How the Original XBOX started a Media Player revolution - The Story of KODI | MVG

[@pablonaranjo]

XBMC was years ahead. It was truly the peak of homebrew for the OG Xbox.

[@MoonOvIce]

It was years ahead of media playback from the living room in general, it's basically the predecessor of today's streaming world.

[@fffrrraannkk]

@@MoonOvIce I still remember the moment I realized I could stream music from my pc to xbmc. It blew my 2005 mind and would show it off to people who came over.

[@vicchopin]

I wholeheartedly agree. My brother who wasn't interested in gaming at all saw Kodi - Xbmc running on a modded xbox some ~ 14yrs ago and said "damn you can control stuff from the couch? movies, games, series and all? whoa that's a dream come true".

[@jgordon7719]

Not many ppl have the context to provide in this kind of capacity, especially for the open source community. Well done!

[@MrMario2011]

Beautifully done video, dude. Thank you for documenting this all so well here, can definitely tell there's been a lot of love for XBMC that made this possible.

[@mbe102]

Mr. Mario, while you're here, if you still are, I'm gonna copy and paste my comment I wrote to MVG, because I wanted to ask you this as well, "Hey dude, I know you're probably very busy, but, I have to ask, just incase. I was actually planning on asking MrMario2011 as well haha, I notice his comment as I'm typing this. But I bought a Crystal XBox that had already been soft modded. I don't know if there is the original firmware backed up anywhere, but, I'd like to upgrade the hard drive, and maybe update the custom firmware thats on it to a more newer revision (as I think this was done a LONG time before I bought it), but I don't want to change anything thats going to Brick it. Do you have any resources you could point me to that could help me with this? I'll copy and paste this to Mr. Mario as well and see what he says. Or if you could even do a video, I don't know, its a pretty niche' situation."

[@Wally17.]

Stadium ARTs Check out reddit.com/r/originalxbox. You'll get all the help and answers you need there from people or the Wiki.

[@shopdisneytnbc9618]

yes Mrmario2011 couldn't have put this any better! Very much appreciated.

[@vladratcu]

Stadium ARTs Just google my friend. Don't be lazy. kzbin.info/www/bejne/apecdYVraseprpo The brick risk is constant. Even if you backup. There is no need for backup for hard drive upgrade. Just format the new drive with xbpartitioner and clone the hard drive with chimp. After all this you will need to lock the slave drive to the mainboard. Then you can change the hard drive to master and replace the original hard drive. And you will have all you files cloned to the new hard drive. If it is softmoded there is always a risk of softbricking your xbox. Just be carefull not to format the original drive, don't alter the content of the C and E partitions, and make sure, absolutely sure you DON'T unlock the master original harddrive. If you unlock the drive you will not be able to boot from it on a softmoded xbox. You will need to modchip your xbox. If you modchip or tsop flash your xbox bios to a custom one, then you can change the drives without any issues, you only need Xbox Classic Auto Installer Deluxe Disc. You can download the iso all over the web.

[@tomt55]

Im using Surreal64 on a modded xbox. I can press X at the main selection screen to access the full menu but I can't find out how to change the aspect ratio to to 4x3.its stretched now on a Widescreen TV. Any suggestions?

[@WrestlingWithGaming]

A lot of time went into this and it shows. Really nice pacing, editing, and info. I learned a ton watching this. Thanks for putting it together!

[@mbe102]

Have an updoot

[@ModernVintageGamer]

thanks man - means a lot coming from you. I've been a huge fan of your content/show. cheers!

[@WrestlingWithGaming]

Modern Vintage Gamer thanks! Same here

[@mrlurchAU]

I remember the first time I saw XBMC running, must be close to 15 years ago. I was blown away that you could do that on a console running in your lounge room. Back then digital movies were purely the domain of your PC.

[@PixelShade]

I must say, documenting and preserving open source history is so important for computer history as a whole. there's so very little that is being documented, and applications like Kodi has made a huge impact on how media players should work today. Fantastic Video, keep up the good work!

