There is currently this big to-do over that fact that the AppleTV user can now watch YouTube videos on the device. It’s cool and all, but for the information of those users who are not aware, or are looking to purchase a device that plays videos on their TV, look no further than an old XBOX…
For $120USD or less if you already have one kicking around, you can do a soft-mod to your XBOX (XBOX Scene has instructions) and then install XBOX Media Center (check for the latest torrents) and turn your XBOX into the BEST media center device for your TV. Buying a high definition pack gives you excellent resolution and picture on an HDTV even. I currently run mine on a 50″ HDTV with excellent video quality.
The built-in scripts in XBMC allow for viewing a wide range of streaming audio and video from the Internet, in many different formats and qualities. One of the scripts that has been included in XBMC for the better part of a year now includes watching all the latest YouTube videos live from the Internet. Hell, it’s worth having an XBOX on your TV just for the content that you can watch via the online scripts! Everything from porn to food recipe browser scripts are available for download. Check out this site for more perusal of many more scripts to give you a flavor of what is out there.
You may even consider running a computer file server in your house (if you don’t already) and serve up your own content (ripped or downloaded) to your XBOX at your leisure. The interface is so simple that even my wife can figure it out and she’s not a tech savvy person. This really makes an excellent fat client based video network for your house. With an xbox remote and being stealth with your location of the Xbox, you can amaze friends with your state of the art video distribution system within your home!
Now, lets combine this with a web based torrenting box that automatically gets the TV show torrents that you want to watch and have them automatically downloaded to your file server on a regular schedule and you’re set…
Oh - and happy viewing!


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