X3 Dashboard Selection

[slick_j_2002]

Hey, everyone. Just got my X3 installed last night, and it's running beautifully.


I was previously using Evox3951 (on a Xenium ICE chip), but it just feels too boring now that I've got this great chip installed. I'd also tried MediaXMenu, but found it awkward and really slow-loading.


I'm scoping out Avalaunch now, and it seems pretty tight, but I was wondering if there were any dashes out there that were better-suited to the X3. Any that utilized X3 features (like the XLCD which should be arriving soon).


Also, semi-related, are there any dashes that let you play music in the background or even autoplay movie files in the background or a corner of the screen? Apparently MXM allows you to do this, but I couldn't figure it out...

 

[psilocybe]

avalaunch and xbmc will probably only be the ones to implement direct x3 support

 

[inkspoof]

I've got avalaunch running and it's working really nice. I also like XBMC... I just discovered the movie trailer feature and that's particularly awesome I have to say.

 

[slick_j_2002]

Yeah, I'm toying with Avalaunch's settings now. Seems pretty nifty, only I can't seem to find where to change the download directories. Example: I want to keep all my apps on the G drive, but when you download a program from Avalaunch, it puts it on the E drive. I've hunted through the xml file, but don't see anything about changing default directory. Is this something I'm just going to have to live with, or am I just missing something here?


I like XBMC, but I don't think much of it as a dashboard. For dashboards, I like to have all my games and apps easily accessible, and XBMC has so much hunting. Every time you open "Movies" you have to go and hunt down your movie folder... I guess I haven't tried going through the config file for XBMC, though, so maybe this is changeable.


Also, I have 56k, so I doubt I'll be checking out those movie trailers any time soon, but I agree that it's a cool feature.

 

[Jzor]

I think XBMC makes a great dash.

To play games you only have to go to "My Programs".

If you don't want to hunt for your music and movies you just have to edit the config and add a shortcut to your share or to the proper directory on your drive.

 

[mitpat]

Unleashx is a pretty awesome dashboard as well though im not sure about the LCD features

 

[Undisclosedpower]

Also, semi-related, are there any dashes that let you play music in the background or even autoplay movie files in the background or a corner of the screen? Apparently MXM allows you to do this, but I couldn't figure it out...

Avalaunch can play music in the background, either from your ms ripped stuff, from an mp3 folder on your hard drive or from shoutcast internet radio. If you want movies to play you need to use xbmc (theres a python script somewhere that will start a movie playing when xbmc is started) or MXM which only supports that xmv thing (as far as i can remeber).

As for lcd support. XMBC and avalaunch already have options for it.

 

[Neravine]

Questions on Ban and functionality loss

I have an old BenQ that is modded with the last version of ixtreme that came out before LT.

I used to be incredibly careful about never playing backups online, etc, but at some point I got lazy and stopped being so careful. I played a few games while connected to live (but not online) and at one point accidentally played a backup on live. I never upgraded to LT because I stopped connecting to live with it a while ago, and when that huge ban wave a while back hit (the one where they decided the firmware was being detected or something) I was too scared to go back on live with it (because I heard it disabled hd installs and media extension -- both of which I use frequently) and so I havent been on live since.

Fast forward and I was trying to play a divx file from a flash drive on the xbox and it told me to connect to live to get the codec. Now I have no way of knowing whether my box is banned or not, but I dont want to go on live and find out it is if this will still disable my hdd installs and media player.

I heard a while back though MS released some other patch or something which restores these functions? Is this true?

If I log into live and turns out I was flagged and my box gets banned, will I lose the ability to install and media extender?

Should I upgrade to LT before going on live?

Thanks

 

[phantsam]

Re: Questions on Ban and functionality loss

I would definitely upgrade to LT before even trying to go online.

Also, note that it doesn't matter what you play on Xbox Live, if your drive is modded, they detect the mod in most cases (think Ban Waves), whereas only a small portion of people are banned because they use unstealthed discs.

I'm not sure about the patch, but you do have to get on Xbox Live to download the divx files. It's a real pain sometimes, as I've had issues with it as well. They do have updates you can do via USB, but I'm 99.9% sure the divx one isn't one of them.

 

[xvanwilderx]

Re: Questions on Ban and functionality loss

If your console has been banned, updating to LT won't save you. Microsoft has released an update that enables HDD installs on banned consoles but your profile data will still get corrupted if you try to connect to XBL or install a system update.

If your console is banned you will receive an error when trying to request a repair on the Xbox website.

 

[bubble-tea]

Re: Questions on Ban and functionality loss

You can always play it safe and pull the HD before you try to connect to live. If all else fails and your console gets banned, jump on eBay and get an arcade console to replace it with.

Seriously, I have an arcade console with HDMI out and two controllers showing up today, and with shipping it cost me $95.

 

[Neravine]

Re: Questions on Ban and functionality loss

If your console has been banned, updating to LT won't save you. Microsoft has released an update that enables HDD installs on banned consoles but your profile data will still get corrupted if you try to connect to XBL or install a system update.

If your console is banned you will receive an error when trying to request a repair on the Xbox website.

Thanks for the tip. They re-enabled hdd installs (via update? How do you get the update if you're banned from live?) but how about the media extender functionality? will that be nuked still?

Thanks for the tip about the way to check on the website though

 

[Neravine]

Re: Questions on Ban and functionality loss

So i went to the xbox site and registered my console and did "request repair"

I got all the way up to the point where it wants me to tell them my problem -- i canceled out because I dont have an acutal problem but it said "success! your console is warrantied for this until 2011"

Does this mean I'm safe to update to LT and connect to live to patch?

 

[bubble-tea]

Re: Questions on Ban and functionality loss

So i went to the xbox site and registered my console and did "request repair"

I got all the way up to the point where it wants me to tell them my problem -- i canceled out because I dont have an acutal problem but it said "success! your console is warrantied for this until 2011"

Does this mean I'm safe to update to LT and connect to live to patch?

Likely, yes.