I never did post an update on the story with my Mini-ITX. Mostly because I’m a moron. It turns out I got the wrong motherboard completely, and the onboard video card really sucks at playing any kind of video. Basically I had to forcibly degrade the quality, play only at 320×240, and not use XV and even then the a/v sync was off and it had a lovely purple hue to the display. Needless to say, that’s not exactly gonna work as a myth frontend.
I’m not quite up to the task of dropping down $500 for a better mini, so the idea of using an Xbox as a mythfrontend has surfaced once again. I would jump at the idea, but there’s a few things I’m worried about. The big one is that I don’t want to have to do any hardware mods if I don’t have to. That might be worked around, but my other problem is this — how do you know which “revision” of the Xbox to buy?
The Xbox-Linux Wiki has this big fat version 1.6 warning about why not to buy one (I’m convinced) but doesn’t mention how to know which one is which. How do you recognize that stuff?
So, I’m pretty clueless, and at the same time not sure if modding an Xbox is the way to go or if its even worth all the effort. I’d prefer some custom hardware, but having a quiet little black box as my PVR would be kinda cool. 🙂
There’s no real way to tell, at all. Any model that you buy new will be a 1.6, period, no exceptions.
However, that’s really not a problem. All that this prevents is softmodding, not hardmodding. I can personally recommend that you buy a Team Xecuter X3 mod chip ($40 or so). They have detailed instructions[1], and they also work flawlessly.
[1]: http://www.team-xecuter.com/x3/tutorials/x3pin16.htm?CMSSESSID=4ef103f1872622026e6a9df9ed164d9b