How Do You Watch Your Dramas

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 4:22 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Christaluvdrama,

I hope I made it clear that for an Xbox to work like I use it it must be modded. A standard Xbox will only play regular DVDs (with a DVD remote) and audio CDs. To play a burned DVD with media files like .avis, .mkv and .rmvb the Xbox must be modded and have media player software installed. Modding an Xbox involves buying a chip, soldering it properly to the board, reflashing the bios (most tricky part for most people) and installing software to the reformated hard drive. Many people(myself included) stick in a bigger hard drive while they are at it. Sometimes you can find people to hire that do the mod for you(I am not making a sales pitch, I could not do the soldering myself, I had a friend help with much of the work) but the chips seem to run from like 20 to 50 dollars. All the software is free, but can be a little tricky to find.

Real media files can be a concern when it comes to using a modded Xbox the latest version of Xbox Media Center will run .rm and .rmvb files and will run them with .srt softsubs as well. I have however had mixed luck with the playback being choppy. Also, the files are prone to lock up if you fast forward, rewind, or skip around. We are watching Magicians of Love with few problems, but the Smiling Pasta files I have are pretty much unwatchable. However, I solved that by using a program named ffmpegX to turn the Smiling Pasta files from .rm to .avi which I found out how to do here on these forums.

I hope that makes the usefullness (or not) of an Xbox clear for you.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 4:32 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I watch this way

I have a DVD Divx Player (LG9913N with Xypro alternative firmware)
with this DivX player, I can watch almost all dramas
it also read subtitles (srt, and ssa), so i watch kdramas with srt subs.

To watch h264 files, i'm thinking in do this:

buy a 15m cable, to plug my PC on TV
what is showing on monitor, will be show at my TV

I save all of my files in DVD-Rs
they're cheap and confiable
a have amost 300 DVD-R Big Smile

o/

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 4:50 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I am actually scared to count my DVD-R collection. I cannot see not backing up all the shows. I never know when a friend might want to see something or I might feel nostolgic.Plus, it makes more sense to go ahead a grab a show when the torrent is young and healthy then to wait until I am ready to watch the show. Often I check out one episode to see if I am interested than collect the rest of the series to the end before watching. We like to watch in marathon sessions. If I did not use DVDs I would never have enough space. 220 gigs of DVD=9.99. 220 gig hard drive=significantly more than 9.99. At least I finally got them sorted by anime and live action and name. I think there is around 500.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:16 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

for the ones asking about USB drive to PS2, no mod is needed. a media player disc is needed tho. i know that gameshark will allow media to be played via USB drive.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:22 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

@releanoyed

yeah i got what u said. I'm not sure I want to do that now tho. I think I rather find other alternatives

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:24 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 6:24 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Christaluvsdrama,

Obviously I don't know what bruno payed but the Divx playing LG DVD player I bought my brother was $100 on sale for $80 in January. I found it at Best Buy and have seen Divx capable DVD players at most stores like that (i.e Circuit City, Rex, etc). I found it was easier to first look for upscaling DVD players as they are usually grouped together and thencheck the boxes to see if they are also Divx capable. Upscaling isn't necessary for Divx playback, but upscaling DVD players are considered the fancier DVD players by the general consumer market right now (not counting HD players) and I have never seen a DVD with Divx feaures that was not also an upscaler. As always in electronics retail, never expect the sales people to have a clue, just read the boxes and check models online.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 7:21 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

@releanoyed

Thx so much Smile

I'm going to best buy tommorow for RAM so I'll check that out. I'll check online for models first, because thats so true about sales ppl in electronics not knowing anything. It pisses me off when I go in best buy and ask about software or be it anything and they have freaking computer to check in there face and they still don't know how to help me.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:03 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Speaking of Xboxes, when I first heard about the new feature they were adding to the 360, being able to stream video files from a connected PC, I was excited because I thought I'd be able to watch my dramas through it. When it finally come out, it was a disappointment to see it only supported WMV files. That's Micro$oft for you.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:17 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I went to town and built a full on media PC to watch dorama and anime via component HD on my 53" tv.

dual core pentium
oodles of ram
256 meg HD video card
passive liquid cooling
and a slick black metal component case that looks good in the stereo cabinet

All that and over 2K spent and I find out that I can do the same thing for 200 with an old modded XBox Big Smile

So I did the XBox thing too, it works quite nicely. But streaming media via wireless G to the media server is way more elegant.

Both setups are good, the main deciding factor is budget.. The dorama is enjoyable either way

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:20 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

On my bed watching the comp screen ;P

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:13 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

On computer, Cowon or TV (with my Cowon) : That depends where I am.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:04 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Vulcan300,

Nice setup, I'm curious as to what software solution you are using for your media center pc. How stable is it? How easy to use? (Particularly for a casual user, as in those not able to built the PC themselves. A lot of my friends are at the websurf and email level. Just explaining torrents usually takes several sessions before they can find and download them on their own properly.) are there any media center pc software solutions you would avoid? Being a full on Mac head surrounded by PC users has left me real short of advice in this area.

Ked,

Sweet littles players. I had not heard of Cowon until you posted but they look really cool. I'd definately consider picking up a Cowon D2 if I had some money to throw around. Disability retirement sucks. Would you recommend the Cowon media players?

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:57 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:31 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I watch straight off the pc via a vga cable hooked up to the back of my 27" widescreen LCD TV, screen res 1280*720, sound is by optical cable to a big 5.1 surround amp.
I have tried using my dvd player as it will play the dvix files and the srt, but the quality is better off the pc (the graphics card is optimised for media/video rather than 3D for games). I still use the dvd player for DVD discs as it plays them better than the PC

for those that like tech details my set up is:
Cambridge Audio azur 540R AV receiver
Cambridge Audio DVD86 DVD player
Phiilips media center PC MCP 9350i - K-lite codec pack installed, watching with media center classic (better quality and more stable - i have used media center but it is just a front end for media player and uses more resources and so can give choppy playback.)
Tannoy surround speakers and sub woofer
Logik 27" widescreen LCD TV
PS2

pc hooked up to tv via vga port, dvd and ps2 hooked up via amp with componant cables
all audio by optical cable

also have a big stereo amp and speakers hooked up to the pc for playing my music through