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Hacking XBox 360 HD-DVD To Play On XP

Posted by kdawson on Mon Nov 13, 2006 01:02 PM
from the cheap-HD dept.
Hardware Hacking XBox (Games) Entertainment
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."
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  • /.'d before /.'ing? (Score:4, Funny)

    by RingDev (879105) on Monday November 13 2006, @01:03PM (#16825888) Homepage Journal
    Wow, the link is dead before the article is even up.

    -Rick
  • 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.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        ... 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...
  • 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?
    • http://dict.die.net/hack/ [die.net]

      The first entry might just be what you were looking for.

    • Re:Astounding (Score:5, Insightful)

      by aiken_d (127097) <aiken&bondage,com> on Monday November 13 2006, @02:20PM (#16827040) Homepage
      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

      • Re:Astounding (Score:4, Interesting)

        by hal2814 (725639) on Monday November 13 2006, @02:38PM (#16827338)
        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.

  • Application available to public (Score:5, Informative)

    by Skaber (1017606) on Monday November 13 2006, @01:09PM (#16825970) Homepage
    Xboxhacker forums has links that points directly to the files. http://localhostr.com/files/c46c39057dc3fbe73d9f.r ar [localhostr.com] Xboxhacker points out that there is currently no available PC player for hddvd, so all you get is access to the dvd content.

    • Re:Application available to public (Score:4, Informative)

      by CerebusUS (21051) on Monday November 13 2006, @01:33PM (#16826348)
      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.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Red Flayer (890720)

        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.

        This is the part that you're missing... this allows you to play HD-DVDs on your PC... since there are no PC HD-DVD players, this is a new capability.

        As to

        The importnat parts are all done in software on the 360.

        Well, of course, unless you intend to watch a HD-DVD movie. The point isn't the games, it's the other HD-DVD content.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by CerebusUS (21051)
          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 i

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by masteroffm (1026700)
      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 [nvidia.com]
  • get a copy of BluRayDecryptor or anyBluRay or BluRayShrink?

    I would love to take the main movie and convert it into a nice HD mpeg4 for mediaportal system.

      • Re:So where do I .... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by twistedsymphony (956982) on Monday November 13 2006, @04:04PM (#16828668) Homepage
        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...

  • uneazysilence.com was winner... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 13 2006, @01:12PM (#16826032)
    ...most prophetic slashdotted domain name of 2006.

  • Hardly surprising, really (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Samir Gupta (623651) * on Monday November 13 2006, @01:13PM (#16826040) Homepage
    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.

  • Cheapest HD-DVD player? What? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Yvan256 (722131) on Monday November 13 2006, @01:16PM (#16826098) Homepage Journal
    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.

    • Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player? What? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Control Group (105494) * on Monday November 13 2006, @01:42PM (#16826472) Homepage
      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.

  • Not really news (Score:4, Informative)

    by skyman8081 (681052) <skyman8081@NOSpam.gmail.com> on Monday November 13 2006, @01:31PM (#16826326) Homepage
    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.

  • No doubt MSFT will "patch" against it (Score:3, Informative)

    by lawaetf1 (613291) on Monday November 13 2006, @01:47PM (#16826552)
    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.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Sancho (17056)
          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 suppose

  • Why is the drive priced so low? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by speedphreak (834189) on Monday November 13 2006, @02:19PM (#16827030)
    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?
    • Probably because it's the Xbox 360 itself that's doing most of the heavy lifting. All the HD-DVD add-on has to do is read the raw data off the disc and send it over to the 360 for processing.

    • Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray (Score:5, Funny)

      by gstoddart (321705) on Monday November 13 2006, @01:10PM (#16825990) Homepage
      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
      • I'm only 10 years old, my grammer is not the best yet,

        • Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray (Score:5, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 13 2006, @01:18PM (#16826118)
          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...
          • 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

    • Re:DVD-HD or Blu-ray (Score:5, Informative)

      by jonnythan (79727) on Monday November 13 2006, @01:41PM (#16826466) Homepage
      HD DVD discs are outselling Blu-Ray discs by a large margin, at least at Amazon.

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

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      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.

    • Re:it's all in the pricing (Score:5, Informative)

      by Kenja (541830) on Monday November 13 2006, @01:13PM (#16826042)
      "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?

      • Re:it's all in the pricing (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Malc (1751) on Monday November 13 2006, @02:03PM (#16826800)
        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.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by The Warlock (701535)
      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).

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by jonnythan (79727)
          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.
    • Like all things Xbox, MS is taking a loss in order to gain market share. That's the only way MS thinks that it can take on Sony which in already entrenched. If Xbox was a separate company, it would have gone bankrupt by now. All in all, Xbox has lost $4+ billion for MS.
      • What evidence do you have that the HD-DVD player is being sold at a loss?

        A lot of components needed for HD-dvd are not included in that player but are off-loaded to the 360/PC.

      • XBOX "loses" money for Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)

        by green pizza (159161) on Monday November 13 2006, @02:25PM (#16827104) Homepage
        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.
    • You must, however, remember that Microsoft sales the consoles at a loss.
    • Well, full HD is 1920x1080. Not too many monitors have that resolution natively. But once you get a 1280x1024 resolution monitor, you can display 720p resolution material natively [wikipedia.org]. You may be able to scale 1080P content down to your monitor's resolution. While 720P is not ideal, there is a remarkable difference. If you already have the monitor, this is the cheapest solution to watch HD movies on disc.

      Or, it's a $200 solution to for a HTPC. With HD DVD players occasionally available in the US $360-$400 range
      • Well, full HD is 1920x1080. Not too many monitors have that resolution natively.

        Here's one [apple.com] (actually, two: the 30" and the 23" one), and another [viewsonic.com], and another [samsung.com].

        I'd say that HD capable computer monitors are not all that difficult to find.

      • 24" iMac ($1,999) is 1920x1200; so is the 23" Apple display ($999) (and, of course, the 30" Apple display ($1,999) can do 2560x1600, where a 1920x1080 image is only taking up 50% of the screen). You're right, though, that most "widescreen" computer monitors go up to only 1680x1050. Then again, most "HD" TVs don't do a full 1920x1080, either, only the higher-end ones.

    • I have an eight year old CRT that I bought for $350 that will do 1080p. I also have a laptop that will do better (1920x1200) on a 15.1", and a standalone 20" LCD panels that will do that same resolution. You can pick up quite a few rather high quality LCD panels that will do 1920x1200 for around $400. Quite a few of my friends also have panels that are capable of 1080p, as well.

      Of course, none of us really intend to buy an HD-DVD drive, or a Blu-Ray drive, or any commercial HD content for quite a while.
    • But really, what's the point since I've never even seen an actual computer monitor (not LCD TV/monitor) that can display in full HD.

      Huh? my 19" LCD computer monitor at home can, hell the Dell Laptop I have can. Have you been in a concentration camp for the past 2-3 years?

      • Re:it's all in the pricing (Score:4, Informative)

        by Lord Apathy (584315) on Monday November 13 2006, @02:02PM (#16826784)

        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.

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