[@BoomBox02]

This took me back in time. Speaking of Betas, i have a few Betas of projects you were active in back in the day. I too backed up everything to CD's and later to DVD's and am in the process of sorting the files out. I have Beta's and Alpha's of various software released for the XBOX in its early days of being hacked.

[@sfranz5413]

I like how you brought everything full circle in the end. This was a well-written video. Good job!

[@NightRanma]

I love your work, I absolutely adore the og xbox and it's great learning about some of the history

[@JopieHaargel]

Aw man, what a great video! I jumped in at XBMP 2.4 on the OG Xbox back in 2004 (even printed out and bound the manual) and have been tinkering with it ever since. I now run Kodi Leia on my htpc and this video gave me some legit nostalgia thrills, so thank you for making it!

[@KingASE88]

I found a free original Xbox on the side of the road a couple days ago, great steal!

[@greggv8]

@@AncientTruthSeeker my OG Xbox, with DVD remote, only cost me $12

[@vibri_]

I got a modded OG Xbox a short while ago and besides games, I use it to watch DVDs and video streams on my CRT television. It's great

[@Ed-yj1ux]

Question I also have a modded of xbox, I can do those things, but how do you get to video stream, I been trying to connect it through FTP it has the XBMX 8.10 - atlantis dash. I connected a Ethernet cable to it but I’m trying to figure out how to get the IP address to show of, don’t know what to mess with in network setting to get it to recognize that and connect

[@CGQuarterly]

I still have XBMC with that MC360 skin running on my Xbox. Haven't turned it on in a long time, but I had a lot of fun with that thing back in the day.

[@ElusivityEtAl]

MVG, thanks for taking me back 16+ years.... Thanks for the ports back then and the switch ones today! I doubt anyone in the scene doesn't fondly remember your work.

[@Joe-ot5bo]

You videos never cease to fascinate me. Reminds me of the early days of watching g4 when they actually had gaming shows. Thank you!!

[@bdr7576]

Your channel is a blessing. I bought a busted og xbox from Canada and I'm soft modding it with a green ghostcase for my 10 and 5 year old for Christmas. My oldest wants Jurassic Park Operation Genesis SOOOO bad because of the videos I've played for her via KZbin. Thanks for your influence!!!

[@GoTeamScotch]

Great content, as always MVG! I've been using XBMC on Xbox for many years and I learned a lot from this video. XBMC is an amazing piece of software, especially for game console homebrew. It makes an aging 17 year old console feel modern. It is even still somewhat useful even today. I use mine pretty often to play music or watch stored TV shows and such (network share over UPnP). Sure, it's doesn't run 1080p HD movies, but for the casual media consumer, it can get the job done in style.

[@mikifriki]

Awesome video! Never knew that KODI got it's start from the original xbox

As an MPlayer ex-developer I really enjoyed this video. Surely I would enjoy it without me being that too :)

[@natebetzen]

Great video. It was neat seeing my name on the screen among so many far more legendary devs.

[@inanestereo]

MVG will never not get a hard on for the Original XBox lol but hey you’re videos are great. Love you, guy

[@reenigneesrevereht]

HUGE thumbs up for preserving history if you choose to upload your archive CDs. As someone who soldered on a "cheapmod" modchip into a v1.1 Xbox with my dad at 13 (and dealt with your work back then), your channel provides the best kinds of nostalgic vibes. Love your content, keep up the great work.

[@0Mr.Java0]

This brings back so many memories! Having to join a IRC chat room to get a password generated so you could logon to and ftp server to download all sorts of Xbox goodies. I used XBMC in my kids room up until a few years ago. I replaced his CRT with a flat panel and it didn't have a composite in. To hear XBMC has in essence come full circle back to the Xbox brought a tear to my eye. Great video! Keep up the good work and Thank you for Surreal64!

