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Hacking XBox 360 HD-DVD To Play On XP

Dan writes, "The XBox 360's affordable HD-DVD, with the help of some custom drivers and a specific player, has been hacked to work with any Windows XP machine. This may have created the cheapest HD-DVD player on the market to date."

37 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. /.'d before /.'ing? by RingDev · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow, the link is dead before the article is even up.

    -Rick

    --
    "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
    1. Re:/.'d before /.'ing? by monkeySauce · · Score: 3, Informative

      cache link for the lazy and ununiformed:

      http://uneasysilence.com.nyud.net:8090/archive/200 6/11/8303/

  2. 199$ is cheap? by Kenja · · Score: 2, Informative

    Given that there are a number of IDE & SATA drives hitting the market for under 150$ I guess I just dont see what the big deal is.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:199$ is cheap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      ... what?

      You, um, do realize that SATA and IDE aren't synonymous with "hard drive" right? The poster is referring to SATA and IDE HD-DVD drives. And I've never heard of _anyone_ renting a disk drive at Blockbuster, so I guess I'm not sure what the hell you're even talking about.

      If we're talking about apples and oranges, you're talking about friggin' carrots or something...

  3. Astounding by hal2814 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Someone got a USB device to work on a computer with USB ports! What will they think of next? Can we have a new word that means what "hack" used to mean?

    1. Re:Astounding by aiken_d · · Score: 4, Insightful

      USB is an electrical interface, with some standard logical extensions. There are these things called "drivers" that are needed to get devices to work, if those drivers aren't built into the underlying OS. A USB plug in itself does not mean compatibility -- if you have any doubt of this, run down to a local computer store and look at all of the USB peripherals that specify what platforms and operating systems they will work with.

      A "hack" is generally accepted to mean a clever approach to achieving something by bending the rules; by using things in ways they weren't intended; or by coming up with a more clever approach than what was previously accepted.

      Now that you know all of that, I'm you'll agree that getting an HD-DVD drive that was intended for use on an xbox 360 to work on Windows does indeed qualify as a "hack." I hope this clears things up for you!

      -b

      --
      If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
    2. Re:Astounding by hal2814 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They took a device that was already hardware-compatible with a PC, found (not built, found) drivers to work with it, and called it a hack. You can call searching for drivers a hack if you want to but I don't buy into that definition. I lost the floppy disks for an old video card once and had to find drivers that didn't exactly match but were good enough. Was that a hack too? Not in my book.

  4. Application available to public by Skaber · · Score: 5, Informative

    Xboxhacker forums has links that points directly to the files. http://localhostr.com/files/c46c39057dc3fbe73d9f.r ar Xboxhacker points out that there is currently no available PC player for hddvd, so all you get is access to the dvd content.

    1. Re:Application available to public by CerebusUS · · Score: 3, Informative

      Xboxhacker points out that there is currently no available PC player for hddvd

      This is the part everyone is missing. Allowing the USB HD-DVD drive to work on your PC buys you absolutely nothing at the moment. The importnat parts are all done in software on the 360.

    2. Re:Application available to public by masteroffm · · Score: 2, Informative

      actually with the nvidia purevideo codec and the right drivers playback for blu-ray and hd-dvd is currently available http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_hd.html

    3. Re:Application available to public by CerebusUS · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, see you missed it again.

      this allows you to play HD-DVDs on your PC

      The only HD DVD content there is right now? Movies. There's NO software available for your PC to play those movies. So you can hook up the drive, you can access the drive, you can look at the data structure on an HD-DVD movie, but you can't actually play the movie that's there.

      When you buy this device, it comes with an installation disc for your 360. That installation disc loads the software HD-DVD player onto your 360... the drive itself doesn't know anything about how to play those movies. Hooking this drive up to your PC will not let watch that HD-DVD King Kong movie you rented from netflix.

      Clearer?

    4. Re:Application available to public by Red+Flayer · · Score: 2, Funny

      No driver, got it... thanks.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    5. Re:Application available to public by Rakishi · · Score: 4, Informative

      Uh, RTFA? WinDVD 8 seems to play HD-DVDs just fine.

  5. Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Funny
    Tho, To me ive seen more Blu-ray discs being sold then DVD-HD discs, tho i only watch the discovery channel now of days

    Man, you sound like the anti-Baysian stuff I see at the bottom of spam nowadays.

    (laugh, it's a joke ;-)

    Cheers
    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. uneazysilence.com was winner... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...most prophetic slashdotted domain name of 2006.

