How To: Turn Your XBox Into An AppleTV

By Jeffrey | March 27, 2007

Apple Xbox
This guide is now considered to be outdated. Although some parts may still be accurate, many parts are not.

Please visit the XBMC Skins page for the latest version of xTV and the Intro Video guide. Thanks.

With the recent release of the Apple TV the tech world has been buzzing with excitement.

Ok, not really. It has made an impact, that’s for sure, but the device itself is a tad underwhelming.

Yes, hackers and modders have managed to get the device’s paltry 40gb hard drive upgraded with minimal effort, and made it play XviD formatted files, but so far the device still falls far short of the capabilities of another oft-hacked device: the XBox. More precisely, the brilliant and free Xbox Media Center, which supports almost any format conceivable.

But the Apple TV still wins in at least one area: beauty. The area that Apple has always shined is in aesthetic value of its products, and the Apple TV is no exception. (I’ll discuss its other advantages in a bit.)

In this guide, I’ll show you how to have the best of both worlds.

Before Getting Started:

This guide is done with the Xecuter 3 modchip in mind, as that’s what I use. Everything I describe here can be done with all other modchips, to my knowledge, so some Google or Xbox-Scene Forum searches should help you out.

Also, make sure you are using the latest copy of XBMC. Some syncing issues, particularly with Vista, and some media issues have been worked out recently, so make sure your copy is up to date. You can find it below.

Thanks To:

The creators of Xbox Media Center.
The creators of the xTV Skin.
The startupvideo script by golfi.
Microsoft’s Xbox & Apple TV.

Let’s Do It!

First off, let’s go over what you need to already have in order to properly pull this off.

  • A Modded Xbox - There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. XBMC just won’t run on a stock console.
  • Xbox Media Center - I can not provide a copy of this due to legal reasons, but you should be able to find the latest edition of it here.
  • The xTV Skin - Download this here or grab the latest copy from SVN from here.
  • Apple TV Intro Movie - mayamaniac over at the Xbox-Scene Forums has modified the official Apple TV intro movie to fit the theme of this mod.
    Download from this link. Please go easy on my bandwidth!

Once you have XBMC set up - ProjectWiki has a great guide on how to do this - FTP over to it and let’s get started.

Step 1: Setting Up xTV

This is the easiest part, especially for those of you already familiar with XBMC.

Copy the entire xTV folder into the skins folder of XBMC on your Xbox. Once it’s finished transferring, switch to the skin on your console. Once it’s loaded, change your display setting under Appearance >> Screen >> Resolution to match whatever your television is set to.

Now head over and change the view mode in Videos, Program, etc. to whatever you like it to appear as. The actual Apple TV displays in List mode, so that’s what I have mine set to.

Do a quick run through of the system. If everything displays as it should, you’re done with this step!

Here’s the main screen of xTV:

Main Screen

Step 2: Syncing With iTunes

One of the features of the Apple TV is its ability to sync up with your iTunes database and stream your music/movies. XBMC can do this, too, but you will be limited to your non-copy-protected music files. (Doesn’t DRM suck?)

I prefer to sync directly to my music folder as it allows me to access my music without requiring iTunes to be open on my computer, but if you want to access your iTunes playlists this is the only option.

To get it working, make sure iTunes is open on your computer and being shared, then simply go to Music and select Add Source. (If you have this disabled in the menu you can still access it by pressing the white button on your controller and selecting it.) In the box that pops up, select Browse, then Add Network Location, change the Protocol to iTunes music share (DAAP), then press OK. Your iTunes database should now appear.

Select OK again, then select the iTunes connection you just added under Browse for new share. Select a name for it, then select OK again, and you’re done!

Add Source Name Source iTunes Share

Step 3: Syncing Other Sources

The process is nearly identical to adding an iTunes share, but instead you will select a different source on your network. I share most of my videos from a shared folder in Windows, so the Protocol you’d want to select would be Windows Network (SMB).

In my experience, those are the two most common types of shares done through XBMC. Various other protocols are provided, though, if you do not use SMB on your network.

Other Share

Step 4: The Intro Movie

Download the startupvideo script here and open it up. There should be a file named autoexec.py and a file named startupvideo.py. Copy them to the scripts folder in XBMC on your console. (Do not put them into their own folder. Leave them in the base scripts folder.)

