bit-tech.net

Use Xbox 360 HD-DVD on PC

Published on 14th November 2006 by Wil Harris

The Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive laid bare.

US gamers are just starting to get their hands on the HD-DVD add-on drive for the Xbox 360. The drive, which costs $199, allows users to play next-gen movies through their next-gen console.

The add-on unit is basically a 5.25" drive in a USB housing, and enterprising hackers have discovered that you can hook it up to a PC and play HD movies through that.

The hack seems to be as simple as finding a generic HD-DVD drive driver, then getting PowerDVD or WinDVD with the HD-DVD upgrade on, then plugging in the drive over USB and sticking a disc in. Hardly rocket science!

Presumably, you could even remove the drive from the casing and plug it directly into your PC over SATA, mounting it in a spare drive bay and earning some serious kudos.

The guys at UneasySilence, who discovered the hack, have also got some good pictures of the drive stripped down.

Give us your thoughts on the add-on, and the hack, over in the forums.

16 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

DougEdey 14th November 2006, 10:31

Its just a UDF 2.5 Driver, standard in Vista.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEyFkZVEEyNPhTZIHr.php

will. 14th November 2006, 11:41

so basically, this could be a seriously cheap way of watching hd content on your pc.... noice! :d

rupbert 14th November 2006, 11:46

I imagine your going to have a pretty powerful computer to get smooth playback at 1080i, the Xbox 360 uses all three cores pretty heavily to view a movie...

DXR_13KE 14th November 2006, 11:48

hmmmm.... for $199 i can get a piece of HD hardware using HD-DVDs, i think MS intended it to be this way to F Sony...... if HD-DVD players like this become mainstream, i can see blue-ray players fail.

Cthippo 14th November 2006, 11:48

If it was a burner, then sure, but otherwise, no thanks. I need somthing to back up my porn collection, not watch it :p

mikeuk2004 14th November 2006, 13:00

When are PC HD DVD drives coming to the market??

orb 14th November 2006, 13:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by rupbert
I imagine your going to have a pretty powerful computer to get smooth playback at 1080i, the Xbox 360 uses all three cores pretty heavily to view a movie...

My PC(Barton 2500+ and a x1600x pro) can play 1080i and 1080p smoothly, i really doubt it uses all 3 cores due to HD content relying on graphics more then CPU power.

rupbert 14th November 2006, 13:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by orb
My PC(Barton 2500+ and a x1600x pro) can play 1080i and 1080p smoothly, i really doubt it uses all 3 cores due to HD content relying on graphics more then CPU power.

The HD-DVD drive playback is done using software:

Quote:

The Xbox 360 HD DVD Player, for the most part, is an entirely software based implementation. Other players on the market have specialized chips (called DSPs) that decode things like H.264, MPEG, VC1, DTS, Dolby Digital, and other codecs. Much like how backwards compatibility for Xbox 1 works on Xbox 360, the heavy parts of HD DVD are all done on Xbox 360's triple-core CPU.

Quote:

All 6 of Xbox 360's hardware threads are hard at work while playing back an HD DVD. At the moment, the player software pushes Xbox 360 harder than any other.

I imagine on a computer though it will have to be decoded in hardware as it won't have access to code...

allforcarrie 14th November 2006, 13:09

pwnd again.

rupbert 14th November 2006, 13:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by allforcarrie
pwnd again.

M4RTIN 14th November 2006, 17:04

i thought ati were specifically making a chip for the hd player to decode H.264.

atanum141 14th November 2006, 20:30

im sooooooooo getting one, also a nice person posted on that site page and said that it is possible to mount the drive internally within the PC. As the connection is something used in Lappys and so there is a IDE adaptor avail to buy and so......we have a fully working internal drive!!

My old barton couldnt run proper 1080p content, the thing was a picture slide show......if anyone says they can is most likely watching it compressed with x.264.

Tho im pretty sure anyone with a dual core cpu and adecent amount of ram will have no probs.

M4RTIN 14th November 2006, 20:33

however the guy did mention a x1600.. the x1000 line was designed to decode HD much better than just using a cpu. my old x1800 used to breeze through 1080p

Bindibadgi 14th November 2006, 20:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by atanum141
im sooooooooo getting one, also a nice person posted on that site page and said that it is possible to mount the drive internally within the PC. As the connection is something used in Lappys and so there is a IDE adaptor avail to buy and so......we have a fully working internal drive!!

My old barton couldnt run proper 1080p content, the thing was a picture slide show......if anyone says they can is most likely watching it compressed with x.264.

Tho im pretty sure anyone with a dual core cpu and adecent amount of ram will have no probs.

You need to use the hardware decoder software and use the gpu. I can't decode even 720p properly on a 3GHz p4 without gpu help, 1080 is out of the question.
I can see how these can be pretty cheap but playback only?? Need a burner asapkkthx

atanum141 14th November 2006, 21:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
You need to use the hardware decoder software and use the gpu. I can't decode even 720p properly on a 3GHz p4 without gpu help, 1080 is out of the question.
I can see how these can be pretty cheap but playback only?? Need a burner asapkkthx

would the gpu need HDCP?

wak 16th November 2006, 12:00

I'm thinking of HTPCs now...