  7. Hardly surprising, really by Samir+Gupta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The site paints this to be a cool hack that MS never intended, but really, Microsoft may have always intended for this to happen officially in the future. They already officially support Xbox 360 controller use on Windows, for instance and have released drivers. This is the logical next step.

    Really, it's part of their strategy to converge the 360 and Windows gaming worlds together... witness the recent reorganization into a single games division, for instance.

    --
    -- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
    1. Re:Hardly surprising, really by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I have a hunch that if this were to happen, it would only be supported under Vista.

      --
      This guy's the limit!
  8. Re:it's all in the pricing by Kenja · · Score: 5, Informative

    "I've never even seen an actual computer monitor (not LCD TV/monitor) that can display in full HD"

    You've never seen a computer able to display 1920x1080?

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  9. Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray by thejrwr · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm only 10 years old, my grammer is not the best yet,

  10. Cheapest HD-DVD player? What? by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This may have created the cheapest HD-DVD player on the market to date.
    Excuse me, but last time I checked, a computer running Windows XP wasn't free. Some people have Macs, others have PCs running Linux/BSD/etc.

    Saying that it's the cheapest HD-DVD player because you can hack it to work with a PC running Windows XP is as stupid as saying it's the cheapest HD-DVD player because you only have to connect it to your Xbox 360.

    1. Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player? What? by Control+Group · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is a fair point, and you're certainly not wrong. But I think there's some value in the comment, since I'm pretty sure the penetration of computers running XP is three orders of magnitude higher than the penetration of the XBox 360.

      So, yes, it's only cheapest if you already own a PC running XP, but that includes an awful lot of people - most of whom don't have 360. So, for them, it could be the cheapest HD-DVD player available.

      Nonetheless, you're right; presenting it as an absolute statement is poor logic.

      --

      Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
  11. Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm only 10 years old...

    Which means you obviously get out a lot to stores that'd have BluRay and HD-DVD titles. Y'know, some places put them way up on the third or fourth shelf, so you may not have been able to see them...

  12. Re:it's all in the pricing by The+Warlock · · Score: 2, Informative

    Lots of computer monitors can display 720p, and some of the more high-end ones can display 1080p. After all, 720p is just 1280x720 resolution. Computers have been doing better than that for quite some time (although it's a big step above the 640x480 that a standard def TV does).

    --
    I've upped my standards, so up yours.
  13. Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray by thejrwr · · Score: 2

    no, but i was mostly looking for DVD ads and such, i browse the internet ALOT too, and i noticed ALOT more blu-ray ads then HD-DVD, tho some times they would offer both

  14. Not really news by skyman8081 · · Score: 3, Informative

    There was a post on AVS Forum by a member who works at MS not too long ago about using the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive on a PC. His reply that It isn't supported only in the sense that MS didn't test it for the PC, but there was nothing specifically being done to prevent it being used on a PC. So I'm really not surprised that it is being done this quickly to be perfectly honest.

    --
    Two Roommates and a Boyfriend, updates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
  15. Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray by jonnythan · · Score: 4, Informative

    HD DVD discs are outselling Blu-Ray discs by a large margin, at least at Amazon.

    http://www.thedvdwars.com/index.cfm

  16. Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The price of a player has to sting though, they should have called it "sting ray" and then I would have bought one just out of respect for ridding us of that irritating Irwin fella.

  17. Re:it's all in the pricing by jonnythan · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are a lot of monitors that are HDCP compatible.

    I have one.

    The other trick is more having a graphics card that is HDCP compatible. Those are hard to come by, but most of the newer ones are.

  18. No doubt MSFT will "patch" against it by lawaetf1 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since I'm sure the EULA prohibits one from tampering with the hardware of the X360, I'm sure M$ will patch XP to disable any such hack. Get it to work on Linux though... /didn't RTFA, can't.

    --
    CommentBot 0.7a running with args "-module irritate,disagree -target random"
    1. Re:No doubt MSFT will "patch" against it by Sancho · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except that allegedly, there's no benefit to the 360 HD-DVD drive for gaming. The sole purpose is so that you can watch HD-DVDs. If Microsoft isn't making their money back on licensing and peripherals (which is how they can sell the 360 at a loss and still end up making a profit). It's unlikely that they're selling the HD-DVD drive at a loss since there is no peripheral market specific to the drive+360, nor will they get revenue from licenses for developing for the drive+360 (because games aren't supposed to use this drive).

      It boils down to this: Microsoft is either releasing the drive at a loss to compete with Sony/promote HD-DVD over Bluray, in which case they shouldn't care what people connect the drive to, or they're selling it at a price point where they can make a profit on it, in which case they shouldn't care what people connect the drive to.

