gHacks technology news » xbox-360

Three Things That Are Holding Back The Sony PS3

Orrett Morgan — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 07:51:30 +0000

It has been 2 ½ years since the PS3 has launched and since that time it has been trailing both the Wii and Xbox 360 in sales. Granted it has been doing better then it has a year ago, but you’d expect that Sony would be able to convince hardcore gamers that the PS3’s superior chip is better adjusted for their gaming hunger. Yet that’s not the case.

In recent months Sony has been experiencing declining sales in their PS3 systems and this brings into question what exactly is Sony doing that is killing their system? Now let me make something clear, I’m not saying that the PS3 is not selling, but compared to the Xbox 360 and even its older brother the PS2 it isn’t doing so well.

It is a known fact that a game franchise can make or break a gaming console; just ask Microsoft and their original Xbox and the Halo franchise. While the first generation Xbox had superior graphics to the PS2, one of the main reasons why it succeeded was both Halo and Halo 2. One of the PS2’s major successes was the GTA (Grand Theft Auto) franchise. Sadly (for Sony that is), GTA 4 ported to the Xbox 360 last year and thanks to Xbox Live carried a more powerful punch then the PS3 version. I could also use Final Fantasy as another example. For years Square Enix has made its bread and butter from the PlayStation and Nintendo systems (as well as PC). It sent shockwaves through the game world when they announced that the next installment of the game, Final Fantasy XIII, would not only be available on the PS3 but, for the first time in history, ported to the Xbox 360.

Even more shocking was the news by Hideo Kojima that the next installment of Metal Gear Solid would also be ported to the Xbox 360. By now you’re probably catching my drift; Sony is bleeding franchises. Who would have thought that the day would come when Snake (well he’s retired now but his franchise lives on), as well as the gang from Final Fantasy would live on Xbox. I’m not saying Sony doesn’t have some good franchises left in its hands, but if this continues they soon will be sitting on Resistance, Kill Zone and Socom as their main exclusives.

Another strike against Sony is online gaming. Microsoft and Sony have taken two very different approaches to online gaming. Sony has long stated that they believe a free option is the best way to satisfy their customers. Microsoft, from day one, has gone with the paid option. Although there is some debate as to the reason why PlayStation Network lags behind Xbox Live, one thing has been undisputed; Microsoft has proven that people will pay once the quality is there. One of the major reasons why developers flock Xbox Live is they are able to extract a few extra dollars from gamers after they have spent a few Jefferson’s on the disc. There is no real incentive for game developers to develop for PSN, and that is one of the major reasons why Xbox Live manages to offer superior content and user experience.

I’m sure many of you were expecting me to mention price as an issue why the PS3 is not living up to Sony’s expectations, but I will go as far to say that its not mainly price but marketing and timing. When the PS3 first came out, the average price of a Blu-ray player was 10 Franklins. The PS3 retailed between $500 and $600. Many consumers could have been swayed to buy the system based on the fact that it would be cheaper to buy a PS3 then to buy an Xbox 360 and a Blu-ray player. Unfortunately that has all changed, as it is now cheaper now to buy and Xbox 360 and a separate Blu-ray player then to buy a PS3.

The other issue involves maturity. When the Xbox 360 was released in 2005, it had a full year to gain its footing in the market. Microsoft has hinted more then once that it could have kept its second generation system in the works for a 2006 release and match the power of the PS3, but figured that it would be a better idea to release it early. They were right. By the time the PS3 came to the market, a year later, the 360 had all but took the wind out of its sales and due to the craze of the Wii things didn’t turn out as well as Sony planned.

Plainly speaking, Sony expected its loyal subjects to buy a $500 system because it was more powerful. That might be true if you’re a Mac, but in a world where a video game can make or break a console, that isn’t always true.

I’m not saying the PS3 has failed. I’m just saying it doesn’t seem that 2009 will be the year of the PS3 as we’re already half way through and Sony is reporting declining sales of said system. We’ll just have to wait and see if Sony’s new motion sensing controllers will do anything to help the troubled platform. In the meantime you’ll find me in the corner playing GTA 4 and cleaning out a space beside my HD screen for Project Natal.

