XBMC for the Original Xbox
Shares rank 11 of 38 music players by recommenders
Free media player for the Original Xbox that people remember as smooth and far ahead of its time, playing movies and TV from network shares and disc files.
Free media player for the Original Xbox that people remember as smooth and far ahead of its time, playing movies and TV from network shares and disc files.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Felt futuristic and far ahead of its time
“Long before there was Netflix, there was an Xbox running XBMC loaded with movies and TV shows”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” “it just being so much better than anything else available at the time”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” “truly felt like something from the future”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” - Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox”
Revives old hardware as a cheap player
“24 year old hardware that is not only useful but punches above most of the set-top boxes you'll find on Amazon”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” “It was a life-changing tool: take some cast-off free hardware and a bit of free software”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” “Still have the original Xbox, working like a charm.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” - Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox”
Streams media from network servers
“I had XBMC in the living room connecting to my server which auto downloaded all the latest tv and movies.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” “it was even able to stream movies from multi volume rar files over SAMBA which felt like magic”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” “So many streaming sources and high performance/responsiveness.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” Smoother interface than Xbox 360 dashboard
“being blown away by how much smoother and nicer it was then the blades interface on the Xbox 360 at the time.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox” “Very cool to see such an old console get a first class modern media player experience.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox”
Other music players people recommend
The four most recommended other music players, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VLC media player | 172 | 83 | 67% | 12 | 20 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| mpv media player | 82 | 12 | 87% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Infuse video player | 78 | 11 | 88% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Kodi | 64 | 38 | 63% | 12 | 15 yrs3 owners | — |
| XBMC for the Original XboxThis page | 21 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“XBMC is still somehow the best of them all, perhaps only in my memory.”
“Still have the original Xbox, working like a charm.”
“One of my fondest memories is actually playing games directly off the hard-drive.”
“So a modded Xbox was a game changer.”
“easier to set up than additional home theater PCs that connected to the central PVR”
“It was a life-changing tool: take some cast-off free hardware and a bit of free software”
“most folks would prefer the XBMC experience”
“I had XBMC in the living room connecting to my server which auto downloaded all the latest tv and movies.”
“Long before there was Netflix, there was an Xbox running XBMC loaded with movies and TV shows”
“being blown away by how much smoother and nicer it was then the blades interface on the Xbox 360 at the time.”
“Being able to play VIDEO_TS files directly blew my mind”
“Very cool to see such an old console get a first class modern media player experience.”
“it just being so much better than anything else available at the time”
“truly felt like something from the future”
“it was even able to stream movies from multi volume rar files over SAMBA which felt like magic”
“I loved XBMC and still use Kodi to this day.”
“much of the charm is sadly lost in later versions of XBMC”
“24 year old hardware that is not only useful but punches above most of the set-top boxes you'll find on Amazon”
“I used to love using this”
“So many streaming sources and high performance/responsiveness.”
“so unbelievably far ahead of it's time”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.