me after I realized my contacts were wiped from my phone. Location of your contacts from there are: C:/Documents and Settings/[username]/Application Data/Microsoft/Address Book. You'll see your .wab file there and all you need to do is import!

App Update Issues with iPhone (argh!!!)

So for the past month, I've been experiencing issues whenever I had an App update with certain apps on my iPhone. It would not update and give me an iTunes error code 0xE800002E and told me it could not update the app. After much digging and searching and finding numerous answers that DIDNT work, I stumbled upon 2 people's posts about the exact issue and here's a fix for everyone who has had this issue for a while:

The iPhone 2.1 does fix a few things that users have been asking about (except for copy and paste, of course), but one thing it does not fix is the annoying “0xE80002E” problem, where you cannot install an update of an application to your iPhone. This is getting fairly annoying as it now happens to me just about every time I download new updates. After searching other websites and playing around myself, I have come up with a “solution” that works for me. Your milage may vary.

1. Download updates
2. Sync iPhone
3. Dismiss error message
4. Click the “Applications” tab and choose “Selected Applications:”
5. Uncheck the apps that are giving you update problems. iTunes will confirm that you wish to delete these from your iPhone.
6. Resync your iPhone. The apps will have been deleted.
7. Re-check the apps in the “Applications” tab
8. Resync your iPhone yet again

Your apps (in their updated state) should now be once again on your iPhone, and all error messages should be gone. The only downsides to this method is that it takes a long time, and it deletes any saved settings and content from the app. But at least your app will be updated and there will be no error messages.

Thanks Derrick!! www.derrickgoodfriend.com

Lazyness part 2

I was able to finish up most of the big tasks at hand yesterday, and here's the results:
Did some machining of the plow's arm, took off some much needed ounces. The bolts on the plow will be replaced with some grade 8 bolts before the event starts. Also some last minute reinforcement will happen.

Here's a almost done look at the bot:

The quest for sheer laziness!

I knew for a while that the Franklin Institute event was coming up, but after the PN regional I kinda fell into that lazy slump that I always do before robot events.. So now here we are a week out from the event, and I'm NOW just starting to build for it. The original plan was to have a 12lb, 30lb, and my 1lb bots ready for the event, but like most of my plans, was overshot by a friggin mile. So here's my progress so far... ONE ROBOT

The 12lb bot is based off my really old 1lb robot Conceptual Chaos, aptly named SUPER Conceptual Chaos. Best part about this robot is the amount of stuff I am reusing. Total, I think I've spent $15 on actual materials from McMaster and that's about it. Yes, it's only a pushy bot, but the "Concept" is that it's a big wheeled robot with a tiny wedge/plow. It's at least not a box with a wedge.

To start off, this is the actual chassis. There really isn't much to it. It's probably 4"x7". I've gone with steel just cause it's faster to make a chassis, and there's no machining to be done (aka mill). I found what steel I had left, and found that the only 3/8" tubing I had was on a similar older 12lber of mine. (For those on the bot forums, it was Pitchfork) So that got hacked apart.
Here's a mock-up of the whole chassis assembly. Kiddie car GBs with some slightly older motors I bought from All Electronics eeons ago.
I ran into a snafu when putting the "bearing blocks" in place. I had some tack welds on the inside of the chassis that I couldn't remove, so parts had to be hacked out but it ended up fitting in. I still had a ton of thread inserts to use, so the bearing blocks got them to help keep the screws connected well.
Motor mounts installed.
Tires and ALF hubs installed, still need to do the outsides tomorrow.
Here's what's left to put on.. 1/2" bar of 6061 Alu (I probably will pocket it a little..) and a scrap piece of 1/8" Ti that wasn't used on a never finished 120lb bot from 3 years ago. Actually, funny side note, the whole plate that the piece was off of was from Jackrabbit (ya know, that speedy thing that fought at Battlebots?)

Okay okay, back on track.. I'll try to bend the sides tomorrow with a torch and a ton of prayers, but I doubt itl work. I'll put a little block of aluminum behind the wedge to keep others at bay too. Everything checks out to around 12lbs, so I should be okay!

PwnageTool = Epic FAIL

Looks like iTunes 8 is starting to crack down on using IPSW rebuilds and DFU restores to Jailbreak. Hooray QuickPwn! I am eagerly awaiting how soon it will take to pwn the 2.1 Firmware coming out tomorrow..

I haven't been updating this as much, but I plan on getting back into the swing of things once this weekend passes by. I've been busy settling back in at school. I've got 3 bot build reports to do for you guys when I get to them. Franklin Institute is a month away!!

Addendum to discount

15% Discount on my iPhone bill :-D Yes, this works as long as you have a valid school ID!

Possible 15% discount on my cell bill?

http://www.appleiphoneapps.com/2008/07/how-to-save-15-on-your-monthly-iphone-3g-att-bill/

Check this out. I signed up for it, and I'm awaiting confirmation. I'm still enrolled at my college, so I'm hoping for a slight discount! :)

Your Mileage May Vary

Giving In To A Higher "Power"

So last week I had the computer idling, when all of a sudden the screen went blank and never came back.. I thought windows had halted on the sleep mode, but I was totally wrong. There was power still coming to the board and fans. Really weird. After spending half a night figuring out what was wrong, I ended up giving into a higher power. I've become acquaintences with the guys at Computer Wizards, and I had them do a diagnostic to figure out what exactly was the culprit.

Turns out the power supply is dead on the 12v side.. ugh.. That's TWO power supplies killed in TWO years. Wonder if I can get warranty? :) Either way I'm not going back to an Antec.. *shudders* The guys at Computer Wizards suggested Seasonic power supplies, and I checked it out on Newegg and elsewhere. Definitely great reviews, and a 5 year warranty. 5 freakin years! Also they do have a modular design which will help with cleaner wiring and only using the cables I need. I'll bite the bullet for the price that it is. Just need 30ish amps on the 12v rail =)

I should be back up Monday, and hopefully for a LONG time.

iPhone 3G baby!

