http://www.xboxmediacenter.com

It’s rather hard to find to download, try http://schinckel.net/2006/10/08/xbmc-download-details/ - the password is xbmc. Leave another comment when you are done, and I’ll remove this part of the comment.

You can get AAC music to work on an Xbox?!

Actually, we only have one Mac - there’s also a PC, an Xbox (as media server), and an NSLU2 (linux) server. I also have an iPod, and Palm Zire.

I’ve found all of my machines work fine with AAC, including the PalmOS machine.

As for size issues - 192kpbs is 192kpbs, AAC and MP3 will be the same size at the same bitrate, it’s just that AAC will be better quality.

And I like being different, but ogg vorbis is not widely enough supported.

(So, I can’t really give a reason, but it just makes me feel different to the rest of the world).

I get the idea that yours is a very Mac-centric environment, but I’m just curious, why didn’t you opt for MP3 format instead for compatibility sake?

When I began our CD ripping project, I was still using an older off-brand player, so MP3 was the only practical format to choose. But even though my wife & I both have iPods now (Nano v2 & Mini, respectively), I’m still really happy with sticking with MP3s.

While the 192kbps MP3 files are a little larger than their more-tightly-compressed AAC counterparts would be, I think the compibility & flexibility that this format offers warrants the extra space. We’re a Windows-centric setting here but I certainly didn’t want to get into WMA format. Amd we use our wi-fi-connected TiVo to stream the MP3s stored on my PC into the living room’s surround receiver so we can enjoy the tunes throughout the house. There’s also the (albeit very rare) instance when we load digital music onto my wife’s PDA, so AAC would definitely not work there.

Rob