Xbmc Tutorial For Xbox

[sh3p]

Well I have had a lot of help, and learnt a lot on this forum so I thought I’d give a little back by making a little tutorial on xbmc, with a few files to make it a little more special.

Note:- This is based on my own xbox set up, this requires a modified xbox. This may or may not work on a soft mod xbox, I have a chip using evox bios. All care but no responsibility is taken. These are all software based changes, if you stuff it up and have a mod chip a simple boot disc and FTP will fix the problem.

Soft modded owners beware.

Where to get XBMC?

A bit like my dirty washing basket, XBMC is a living thing with more stuff getting added to it every few days. The best “builds” to download are the clean CVS versions that can be found on a FTP server.

If you don’t have an FTP program here is a link to a free one:-

FREE FTP APPLICATION

*EDIT - Part post deleted at poster's request.*

The file on this server will be updated every time an official update comes out.

So Now I’ve downloaded it what do I do?

Unzip the file to a folder ( I store all of mine in an XBOX main folder).

You will see a main XBMC folder, if you click on it you will see the directory structure of XMBC, which ( depending on the version) will have the following kind of folders:-

Credits

Language

Media

Screensavers

Scripts

skin

sounds

system

UserData

Visualizations

Web

And it will have the following files:-

Default.xbe <- This is the application executable

FileZilla Server.xml

XboxMediaCentre.xml <- This hold all the settings and folder paths.

You now need to put these files on you modified xbox. I will assume you will know how to FTP into your xbox. Basically type your IP address of your box in your FTP program with the Username:- xbox and the Password:- xbox

This will show you a C,D,E,F drive etc. Most installers will use the following drives for:-

C:- Original Dashboard ( like a windows Operating System), and Moddified Dashboard

D:- DVD drive

E:- Applications

F:- Main Storage location for Media

From here you have two option you can install XBMC as an application to be launched from your dashboard ( Evox or Avalaunch, Unleashed etc) or for use in your car, and what I recommend you can replace your dashboard with xbmc, this will mean that when you boot your xbox it will load xbmc straight away.

Have a look in your C:\ folder, most xbox’s will have a evoxdash.xbe file.

When your modified xbox is turned on without a DVD in the drive it will look for an

executable file to load, if you are using a modchip with an EVOX bios ( most common) it will look for the evoxdash.xbe file and launch your modded menu.

If it does have an evoxdash.xbe file do the following:-

1. Go to the E:\ drive of your xbox, ands then to the E:\apps drive

2. If you have an old copy of xbmc delete the folder. If not step 3

( a few files may not delete this is fine you can overwrite them later)

2.1 Navigate to E:\apps\Udata and delete the folder 0face008

2.2 Navigate to E:\apps\Udata and delete the folder 0face008

3.FTP your XBMC folder that you downloaded to the E:\apps location so as to result with a E:\apps\XBMC folder. ( this may take up to 10 mins to FTP)

4. Now find the XBMC folder on your computer and make a copy the default.xbe file

Rename this file to evoxdash.xbe

5. Now you have to edit the XboxMediaCenter.xml on your computer.

Do this by opening the file in notepad.

You will see the first few lines look like this:-

“

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<xboxmediacenter>

<!-- When using XBMC as dashboard, define home directory here !-->

<!-- and move the XBMC xbe plus this xml config file to C:\ !-->

<!-- Example: <home>E:\Apps\XBMC\</home> !-->

<home>-</home>

“

Change the <home>-</home> line to <home>E:\Apps\XBMC\</home>

Save the changes and close the file.

5. In the FTP program go to the C:\ drive, and copy from your PC the newly created

evoxdash.xbe file and the XboxMediaCenter.xml file to your xbox c:\ drive.

6. Reboot your xbox.. Done.

Ok so my XBOX boots to XBMC now what?

I would suggest downloading a PC application called

Sango Tool, this is a easy point and click way of mapping folders to your XBMC menus

For example your Video Clips maybe on your F:\Media\MusicVideos folder

So now in the Videos menu in XBMC you can have an entry called Music Videos that points to that location etc…

Sango Tool Download

That was easy, now what?

Well how about we make it look a bit more “Blue Oval”?

When the xbox boots it will load this image instead of the XBMC image

<div class='bbimg'>

</div>

remember to save as “splash.png” feel free to edit it.. maybe with your screen name?

This file needs to replace E:\apps\XBMC\media\splash.png FTP and overwrite it with your own.

That looks sweet! Anything else?

So you jump in your car and your turn on the car, perhaps your xbox boots automatically? It launches to xbmc..now what? How about a file that will look for you music video folder and start playing a random selection with out you having to touch a thing!!

1. Download:-

This script

2. Extract the file, You will see a folder called StartupVideoDir and inside it a file called startup_video. Open this file in notepad. Make any required changes in Configuration.

I do not use playlists, so this file is set to search F:\Media\MusicVideos and play a random selection. Close and save the file if needed.

3. Open notepad and paste the below text

# auto execute scripts when xbmc starts, place this file in xbmchome\scripts\

# note: - do not execute more than one script at a time which asks for user input!

# import xbmc

xbmc.executescript('q:\\scripts\\StartupVideoDir\\startup_video.py')

**Save text file as autoexec.py**

4. FTP back into xbox and copy the subfolder StartupVideoDir and the autoexec.py file you made to E:\apps\xbmc\scripts.

5.Reboot the xbox…All done!

Hope this helps, if you have any questions or get into a Jam yell out!

[Goobz]

Awesome guide!

Thanks mate!

Chris

[Goobz]

Ok so my XBOX boots to XBMC now what?

I would suggest downloading a PC application called

Sango Tool, this is a easy point and click way of mapping folders to your XBMC menus

For example your Video Clips maybe on your F:\Media\MusicVideos folder

So now in the Videos menu in XBMC you can have an entry called Music Videos that points to that location etc…

Sango Tool Download

←

Does that program come in english?

Everytime I try to install it it gets jammed half way and the program won't load.

Am I doing something wrong?

[mattyc]

You should be carefull giving out the username/password for xbmc download.

There are serious legality issues to the site (because it uses the Microsoft XBOX compiler).

[XR06T]

anyone know where I can get xbmc from?

[SCRIBR]

bit torrent?

[XR06T]

will have a look.. cheers

[Guest]

This all sound very cool but how come no one is able to change the lay out or the opening screen on the premium sound unit or the lay out of the audio interface set up.

Our cars have been around for years now so who would be able to mod the lay outs.