  19. Re:it's all in the pricing by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm not sure it's even good for that. The content is encrypted differently than what is on a standard DVD so the current flock of rippers won't be able to rip them. I'm not even sure that there are some HD rippers in the works or what there status is.

    --

    Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  20. Re:it's all in the pricing by Malc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My Sony 19" G400 monitor from the year 2000 officially goes to 1800x1440. That's HD. It can 720p. It's just a little shy of 1080i/p, but then it's the wrong aspect ratio anyway.

    From my personal experience, a Dell 2407 does HD. Not a bad price either. The controller chip has problems with a 1080 signal though, even though it supports the resolution. The recent BenQ FP241W can do 1080p, but it doesn't do 1:1 pixel mapping, and unfortunately stretches 16:9 1080p image to 16:10. Sounds like a firmware issue to me. These are popular affordable computer monitors. There are definitely computer monitors that can do this, unless you're living in a cave.

  21. Why is the drive priced so low? by speedphreak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is the drive priced low to act as a Microsoft subsidized loss-leader to help establish the HD-DVD format. Or, is the hardware really that inexpensive, and the vendors are milking the early adopters for all they're worth?

  22. XBOX "loses" money for Microsoft by green+pizza · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All in all, Xbox has lost $4+ billion for MS.

    The XBOX division of Microsoft has lost a lot of money, but it can be argued that XBOX has actually helped Microsoft in the long run.

    Think of XBOX as a combination of Marketing and Insurance. By selling the XBOX, Microsoft ensures that their name and their products will be in even more stores and homes. By including Media Center Extender features in XBOX, Microsoft has a better chance of selling the Media Center version of Windows XP. By taking a huge chunk of the game market, Microsoft weakens Sony and Nintendo.

    And the big one:

    Ensuring a strong Direct X following. Most, if not all, XBOX games use Direct X libraries. There are only two platforms that can use true Direct X: Windows and XBOX. By keeping programmers on Direct X, Microsoft ensures that games will remain on Windows/XBOX and will difficult to port to other consoles and other OSes. The last thing Microsoft wants is developers to begin using cross-platform libraries which could allow for an OS transition sometime in the future. Besides, XBOX simply helps promote Direct X. Think of it: "Use Direct X, easily run your games on the most popular desktop OS and the second most popular game console without a major re-write!".

    XBOX has been $4 Billion well spent. Expect iZunes to be a similar venture.

    As a side example, consider Firefox vs IE 7. If you find yourself spending a majority of your computing time using Web 2.0 applications via Firefox, why use Windows at all? At that point you may as well just use Linux or FreeBSD to host your Firefox client, no need to spend money on Firefox. However, if your web app only works on IE 7, or works best on IE 7, then you have a soild reason to remain on Windows/IE7 platform.

  23. Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray by ystar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    dumb kid? browsing /. at 10 (even if it's just for ps3 info - there's still some exposure to the rest of the tech world) probably means this kid is tech-savvy enough to trounce a lot of the adults I know (and, i'm afraid, with better spelling too). ps dude, i go to sucky old harvard (pleeeease don't consider this showing off, that would be like gloating about being incarcerated) and i don't even meet folks here that would correct us "young adults" with the callousness you seem to be coming off with (which i'll give you the benefit of the doubt over, as sometimes it's hard to infer tone from the interweb), but even if you're annoyed by a kid, wouldn't you feel worse if you made his or her day bad by acting upon that emotion? cmon, nobody wants to ruin a kid's day.

  24. Re:So where do I .... by twistedsymphony · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're right that HD-DVD is not Blu-Ray but HD-DVD is also not "just more layer on top of existing DVD format"

    HD-DVD uses a blue laser just like Blu-Ray, the Video discs uses the same codecs as Blu-Ray. The biggest differences is the location of the data layer in the plastic substrate. Blu-Ray's is located closer to the edge with only a .1mm protective layer of of the substrate while HD-DVD is the same distance as traditional DVDs with .6mm of protective layer. being closer to the edge allows Blu-Ray's laser to view the data layer at a higher resolution and thus they can squeeze more data in there per layer. But with a thinner layer of substrate it leaves the disc more prone to physical damage which can also lead to lower production yields.

    HD-DVD has more in common with Blu-Ray then it does with DVD...

  25. Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray by popeye9000 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, HD DVD outsells Blu-Ray about 11 to 1, according the Amazon.com stats. Toshiba reports that brick and mortar stores favor HD DVD over Blu-Ray by at least 3 to 1.