Xbox 360's HD-DVD Addon Opened and tested on XP, Vista, Mac OSX Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Xbox 360's HD-DVD Addon Opened and tested on XP, Vista, Mac OSX Posted by XanTium | November 13 17:59 EST

The guys over at uneasysilence.com talk about how to use the Xbox360 HD-DVD addon on a PC. In case you missed the news Saturday on xbox-scene, Toshiba drivers have been released on net net that will allow Windows XP to recognize the Xbox360 HD-DVD addon if you connect it via USB with your PC. The guys over at 360insider.net even say Windows Vista has the drivers built-in. Apparently the drive will be recognized and automatically installed on Windows Vista. To test if you can not just read the content (fileview) of HD-DVD discs but also play HD-DVD movies, uneasysilence.com installed WinDVD 8 that has support to playback HD-DVD movies on Windows (update: apparently only the japanese version of WinDVD can playback HD-DVD atm). The HD-DVD movies played just fine on their Windows XP using the $200 Xbox360 HD-DVD Addon. They also connected the addon with Mac OSX ... it was automatically recognized, and when a DVD disc was inserted the "DVD Player" application included in the OS started doing its thing. However they could not test HD-DVD movies as Mac OSX has no player for these discs yet. They also opened on the Xbox360 HD-DVD Xbox 360 Addon. It looks like the drive found in the case, made by Toshiba, uses a non-standard plug (update: apparently it is a standard laptop CD/DVD drive connector (mini ATAPI) which can easily be converted to IDE, sry for the mistake). Here are some pictures (more here): Read More: uneasysilence.com, 360insider.net and xbox-scene.com

[MickRaider]

That would be great for a media center PC. Are there any other HD dvd players anywhere near 200?

[appleguru]

Regarding OS X not having software to play HD DVDs.. not (entirely) true. DVD Player does indeed play back HD DVDs... However, there aren't currently any drivers for the toshiba/microsoft drive on the system.

DVD player will playback VIDEO_TS and HVDVD_TS folders from the hard drive.. (Namely used for playing back DVDs created with DVD Studio Pro)... So, it looks like, at least on the OS X camp, we're just waiting on device drivers (and possibly support for physical drives in DVD Player; i don't know if that have that in already or not).

[Steve 101]

Whot spec PC would you need to watch hd dvd? I thought it needed lot of power.

[bhazard]

They forgot to mention you need the japanese version of windvd8, and it only outputs at 960x540 as of right now.

Stick with your 360 until the software is improved.

[ILLusions0fGrander]

960 by 540? is that a common resolution for anything? first ive seen it

ah.. google tells me its a projector res.

This post has been edited by ILLusions0fGrander: Nov 14 2006, 12:01 AM

[edwinmcdunlap]

Hmm, very interesting.

If proper playback software were available, I'd gladly pay $200 for the 360 HD DVD drive

[MtG2k]

Unless I miss my guess that connector actually is a standard connector.. looks like what is used for Laptop CD/DVD Rom Drives

[Trex666]

Unless I miss my guess that connector actually is a standard connector.. looks like what is used for Laptop CD/DVD Rom Drives

tru.dat

[Doffo]

Cool!

If it will work both on the xbox 360 and the PC, it should be definately worth the $200.

[crasher0255]

Unless I miss my guess that connector actually is a standard connector.. looks like what is used for Laptop CD/DVD Rom Drives

That what i was thinking too...i definitely believe its a standard power/data connector for several laptop cd/dvd drives, i have specifically seen that connector in a bunch of Dell laptops (Inspirions) and several others. I think if just a 50 pin EIDE / ATAPI connector, MS might have changed around the pins though.

[bucko]

It was only a matter of time before someone opened it.

It's nice to see it working on the PC to, in fact it's nice to see M$ allowing all there 360 accessories to work on the PC (though I know a driver was made from someone else for this).

Hell if HD-DVD wins just think how much this drive could take of for the PC market. If I remember correctly, Vista actually supports Blu-Ray and HD-DVD playback natively.

Maybe HD-DVD drives/players and software will start coming down in price now if it's so open, unlike blu-ray...

And I guess this is good for laptop owners to. If they have a powerful enough laptop they could attach this to it cheaply just like you carry your external hard drive around with you.

[crasher0255]

If MS didnt change how the connector is wired and it is the standard laptop CD/DVD drive connector im thinking of, an adapter similar to this might be an easy way to turn that hd dvd drive into a cheap internal hd dvd drive for a PC



Convert Slim CD/DVD (50pin laptop type) to IDE (40pin desktop type)

[rmorris003]

now if it reads games too then someone can hack it so we can rip games lol

[vengeancegoon]

Excuse my ignorance on this one, I don't have HD yet so haven't been following this. What's the chances of swapping the 360 internal drive out and putting one of these in? Will game be read by this drive or have they hobbled that?