Simply put, I wanted this phone since I heard they were doing a 3G version. I waited in line for 5 hours (5:30AM until 10:15) and got the 4th to last phone that the local ATT store had.
Okay, side story here... Take a look at the tool on the left in the white hat. This guy was trying to get a phone for him and his wife whom both had plans with ATT. Now, the wife couldn't be in line (1 phone per person), so he asked the associates before they opened up at 8 if he could bring his son in line to vouch as an "authorized user" for the 2nd phone. They agreed to it. NOW.. the kicker.. A friend of theirs drops the 2 year old off in his stroller, and they wait in line. Some of the guys immediately behind him were giving him heat for pulling some shenanigans with this, and rightfully so considering we were getting the last few phones. We get inside, and while I'm ahead waiting for the next rep, they tell the guy that they can only sell him one because the kid came AFTER they opened at 8, which essentially counts as gipping in line! The dude obviously flips out, and gives a dramatic speech about having his son out in the heat and telling them they lied to him.. it was priceless. This nerdy dude was complaining the entire morning about them being tight lipped, "lying" to him about what was left in the store, etc. He got what he deserved.

*end rant*

Anyways, I know have this beast of a phone, and I must say I am impressed, but there is some room for improvement.

Pros:

• WiFi RULES on this phone. Lightning fast speeds, instant streaming of music.
• GPS RULES on this phone. The locator is fast, and nearly dead-on.
• Free Apps and Web Apps work really well! All the ones I have tried out so far really do make use of the phone well.
• The camera is definitely a step up from my CU500. The quality of picture is smoother.
• Built in features are nice, plus the headphone jack is perfect for my car.

Cons:

• Mostly smaller quirks, but the firmware is a little weird at times. Almost like random actions. I'll unlock the phone from sleep and it goes straight to contacts. Safari randomly closes too.
• Programs stopping when you hit the home button. Lame
• Battery life, but that was already a known fact.
• The accelerometer is very picky. Sometimes it's instantaneous in flipping sideways, other times it takes a few for it to kick over.
• Bluetooth compatibility. I can't use my HT820 Stereo Headphones! The stock earbuds are a little loose for me, but I can deal with it for now. Looks like I need to get a regular pair of headphones again. Ugh.
  

Overall, it's small things that I can deal with, but this phone is capable of way more things that I need around. It is worth the investment.

Improving the 1lber

A few weeks ago, I stopped by my friend Jim's in South Philly to catch up on things and also to work on my 1lb bot "Absolutely Naut VDD".
The bot took the worst beating it has in 2 years at Motorama. As you can see, after the teardown was done, there was more damage I didn't see. The aluminum support on this side was tweaked... 1/4" aluminum.. TWEAKED! Ugh. In any case, Jim and myself did some machining to improve the only weak part left on the bot: The weapon supports.
Here's one of the rails we did. More meat in the center, switching to a dead shaft for strength. We also changed over from timing belts to round belts.
All that's left to do is get needle bearings for the pulleys, and buy some roll pins to hold everything together. I also need to rework the frame, as I think it's time to get away from carbon fiber rod. It's strong, but the joints are the weakest spot on the frame. Come Moto, this will probably be Naut's last hurrah in its illustrious 4 year run. Hopefully finishing in the top 3 for the 3rd year in a row.

Rob from the rich, and give to the poor!

So I just found out my Sceptre's ATSC/QAM tuner can pick up un-encrypted cable signals.. Hahaha this rules!

At home, we don't have a cable box, but we do have analog cable. Looks like they don't protect a ton of channels in the area here ;-)

UPDATE: So, I really do get a ton of channels!

• 25+ Extra Digital channels (HD, 420i) with totally better resolution than Analog cable, Dolby Digital
• Most of the Music Channels, Dolby Digital
• Only 5 HD Channels tho.. signal gets weak after channel 113 on the tuner. TRUE 720p HD with 5.1 surround!! Incredibly sick!!

I won't complain for free, but I wish I got G4 and MORE HD channels! :-p

Out with the old, in with the new!

So after looking to mess around with the Mini PC's motherboard (spreading the heatsink to help dissipate heat) it appears I've killed the board. It boots up, but gives no display :( Oh well. I have no use for the intel d201gly2 for a while now anyways...

But on the bright side, I did pick up a PSP on a trade for my RC18T. The PSP comes with custom firmware. Dark Alex's 3.40 OE-A to be exact. It's a nifty CFW with an easy recovery menu. It took me a little, but I got the hang of it. I've got World Tour Soccer on a standalone .iso and it runs great!

Only downside to it is that it is a redundant system for me... The web browser has a nice proof of concept but sucks for streaming media. Good for quick browsing on the go. It will most likely end up being traded in when I go for the PS3, but we'll see. It's fun to experiment with considering you can essentially brick the system and recover it... every time!

The new TV!

Last week I got myself a new toy :-D Newegg.com - SCEPTRE 32" 16:9 8ms 720p LCD HDTV X32BV-Naga+

For the $550 price tag (and free shipping when I got it..) you get an LCD tv that uses OEM components, and can support 1080i! After toying around with it for several days, I can say that running my main PC from DVI to HDMI is the sickest thing I've seen... Playing CoD4 on there is AMAZING.. the framerate stays near 60FPS at the TV's native resolution! (1360x768p). Also it smokes away my mini-pc in terms of video performance on DVD. Until I get a PS3, this will definitely suffice for my DVD player.