The XBOX was originally designed to only allow playing of DVD’s if you had the included dongle or remote. This was most likely a simple move to secure additional income for Microsoft, and can be easily circumvented if you have a modchip installed. Considering the many advantages with a modchip, there really is no disadvantage to having a modchip installed!
In this guide I will show you several different ways of playing DVD’s and how to acquire the necessary software.

As stated before, this guide requires an XBOX with a modchip installed!

If you’d like to play DVD’s on your XBOX, without having to buy the remote or dongle, you have several different options. I will outline them below and elaborate on which is the best to use.

XBOX Media Center’s built-in DVD player

If you’re using XBOX Media Center (XBMC) as your dashboard or just as a program, you will have found that it includes a DVD-player – just like you’d expect. It works flawlessly and enables you to view smooth and clear video. Also, if your TV or display supports it (and if you have the correct video and audio cables), XBMC allows you to output digital audio in either AC-3, Dolby Digital or DTS quality.

DVD-X

Dongle-Free DVD-X Region-Free is a small, simple, extensible and basic DVD-player that does exactly what it says it does.

Play all region DVD movies without the expensive dongle/remote. ALL controls can be accessed via your XBOX game controller. Sub Menu system features identical to stand alone DVD player.

It supports digital audio, similar to XBMC, and it has its controls documented inside the program. This makes using and understanding the program a lot easier. Installing DVD-X is easiest done by burning and running the Auto-Installer Deluxe DVD as the DVD-X software is included.

Which program you choose to use is up to you. If you’re already using XBMC on a regular basis, there is no reason to switch to DVD-X as it lacks all the extra features of a media-center.

Watching video and audio streams is a smart and free way to access media. Whether it’s a live broadcast of your favorite TV-show or an internet radio channel, streams open new ways to receive rich content. Streams can be seen and heard on nearly anything connected to the internet, including mobile phones, computers, mp3-players and gaming consoles. Thanks to XBOX Media Center, watching streams on the XBOX is now easy as pie!

To watch audio and video streams on your XBOX you will need, as mentioned previously, the XBOX Media Center suite. Thus you also need a chipped XBOX – and hey, why not get a modchip to your XBOX? The stream you would like to watch needs to stream at a codec supported by XBMC – either it works or it doesn’t, you’ll notice! And also, you will need a working internet connection ;) !

Begin by getting the URL of the stream you would like to connect to. If your stream consists of an .pls or .m3u file, simply rename the extension to .strm and you’re good to go! If you just have the URL to the stream, whether it’s with an mms://, rtsp:// or http:// protocol, copy it into an empty Notepad window and save it with an .strm extension. Copy the .strm file to a place accessible by the XBOX – it can be on a shared computer inside a shared folder, on the XBOX harddrive or somewhere else.

Now, go into the Videos or Music menu (depending on what stream you want to watch) and open the file! If you can’t find it, click Add source, browse for the correct folder or share and press OK. If the stream is online and the codec is supported by XBMC, you should be looking at (or hearing) your first streamed show on the XBOX!

Below I have compiled a list of good stream-resources for the XBOX, if you’re out of luck finding streams that work for you:

• http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-strm-collection/ – a little collection of broadband (200k+) LIVE video streams that are tested and ready to use for XBMC
• http://www.op9.net/latest/194/xbmc-tv-round-vii-slimline – 407 streaming TV feeds from 90 countries around the world
• http://xbmc.org/wiki/index.php?title=HOW-TO:_Play_Internet_Streams – on the bottom of the page are a number of BBC radio and video streams

Good luck!

XBMC, previously known as XBOX Media Center, is a software package developed to ease access to multimedia. It can be used in a number of environments including Windows, Mac OSX, Linux and of course the XBOX :) . It’s open-source and free – a combination making it the best and most complete solution to integrating multimedia with the XBOX.

XBMC is very easily installed on your XBOX and provides access to all music, videos, pictures, games and applications stored on the XBOX. Not only does it catalog the XBOX, but it can also access other computers on the network or on the internet (provided that your XBOX is connected to the internet, of course :) ) ! This wide range of features have made a lot of people use XBMC as their dashboard, i.e. use it as the XBOX’s “operating system”, if you will.

Installing

So, how do you install the marvelous piece of software? As XBMC is open-source, you won’t find installers or such on the homepage itself. To find the actual, complete files, you need to either compile them yourself (which I won’t cover in this article) or find someone who already has compiled it. The XBMC-team recommends builds from T3CH, and so do I!

Download the latest ‘STABLE’ build from T3CH (the most current one is from 2009-06-01) and extract the archive to any folder on your computer (preferably one you can remember :) ) . Turn on your XBOX and make sure you’ve enabled its FTP-server (I’ve written a guide on how to enable your XBOX for FTP use) . Now, simply connect to your XBOX using your favorite FTP-client and copy the entire XBMC-folder to anywhere you’d like, although I personally recommend E:\Apps or F:\Apps, as this keeps your files and folders organized.

