X360 Xbox 360 HD-DVD player

[Arcadia]

I watched a video on YouTube, where a guy tried to make the "Ultimate Xbox 360", and was woefully disappointed. Basically, he attached an HD-DVD player through USB, out in a larger HDD, and called it a day. But it got me thinking, is it possible to install the HD-DVD player internally? I hear it couldn't play games, only movies but that's fine with me.

 

[Dans34]

prom what I remember the drive has the same mounting posts and the actual internal drives , so I bet the idea was atleast discussed at MS at somepoint

 

[ShakeMadMan]

modding is needed. just so happeneds i have a hd dvd. it's beat up but i can take pics if needed. also willing to sell it. i don't know OBO. just let me know. thank you. you all have a one

 

[Americandad]

iirc there was a problem marrying the drive to the motherboard.

 

[ShakeMadMan]

iirc there was a problem marrying the drive to the motherboard.

nice. did not know that. thanks for the info

 

[JustAnyone]

iirc there was a problem marrying the drive to the motherboard.

probably requires rewriting dvd key onto it? but afaik if you dont marry normal dvd drive to your motherboard you cant only play games on it, only watch movies what OP wants

 

[JustAnyone]

would like to get one someday and verify this theory (not now though)

 

[Americandad]

probably requires rewriting dvd key onto it? but afaik if you dont marry normal dvd drive to your motherboard you cant only play games on it, only watch movies what OP wants

Is that true? I've got no clue tbh, but I like the idea. Hopefully someone will figure it out. Would like iXtreme for the hddvd too

 

[Arcadia]

probably requires rewriting dvd key onto it? but afaik if you dont marry normal dvd drive to your motherboard you cant only play games on it, only watch movies what OP wants

Well being able to play games would be nice, but it's not a deal breaker not being able to either.

 

[cta]

Not to you, maybe. But an "Ultimate" XBOX that won't play games - hardly is.

Before someone says "you can play them off of a hard drive" - true, but then you could just rip those HD-DVDs too and forego optical drives altogether.

 

[Arcadia]

Not to you, maybe.

Exactly, for me. You can build your own ultimate Xbox 360 if you wish.

 

[Americandad]

Exactly, for me. You can build your own ultimate Xbox 360 if you wish.

Peace, love and understanding boys.
Namaste.

 

[JustAnyone]

bumping this thread, i actually got hd dvd a few weeks ago and wanted to verify my theory
while drive exterior was definitely designed to get inside the console sometime (look at the pic, see those two black things? they were used to orient xbox dvd properly, but in this chassis theyre unused.)

Sadly my theory got debunked when i saw what connector it uses (pic below)

It kind of reminds me of old laptop dvd connector, but its not exactly the same.
Internals also look proprietary

so yeah, without some major modifications you cannot use it inside the console

 

[gladiator5]

The dvd firmware should be dumped, and compared to the other Toshiba drive firmware thats being used in the 360

And how different is the board compared to the thoshiba pcb in the other dvd drive.

 

[Edward_2452]

prom what I remember the drive has the same mounting posts and the actual internal drives , so I bet the idea was atleast discussed at MS at somepoint

Did they not make a prototype x360 that could play HD DVD'S ? My brother said something about them doing it.

 

[stuntpenguin]

The dvd firmware should be dumped, and compared to the other Toshiba drive firmware thats being used in the 360

And how different is the board compared to the thoshiba pcb in the other dvd drive.

Definitely this. I don't know much about 360 but A good first step might be getting one of these drives linked up to a desktop and tweaking the firmware to be able to read retail discs. Beyond that, the 360 kernel can be patched enough to not care about drive pairings, no? If pairing keys isn't an issue, maybe some other hd-dvd drive could be used as long as it can be firmware modded to read retail discs. I have no clue how the MS media player would handle any of this. It has the codecs I'm sure.

HD DVD video can be encoded using VC-1, H. 264/MPEG-4 AVC, or H. 262/MPEG-2

Ordered one just for fun. Going to try dump that firmware.

while drive exterior was definitely designed to get inside the console sometime

JustAnyone, I'm not sure how to properly quote you in my edit. It's possible that M$ decided to reuse the chassis design to save some moolah. It's equally possible that they did in fact plan to use these in retail consoles. It's a logical step for an intermediate (slimmer, more powerful, feature packed) console needing another selling point. I'm pretty hyped to look at this. I'm kind of a fiend for USB driver bugs so this is a home run as far as weekend projects go for me haha

 

[JustAnyone]

Beyond that, the 360 kernel can be patched enough to not care about drive pairings, no? If pairing keys isn't an issue, maybe some other hd-dvd drive could be used as long as it can be firmware modded to read retail discs.

pretty sure no one has done this yet even for normal drives

I have no clue how the MS media player would handle any of this. It has the codecs I'm sure.

AFAIK the player (which is stored on 256mb nand on board which plugs to the back of HD-DVD drive) should have all the codecs, disc drive is just a disc drive. You can also plug it to a PC and use it as a generic cd/dvd/hd-dvd reader (sadly all software players nowadays dont have hd-dvd support)

 

[Americandad]

all software players nowadays

MPC-BE/MPC-HC/VLC all play HDDVD video fine, they won't play the disc menus though and you'll need AnyDVD or DVDFab because the discs are encrypted.

I also recently got one of these but got super disappointed because the laser on it is dying. So I stuffed it into the nearest drawer to forget about my disappointment.

 

[JustAnyone]

MPC-BE/MPC-HC/VLC all play HDDVD video fine, they won't play the disc menus though and you'll need AnyDVD or DVDFab because the discs are encrypted.

I also recently got one of these but got super disappointed because the laser on it is dying. So I stuffed it into the nearest drawer to forget about my disappointment.

thats weird, tried playing with MPC-HC and VLC but both refused to play anything

 

[HI_RICKY]

360 HDVD is IDE ver , look custom design ,but still can find information from real Toshiba drive...
here is 3 more on Toshiba .....
IDE SD-H802A
notebook IDE SD-L802
SATA SD-H802