[RichA]

Hi all,

I love having music on my PC. It's a fantastic luxury, but it can be a bit cumbersome and I lose out on a fair bit of usable storage. What I'm thinking of doing is converting a second-hand Xbox into a cheap audio server. I'm pretty good with PC hardware, so I'd have little problem modifying the system so that fan noise wasn't an issue. A 160gb hard drive can be had for under £50 these days, and will store a hell of a lot of MPC audio, and a fair amount of lossless. So for convenience, the Xbox should be ideal.

However, I can't find any real information on here from anyone else who has done this. Is there a particular reason why, or are you all happy enough to have everything kept on your computer?

I've seen concerns about the audio-quality of the Xbox - which bothers me somewhat. But after looking at these forums, I've seen that people are using USB DACs these days, to good effect. The Xbox has 4 USB ports on it, with a non-standard style plug - they are used for controllers, remote controls, etc. I don't think it would be too hard to convert them to usable USB sockets.

So, does anyone have any comments on the plan? Yes, I am using the term 'plan' rather loosely!

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the subject, as I'm quite surprised this hasn't been mentioned on here more often. I was looking at using the XBMC to control it - anyone with any experience of it? I've no problem with converting the machine to a dedicated Linux box, and having it boot into a custom frontend, if it'll suit my needs better. But the XBMC looks good to me - I'd like to be able to hook the Xbox up to my TV and watch movies on it...

Cheers!

--Rich

 

[Magsy]

I doubt you'll make a USB dac work with XBMC and I'm pretty sure the Xbox resamples everything to 48khz too.

It has a Nividia Soundstorm sound card built in so it is not that bad via the digital out.

To make it higher end I think you need to look towards getting Linux on it, with a USB dac.

XMBC rocks btw, the only thing I use on my Xbox for the last two years!

 

[RichA]

I've no objection to doing it from scratch, and having a Linux distro on it. I just want to make sure the sound quality is decent enough - it's mostly a convenience thing, but I'd like to ensure it gives a pleasant sound too!

If the onboard sound isn't too hot, maybe I'd be better looking at building one from a PC? I've got enough bits lying around to start from scratch, only needing a hard drive and decent sound card. Hmm... maybe I'll look into that instead. I'd prefer to go with the Xbox though - it's smaller and will likely be a cheaper prospect, and I wouldn't really need to worry too much about housing it in a case.

Meh...

--Rich