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Sure we're all clamoring to get our hands on the latest entertainment
system. That DVD Player that allows you to play DivX movies, or the latest
bit of hardware that allows you to stream media from the Internet. But you
probably didn't know that if you already have an Xbox console - you can do a
whole lot more than just play Xbox games with it. With an Xbox Mod Chip
and open source / freely available software, you can turn your Xbox into a DVD
player that plays DivX, Avi, Xvid (and other types) of movies, as well as MP3
music and JPeg Picture viewing. All for a $25.00 investment! |
When the first Xbox Mod Chip hit the market, it was nothing more
than a quick way to play your import Xbox games (as well as your
DVD-R backup Xbox Games!) While it was not easy to install, it
certainly enabled gamers to play those hot Japanese games that would
never see the light on this side of the ocean. As the Xbox
aged, so did the Xbox mod chips. With new generations of mod
chips coming out about 6 months, there was a clear trend towards the
mod chip becoming the "brains" of the xbox console. Now in the
5th or 6th generation, Xbox mod chips have come a long way since the
very first 33+ wire Enigmah chips.
Even Xbox owners not interested in import Xbox games should be
interested in getting an Xbox mod chip. With the Xbox Media
Center software (freely available online) you can turn your Xbox
into a fully running and functioning media center. You can
watch the latest DVD movies, DivX, Xvid, AVI files and more.
If you're a music buff, you can use the media center to play all of
your MP3 songs either from DVD-R or from the built in hard drive.
About the only thing you can't do is record your favorite shows onto
the Xbox hard drive, but pretty much everything else goes. And
you sure can't beat the price of this Media Center. Xbox
consoles are selling for about $200.00 so you can be up and running
with a full blown media center for about $225.00 including the Xbox
mod chip. Even a very low priced PC can't touch that price...
To get a PC powerful enough, you'd be looking at about $699.00 to
run the Windows Media Center edition.
With the development of Xbox mod chips having progressed to where
they're at now - you don't have to spend $60 - $70 on a mod chip
(though you can if you want to)... You need no more than the Duo X3
Xbox chip in order to power up your Xbox console. At only
$24.75 and installation that takes no more than 20 - 30 minutes, you
won't have to worry about it cutting into your bank account.
So just how does all of this work? It's simple really.
You buy the Mod Chip for the Xbox and install it. Once you've
installed it, you can download freely available install discs for
the Xbox Media Center that not only include the media center but
also a slew of other software too. Once you install the
software, your Xbox is ready to go. Just pop in your latest
DivX movie or DVD movie and start watching. And if you want to
play older classic games, the install disc also includes the latest
versions of about 10 different classic console emulators so you can
start playing right away. MP3 music is just as easy, just pop
in your favorite MP3 disc and start listening with the built in MP3
player.
But the BEST part is, the streaming content you can stream right
from the Internet as longs as you've got your Xbox connected to the
'net via a network cable or a router. You can actually watch
streaming TV channels freely available online and watch them on your
TV set with your Xbox. Even Internet radio stations can be
directly streamed from the net to your Xbox / TV Set up. We
regularly check out Google Videos using the Xbox in the office.
There are hundreds of plugs ins for the Media Center that allow you
to essentially do almost anything you want as far as entertainment
goes.
To sum it all up, you don't need anything other than an Xbox
console and a low priced Xbox Mod Chip to turn your Xbox into much
more than just a simple video game system. You'll have years
of entertainment all in one cool, sleek, powerful Xbox. |