[@lauzza160]

Wow that was amszing! A blast from the past, brings back memories of when I mod chipped my original xbox. Good times

[@AuroraNemoia]

I remember before they set on the name Kodi, there was like 50 different possible new names for XBMC. fun stuff. I personally really liked just KODE Spelled as (previous track symbol) (stop symbol) (play symbol) (hamburger menu)

[@CaelThunderwing]

i still use the last version of XBMC4Xbox as my modded Xbox's Dashboard,

[@rolaroli]

Awesome video. I loved XBMC when I was younger. I bought my Xbox when I was around 14, tore it apart immediately, softmoded it and installed XBMC on it. I've used that Xbox for years as my gaming machine and media player. Sadly it became obsolete soon after and it was time to switch to something else as a media playback machine. So I started running XBMC on a PC and soon after that sold my Xbox. Fast forward a couple of years and I am now running Kodi on an Nvidia Shield, and I have a new (different) Xbox in my vintage collection. And Kodi is still the best media player software that I've used.

[@SlyBeast]

I LOVED MC360. So clean. I wish MS would've kept the blades on their consoles.

[@scotty1120]

Nostalgia hit here I loved xbmc on the xbox in 2004/05 I remember how happy I was when I figured out how to forward a sopcast stream from my pc to my xbox in 07. Today I use rocky5s xbmc-emustation as my xbox dashboard it's come a long way.

[@mikew8346]

Great Video @modernvintagegaming! Thanks for posting. It sounds like you were involved in the original XMBC project some how? Thanks to all the developers over the years who have contributed to this great open source software.

[@YASPENA]

wow man , this was super educational , SUPER appreciative MVG keep it up !

[@TheoryBrown]

Awesome video!...original Xbox had the best modding scene, it was an incredible time. Thanks for making these videos to documents that special era.

[@BFKAnthony817]

Please upload all those old apps! Preserving digital history like that is so needed.

[@TheRestartPoint]

Great, my OG Xbox was so useful as a network media center and emulator back in the 2000s, used it for years until every device under the sun adopted the features and Kodi etc. Miss using that big black box and the cool looking XBMC for everything though! Kodi is now my go to player for any videos that that don't play with other players (even VLC) and it's great.

[@randybobandy9828]

What videos types are you watching that vlc doesn't play?

[@TheMovieslingers]

Was working on XBMC and KODI and was very surprised to learn the connection with X Box. Very nice history lesson !!

[@capcomfan82]

It was an exciting time. Great video bro

[@urtoman]

Proud user since 2007! great video

[@Celoxocis]

just as I remember it! been using xbmc/kodi since xbox (2002). today running kodi on a mini-pc. due to it's openness I will never leave kodi!

[@pl4za]

Great video!! Long time XBMC user here, brought back memories..

[@theeggman4806]

Fantastic work as always..brings back so many memories seeing these vids on the OG xbox and the early brew years.

[@ihopeitsnotasamsquanch]

It's so cool how it started as homebrew and is now OFFICIALLY available on a new console.

[@Retro2futuregaming]

Love the og xbox I you mine for all my retro arcade gaming. Thanks for the share mate.

[@wisnoskij]

XBMC was amazing for the original Xbox. I used it for decades, it was really just the beginning of x256 where it started to lag behind. And then openelec is amazing for newer hardware. But I do not like it as an application. The user interface is designed from the ground up to be an OS. I think it makes sense for example on android where you cannot really multitask stuff, and it works great as openelec, but I remember when they used to provide it as a OS install and it was just ubuntu with XBMC preinstalled. I would never use it on my PC, that is VLC or something similar. But if I ever have a dedicated tv/monitor for watching movies, some derivative of kodi is 100% going to be installed on the computer driving it.

[@someguy4957]

Your videos are always a treat

[@cap737]

Another great episode, MVG 👍

[@jarsky]

Great video. I used XBMP from around 2.0 release, when it got the FTP support that allowed me to transfer files easily and allowed me to play DivX content on the tv, at which point i had a library of a couple of hundred movies encoded with DivX 3.11 and mp3 audio. Was an amazing solution for the time being able to copy across and play content off my Xbox (which had an Xecuter 3 and 200GB HDD upgrade) rather than having to carry my PC to the lounge and use that to play. I ended up keeping my original Xbox for years before giving it to my brother in ~2008 (I dont even know if he still has it?!) just because my 360 lacked all the media functionality my Xbox had

[@shadowlaw809]

Thank you sooo much for your work,amazing video...

