However the XBMC is an excellent choice as a front-end, the XBOX itself is a limitation factor to todays standards. It doesnt have an HDMI 1.3 output, and HD movies can not be decoded due to low-CPU spec. However, if you dont watch HD movies it is still a very good option. XBMC has an excellent interface, support of filetypes and protocols such as SAMBA (Windows-Sharing)/FTP/UPnP/Shoutcast. Even if it doesnt play native HD movies, it can still upscale DVD’s/movies to 1080i without issues.
Currently one of the the better HD streaming players i can find is called the Popcorn Hour (http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/). Despite its name, this is one of the most advanced streaming clients on the market today (and quiete rated by videophiles). Nice feautures like: Bonjour, UPnP, DLNA, WM Connect, WMP (NSS), NFS, FTP, HTTP servers, Bittorrent Client.. next to this it also supports a number of cool webservices like:
YouTube, Google Video, MetaCafe, VideoCast, DL.TV, Cranky Geeks, iPodcast, Radiobox, ABC News, Flickr, Picasa, Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Traffic alerts, Yahoo! Stock, Cinecast, Traffic Conditions,Peer-to-peer TV : SayaTV, Shoutcast. These webservices can be accessed directly from your TV/remote :P.
Media files support on this box is truly massive..
* Video containers:
o MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)
o MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG)
o MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)
o VOB
o AVI, ASF, WMV
o Matroska (MKV)
o MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4
* Video codecs:
o XVID SD/HD
o MPEG-1
o MPEG-2
+ MP@HL
o MPEG-4.2
+ ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
o WMV9
+ MP@HL
o H.264
+ BP@L3
+ [email protected]
+ [email protected]
+ [email protected]
o VC-1
+ MP@HL
+ AP@L3
* Audio containers:
o AAC, M4A
o MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
o WAV
o WMA
* Audio codecs:
o WMA, WMA Pro
o AAC
o MP1, MP2, MP3
o LPCM
* Audio pass through : DTS, AC3
* Photo formats : JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF
* Other formats: ISO, IFO
* Subtitle formats : SRT, SMI, SUB, SSA
DRM
* Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)
Cheers,
Tony