Installing XBMC Sirius Script

You’ll need an original Xbox running Xbox Media Center for this. I haven’t tested this on any other XBMC platforms.

• Download the python script here:
• In the Sirius folder, edit RunSirius.py. Look for this snippet of code and enter your Sirius username and password in quotes:

# SET ME!  SET ME!  SET ME!
USERNAME = “USERNAME”
PASSWORD = “PASSWORD”

Save the file.

• If you’ve got Xbox Media Center running on your modded Xbox, I assume you already know how to initiate an FTP connection to your Xbox.  Go ahead and connect and upload the entire Sirius directory to your SCRIPTS directory. On my Xbox this is on the Q: drive.
• Back in the XBMC gui, navigate to Scripts, and run the RunSirius.py script. If you like you can rename this file later to default.py, and then when you click on the Sirius Folder it will run automatically.
• If all goes well, you should be greeted by a list of categories. Work your way through the menu and click on the station you want to stream. You should see the media player kick in and give you a message about caching the content.  Then your sweet digital music should begin to play.

A few notes:

1. You can pay a few Sirius a few bucks more a month and increase your bitrate to 128 mb/s, which sounds as good as the satellite receiver.  Supposedly they are changing this pricing structure in the near future, so its possible this script may break.
2. If the caching is taking too long before your tunes start playing, go into your XBMC center settings and decrease the cache size for “Unknown type Cache – Internet”. You can drop this down to 256K or whatever figure works best for you.
3. Since it’s caching audio and the song title lookup is live, often it will display the next song’s title

Installing SiriusWM5 on Windows Mobile

• Install TCPMP for for your device. Here’s a link to smartphone edition for Windows Mobile 6.1. This works on the BlackJackII. Download the file, transfer it over to your device via ActiveSync.  In file explorer on your mobile device, click on the cab file to install it.
• Download the wmv9 codecs for TCPMP here
• Unzip the files and place both .DLLs and copy them to your /WINDOWS folder on your mobile device via ActiveSync.
• Download and install via ActiveSync SiriusWm5 cab file here
• Open SiriusWM5 on your Windows Mobile Device
• Go to File > Settings.
• Enter your Sirius Account information. Check USE TCPMP and, if its installed to your memory card, choose “TCPMP on MemCard”. Additionally, if you’ve anted up for higher quality stream, select “CD Quality Stream”. (CD Quality works great over Wifi or 3G, but will probably fail on Edge or lower). Save your settings.
• Choose your station, and click Connect. You should be prompted to enter some CAPTCHA info, then TCPMP should start playing your stream.

note: Song Titles won’t display.

I get a lot of people asking me – what are you running at home?

Our Home Network consists of:

Dell Optiplex GX260 running Ubuntu Linux 8.10. I use this box for several things- DHCP server, Squid/DansGuardian Proxy to protect the kids, MythTV for TV recording, SMB file sharing for storing all our photos, movies, music, etc., and rtorrent.

Optiplex GX520 running OSX86 – for the kids. Nice and safe Mac-style.

Original Xbox running Xbox Media Center: http://xbmc.org/ We use this as a front end for all the content on the file server. It’s available for Windows, MAC and Linux too!

Dell Latitude D400 – XP Home. Wife’s Laptop.  Nice and light.

Apple Airport Express – this is used as a wireless bridge. Great multi-purpose device.

Buffalo WLA-G54 – the other half of the wireless bridge. I’ve got a couple no-brand external hard drives I use for backup.

We have two Samsung Blackjacks (I and II). Say what you want about Windows Mobile, but these are two great smart- phones.

Try as I might to keep things stable and working, I have an unconrtollable urge to constantly tweak the settings on all these devices and inevitalby break them -  much to my wife’s dismay.