Now copy that intro.avi file you downloaded into the scripts folder as well. The file MUST be named intro.avi or it will fail to load.

Your scripts folder should now look something like this:

Scripts Folder

Finally, in your System >> Cache settings change your Video/Audio/DVD-Video harddisk cache size to 1024kb. Any smaller and you may have issues with the xTV skin loading before the intro movie playing, and any larger and media played in XBMC may stutter.

To test it, just reboot your Xbox. When XBMC starts to load it should automatically play the intro movie before loading the xTV skin - just like the Apple TV! If not, make sure the file names are named correctly and double-check the steps above.

Intro Movie

Step 5: The Initial Power-On

If your Xbox is like most it starts up with that “glowing orb” intro before bringing up the Xbox text. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the Apple TV does not include that, so let’s get rid of it.

Because I am using the Xecuter 3 modchip it is simple to boot into the bios menu (hold white while the Xbox is starting up) and turn off the “Flubber” animation. However, to my knowledge this option is available to all modchips, and probably soft-mods as well. A quick search around the Xbox-Scene Forums should solve your particular issue.

Once that’s gone you’re still left with the Xbox text and a logo (usually “Microsoft”) that appears below it after a few seconds. While it is possible to change the Xbox text itself, it is not easily done, and is really left to those skilled at 3d modeling and willing to risk re-flashing their boxes. I’m not, so I’ve left it alone.

We can replace that little logo that pops up below it, though. I’ve opted to use this image. If you’re using the Xecuter 3 modchip just place that image in the base of the E:\ drive on your Xbox. If you’re not, you can still replace the logo, but it varies based on what chip/softmod/exploit you’re using. Again, Xbox-Scene will help you with your particular situation.

Once you’ve got it set up, reboot your Xbox again. It should now go directly to that Xbox text. After about 7-8 seconds your new Apple (or whatever image you’re using) logo should appear.

The New Logo

Step 6: The Leftovers

When XBMC starts up it loads a splash screen from the media folder of XBMC. In our attempt to create XBMC TV we obviously don’t want this to happen. The quick fix for this was to erase all the files in the media folder that start with splash. This will stop them from loading.

Make sure to make a backup of the files, though, in case you decide to go back to another skin.

Also, as Gilbert and meridius both have mentioned. It is possible to stop the startup sound from playing when loading XBMC by deleting or renaming the startup.wav file in the xTV\sound folder.

Alternately, you can turn off all skin sounds in the skin settings of XBMC.

The Finished Product

Here is how my Xbox looks after completing all the steps:

Old Video

New Video

Update

I have updated the xTV skin so that it no longer displays the xTV graphic before displaying the intro movie.

If you’ve already downloaded the skin you can download an updated Startup.xml file here (right-click and save). Copy it to the PAL folder of the xTV skin on your Xbox, and choose to overwrite the original.

If you using a widescreen set up, you must also transfer the Startup.xml into the PAL 16×9 folder, as well. Thanks to Gilbert for this tip.

Now the graphic should no longer appear when booting up!

This should also fix any bug of having the skin load before the video plays.

I’ve updated the skin file available at the first of this guide already, so you don’t need to download the new Startup.xml if this is your first time downloading the skin.

Pros & Cons

Currently, the Xbox has a ton more going for it over the Apple TV. Here’s what’s important:

  • File Formats - You name it, it can play it. Every video, image, and music format I’ve thrown at this box it has output quite smoothly.
  • Scripts - From streaming internet radio to watching movie trailers, XBMC has the script for it.
  • Games - Lest we forget, this baby can play Xbox games - and some great ones at that. Not to mention emulators for almost any system known to man (even DOS).

However, the Apple TV does have its advantages. Here’s a few:

  • HD Content - Ok, so there’s not really a lot available, but I’m positive HD will soon start appearing in the iTunes store. Besides that, the Xbox just doesn’t have the power to display HD video at all, with some minor exceptions, so it clearly loses here.
  • Sync-ability - While XBMC can sync easily with iTunes, it can not play your iTunes purchased music since it is copy-protected. Apple TV can not only play those files, but it can transfer them to your Apple TV if you don’t want to always be accessing your computer’s music. Point for Apple.
  • Hack-ability - What? This is an advantage for Apple? Yes, it is. The Xbox has definitely had its fair share of amazing hacks since its release (XBMC being one of them), but I think we haven’t yet seen the full potential for the Apple TV. Upgrading the hard drives and adding other formats are just a couple examples of what we can possibly expect.