Tags: microsoft, nintendo-wii, playstation-3, ps3, sony-ps3, xbox-360

Microsoft Apologizes for Next Gen Console Mixup

Melanie — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:17:38 +0000

Microsoft has found themselves in yet another mix-up, yet its CEO personally apologized to devastated gamers. Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, has apologized for unclear remarks made last week regarding careless word choices that led gamers to believe that a Microsoft would be releasing a new gaming console. Ballmer reportedly made an announcement that that a new Xbox console will be released in 2010. What Ballmer really was talking about was Project Natal which was announced by Microsoft earlier this month.

In a rare occasion, Ballmer apologized to the masses of gamers who were let down after the excitement of the news of an upcoming next generation console. After reports of gamers talking about the “new console” arose, Aaron Greenburg of Microsoft stated, “We’re not going to be launching a new console any time soon.” This devastated many excited gamers who are looking forward to any hints of next generation consoles to come in the distant future.

“I confused the issue with my poorly chosen words,” Ballmer told IGN. “There is no news in my comments.” Microsoft hasn’t officially confirmed a date for the release of the add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360, but Ballmer’s comments have led many to believe the “controller-free gaming and entertainment experience” will arrive sometime in 2010. Although, the confusion over the “new console” disappointed gamers, many are still excited about the upcoming feature for Xbox 360 which is likely to release in late 2010.

Project Natal, which was announced on June 1, 2009 featured many demos including a game called “Ricochet” where the player can use his or her body to bounce balls at blocks. Natal also allow players to log in to their console faced on facial recognition and try on clothes in 3D. Other demos shown at E3 were “Paint Party” where players can “throw” paint on walls using body motion and “Burnout Natal” where players can race in cars using their body motion to steel the wheel of the car instead of a controller that current gaming technology requires. Because of the new technology behind the project, the announcement has caused the Xbox 360 to gain more ground in the market.

The name Natal comes from Microsoft’s tradition of code naming products from cities. The name Natal, a city in Brazil, was chosen by Microsoft’s director, Alex Kipman, as a tribute to his home country. The word natal also means “relating to birth” where Microsoft shares its view that the addon is the “birth of the next-generation of home entertainment.”

Tags: gaming, microsoft, natal, next gen, project natal, xbox, xbox-360

Xbox Project Natal

Martin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:14:43 +0000

This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo was packed with exciting game and hardware announcements from virtually every gaming company in existence. One presentation dominated the gaming hardware announcements; And that was Project Natal for the Xbox. Project Natal aims to offer controller-less gaming on the Xbox gaming systems. It looks a bit like a mixture of Sony Eye Toys and Nintendo’s Wii way of interacting with games. It basically provides full motion gaming without the need for controllers at all.

Microsoft demoed the technique at the E3 which means that the technique is already existing and working. Information on the techniques itself are scarce. From what could be gathered a hardware device is needed that will send the body’s motion and sounds to the Xbox gaming system. The system is able to follow the moves of every person in the room. It can easily identify and distinguish people. Natal cannot only identify people but also objects in the room.

This leads to some interesting new applications. Think of a quiz where the moderator addresses the gamers by name and repeats their answers.

Take a look at the videos below to get a good first impression on what Project Natal is about:

The official Youtube channel offers tons of videos showcasing Project Natal.

There are two factors that can influence the success of the new hardware device. First the price of the device. If it is expensive than it might become a niche product instead of the new default way of gaming. The second is game support by game developers. Game developers need to produce games for Natal or make their games compatible with the product.

What are your thoughts on Project Natal?

Tags: e3, Games, gaming, microsoft xbox, natal, project natal, xbox, xbox-360

Best Games Of E3

Martin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:46:41 +0000

E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, has opened its doors yesterday. It is one of the biggest gaming events of the year which usually sees a lot of game announcements, trailers and ingame video feeds for the PC and video consoles such as PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. The following list is a collection of videos from the first day. It is an obviously biased collection of games that are destined to be great games once they come out.

