Linux, TV & The XBox

A little while back I hacked the xbox ( softmodded ) using the well know technique of loading Splinter Cell and downloading a boot loader via  a saved game. I had to cut the wire of one of the controllers and wired it to a USB socket, I copied the bootloader onto my old iPod Shuffle and got linux installed on it.

Its worked great. I've been using elgato on a macmini to record films off tv, and have been scripting them to upload to my OSX Tiger Server. The xbox plays them great, streaming without a glitch. I've installed XBMC as the main dashboard and the scripts are pretty neat too.

After this, I decided that the bundle of wires under the TV was a pain, so I cancelled the cable tv, boxed up the DVD-R and all the other paraphernalia and was left with just the xbox and a digital-tv box. 

That wasn't enough, so I looked at MythTV for the mac mini, but after struggling to get it working, found out it couldnt access my TV usb stick, so was a bit stumped. Then I decided to try installing linux on the mini. A brief flirtation with Gentoo ( so much compiling ) and I had opensuse up and running and eventually the elgato-diversity ( Hauppage NovaT ) working with Kaffeine, Mplayer and xine. ( ppc is a pain, not many rpms, so compilation hell again ). I did try distcc and creating a cross compiler for the G5 but it wasn't to be. Another day perhaps?

Next stop. I'm trying to get MythTV compiled and working. It's a long road. but I hope to be able to schedule the recording of tv from anywhere I am and stream it too.. 

Meanwhile I had to start learning about AudioUnits....  and the rest of my life.