Guide: Getting The Xbox 360 HD DVD Add-On Working With Your PC

MidnightWatche · 12-11-2007, 01:21 PM

Well, though it's not "officially" supported by Microsoft it is no secret that the XBox 360 HD DVD add-on will work quite well with a PC, providing you have a powerful enough system. All you really need in addition to the add-on is Cyberlink's PowerDVD Ultra, which you can purchase here to play HD DVD discs (some claim they have been able to purchase it for considerably less on eBay, so YMMV). Read PowerDVD Ultra's system requirements to make sure your HTPC is up to par. I recommend one of the new ATI 2400, 2600 or 3800 series video cards for the best possible playback, which does excellent VC-1 and AVC decoding for you instead of relying more on the CPU, especially the 2600XT and 3850. To see how well these cards accelerate VC-1 And AVC, read more here and here. Click here for HTPC Registry Tweaks.

*** Before we continue you may be pleased to know that until February 28, 2008 you can receive 5 FREE HD DVD titles from Toshiba with the purchase of the XBox 360 HD DVD player for a total of 6 as King Kong is already included in the box. This also applies to any Toshiba laptop preconfigured with an HD DVD drive or any Toshiba standalone HD DVD player. Details are here for American customer and here for Canadian customers. ***

Get HD DVD Up And Running

Getting HD DVD playback to work is fairly straightforward. Plug in the HD DVD add-on (USB 2.0 required), power it on, let Windows recognize the drive and install PowerDVD Ultra from Cyberlink. By the way, in addition to Windows XP (SP2) I can confirm that the latest version of PowerDVD Ultra works with both Vista x86 and Vista x64 as well. For Windows XP Microsoft has released a driver for the two "XBox 360 HD DVD Memory Unit" devices for Windows XP. Just run Windows Update. Vista will install drivers as well.

PowerDVD Ultra - Playback Tips

Below are a few tips in achieving the best possible quality with PowerDVD Ultra. Try to play an HD DVD after each step. Start off with a title encoded in VC-1, such as King Kong. Assuming that you are already running the latest build of PowerDVD Ultra and only have your primary display/monitor connected (no secondary):

Set Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering settings to default/off in your video card's control panel
Make sure your monitor's refresh rate is 60 Hz, 72 Hz or 120 Hz only
Uncheck Hardware Acceleration if it does not appear to be working on your system
If enabled, turn off Video Enhancement
Use the "Original" color profile only
Set De-Interlacing Mode to "None" (Optional)
Set Video Quality to "Best" (May increase CPU usage. While video is playing, Right-click -> Configuration -> Video -> Advanced -> Video Quality)
Set Audio Output Mode to "No Effect"

Make sure that you don't have any other background processes running that may be eating up considerable CPU cycles. If you're not getting good playback then try downloading ReClock and turn "Force Reclock to be loaded in place of default DirectSound/Wave renderers" to ON and all other force settings to OFF. This may not work for all systems, however, so YMMV.

Feel free to post any additional tips or suggestions!

Vista Media Center

For Vista Media Center users, there is currently no integrated HD DVD playback solution within VMC at this time. There is a stop-gap solution, however, that has been posted here.

"I was very excited when Cyberlink released PowerDVD Ultra late last year. That was until I purchased it and installed it on my Vista Media Center only to find out that it didn't integrate into Media Center at all. Just inserting a HD DVD disk while the Media Center shell was up gave this error.

After the initial disappointment wore off I did some searching and found an Article by Peter Dampier on the Media Center Sandbox blog. This article was meant for companies like Cyberlink to show them how to register HD DVD (and blue ray) disks with Vista Media Center. I was still disappointed that there was no way to play back HD DVD movies directly in the Media Center shell but at least this blog posting showed how I could at least register HD DVD with Vista Media Center.

To accomplish this create an XML file with the code below in it.

Code:

<application title="PowerDVD" id="{00807177-139D-4796-9730-8F114D23C253}" companyname="Cyberlink" companylogourl="http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/ps/cllogo.gif" description="HD DVD App">

<entrypoint id="{00807177-139D-4796-9730-8F114D23C253}" RUN="C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe" title="PowerDVD Ultra" description="HD DVD Player">

<category category="AutoPlay\HD DVD"/>

</entrypoint>

</application>

If you installed PowerDVD to another location edit the path to match your system. Next from a command prompt (if you have user account control enabled make sure it's an elevated command prompt) and run C:\Windows\ehome\RegisterMCEApp.exe /allusers <xml file>, replace <xml file> with the path and name to the XML file you created earlier.