It is likely that additional games are shown in the coming days. This could mean that we are going to create a follow up article with even more trailers and game previews. If you think that we missed a game or think that we have added a game that should not be in this list let us know in the comments.

New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo Wii)

Has the looks and feels of the real classic Super Mario games. 2D environment and Co-Op play!

Modern Warfare 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)

A first person shooter with incredible graphics.

Star Wars The Old Republic (PC)

A Star Wars MMORPG by Bioware, the makers of Kotor 1 and 2.

The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition (PC, Xbox Live Arcade)

A remake of the classic Lucas Arts adventure

Alan Wake (PC, Xbox 360)

From the makers of Max Payne 1 and 2, following these footsteps.

Dragon Age: Origins (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Another Bioware RPG, this with a fantasy scenario and aiming for a mature audience.

Brutal Legend (Xbox 360, PS3)

By Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle genius Tim Schafer. Funny game with Jack Black and legends of heavy metal.

No More Heroes 2 (Wii)

Probably the most stylish game for the Nintendo Wii.

Mafia II (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)

Mafia was one of the most popular PC games of its time and the second part is destined to surpass that.

Tags: e3, game trailer, Games, pc, pc games, ps3, ps3 games, xbox 360 games, xbox-360

Computers’ energy costs

Martin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:01:43 +0000

Ever wondered how energy friendly the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii were ? Or how a LCD monitor would fare against a good old CRT monitor ? Australian consumer group Choice created a chart displaying the power usage of common household technology products and it’s important that people understand the implications.

The test compared the on, off and idle states of the devices if applicable listing the weekly, monthly and yearly energy consumption and costs in a table. The Playstation 3 is by far the most energy hungry device in the test followed by a 42″ Plasma TV and the Xbox 360 while the Nintendo Wii consumes only a tenth of the energy the Playstation 3 needs.

I could go on but the essence, the real important information can be found when comparing the idle energy consumption with the one when the device is turned off. Lots of money can be saved by turning the devices off instead of leaving them in idle mode. The Playstation 3 for instance consumes 1655.20 Kwh per year in idle mode but only 15.53 Kwh when turned off.

It does not make much sense to turn off the gaming console the whole year to save energy but it makes perfectly sense to turn it off when no one is playing. If you want to cut all costs you simply disconnect the power supply from the device.

Someone with a Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 would pay more than $420 per year for both devices even if they would be in idle mode most of the time. Please note that you have to check the local costs of 1 Kwh and calculate the expenses this way. It could very well be that you would be paying more or less depending on the energy costs in your country.

I usually cut the power supply that powers my LCD TV, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 2 and Xbox whenever I’m not using those devices to save energy. I do not cut the power supply on my computer though, mainly because it does not make a huge difference.

Are you saving energy, if so how ?

Tags: energy, energy consumption, energy costs, idle, power supply, ps3, wii, xbox-360

I’m on a shopping spree

Martin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:23:09 +0000

I did make two large purchases in the last two days. I finally ordered my new computer yesterday, or better the parts for the new computer, and cannot wait to build it once all the parts arrive at my home. Most of the hardware for the PC did not change since my last article about my plans to buy a new PC. A chat with my accountant had the result that I had to buy a more expensive computer to gain the full benefits from the state.

The new PC basically consists of an Intel Core 2 Duo Wolfdale cpu, a Gigabyte DS4 motherboard, 4 Gigabytes of DDR2-800 RAM, a Samsung Spinpoint 1 Terabyte hard drive and a Leadtek 8800 GTS video card with 512 Megabyte RAM. I did add some other stuff to the mix to break the 1000€ goal. My plans are to write an article about the building process with lots of pictures and details about the hardware.

The second purchase was a Xbox 360 Elite video game system. I never thought I would buy one but this offer was just to tempting. The German Amazon website is currently selling each Xbox 360 system, that is the arcade, normal and elite system with a free copy of GTA IV, a free HD DVD drive and a free 3 month XBOX Live GOLD membership. I did pay 374€ (about $600) for the complete set.