You’re done! Either manually browse to and open default.xbe through XCommander or any other explorer-program you have, or simply open it through your Application-menu in your dashboard! Enjoy the possibilities and the benefits :) !

I‘ve already dealt with different cables and their quality, and now I would just like to give you a few important notes on connecting your XBOX to a TV of any kind (CRT, Plasma, LCD, LED, etc).

What your TV needs

Your television set needs to be able to display either the 480i (NTSC) or the 576i (PAL) video modes. The more native XBOX-resolutions your TV can display (480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p and 1080i), the better!
Your TV also needs either a composite, SCART or component input, preferably the component one as it gives you the best visual quality. Also, to receive sound the TV needs to include a composite audio input (this is included in a composite input).

What your XBOX needs

To take advantage of the best video quality and the highest HD-resolutions, you will need to purchase a component-cable for your XBOX. These are usually pretty cheap and come with a separate composite audio-cable.
If you have an older TV without support for HD-resolutions, you might be better off with the standard XBOX to composite cable.

Have you ever felt the need to connect to your XBOX in some way? Make it a part of your home network, perhaps? Or just copy files to it? I have, and that’s why I’ve written this fairly short guide to different ways of interacting with your XBOX over the internet.

This requires an XBOX with an installed modchip!

FTP servers

If you’re simply looking to copy files, view folder structure, install applications or games, FTP:ing is the way to go.

The standard FTP server – the Dashboard’s

Every dashboard, whether it’s Evolution X, Anod-X or Unleash X, will have an FTP-server built in. Trust me. Open your dashboard’s settings and browse through the options, chances are your server is already enabled. If it’s not, enable it and set an appropriate password. On my Evolution X dashboard it looks like the image to the right. If you’re not asked to specify a username, like in my case, then it is most likely hard-coded to xbox.

The other alternative – XBMC’s FTP server

If you’re using XBOX Media Center and you want the same FTP access, enter Settings and click on Network. Scroll to Servers and enable the FTP server. Here you are able to choose both username and password. Do choose wisely, please. You don’t want anyone messing with your files!

Sharing files over a Windows network

If you don’t want full access to the XBOX, but perhaps just access to certain folders, music, videos or pictures, the better and more secure way is to enable file-sharing.

File-sharing in XBMC

As XBOX Media Center is all about media, it lays focus on sharing media as a UPnP Server (its icon in Windows looks like this). Sharing media over the UPnP is very easy – it requires almost no configuration and works seamlessly over all networks. To enable the built-in UPnP server in XBMC, again go to Network inside the settings but this time choose UPnP settings and choose to autostart the client, enable the renderer and enable the server. To further choose what media is being shared, you can Manage the music, video and picture shares.

Remotely controlling XBMC through the web

As if it wasn’t enough, XBOX Media Center includes a web-server and an interface to remotely control the XBOX via the web. It’s enabled by going into the network settings, choosing Server and marking Enable webserver. The sleek web interface can now be accessed by typing the XBOX’s IP into your address bar (to find the IP, go into System info in the shutdown-menu). Cool, huh ;) ?

When connecting your XBOX to a TV or screen, you’ve probably asked yourself if there was a way to get better quality, better sound or more sharpness. The key to these aspects is knowing your way around the different ways of connecting an XBOX to some form of output, and this is what I will discuss in this article.

As an XBOX user you’re already limited to analog connections only. This means no HDMI or DVI. This doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t get good quality! What you have at your disposal are two different means of transporting video and audio which can, together with adapters, become four different connectors!

Composite and SCART

Composite is the default way of sending XBOX video and audio signals to a TV or screen. It’s the yellow (video), red (right audio) and white (left audio) cables which are the default cables that arrive with you XBOX. They can, using an adapter, become a SCART connector.
Composite is, as you might assume, the connection with the least quality (in terms of visual quality). You will not have support for higher resolutions such as 720p (1280×720) or 1080i (1920×1080) using composite, however the sound will be at the best analog level you can get. It is usually very widely supported amongst both CRT and LCD (flat) TVs.

Component and VGA

Component cables is the visual connection that guarantees the highest quality. Using component cables you will be able to reach 720p and 1080i and you will be pretty surprised at how good it actually looks. Component is divided into green (Y), blue (PB/CB) and red (PR/CR) – to get audio you need the red and white connections from the composite cable.
A retail XBOX does not have component cables, however for a fairly cheap price you can get such cables from most computer resellers. If you purchase component cables and a VGA adapter, you can connect your XBOX to your computer screen at a pretty good quality!

Summary

To summarize all this I would like to mention, again, that the best visual quality is achieved by using component cables. Audio quality does not vary as much as video quality – use the red and white composite cables and you will be alright!