Current Advantage: XBMC
Future Advantage: ?

If you have any questions about anything in this guide or need special help, feel free to shoot me an e-mail at:
E-Mail

Topics: Guides |

56 Responses to “How To: Turn Your XBox Into An AppleTV”

  1. [...] The Updated Guide Here. [...]

    Posted by: Update To XBMC TV Guide at SavvyGeek on April 19th, 2007 at 10:35 pm

  2. I think that the skin works much better if you edit your bios and remove all the images and the flubber. Set the X logo and such to black, this leaves you with a black screen until it gets to the intro. Also, try editing out the full screen splash… All if you want it to look as close to real as possible.

    Posted by: Terc on April 19th, 2007 at 11:55 pm

  3. to deweyhewson

    I tried your video methed and it sort or worked, when my xbox boots up the skins boot itv logo pops up first but it do`s not get to the end as the video kicks in i would of thought the video got ride of this completey ????

    2nd the video do`s not play full screen it loads the xtv main menu and you can see the video playing in a small window at the bottom ????

    is there a way to play it full screen on boot
    is there a way to stop the main xtvs boot logo coming up so it loads the video stright away ???

    thanks for any help

    Posted by: lee on April 19th, 2007 at 11:56 pm

  4. See the update I posted above. It should solve both of your problems.

    Posted by: Jeffrey on April 19th, 2007 at 11:56 pm

  5. Hi Jeff…

    Firstly thanks for the tutorial….you read my mind…

    I’ve added the startup.xml file to the corresponding folder…I have just on problem..sometimes it will play the the intro minimized after the skin has loaded and sometimes it will play as intended before the skin loads up.

    Is this a problem specific to my setup or is there a work around.

    Thanks

    Posted by: Harry on April 19th, 2007 at 11:56 pm

  6. Jeffrey,

    Thanks for the tutorial. Been using the xTV skin for several months but this adds a great touch to an already great program/skin even better.

    One note I would add is that if you are using a widescreen TV, then you must also add the revised Startup.xml to the PAL 16×9 folder in addition to or instead of adding it to the PAL folder.

    Also, if you don’t want to hear the xTV startup sound, then you can simply rename the file called startup.wav found in the xTV skin folder - xTV\sounds\startup.wav to anything else like - no_startup.wav.

    Great work!

    Posted by: Gilbert on April 19th, 2007 at 11:56 pm

  7. Gilbert,

    Thanks for those tips! I completely forgot about the widescreen.

    Also, you don’t necessarily need to rename the startup file - only if you still want to use the rest of the skin sounds. If you don’t want skin sounds you can just turn them off in the skin settings and the startup sound will no longer play.

    @Harry

    Double-check your cache settings and make sure they match what I have above.

    Posted by: Jeffrey on April 19th, 2007 at 11:57 pm

  8. ok i sorted the boot video scripts out and its 100% working

    To CHI3f thanks for the help
    To deweyhewson for the help to and for the video, just a couple of things needed fixing to make it 100%

    1 I have changed the main xbmc boot screen to the Xtv logo (this is not the skins boot but the xbmc boot screen)

    2 Have removed the xTV skin boot screen logo & sound file so this will no longer interrupt the begining of the video and the end of the video as it still did with deweyhewson script.

    3 I also Edited the script and had to play around abit as the 2 scripts deweyhewson tried did not work 100%

    here is the link hope its ok for you

    just follow the readme and folders thay are alll in the right place let me know how you get on, Also i would backup the xTV skin from your xbox so that you have both versions if you want to pick

    I have also added a wallpaper just in case you would like a background other than black i just did it quick but i hope you like it i still have not decided if i would use it but its in the zip files just in case you want to use it

    let me know what you think of the boot intro setup ?

