Making your Xbox 360 HD DVD drive PC-compatible

by Ross Miller { Nov 13th 2006 at 1:55PM }

Experimentalists at UNEASYsilence have outlined how you can turn the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive into a Windows-compatible HD DVD drive -- all you need are the proper drivers. If that wasn't enough, they disassembled the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive to find the exact model (Toshiba HD-DVD OEM drive) and to see if there might be some way to connect the drive directly to a computer, as opposed to using the USB connection (there's not, due to the "strangest plug ... we have ever seen" on the back of the Toshiba drive).

Mac users may be delighted to know that Apple computers instantly recognize the HD DVD drive when plugged in, but unfortunately no player exists that can play HD DVD in MacOS exists yet; however, DVD works fine and it's only a matter of time before someone writes the proper software. UNEASYsilence also has a plethora of pictures from when they tore apart the drive, if you're curious as to the inner workings of the latest Xbox 360 toy.

Tags: hd dvd, HdDvd

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

crono141 @ Nov 13th 2006 2:05PM

So does such a driver exist? if so, where can I get it? I'll join the next gen format war for 200 dollars (no360 here).

mykie @ Nov 13th 2006 2:07PM

Apparently, the inside of Xbox360 HD-DVD drive the looks just like Firefox's "Unable to connect" page.

Ritz @ Nov 13th 2006 2:20PM

Wow, way to win, Microsoft D:

I was thinking of getting the PS3 for bluray, even though the current set of games didn't really catch my attention. But, if I can get my hands on a high-def video player for my computer for just $200? Well, what can I say, I am sold =(

John @ Nov 13th 2006 2:24PM

thats actually very cool!

score one for microsoft!

lol

Riine @ Nov 13th 2006 2:27PM

This is good news for the many OS X'ers. Now there just needs to be a driver and the hope that you can stream from a drive over to the iTV (maybe that is confirmed, not sure) and BAMM! HD-DVD for $200. Sweetness.

John @ Nov 13th 2006 2:32PM

also i heard that the hddvd drive pushes the 360 to the limit using all 6 threads so this is suprising that it worked on an ordinary pc!

Dot @ Nov 13th 2006 2:36PM

"So does such a driver exist?"
http://localhostr.com/files/c46c39057dc3fbe73d9f.rar

I am not sure you can play video HD-DVDs via that though.

Pete C @ Nov 13th 2006 2:38PM

I don't understand. I thought they needed over 4 million lines of custom code to get this working on the 360's PowerPC architechture. How can a driver make it work on a Intel desktop?

Dave @ Nov 13th 2006 2:38PM

the mysterious connector on the drive is just a mini atapi port. It's normally used for laptop drive according to alexcotterilldrew on the uneasysilence site.

http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2006/11/8303/

Silver Gecko @ Nov 13th 2006 2:47PM

This is just a driver file so the drive is can be read by the computer. The 4 million lines of code you heard was to actually play HD DVD movies. Drivers and software are very, very different and shouldn't be confused.

KaneRobot @ Nov 13th 2006 2:54PM

Makes sense...by making this drive attractive to Home Theater PC afficionados, it expands their potential market. I'd guess Vista will work out of the box with this thing as long as your PC can handle it.

crono141 @ Nov 13th 2006 2:59PM

Thats a good theory to test, KaneRobot. Any joystiq staff have Vista RC1 or RC2 on their PC's to see if vista supports it?

lothar @ Nov 13th 2006 3:02PM

Crazy,

People are talking about format wars, now a $200 player that can be a solution for home theaters, HD-DVD has been getting nothing but good news since this format war started. Anyone with with a Home Theater PC can put this bad boy in their system and be rocking in no time.

Phranctoast @ Nov 13th 2006 3:06PM

Its a small market of people who would really want this on their PC. My friend has a Sony HD camcorder and when you play the hd video on a pc it chugs along. I can only imagine it will be similar with this unti faster pc's are around.

If the add on had the ability to burn, that would be really impressive.

Sean Bryant @ Nov 13th 2006 3:15PM

I will test on Vista when I get home this evening. See if I can get it to show up by default and maaayyybe play since VC1 codec is built into Vista.

iceatcs @ Nov 13th 2006 3:17PM

But you need to have quite high end PC for get it fully work.

My father got HD-DVD writer for his work company, but realise have to buy all new computers.