Now when you insert a HD DVD disk with Vista Media Center in full screen mode, it will minimize and launch PowerDVD Ultra and begin playback of the disk.

Now, say you have a disk already inserted and you don't want to get up to re-insert it. Create a file named PowerDVD.mcl with the code below in it.

Code:

  <application
     Title = "PowerDVD Ultra"
     Run = "C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe"
     BGColor = "RGB(63,24,172)"
     Name = "PowerDVD Ultra"
     CompanyName = "Cyberlink"
     StartImage = "C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\AVSettings\StartImage.png"
     ThumbnailImage = "C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\AVSettings\Thumbnail.png"

    >
        <capabilitiesRequired
            directX="True"
            audio="False"
            video="False"
            intensiveRendering="True"
            console="False"
        />
    </application>

Again if you installed to a different location edit the file to point to your install. Move the file to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Media Center Programs. If Media Center was running close it and re-open it and now in the more programs sections is a link to fire up PowerDVD Ultra."

CapBBeard · 12-11-2007, 07:18 PM

Nice guide!

I can highly recommend this to anyone thinking of trying it, I've been running the add-on with my PC for a while now. Don't be afraid if the instructions above seem daunting or anything, it's actually very easy

**bruceames** · 12-11-2007, 07:36 PM

Thanks, Midnight!

Allin4greeN · 12-11-2007, 08:11 PM

Just a quick question about OEM PowerDVD versions, in my case Dell with BDD... will I be able to add the AO with little difficulty or, as I fear, would I need to upgrade/purchase Ultra to get both BD and HD DVD playback functioning? Or, worse yet, would I not be able to couple the AO to a PC configured with an internal BDD?

The latter wouldn't be a travesty, as I still have the 360 to use but, it would be nice to get all HDM playback on one machine

EDIT: Running Vista Ultimate

CapBBeard · 12-11-2007, 08:17 PM

I'm pretty sure you won't have any trouble with the add-on and BDD, I see no reason why not. PowerDVD runs fine with both a DVD and HD DVD drive, there's no reason it'd be any different.

OEM versions can be a bit different, I guess the one you have now plays BDs? It's hard to say if it will play HD or not in that case. I do know that if you're buying a retail version, Ultra is the only one with HD/BD playback capabilities.

Allin4greeN · 12-11-2007, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CapBBeard

...OEM versions can be a bit different, I guess the one you have now plays BDs? It's hard to say if it will play HD or not in that case. I do know that if you're buying a retail version, Ultra is the only one with HD/BD playback capabilities.

PC's still under the tree but, I'm thinking it may need Ultra to run both... can't wait play with it and find out!

Great post Midnight, added to my bookmarks.

Liquidx · 12-11-2007, 08:34 PM

Heh, trying to run this on a Toshiba laptop with an Intel GPU should be a breeze!

...My Core 2 Duo won't do squat to help me with a generic GPU. I looked into this when my 360 was out for repair (thanks for the 3rd 360 Microsoft, it's working... for now!) but quickly realized that it wasn't going to happen with my lappy.

Allin4greeN · 12-11-2007, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liquidx

Heh, trying to run this on a Toshiba laptop with an Intel GPU should be a breeze!

...My Core 2 Duo won't do squat to help me with a generic GPU. I looked into this when my 360 was out for repair (thanks for the 3rd 360 Microsoft, it's working... for now!) but quickly realized that it wasn't going to happen with my lappy.

I wish my laptop used nVidia MXM for later upgrades but, I kinda think an 8600M GT should suffice...

sufs · 12-12-2007, 08:09 AM

Going through the same thing here, worried that I might impair BD playback if I download anything. The best solution is to just get Ultra as I have heard some first hands experience.

CapBBeard · 12-12-2007, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sufs

Going through the same thing here, worried that I might impair BD playback if I download anything. The best solution is to just get Ultra as I have heard some first hands experience.

Ultra rocks for HD DVD, can't speak for BD though unfortunately.

