Remember XBMC? It’s Back!

The original Xbox was different from the consoles that had gone before, in that its hardware shared much with a PC of the day. It was found to be hackable, and one of the most successful projects to take advantage of it was a media centre. You know it as Kodi, but its previous name was XBMC, for Xbox Media Centre. The last version that still ran on an original Xbox saw the light of day in 2016, so it’s definitely a surprise that a new version has appeared.

XBMC version 4.0 brings a host of new features to the venerable platform, including the Estuary user interface that will be familiar to users of more recent Kodi versions, a better games library, and more. The plugin system has been revamped too, and while it retains the Python 2 version from back in the day it’s promised that a Python 3 update is in the works. That’s right, it sounds as though there will be more releases. Get them from the GitHub repository.

We’re not sure how many of you have early Xbox hardware along with the inclination to use it as a media centre, after all Kodi runs so well on a lot of very accessible hardware. But we’re impressed that the developers of this release have managed so much within the confines of a machine with a 2000s-era spec, and have released it at all.

If you’re curious about Xbox hacking, take a look at some of its early history.

Bare Metal Media Centre

Sometimes, along comes a build that is simple and bare, and yet exemplifies “hacking” – an art form that uses something in a way in which it was not originally intended. We’ve featured a few Raspberry Pi builds, but this one is less about the Pi and more about putting the rest of the hardware nicely together. [Garage Tech] built this Raspberry-Pi Stand and the end result is brilliant.

MediaPlayerSide-6-5-4It is nothing more than a metal book holder – the kind you are likely to pick up a pair for a few bucks at a charity shop or flea market. He was lucky to also snag a JBL On Stage IIIP Speaker Dock for cheap. Quickly spotting an opportunity, he decided to put together an OpenELEC based media centre using his bounty. Having made up his mind, he needed a couple of other parts to make sure this build looked, and sounded, good. An iQuadio Pi DAC+ , the Pi-DAC+ case from ModMyPi which comes with all the necessary hardware, and the official DSI touch screen.

With all of the stuff on hand, the rest of the build involved a short time at the workbench drilling some holes and slots in the aluminium book holder plate to mount the Pi-DAC case and the display. He drilled the holes and slots such that he can fix the display on either side. Along the way, he discovered an interesting issue regarding the display orientation – check it out. The final result is a nice looking media centre that sits proudly on top of his audio rig.