I first thought a normal arcade version would do it but I have hopes that I can eventually add XBMC to the XBOX so that it can replace my old Xbox as a media center. The package with the Xbox 360 Arcade sells for 200€ (roughly $320) currently. If you wanna take a look here is the link to Amazon Germany. Remember those are European prices, they are not comparable to US prices.

I probably will have to purchase a new television soon to gain the full benefit of the video gaming system. Any suggestions on a good LCD TV ?

Tags: amazon, building pc, gta iv, Hardware, pc, purchase, xbox-360

No HD DVD Players for XBOX 360 anymore

Martin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:58:58 +0000

The high definition format war is almost over with Blu-Ray winning the field. Microsoft was supporting the HD DVD format by offering the HD DVD player add-on for their XBOX 360 gaming system. In an announcement made today they made clear that HD DVD will be pulled as add-ons for the XBOX 360 as well.

Roughly 300.000 HD DVD player add-ons have been sold for the XBOX 360 and the owners find themselves in an awkward position although the HD DVD player was never needed for gaming purposes and won’t have an impact on that.

Microsoft does have two options at the moment. They could create a Blu-Ray add-on for the XBOX 360 which I think is unlikely or they could push digital downloads which is the most likely scenario. The major problem in my opinion is the size of the hard drive which seems way to small for huge digital downloads.

Tags: blu-ray, hd dvd, microsoft, xbox-360

Video Game Systems Modchip Hysteria

Martin — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 06:06:52 +0000

Modchips are evil and are the main reason that the game developers are making less money than they should. This is the number one argument against modchips brought forth by a phalanx of game developers, Industry lobbyists and government officials. The question remains if this holds true or if there are other motives behind using modchips on video game systems.

I think we can all agree that it is illegal to download iso images of games, burn them and play them on your video game system without paying the developer a cent for his efforts. The first “what if” comes into play when a game will never be released in a certain country.

We all know that Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft do not like game imports which leads to the question how someone would be able to play a game that is not released in his country and that he is not allowed to import ? This does not even take into consideration that most video game systems have a region code which makes it impossible to play games that have been produced for another region.

This still does not justify getting the game illegally but it does justify a reaction from the customer. All companies want a global market but as soon as the customer wants to take advantage of it they begin to regulate those markets.

Back to the modchips:

Modchips can be used to unlock the regional code making it universal. This would mean that I could import a game for the Xbox 360 from Japan, the United States or Europe and play it on my Xbox. Please read this again. I would buy the game in a different reason, pay more for it because it has to be shipped and play it on my system.

Does this sound better than downloading the game for free, burning it on a DVD or copying it to the hard drive and playing it this way ?

Modchips also add functionality. Some add DVD playback options, some may reduce the speed of a disc drive to reduce the noice and most offer the option to run homemade games and applications with them.

Let me tell you why I modded my Xbox with a modchip and a bigger hard drive. I knew that a software called XBMC existed which would turn the Xbox into a media station. This application which could only be installed if the XBOX had a modchip was giving me the opportunity to play DVDs without the expensive remote control, add movies in divx format to the hard drive and watch them on my television.

I purchased the games that I wanted to play and moved them to the hard drive which resulted in faster loading times and noise reduction because the DVD drive did not have to do anything. This resulted in a better gaming experience.

Tags: homebrew, modchips, modchips illegal, ps3, xbox-360

50 million for exclusive GTA4 content

Martin — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:33:51 +0000

The news has been out for some days that Microsoft secured the exclusive rights to provide additional content for the upcoming blockbuster Grand Theft Auto 4 paying a total of $50 million for that content alone. The two episodic content packages which haven been bought for $25 million dollar each will both be released in 2008 exclusively for the Xbox 360.

I personally think that this is a huge sum that Microsoft paid for these exclusive rights. I’m wondering how much it would have cost Microsoft to purchase the whole company instead and add it to their gaming empire. There are no information available about the contents of those episodic content packages but I suppose that it will probably have at least the size of a decent add-on.

Everything else would be really disappointing. It remains to be seen how much it will cost Xbox 360 users to play the additional contents and if Microsoft is able to drive more users to the Xbox 360 with the additional content alone. What do you think about this move ?

Tags: episodic content, gta 4, microsoft, take 2, xbox-360

So, who is winning the HD war ?

