If you’re still using your Xbox 360 to watch video content, it might be time to choose the right media center solution. Do you really want to burn your console long before the red rings or the yellow light of death signal the end of your favorite toy?

While there are many expensive ready-made solutions, there are several ways to create a streaming entertainment box in your living room on the cheap. With a few open source media programs available, a few budget products, and a bit of free time, you can pick out the perfect media companion in a couple of hours.

In this article, we will look at three possible solutions that you may not have considered, as well as the software you will need for each of them.

Raspberry Pi

We’ve already used the Raspberry Pi a couple of times, but in case you’re not familiar with this breakthrough device, you’ll probably want to read all about what it does and why it’s so cool. . Recently we even covered some cool case ideas case ideas for ranging from simple Lego cases to the «Imperial Pi Fighter», although the device is small enough, you can probably plug it into the back of a TV.

The potential of the Raspberry Pi as a media center promises to say the least. The $25 small computer uses an ARM-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) architecture, which means it works well with software and Linux distributions written for the ARM architecture. Of course, you don’t need to understand it to use it, especially now that XBMC has its own raspberry flavored project.