12-11-2007, 01:21 PM	#1
MidnightWatche High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 944	Guide: Getting The Xbox 360 HD DVD Add-On Working With Your PC Well, though it's not "officially" supported by Microsoft it is no secret that the XBox 360 HD DVD add-on will work quite well with a PC, providing you have a powerful enough system. All you really need in addition to the add-on is Cyberlink's PowerDVD Ultra, which you can purchase here to play HD DVD discs (some claim they have been able to purchase it for considerably less on eBay, so YMMV). Read PowerDVD Ultra's system requirements to make sure your HTPC is up to par. I recommend one of the new ATI 2400, 2600 or 3800 series video cards for the best possible playback, which does excellent VC-1 and AVC decoding for you instead of relying more on the CPU, especially the 2600XT and 3850. To see how well these cards accelerate VC-1 And AVC, read more here and here. Click here for HTPC Registry Tweaks. ***** Before we continue you may be pleased to know that until February 28, 2008 you can receive 5 FREE HD DVD titles from Toshiba with the purchase of the XBox 360 HD DVD player for a total of 6 as King Kong is already included in the box. This also applies to any Toshiba laptop preconfigured with an HD DVD drive or any Toshiba standalone HD DVD player. Details are here for American customer and here for Canadian customers. *** Get HD DVD Up And Running Getting HD DVD playback to work is fairly straightforward. Plug in the HD DVD add-on (USB 2.0 required), power it on, let Windows recognize the drive and install PowerDVD Ultra from Cyberlink. By the way, in addition to Windows XP (SP2) I can confirm that the latest version of PowerDVD Ultra works with both Vista x86 and Vista x64 as well. For Windows XP Microsoft has released a driver for the two "XBox 360 HD DVD Memory Unit" devices for Windows XP. Just run Windows Update. Vista will install drivers as well. PowerDVD Ultra - Playback Tips** Below are a few tips in achieving the best possible quality with PowerDVD Ultra. Try to play an HD DVD after each step. Start off with a title encoded in VC-1, such as King Kong. Assuming that you are already running the latest build of PowerDVD Ultra and only have your primary display/monitor connected (no secondary): Set Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering settings to default/off in your video card's control panel Make sure your monitor's refresh rate is 60 Hz, 72 Hz or 120 Hz only Uncheck Hardware Acceleration if it does not appear to be working on your system If enabled, turn off Video Enhancement Use the "Original" color profile only Set De-Interlacing Mode to "None" (Optional) Set Video Quality to "Best" (May increase CPU usage. While video is playing, Right-click -> Configuration -> Video -> Advanced -> Video Quality) Set Audio Output Mode to "No Effect" Make sure that you don't have any other background processes running that may be eating up considerable CPU cycles. If you're not getting good playback then try downloading ReClock and turn "Force Reclock to be loaded in place of default DirectSound/Wave renderers" to ON and all other force settings to OFF. This may not work for all systems, however, so YMMV. Feel free to post any additional tips or suggestions! Vista Media Center For Vista Media Center users, there is currently no integrated HD DVD playback solution within VMC at this time. There is a stop-gap solution, however, that has been posted here. "I was very excited when Cyberlink released PowerDVD Ultra late last year. That was until I purchased it and installed it on my Vista Media Center only to find out that it didn't integrate into Media Center at all. Just inserting a HD DVD disk while the Media Center shell was up gave this error. After the initial disappointment wore off I did some searching and found an Article by Peter Dampier on the Media Center Sandbox blog. This article was meant for companies like Cyberlink to show them how to register HD DVD (and blue ray) disks with Vista Media Center. I was still disappointed that there was no way to play back HD DVD movies directly in the Media Center shell but at least this blog posting showed how I could at least register HD DVD with Vista Media Center. To accomplish this create an XML file with the code below in it. Code: <application title="PowerDVD" id="{00807177-139D-4796-9730-8F114D23C253}" companyname="Cyberlink" companylogourl="http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/ps/cllogo.gif" description="HD DVD App"> <entrypoint id="{00807177-139D-4796-9730-8F114D23C253}" RUN="C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe" title="PowerDVD Ultra" description="HD DVD Player"> <category category="AutoPlay\HD DVD"/> </entrypoint> </application> If you installed PowerDVD to another location edit the path to match your system. Next from a command prompt (if you have user account control enabled make sure it's an elevated command prompt) and run C:\Windows\ehome\RegisterMCEApp.exe /allusers <xml file>, replace <xml file> with the path and name to the XML file you created earlier. Now when you insert a HD DVD disk with Vista Media Center in full screen mode, it will minimize and launch PowerDVD Ultra and begin playback of the disk. Now, say you have a disk already inserted and you don't want to get up to re-insert it. Create a file named PowerDVD.mcl with the code below in it. Code: <application Title = "PowerDVD Ultra" Run = "C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe" BGColor = "RGB(63,24,172)" Name = "PowerDVD Ultra" CompanyName = "Cyberlink" StartImage = "C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\AVSettings\StartImage.png" ThumbnailImage = "C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\AVSettings\Thumbnail.png" > <capabilitiesRequired directX="True" audio="False" video="False" intensiveRendering="True" console="False" /> </application> Again if you installed to a different location edit the file to point to your install. Move the file to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Media Center Programs. If Media Center was running close it and re-open it and now in the more programs sections is a link to fire up PowerDVD Ultra." __________________ "Without struggle there can be no progress."

