New Xbox 360: some questions?

pabh

Hi, I finally caved in and picked up a new xbox 360 elite on boxing day, trading the ps2 in for it. I have a few questions, that I'm not sure of the answers to, so I thought I'd ask here.

I picked up the xbox originals version of halo off of the store, this seems to be an ISO game that runs straight from my hdd. Is there any way in which it is possible to purchase newer games so that they function in this fashion, ie straight from the hdd instead of constantly using the noisy DVD drive? A similar question would be whether or not I can make the legally bought games I own work in this fashion?

Legacy

Nope and it may be possible, but not technically legal.

But that's all from me.

cliffski

That whole area is just too dodgy. the last thing you want is microsoft to ban your live account for fiddling with the box. in any case, swapping the discs is the only exercise gamers get

DarkPrimus

cliffski wrote: »

That whole area is just too dodgy. the last thing you want is microsoft to ban your live account for fiddling with the box. in any case, swapping the discs is the only exercise gamers get

Rock Band. Expert Drums.

Legacy

Make that any hard/expert drums.

Hard is still a decent workout. Though, I haven't been able to practice due to my pad being borked.

Bah.

Nexus Zero

I might as well ask this here, as I'm in a similar situation (new Xbox, so I guess the exact same situation).

I'm currently playing Mass Effect on an old 15" portable. It is hell. It was much better at home on my 21" even though it was SD, but I know I can do better. So, when I find a new flat and get my PC back, I'm going to hook it up to my monitor. Is it possible to connect my 5.1 PC speakers to the Xbox VGA cable? In used to have some kind of converter wire that would let me connect 2.1 speakers, but I've lost that and IIRC (my speakers have been unused for about 6 months due to moving around) the 5.1 setup requires 3 wires. How do I set this up?

mooshoepork

I'm gonna ask my question here too, I have made a thread in H/A, but can't seem to find an answer. All the programs I use don't work, and are too complicated.

Is there an easy way to convert .mkv, to WMV HD (or something the 360 plays), and keep 5.1 channel surround sound. So far, the easiest option seems to be "WME Assistant", but I'm sure there is a free option somewhere. What do you all use? Thanks

Mr_Grinch

pabh wrote: »

Hi, I finally caved in and picked up a new xbox 360 elite on boxing day, trading the ps2 in for it. I have a few questions, that I'm not sure of the answers to, so I thought I'd ask here.

I picked up the xbox originals version of halo off of the store, this seems to be an ISO game that runs straight from my hdd. Is there any way in which it is possible to purchase newer games so that they function in this fashion, ie straight from the hdd instead of constantly using the noisy DVD drive? A similar question would be whether or not I can make the legally bought games I own work in this fashion?

It's not possible as of yet. I doubt MS would be keen to offer any newer games for download, for starters the vast majority are 7gb and upwards. Whilst xbox originals are 4gb, I imagine they're not quite as popular as brand new retail game downloads would be. The increased strain on the service (Especially after the recent downtime) would likely be too much.

As for copying your own games to the Harddrive, I'm afraid as of now it can't be done. In the simplest of terms each game checks to see what kind of media it's running on, if it's not a pressed DVD then it won't boot. Altering any code on the disc to change this flag will break it's encryption, non-encrypted code will NOT run on an Xbox 360 (discounting recent linux hacks which are still in their infancy).

So, erm, no, sorry, it's not possible.

As for the VGA cable, I don't believe mine is an official one but it comes with the following for Audio:

5.1 Optical
Standard phono out.

If your soundcard supports an optical input then use that, that'll output the proper 5.1. Otherwise you're stuck use the phono out. Get yourself one of these:



And plug the headphone jack in to your line in, and connect the yellow and white (colours may vary!) to the standard phono out on your VGA cable. I think the most you'll get from that though is 2.1 (I could be mistaken).

::Edit:: To the above, I imagine Virtual Dub would be able to sort you out. I can't reach it at work but usually www.doom9.org has good advice on free video/audio encodes.

Nexus Zero

Thanks Grinch, I'll look into it whether I've got an optical in.

Mr_Grinch

Just in case you weren't sure, optical in should usually look like:



the holes on the right (between the USB port and the red phono port).

PatboyX

mooshoepork wrote: »

I'm gonna ask my question here too, I have made a thread in H/A, but can't seem to find an answer. All the programs I use don't work, and are too complicated.

Is there an easy way to convert .mkv, to WMV HD (or something the 360 plays), and keep 5.1 channel surround sound. So far, the easiest option seems to be "WME Assistant", but I'm sure there is a free option somewhere. What do you all use? Thanks

There is a website, I think videohelp or something like that full of guides on how to convert from pretty much any format to any other format. And you can sort guides by freeware utilities provided, etc. Although, I think Virtualdub is always one of the ones linked.

ginguskahn

mooshoepork wrote: »

I'm gonna ask my question here too, I have made a thread in H/A, but can't seem to find an answer. All the programs I use don't work, and are too complicated.

Is there an easy way to convert .mkv, to WMV HD (or something the 360 plays), and keep 5.1 channel surround sound. So far, the easiest option seems to be "WME Assistant", but I'm sure there is a free option somewhere. What do you all use? Thanks

Encode360?