    Link

    http://public.box.net/meridius197566950

    Posted by: meridus on April 19th, 2007 at 11:57 pm

  9. hi m8 i also noticed that you script for encoding the mov file to avi is set 29 frames a sec

    the mov file is in 24 frames a sec so adding frames makes it jerk abit i thought there was somthing up becasue the video would jerk a little when playing so i altered the Transcoding.ini file to 24 frames a sec and re done it the video is very smooth now just in case you want to update it ?

    Posted by: meridius on April 19th, 2007 at 11:58 pm

  10. i allso edit the bit rate to 7000 this makes it very close to the mov file and looks spot on now

    ******le=vga ‚‰æŽ¿24.00fpsƒxƒeƒŒƒi
    ******lee=apple TV to XBMC
    Command0=””\cores\ffmpeg” -y -i “” -timestamp “” -bitexact -vcodec xvid -fixaspect -s 1280×720 -r 24.00 -b 7000 -acodec mp3 -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 256 -f avi “.avi””

    Posted by: meridius on April 19th, 2007 at 11:58 pm

  11. oh jeffrey you could give me some credit for helping and sorting it out as you did give credit to gilbert ???

    Posted by: meridius on April 19th, 2007 at 11:58 pm

  12. Thanks for fixing that little issue with the Startup.xml. I have updated the new copy of it to the site.

    Also, I have not included the splash screen because the real Apple TV does not include it.

    I have updated the Transcoding.ini file accordingly.

    Finally, it is simpler to just turn off skin sounds if you don’t want the startup sound to play when XBMC is loading. If you still want to use the skin sounds, but not the startup, then yes, deleting it will quickly fix that. Personal preference, I suppose.

    Thanks for your input!

    Posted by: Jeffrey on April 19th, 2007 at 11:59 pm

  13. SUPER…

    5 mins and my X was an AppleProd..!?!

    Great

    Thanks!

    Posted by: Kjelle on April 19th, 2007 at 11:59 pm

  14. I have a modded xbox with a 500gb hdd and a tsop flash with the latest xbox media center, I want a atv but it’s kinda spendy, seeing this made me really happy. thx alot

    Posted by: Hellzone on April 19th, 2007 at 11:59 pm

  15. find that the sounds included with this skin are a bit too loud. It’s a bit jarring to have the navigation sounds be so loud when you’ve just gotten done watching a movie.

    I loaded them up in Audacity and knocked the gain down by 15db. Much better now.

    Posted by: John on April 20th, 2007 at 12:00 am

  16. I actually just have them all turned off, but lowering the volume on them is not a bad idea.

    Posted by: Jeffrey on April 20th, 2007 at 12:00 am

  17. Hi, when I transfered the skin file to the xbmc folder under the skins folder, and then go to change the skin to the xtv,

    it reads at the bottom of the screen;

    ”Incompatible skin. We require skins of version 1.30 or higher”

    why is this?

    Posted by: Dave on April 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 am

  18. That will come up if you are not using the latest version of XBMC.

    The skin requires at least 2.0 or higher, but you’d be safest just using the latest edition.

    Hope this helps.

    Posted by: Jeffrey on April 22nd, 2007 at 11:56 am

  19. Thanx mate, will do that soon.

    btw, do you need to connect to the internet if u wna use RSS feeds? (yes im having a dumb male moment)

    Posted by: Dave on April 22nd, 2007 at 1:31 pm

  20. I get the same thing, “we require skins of 2.0 or higher” But I have installed and am using 2.0.1! I have downloaded the latest build of the skin and still no go. HELP!

    Posted by: Josh on April 22nd, 2007 at 2:41 pm

  21. @Dave

    Yeah, you need to be connected to the ‘net because that is how the RSS feeds are received.

    @Josh

    It’s not the latest build of the skin that’s important, it’s the latest build of XBMC. Try getting that and see if it fixes anything.

    Here’s the link:
    http://217.118.215.116/

    Make sure you get the latest SVN build.

    Posted by: Jeffrey on April 22nd, 2007 at 10:03 pm

  22. Thanx Jeffrey,

    what is SVN and why do I need to download SVN tortoise?

    Posted by: Dave on April 23rd, 2007 at 4:34 pm

  23. SVN is a way for a group of programmers to add to a project they are working on - it’s a popular way that open-source projects are built.

