Using the XBOX 360 HD DVD player on a PC

[the_importer]

Hi there,


I'm making a new media PC for my living room. I've read that you can use the XBOX 360 HD DVD player as a cheap HD DVD player for your PC by connecting it to a USB2 port. I'm interested, but I want to make sure of the following:


1- Will it work on Windows XP SP2?

2- Is it possible to use Media Player Classic to view HD DVD movies?

3- If Yes to question 2, will I need any (free) Codec to view the HD DVD movies in Media Player Classic?

4- Will the XBOX 360 HD DVD enable standard DVD playback and allow files to be read from a data CD or DVD (I would like the drive to be the only optical drive on that computer).

5- What the minimum requirement for a PC to be able to read HD DVDs (CPU, RAM, Video Card)?



Thank you for your time

[Baldrick]

The htpc/media center forum section is better for this. Moving you.

1. Yep.
2. Not if you want menus and such. You might be able to just play evo files if you have a h264 or vc-1 codec but I would use PowerDVD.
4. Don't know.
5. http://www.cyberlink.com/english/support/bdhd_support/system_requirement.jsp

[the_importer]

The htpc/media center forum section is better for this. Moving you.

1. Yep.
2. Not if you want menus and such. You might be able to just play evo files if you have a h264 or vc-1 codec but I would use PowerDVD.
4. Don't know.
5. http://www.cyberlink.com/english/support/bdhd_support/system_requirement.jsp

Oh man, I just downloaded CyberLink Advisor to see if my main PC (one that's more powerful than the one I'll make) is capable to play HD DVDs and $%^# No!

My main PC is a 2.8 P4 and my Video Card is an FX5900 and according to CyberLink Advisor, it's not enough, so $%^# that! Man, this is typical, an HD DVD player is nothing but a dumb underpowered computer and yet, it can play HD DVDs. The same thing with DVD Recorders, they are retarded compared to PCs and yet, they can record on the fly and finalize the recording in seconds while a PC will need about 200Gig for storage (on the fly not recommended for PCs) and will take 2 hours to finalize the recording due to compression and $@!#.

Life's not fair

[rallynavvie]

Can't the 360 be used as a media center extender still? I mean you won't be able to play HD-DVD on your computer but at least you'll be able to use your networked 360 to playback content from your Media Center PC.

[yoda313]

Can't the 360 be used as a media center extender still? I mean you won't be able to play HD-DVD on your computer but at least you'll be able to use your networked 360 to playback content from your Media Center PC.

Yes that is correct. Works great for that as well.