[@warwagon]

You should have 10x more subscribers. Your video production is fantastic!

[@mattymatt2323]

This just reminded me that i have a mountain of porn on my old xbox hidden deep in multiple folders from my teen years.

[@KieranShort]

lol.. in 320x200 64kb/s MPG resolution?

[@stoicvampirepig6063]

@@KieranShort Dude...divx was king back then.

[@sondreavik5337]

8 months and we still are no closer to knowing the nature of said porn

[@sondreavik5337]

@referral madness if it was Child porn would you even wanna know lmao

[@FreeButtSex]

@@sondreavik5337 YES

[@WLCD1]

Amazing video, so much historical data, that's impressive ! As always your videos are awesome !

[@yooamatwa]

Fantastic overview mate, I really enjoyed it and I got a real nostalgic pang I was there from XBMP. I remember being a little bit miffed when they rebranded to Kodi hah.

[@Beaps73]

Wow mad thing is I remember most if not all these builds and I couldn't keep up. I was thinking which one is the latest build lol. Great vid as always, thumbs up.

[@chewbaccasaurusrex692]

Great video as always 👍, always learn something new when watching one of your videos.

[@richdog9000]

This video will get big mate.

[@ChrisHeatonbigears5000]

Great video. I really love the content covered on your channel but really big thanks for bringing tracks made using impulse tracker to my attention. Can't believe I have never been exposed to this music before as I was born in the 80's. Regardless, big thanks for this mvg.

[@greggv8]

A major reason for abandoning XBMC on the original Xbox was the console's inability to do 1080p video output. It doesn't have the computing power to play HEVC x.265 encoded video. There's also no digital video output. The best it can do is analog component. Microsoft could have included HDMI into the video cable connector but chose not to. They didn't even include HDMI capability on the first version of the Xbox 360. However it could do 1080p with analog component video, if the connected TV supported it.

[@LayneCobain]

Xbox media center and the emulators were a huge part of my childhood. I have videos on my channel of filming gameplay dating back to like 2012

[@THALL0120]

I still remember getting one of these off ebay when i was like 12 years old....Time flies!

[@amshermansen]

Oh man... this was a journey down nostalgia road. As soon as I heard that the Xbox was possible to jailbreak (and pirate) without a modchip or anything, I had my dad help me do the hotplug IDE trick to break it apart. And from there it took off fast. XBMC was my main dashboard till my console ultimately gave up due to flooding damage. DivX ran Stage 6 back then, which was basically KZbin in HD before that was a thing. My box had all of my games backed up on a big drive, as well as some select webseries.

[@Sean-ct6wr]

Appreciate the work you put into making you videos.

[@TheZorch]

I used to use XBMC.

[@bluedragon9925]

The Xbox homebrew scene pretty much invented the HTPC. I'm convinced that the popularity of XBMC on the original Xbox was what convinced Microsoft to develop Windows Media Center and start expanding the Xbox consoles' out of the box media capabilities from the Xbox 360 onward.

[@internziko]

I always thought XBMC was originally designed for Xbox 360. Pretty surprised to find out it was actually OG Xbox.. Thanks for making this vid

[@Wally17.]

Great video man! Cool to learn about it and see some of the early builds.

[@MoDzAudio]

You brought back my childhood roots with this system and I soft modded my original xbox with your help and flashed the TSOP with MrMario2011 help. I named my system after you Modern Vintage Gamer. The Lantus Kit.

[@ratmdex]

Absolutely great video. Been with the project since 2002. Who wants to go get XBMC tattoo's?

[@ArcadeCabNBud]

well i was the one who... actually im going to shut up

[@plasma77]

Starshine.. my favourite Purple Motion song

[@Antonjlavey]

I've seen all of them and I have more. This was awesome

[@BlastsMods]

great video! very informational as always 🙂

[@randomnumbers710]

lovely video. thank you so much!

[@Darth-.-Vaper]

LOVE the future crew demo as BGM.

