A while back I posted an entry about , a media freeware that lets you share and sync your files between your devices, one of them being Xbox 360. Now, I’ve got two great open source media centers: one lets you hook up your machines to your 360, just like Windows Media Center itself and the other just acts as a full media center.

Don’t know what a Media Center is? See .

aka XBMC Media Center – for Xbox 360

Attention! XBMC requires a modded Xbox or else won’t work.

XBMC can be installed on a flash drive and run from Windows, Linux and Mac. It is available in 20 language and plays almost any video and audio format available today, while MS Media center has a limitation. For a complete feature list, go to .

From the page:

Currently XBMC can be used to play/view most common video/audio/picture formats such as MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF plus many more less known formats directly from a CD/DVD in Xbox DVD-ROM drive or of Xbox hard-drive, XBMC can also stream files from a PC over a local network and even stream media streams directly from the Internet.

Because I haven’t got a modded 360 and I don’t intend to mod mine any time soon,I can’t vouch for it so I am hoping that XBMC runs without problems and any major bugs. There is a that you can turn to in case you get stuck or have problems.

The installation procedure and any other information have been documented on .

If you’ve got any experience with this software, or any thoughts whatsoever, please share with it with us.

Platform: Windows, Linux, Mac.

Media Portal will transform your computer into an advanced media center. From the page:

MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch and store your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV as a digital video recorder and much much more

According to the FAQ’s, Media Portal II doesn’t support Xbox 360 or Playstation consoles, but I am sure they will soon make this happen. I’ve installed Media Portal last year and I was quite happy with it. It is very rich in ; some of those features cannot be found in any other media center I know.

For more documentation and download, go to the Media Portal web site. Platform: Windows XP and Vista

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