12-11-2007, 07:18 PM	#2
CapBBeard High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: New Zealand Posts: 464	Nice guide! I can highly recommend this to anyone thinking of trying it, I've been running the add-on with my PC for a while now. Don't be afraid if the instructions above seem daunting or anything, it's actually very easy __________________ HD DVDs: 26 X360 Add-on through HTPC Recently added: Batman Begins, Ocean's 11/12/13, Disturbia, Blade Runner, Hot Fuzz, Zodiac

12-11-2007, 07:36 PM	#3
bruceames Moderator Join Date: May 2006 Location: San Rafael, CA Posts: 10,170	Thanks, Midnight! __________________ Blu-rays: 55 Latest purchases: John Adams, Gone With the Wind, Up, Rocky: The Undisputed Collection

12-11-2007, 08:11 PM	#4
Allin4greeN Let's try this button... Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 858	Just a quick question about OEM PowerDVD versions, in my case Dell with BDD... will I be able to add the AO with little difficulty or, as I fear, would I need to upgrade/purchase Ultra to get both BD and HD DVD playback functioning? Or, worse yet, would I not be able to couple the AO to a PC configured with an internal BDD? The latter wouldn't be a travesty, as I still have the 360 to use but, it would be nice to get all HDM playback on one machine EDIT: Running Vista Ultimate __________________ Vizio P50HDTV10A\|Dell Inspiron 1720 w/BDD & HD DVD Add-on\|XBox360\|Toshiba D-VR5\|ViP622 \|Sirius S50-TK1\|RS15-1870 OTA\|Yamaha HTR 5750 (6.1)\|Yamaha NS-AP4400M 3-way mains\|Yamaha NS-AP4400E 3-way center w/2-way surrounds\|Yamaha YST-SW015 sub\|Belkin AP30800-10\|Harmony 676 \|\| Westinghouse LTV-32w1\|Samsung HD850\|ViP211 Last edited by Allin4greeN; 12-11-2007 at 08:15 PM.

12-11-2007, 08:17 PM	#5
CapBBeard High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: New Zealand Posts: 464	I'm pretty sure you won't have any trouble with the add-on and BDD, I see no reason why not. PowerDVD runs fine with both a DVD and HD DVD drive, there's no reason it'd be any different. OEM versions can be a bit different, I guess the one you have now plays BDs? It's hard to say if it will play HD or not in that case. I do know that if you're buying a retail version, Ultra is the only one with HD/BD playback capabilities. __________________ HD DVDs: 26 X360 Add-on through HTPC Recently added: Batman Begins, Ocean's 11/12/13, Disturbia, Blade Runner, Hot Fuzz, Zodiac

12-11-2007, 08:34 PM	#7
Liquidx iFanboy Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Boston Posts: 1,245	Heh, trying to run this on a Toshiba laptop with an Intel GPU should be a breeze! ...My Core 2 Duo won't do squat to help me with a generic GPU. I looked into this when my 360 was out for repair (thanks for the 3rd 360 Microsoft, it's working... for now!) but quickly realized that it wasn't going to happen with my lappy.

12-12-2007, 08:09 AM	#9
sufs Generation HD Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Lebanon Posts: 1,019	Going through the same thing here, worried that I might impair BD playback if I download anything. The best solution is to just get Ultra as I have heard some first hands experience. __________________ Equipment: Samsung 40" R71B LCD Denon AVR 3808CI Toshiba XA-2 PS3/Wii/ 360 withHD DVD add on Harmony 880 UR Sony Vaio FW21E Speakers JBL Northridge series E 100 Floorstanding 3 Way dual 10" E 90 Floorstanding 3 Way dual 8" E C35 3 Way dual 5.25" E 250P 12" front Firing HD Movies: 320 PSN/Gamer card:Sufs

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