I know I keep harping on about XBMC but given that Xbox’s can be picked up so cheaply on eBay now there is no cheaper way to build a fully-functional media center. Here are some screenshots of my setup in response to chall5’s request for screenshots of my setup and also to hopefully encourage other people.The first image below shows how I’ve organised the files on my PC. It looks complicated, but I decided this approach was the best way to store files across my 4 HDDs (2×250GB, 1×200GB and 1×400GB).

My 250GB drives are my two fastest (Samsung Spinpoint P120S SATAII). The first one contains my C,D and R drives and the second my E and S drives.

I try to keep my C: Boot Drive quite slim as I usually back it up, although for some reason it has grown to 22GB so I need to delete some junk. My D Drive is on one of my fastest disks so this is where I keep my music which gets accessed a lot and also where Windows Media Center stores it’s Recorded TV.

The E, F and G drives are just to hold movies. I split the 400GB drive into 2×200GB partitions (F and G) to try and make it a bit quicker. The H drive is my slowest as it was originally in one of my Xboxs so it’s an IDE drive. Because of this I try to only keep TV shows on this drive which aren’t massive files - about 200-300MB on average, but recently I’ve had to move some movies onto this drive.

In My Network Places you can see both of my Xboxs. I’m lucky that I have modded my Xboxs with Xenium chips which have a SMB client built in so I can access the drives on the Xboxs (both 8GB) within My Computer without having to resort to FTP.

The next shot shows how I’ve filed all my stuff. Basically, because the the Xboxs are part of my home network all I need to do is to share folders within windows for the Xboxs to see them.

So my setup is as follows - all files stored on one PC running Windows XP MCE, accessible via both Xboxs and my Xbox 360 (via MCE although I can’t watch my DVDs this way and playing DivXs is a bit fiddley) through my Netgear WPN824 router. Here’s a photo of everything hooked up taken with my Nokia 6680:

My cabling needs a bit of tidying up but I’ve only just got everything connected just the way I want it, so that’s a job for the weekend.

You can just about make out my router on top of the cabinet on the left. Both of the Xbox’s are connected by wired connections. My PC which is in another room used to be connected wirelessly, but I found streaming content to the second Xbox in my bedroom which is connected wirelessly was too unreliable for watching a film or TV - even at 54g. So, my PC is now connected by a wired connection and you can see the trunking at the base of the cabinet, which also carries the cable TV signal for the set-top box connected to the PC. I think I would have had to have done this eventually anyway as I don’t even having one wired device in the loop running at 54g will allow me to stream HD content. Yes, you can get faster routers and mine is actually 108Mbps but unfortunately you can’t matching adaptors for consoles.

Both my Xbox and my Xbox 360 are connected to my Panasonic SAXR70 Home Theatre Receiver via Component Video, which I picked up about 3 weeks ago along with some some Tannoy 5.1 EFX speakers. I went for the Panasonic SAXR70 as it got rave reviews but mainly because it was half of the price of any other receiver with two digital audio inputs which means I get Dolby Digital 5.1 from both Xboxs, and also it’s one of the few receivers with an HDMI input which means I will be able to hookup my Telewest TVDrive when it arrives next month. The whole set-up along with the new 42 Inch Hitachi HD Plasma has cost more than some people earn in a month, but finally I’ve got the Home Theatre system I’ve always dreamed off (well almost!) and I can’t wait for the summer to watch the World Cup in HD!

Ok, now for the XBMC screenshots. Click on any image for a bigger picture.

XBMC Homepage with ‘My Videos’ highlighted:

My Videos Homepage showing the shared folders on my PC I’d added to this category:

Sub-folders within ‘TV Shows’. All navigation is done with a remote or the controller:

Watching Roots Full-Screen, which was a present from a very dear friend:

Watching Roots in the preview window which allows me to navigate while still watching a film or listening to a tune:

Watching Roots in the bigger preview window on the homepage:

Selecting another DVD while still watching Roots:

Selected The Incredibles. I love the way XBMC adds all the extra info about the movie including a thumbnail semi-automatically:

Watching The Incredibles. Great movie, I was laughing just taking screenshots. Another great gift from the same friend. I’ve pulled up the on-screen menu on this one which allows me to change audio streams, aspects, audio etc:

Ok, now for music. XBMC can see shared folders as above but what is even cooler is it can play your iTunes playlists. In the screenshot below ‘iTunes’ links to the folder on my PC where all my music is stored and ‘Playlists’ links to my iTunes playlists:

Browsing by Artist:

Selected Alicia Keys. XBMC can find the artwork itself, but it’s too hard to edit if it picks the wrong one. That’s one of the reasons I’ve put so much effort into tidying up my music collection so that all the work is already done for any other devices that access my library. Took me about 2 weeks but it was worth it.

Finally some screenshots of the visualisations that can be displayed while music is playing. I think these are great, but you really need to see them in action to really appreciate them:

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