[@sepehrasadi5997]

I like how great you use Amiga Demoscene songs as background :)))))

[@croquagei1]

The only reason I ceased using my xbmc on my OG Xbox is when I started getting videos encoded with x264 and playback would drop frames pretty badly... I miss using it!

[@MrAzztech]

awesome video thanks MVG

[@TheDutyPaid]

I have Kodi on a Raspberry Pi 3 and use the fantastic phone control app. Interesting to hear the history of this. With legal issues in the UK people have been prosecuted for selling 'fully loaded' Kodi boxes.

[@garystinten9339]

TheDutyPaid they should resell it with a "pi demo disc" meaning they need to load it onto the pi and therefore not inhibiting into law related issues.. ie, in other words.. totally at your own discretion.

[@kbhasi]

13:09 More specifically, companies like Redbean and Unblock Tech releasing cheap set top boxes running the tablet version of Android (usually at 720p upscaled to higher resolutions, instead of using the "secondary display feature"), and preloading what is usually the TVAddons custom builds of Kodi which seem to only be compiled for Android. When these boxes are marketed to consumers, the salesmen are usually trained to hide the fact that it's piracy, and they would only install the piracy software at the distribution centre or store using a bulk installer app.

[@lonestar7211]

I remember when the Genesis addon hit the scene back in the days. It's since been cloned and transformed many many times into all kinds of forks that leads up to what we're used too nowadays.

[@tinebp]

XBMC reminds me of good old memories!

[@ryangosling6249]

Very interesting story! Can't believe it was so many years ago...

[@VIRAL_DNA]

8:53 XBMC Live Place (Along with XBMC) was something I had the pleasure of being a part of along with BlackBolt and others. Many people might not know this, but the original version of Boxee was a fork of XBMC with many of it's features and functions removed, and was actually in violation of the XBMC GPL. Boxee isn't the only one to use XBMC/Kodi and re-skin it, there were others as well.

[@br0th3rtub34]

I use kodi all of the time it saved me money on buying a ticket for the movie theater

[@LordOfFeelings]

Good Times! Thanks man!

[@HawkStarwind]

God! Such good times! I used to steam shoutcast online radio all the time!!

[@DigitalicaEG]

I learned modding on the original Xbox, I love that device

[@brytonrobinson]

So cool and informative. I loved it!

[@woodysgeekchannel2204]

Great Video!

[@n2alps]

That was so awesome, very informative. Love your channel.

[@TAGMedia7]

Every so often I'll still pull out my Xbox and mess about with transcoding video and movies for the system, then hook it up and watch like it's 2004.

[@aliessa4568]

Even though I use an NVIDIA SHIELD I gotta love the fact Kodi returned to the Xbox brand where it all began. Also fun learning Transcode360 was made by one of the developers. I rember using that early in the 360s lifetime.

[@DigitalicaEG]

This man is a national treasure, god bless

[@dronejunglistplatoon]

I definitely enjoyed this! You are the man! Subbed and bell hit! More please! 👍🏼

[@Fulthrotle73]

keep the great videos coming!

[@eddiek2915]

Amazing video!

[@ilyasovich]

I do like KODI, It's a damn powerful multimedia tool, I run it as LibreElec from and SD Card on a dying Android TV Box, it works very good despite of the bad hardware. Kudos to all people involved in its creation

[@brokenfatthardy7132]

I still have mine. Works great.

[@patrickrail969]

Great video !! :)

[@sgtcreasegrease]

Fucking hell yeah, man.. Everytime I watch a video on the OG xbox, I wanna by one and trick it out. I never had one as a kid and even when i was younger i've always been fascinated by the og xbox.

[@cmpalmer]

Great video as always. I contributed to the Project Mayhem skin way back in the day (extending it to many other pieces of homebrew). One thing that would have been a good mention here would have been Microsoft's own attempts to use the OG xbox as a Media Center Extender (the xbox MCE controller is an old favourite of mine). They saw that there was a demand, they just didn't address it properly.

[@ModernVintageGamer]

that is awesome. i remember seeing PM used in DVD2XBOX and some other tools. it was a killer skin!