Martin — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:06:49 +0000

I’m not that interested in the HD format war because I do not have a television that is HD Ready and do not plan to buy one in the near future. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I feel a little bit lost about the success or failure of HD-DVD and Blue-Ray players and movies. It is however not only a choice of choosing or owning the right tv, it is also important to know the differences of the formats as well.

I thought that I’m going to discuss it with you. What are your thoughts about both formats ? Do you think that Blue-Ray is in the lead, maybe because of the boost after the release of the Playstation 3 by Sony ? Or is it the HD-DVD format that you think will win this war.

A possible third scenario would be that both formats will get their share of the market or that hybrid players will take over once their availability rises and prices drop. I personally can’t see that one or the other format is currently leading by a large margin and this is probably one of the reasons why many consumers refrain from buying such a player at the moment.

I feel confused that some movie studios for instance only support one of the players which should be a major point of consideration for everyone who buys such a player these days. So, who is winning the HD war ?

Tags: blue ray, hd dvd, hd movies, hd war, playstation-3, xbox-360

Is Microsoft banning modified Xbox 360 consoles from Live ?

Martin — Fri, 18 May 2007 11:56:16 +0000

The first news about Microsoft possibly banning modified Xbox 360 consoles from the Xbox Live service started to emerge yesterday in some known Xbox 360 forums. It is possible to modify the firmware of the Xbox 360 drive to be able to play backups which of course includes pirated games. There has been no official confirmation from Microsoft about this issue but the frequency of the posts can only lead to the conclusion that Microsoft is actually banning Xbox 360 systems with modded firmwares.

Most users are suddenly experiencing a disconnect from Xbox Live with the inability to reconnect. A test results in the following status codes:

w: 0000 – 0021
x: 0000 – f001
y: 00a8 – 6820
z: 8015 – 1900

It seems that Microsoft is not banning the gamertag but the machine code of the system. Some users report that Xbox 360 users without a modded firmware got banned as well. It remains to be seen if we can get a official statement from Microsoft about the occurrences. A good way to receive all the latest information is the original thread in the Xbox Scene Forum.

Tags: microsoft xbox, modded firmware, xbox live, xbox-360

Replaced Xbox 360 Troubles

Martin — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 06:58:00 +0000

Every now and then a shiny Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming system will stop working and has to be send in for repair and eventual replacement. Replacing the old Xbox 360 with a new one sounds great on first glance but you have to consider something before you make up your mind on this. If you did download arcade games and other stuff from the Xbox 360 Marketplace you are in for a nasty surprise.

Microsoft decided that it would be a good idea to protect the content that is available via the Xbox Live Marketplace by linking it to the user profile and hardware which means that it would not be possible to go to a friends house, purchase a game there, load it on an memory stick and bring it back to your Xbox to play it there. This also means that you are in for some troubles if your Xbox 360 is replaced with another unit.

Travis got into great detail about the process that follows a replacement. He actually had two broken Xbox 360 systems in the past and this is how everything evolved.

He was sharing the Xbox 360 with his wife who had an account on her own. He quickly realized that he was not able to play the games that his wife purchased and that his wife was not able to play his games anymore both showing up as trial versions instead. It was only possible to play the full games if the user who purchased them would sign in.

After numerous calls with Xbox 360 support he found out that there was actually no way to activate the purchased games again other than creating a “dummy” account which would receive all the points that he ever spend buying stuff on the marketplace.

This is of course very inconvenient if you have purchased a lot of games in the marketplace. There is however more to the story. First, you have to calculate everything by yourself to be sure that you get the points that you spend. The Xbox Live support team has only access to the records of the last year which means that it could mean that there could be a difference between the points that you calculate and the points that they did.

Now if you thought that this was bad have fun with the following: Microsoft wants to transfer the same amount of points that you initially paid for the download. This is pretty bad if the price was raised in the meantime.