Nick @ Nov 13th 2006 3:23PM

This actually justifies the purpose of the drive. Now, I can watch movies in my room on my 21" computer monitor, then easily transport it downstairs and watch on the home theater. Quick question though, what kind of computer do you need to be able to handle this thing?

Phranctoast @ Nov 13th 2006 3:30PM

I forgot to mention this. the 360 "should" be able to rip the hd dvd to the HDD, and then share it across a network using mandatory managed copy so that all pc's on that network will be able to play the movie. This would eliminate the need to move this device from room to room. This feature is also part of the blu ray spec.

SilverSlide @ Nov 13th 2006 3:37PM

Don't forget also that the 360 has completely different processor and architecture so the drivers and codecs were written from scratch, much of this work is already available for the PC (with hardware acceleration)by various vendors/open source.

freecajunlove @ Nov 13th 2006 3:39PM

"Its a small market of people who would really want this on their PC. My friend has a Sony HD camcorder and when you play the hd video on a pc it chugs along. I can only imagine it will be similar with this unti faster pc's are around."

I'd be willing to blame that on the Sony camcorder. There's a reason why most people prefer Samsung and Cannon in the camcorder market

Phranctoast @ Nov 13th 2006 3:46PM

20. No. it not the camera. The file was uploaded to the pc. If yu play in through the camera its fine.

Its the same concept as playing the HD content thru the apple movie trailers site. You need a real good pc to play the content without a bunch of hipcups.

iceatcs @ Nov 13th 2006 3:57PM

Phranctoast

yep.. it is correct. It is quite lagging to play movie with Geforce 6200 with AMD 2400.

Steve @ Nov 13th 2006 4:02PM

I got the HD DVD for 360 today, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting much. I wanted to try it out and fully expected to return it to the store after trying it. However, after watching a few minutes of King Kong I am keeping it. The quality is amazing. The difference is huge, and this is all on my 720p tv, not even 1080p. I really didn't think the difference would be that big, but for $200 this HD DVD player is a steal. Now, if I could get it to work on the PC that could be interesting too...

MaulerX @ Nov 13th 2006 4:15PM

Boy,

with some people criticizing M$ for having an external drive for the 360, this could turn into a blessing in disguise. There is no denying that for $200 this thing's appeal has just quadrupled.

Dot @ Nov 13th 2006 4:20PM

@17: Just to make a note on the topic of HD video on PCs: any PC meeting the recommended specs for Vista should be easily able to play HD video without any hiccups. So, in January, when Vista is released, most newly sold PCs will easily do it.

John @ Nov 13th 2006 4:27PM

ooo ive just had an idea!

joystiq should hook their hddvd drive up to their ps3 and monitor the results

thatd be LOL if sony gow pwned

lol

raaj @ Nov 13th 2006 4:34PM

Just make sure that you have a HDCP compatible video card and monitor, otherwise you will only be able to see 960x540 - due to a limitation imposed by the only HD-DVD player software available - WinDVD8. The players and the discs themselves don't impose these limitations because ICT has not yet been set, but the smarta$$e$ at WinDVD chose to muck this up for us users.

Autocrawler @ Nov 13th 2006 4:36PM

An extra definitive update on the topic:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/13/1756229
"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."

Pal @ Nov 13th 2006 4:37PM

There must be a pencil placed under the back of that HD-DVD drive, since the perspective is wonky. Or you could clear the upper portion of the HD-DVD drive image ;)

KBrew @ Nov 13th 2006 4:47PM

All we need is someone to get this working in Linux. Put Yellow Dog on your PS3 and you've got BR and HD-DVD with one box. Genius.

Jake @ Nov 13th 2006 5:34PM

Neat, but am I right to say that you can't actually buy the HD-DVD drive, plug it into your PC, purchase an HD-DVD movie at Walmart, then play? It will read but can't actually play the movie? I am computer illiterate.

karmakaze @ Nov 13th 2006 5:46PM

You CANNOT watch movies with this drive on anything other than the 360!

Unless someone cracks the new HDDVD encryption that is, and that won't be nearly as easy as it was for DVDs. Without the decryption keys (which are included in that 4 million lines of code you don't have), it's just a data drive.

So, in other words, do NOT buy this drive thinking you'll be able to watch HD movies on your PC or Mac, because you'll be very disappointed.

See http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8880622&&#post8880622 for full results - lots of nice pics.

Bottom line - install Toshiba driver on XP, install WinDvd8 and watch any HD-DVD movie you want. It seems WinDvd8 is limited to 960x540 in the current release, though.