    The drawback is that programs, skins, or whatever are not in compiled form on the SVN (like the xTV link that I provide above is), so you have to compile it yourself.

    You don’t have to download Tortoise SVN, but it’s a program that makes it easy to download from SVN.

    Posted by: Jeffrey on April 23rd, 2007 at 8:19 pm

  24. Thanks very much just when I thought that xbmc was the dogs bollocks you enhance it even more and make it such a pleasure to play around with. here is just a simple question and you may think it’s kind of stupid but the mrs wont let me play on the tv anymore. can I play music randomly from my music folder. I cant find it any where and like I said the dam mrs wont let me play.
    Awsome work.

    Posted by: Kevin on April 25th, 2007 at 1:35 am

  25. Hi again I tried to watch movie trailers with the apple movie trailers script and get this error.
    There was an error setting up your GUI.
    Check your skinfile.
    Q:\scripts\AppleMovieTrailers\skins\default\skin.xml

    I re-downloaded the apple movie trailers script and installed but with no luck the same fault tag appears on screen. Any help would be great as I know bugger all.

    Cheers

    Posted by: Kevin on April 25th, 2007 at 3:02 am

  26. You can play random music by pressing Y to add each song you want to a playlist. When you’ve added all you want, press the Black button to access the playlist, then save it.

    Now you can shuffle or play at random.

    As for the movie trailers, they work fine for me on the latest version of XBMC. I’ve gotten that error before, but I’d recommend trying the newest version of XBMC and seeing if it still occurs.

    Hope this helps!

    Posted by: Jeffrey on April 25th, 2007 at 1:18 pm

  27. Jeffrey, you da man!!!

    Posted by: Dave on April 25th, 2007 at 3:52 pm

  28. cheers mate will give that a go I thought I was using the latest svn but I try again.

    Cheers

    Posted by: Kevin on April 25th, 2007 at 11:29 pm

  29. All good mate I just re-installed the latest svn and tried apple trailers before installing xtv. and all is good, installed xtv and all good thanks heaps dont know why it didnt work in the first place. Also what colour code have you set to get that nice Blue/Purple X on the xbox screen

    Again thanks very much.

    Posted by: Kevin on April 26th, 2007 at 1:45 am

  30. Hey man, thanks for this..

    When I boot, I get a flash of the XBMC skin before the intro video starts to play.. is there anyway to fix this?

    Posted by: Brian on April 26th, 2007 at 10:19 pm

  31. Yes, this happens when your Video/Audio/DVD-Video harddisk cache is too small.

    It has to be at least 1024kb, otherwise XBMC doesn’t have the resources to load the movie before the skin loads.

    Posted by: Jeffrey on April 26th, 2007 at 11:09 pm

  32. Cool.. I had it set to 1024kb.. ill bump it up a little more…

    Posted by: Brian on April 27th, 2007 at 6:25 am

  33. Well, found out i had 2 other intro programs trying to run at the same time.. fixed it!

    Posted by: Brian on April 27th, 2007 at 8:43 am

  34. [...] Link Via [...]

    Posted by: XBox Apple TV | Apple TV Hacks on May 15th, 2007 at 2:52 am

  35. I am using XBMC 2.01
    I also get the error “require skins of 2.0 or higher” when trying to load this skin in XBMC.
    Can anyone give a good solution to this? Just saying “use the most recent build” doesn’t help much.
    What is the build version needed (for both xTV skin and XBMC)?

    Thanks,
    Jon

    Posted by: Jon on May 16th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

  36. Pal folder?

    Does this script work in U.S. on 1080i settings?

    Intro.avi is beautiful. Thanks for the great tut.

    G

    Posted by: Garrett on May 17th, 2007 at 10:21 pm

  37. @Garrett

    Yes, your resolution should not make a difference, the PAL folder is just what holds all of the skin settings - in every skin - in XBMC.

    @Jon

    The version of xTV that I have for download above should work fine. It is XBMC that you need to update. I have a link above for the latest version of that, as well. Some of the newer skins require versions past 2.01.

    Hope this helps!

    Posted by: Jeffrey on May 17th, 2007 at 10:45 pm

  38. Thank you!
    I used the one titled “Latest XBMC SVN build, ” from the page you linked and it works great. This is an awesome program!

