is it possible to copy a movie dvd to xbox hdd and play it from there ? i know nothing of these media player and such for xbox . any help would be much appreciated ... all i want it to copy a movie to hdd and play it from there w/o the dvd in dvdrom

Yep, get Xbox Media Center, then an app called Dvd2xbox (best ripper ever), and edit the ini to put the movies where you want them. If you have no clue how to do any of that then you have about a days reading to do.