I use XBMC installed on an old xbox hooked up to my projector to play back movies and music. It's great, XBMC is free and far superior to apple tv and a great use for a cheap old original xbox.

I've been using it for the last 5 years and have loved it, but I decided I wanted to have a second unit in my bedroom. I had a spare xbox lying around pieced together from spare parts from repairs I did to other peoples xbox's, so it made sense to use it.

But how? I could mount an LCD on my bedroom wall, have cables running all over the place, but really, that'd be kind of .. typical. I don't watch enough media in my bedroom to warrant it taking over the space. I just want something there for watching an episode of Dexter or Office before I fall asleep. something more of a conversation piece than practical.

Enter the Commodore SXBOX-64 project.

Stage 1 (complete)

I found the motherboard schematics online and wired the xbox video out to hook into the 1982 commodores 5 inch CRT screen. it works perfectly! stage 1 was getting it running. wifi, software, and wiring. I'm also not cutting any wires, I'm building custom connectors for the internal connections so I don't destroy this rather vintage peice of hardware.

Stage 2 (what I'm doing now).

Build a new power supply for the CRT monitor (12v) that also spits out 6v for the wifi adapter and then add a relay so it's controlled via thexbox. I only want one power button. So when the xbox turns on, it should turn everything else on as well.

Stage 3

Replace commodore internals with xbox motherboard (but keep 1982 crt monitor. In order to do this I need to re-remove all the parts (I had to dismantle it already to clean it) pack them for safe keeping (so I can one day put it back to the original state if I want) cut the middle metal connector carefully, build a new power supply and then pack it all back up.

Stage 4

Keyboard hack. the commodore keyboard should control the xbox.

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This definitely isn't as easy as simply drilling 4 holes andmounting an lcd, and the commodore cost more than a base line lcdwould.... but this is about having some fun and making somethingincredibly geeky.