    Posted by: Jon on May 18th, 2007 at 8:48 am

  39. Thanks for the tutorial. Even I managed it.
    Is there anyway to have the ‘Power’option on the main screen or even moved to be the first choice on the System list?

    Posted by: Scott on June 10th, 2007 at 3:28 pm

  40. Got it working but I notice that switching between screens, etc. is much slower than the default XBMC skin. Is that normal?

    Posted by: gfrobe on June 15th, 2007 at 10:05 am

  41. Yeah, the code isn’t quite as optimized as Project Mayhem III (the default XBMC skin), but I haven’t found it to be too unusable as it is.

    Posted by: Jeffrey on June 15th, 2007 at 8:16 pm

  42. I just want to say that this is an awesome skin and very well done. I was wondering if you guys had any insight on why i can not get my xbox to connect to itunes on my mac. I have it all set up and I get the error that it can not connect to the network. I have the smb up and running I wanted to add the itunes as well. Any thoughts?

    Posted by: SinisterD on June 18th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

  43. It might be a problem with iTunes 7 according to the XBMC website here: http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/index.php?title=Configuring_PC_Shares

    I’m not completely sure, because many different things could go wrong, but starting there seems to be your best bet.

    Good luck - and thanks!

    Posted by: Jeffrey on June 18th, 2007 at 7:16 pm

  44. Hi.

    I wonder where to get the nice images for the games (they look like a original xbox cd cover)
    On my xbox I only see the stadard…

    Thanks

    Posted by: PatrickG on June 20th, 2007 at 1:33 pm

  45. Hi,

    I wonder where to get the fancy icons for the games/programs (they look like an original xbox cd cover)
    On my xbox I can only see the standard icons …

    thanks

    Posted by: PatrickG on June 20th, 2007 at 1:46 pm

  46. I wrote a guide on how to go about this here:
    http://savvygeek.com/2007/04/11/add-custom-thumbnails-to-your-xbox/

    Hope that helps!

    Posted by: Jeffrey on June 20th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

  47. I was just wondering (if this is possible) which file i need to edit to change the order of the menu on the main screen. I would prefer programs to be first…Great skin and tutorial. Hope that you continue to update!

    Posted by: technokid on June 22nd, 2007 at 3:46 pm

  48. This worked great thanks, also added youtube script from

    http://www.xbmcscripts.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=458&Itemid=36

    works great!

    graeme

    Posted by: Graeme on July 5th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

  49. So for random (shuffle) play of thousands of songs spanning several folders, any easier way?

    Is there a way I can make a playlist that has all my songs and export it to XBMC?

    Posted by: Henway on July 9th, 2007 at 5:08 pm

  50. http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/index.php?title=Playlists

    Hope that helps!

    Posted by: Jeffrey on July 9th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

  51. for those who cant fix the xtv skin 2.0 requirements error this worked for me.
    seems simple but it worked if u look at your xtv folder and open it there is only another xtv folder take that one out and use that one…

    Posted by: cody on December 7th, 2007 at 1:00 pm

  52. How do you get the cover art for the movies and tv shows ??? i cant seem to make it work in that aspect ??

    Posted by: dc on December 23rd, 2007 at 11:04 am

  53. http://savvygeek.com/2007/04/11/add-custom-thumbnails-to-your-xbox/

    Good luck!

    Posted by: Jeffrey on December 23rd, 2007 at 12:09 pm

  54. [...] outcome I was trying to achieve was that of this post: How To: Turn Your XBox Into An AppleTV. I was half-way there: I had the startup video and the skin sorted out. It was looking peachy. But [...]

    Posted by: How NOT to upgrade your Xbox at dougbelshaw.com on January 9th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

  55. [...] with the xTV skin for XBMC documented at How To: Turn Your XBox Into An AppleTV I now have a wonderful home entertainment solution again! Bookmark this:These icons link to social [...]

    Posted by: HOWTO: fix your Xbox after messing about with the EEPROM at dougbelshaw.com on January 9th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

  56. This guide is now considered to be outdated. Although some parts may still be accurate, many parts are not.

    Please visit the XBMC Skins page for the latest version of xTV and the Intro Video guide. Thanks!

    Posted by: Jeffrey on January 18th, 2008 at 3:48 pm


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