Tags: microsoft xbox, replacement xbox, xbox live, xbox marketplace, xbox-360

Wii outselling PS3 in Japan Three to One

Martin — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:26:46 +0000

Media Create published up to date figures for hardware sales in Japan and the figures demonstrate a astounding success for the Nintendo Wii in Japan. Nintendo sold 1.041.975 Wii systems this year while Sony managed to sell 353.823 Playstation 3 gaming systems. Not to forget Microsoft with 79.013 in this year with their Xbox 360. It should be noted that Sony is loosing money with every system produced and sold while Nintendo gains money.

Many sites that report these numbers point out that the amount of sales in dollars comes close to each other but fail to mention that is is not enough to compare game system sales but also consequences for game and accessory sales. With almost 700000 more systems in Japan in this year Nintendo is going to sell more games, more gamepads and other accessories increasing the revenue in that field as well.

It is also an important sign to game creators that the Wii is selling well and that it is currently the gaming system that producers will most likely sell the most games for. At least in Japan. The situation is different in North America and Europe where Microsoft is leading the field with their Xbox 360 thanks to the one year head start.

Which gaming system will be the dominant system in this generation ? Or, will there be a dominant system at all ? What do you think ?

Tags: hardware sales japan, microsoft xbox, nintendo-wii, ps3, sony-playstation, wii, xbox-360

Play Divx Movies on your Xbox 360

Martin — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:56:30 +0000

One of the flaws of the Xbox 360 is the inability to playback divx movies on it. Microsoft might have left it out intentionally to push their own wmv format or avoid that the Xbox 360 would be used as the universal media center like the original Xbox with the (unofficial) Xbox media center was able to do.

The only working way of playing divx movies on the Xbox 360 would be to stream divx content from your computer to the xbox which gets encoded in real time to the supported wmv format. This is indeed not a perfect solution and it puts some strains on the streaming computer.

If you still want to evaluate this option you need the following tools:

The following excerpt was taken from the Tversity guide to test if everything is working fine for Xbox 360 users:

Testing a UPnP A/V / DLNA Device (including the Xbox 360)

The media server should automatically be discovered by your UPnP / DLNA media player. Some players do this discovery each time they are turned on, others need to be explicitly put in a discovery mode. If this is the case for your player, please put your player in this mode. If you are using the Xbox 360, it will discover TVersity when you set it to access music or photos from a computer. Please refer to this Troubleshooting section if you are having difficulties with automatic discovery.
As the media player discovers the TVersity server you should see the TVersity Media Server appearing on your display. At that same time the server is discovering the make and model of your media player so that it can better serve it. The TVersity media server can discover automatically many different devices, however if your device is not on the list of automatically discovered devices you may need to manually set your device make and model from the TVersity GUI (if your device does not appear at all in our list of devices, chances are that it will still work if it indeed supports the UPnP AV or DLNA standard and so you need to select from the list a device that has a similar set of capabilities to the one you are using, in terms of the media formats it supports).
At this point the media library is still empty since you haven’t yet shared any media, however you will be able to access online content from the TVersity content guides. Use your remote to navigate to Audio and then to TVersity Audio Guide and you should see a list of Internet radio stations that are included in your media library for demonstration purposes. Click on any of them and after a few seconds (the time it takes to buffer some data off the Net for playback) you should be able to listen to the radio station on your Stereo/TV. At this point you can pause the station, rewind and then fast forward it, despite the fact that it is streaming live, because the TVersity server comes with built in support for time shifting.
Xbox 360 users, will not be able to navigate the entire media hierarchy provided by TVersity since the device has been designed to access only specific portions of one’s media library. In order to overcome this, TVersity will show under saved playlists not only your music playlists but also Internet podcasts. If you wish to access Internet radio stations you need to place them in a playlist. At this point, please set the Xbox to access music from a computer, navigate to saved playlists, select the TVersity Audio Feed and play one of the radio stations that are listed there. Unlike music, Internet photos will be accessible via the standard Xbox 360 interface since TVersity is extending the folder structure on the 360 to include them.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed the server and used it to play online content on your UPnP / DLNA device.

Now it is just a matter of adding divx movies to the database of TVersity and use your Xbox 360 to view them.

Tags: divx movies, microsoft, play divx xbox 360, xbox-360

HD-DVD Encryption has been hacked

Martin — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:09:16 +0000

The war between Blue-Ray and HD-DVD is still in the beginning which frustrates the consumers. One nail in the Blue-Ray coffin might have been added today by a guy who managed to hack the HD-DVD encryption. Being able to backup the expensive HD-DVD movies could win the format war. Most users will not be able to backup their HD-DVDs right away because the process sounds a little bit complicated and the author of the code did not reveal all the information how he managed to rip a HD-DVD movie but the source is available which means that many programmers will take a look and create advanced versions of it.

It took the author 20 days to encrypt the protection using his Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive and lots of free time. He started looking at solutions because he was unable to play a purchased HD-DVD movie using a HD-DVD drive and a HD monitor. I never fully understood why they created such restrictive formats in the first place. They only make their customers angry with restrictions like this, hackers will always find a way.

The author published a youtube movie, here it is:

The faq that comes with the program gives valuable information. I decided to publish it fully as well.

What is “Backup HDDVD” for?

What “Backup HDDVD” is doing exactly?

What are the system requirements to use “Backup HDDVD”

A Windows based system

A HDDVD disk drive

A HDDVD player software (like PowerDVD)

A HDDVD movie(s)

Java rutime 1.5

A lot of free hard disk space to backup your movies!

Was your first HDDVD movie hard to decrypt?

How do you do that?

How do you extract the “Title keys”?

What kind of crypto algorithms are involved?

Standards algorithms:

ECC-160

ES-128

Look in the AACS doc for more details.

What is the TKDB.cfg file?

This is the Title key Database file. It holds the decryption keys for the movies.

What is the format of this file?

The TKDB.cfg file provided with your program is empty or incomplete, what can I do?

Well, you are on your own.

What do you think of the technical aspects of AACS?

Is there any known problems with the decryption?

What are the side effects of the “Nav chain” bug fix?

For some reason, the sub-titles don’t seems to work anymore.
It may be a side effect of the nav chain bug. But may be not…

Why the “Nav chain” bug is called the “Nav chain” bug?

Are you going to support Blu-Ray?

I don’t own a Blu-Ray drive!

Do you plan to do a user interface version?

No, other people will do. You have the source code, so enjoy it!

Do you plan to do a Linux version?

Can you send me some decryption keys? PLEASE!

No.

Tags: blue ray, drm, encryption, hd, hd dvd, movie, xbox, xbox-360

Xbox 360 HD can be connected to your pc

Martin — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 20:50:01 +0000

Some scene guys apparently released a driver for Windows XP that makes it capable to connect and detect the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive that was released a few days ago in the United States. I do not own a Xbox 360 nor the HD-DVD add-on (of course) but this could be great news for some of you guys out there that do own both. All you need is to get hold of the driver which was released under the name XBOX360.HD-DVDRom.UDF.Reader.v2.5.WindowsXP-BluePrint.

You can access the complete release information at the official xbins.org website. Is it legal to use and download those drivers ? I honestly do not know the answer to this. I can only project that it will surely be released to p2p networks, usenet and offered on irc channels to everyone who knows how to use those channels. I can’t seem to find a reason why it could be illegal though.
The best way would probably be to try and get the file from the xbins irc channel on the Efnet network. Once there you join their channel /join #xbins and pull the list of fileservers from the channel by typing /msg xbins !list

Follow the information provided and you might find the tool there. I say might because I did not try that.

Tags: connect-hd-to-pc, Hardware, microsoft, x360-hd, xbox-360, xbox-hd, xbox-hd dvd, xbox-hd dvd-xp, xbox-hd-xp

What you should consider before selling a video game system

Martin — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:59:57 +0000

Thunder7 recently told me that he bought a used Xbox and discovered that the hard drive was full of music files from the previous owner. The original Xbox uses an internal 10 gigabyte hard drive to store save games, patches, music and images. The new Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 will also utilize a hard drive and the following tip is also valid for them.

If you do not delete the personal files on the hard drive before you sell the system the new owner will be able to watch, hear and view them just like you did. What Microsoft did not tell you is that it is likely to recover the files even though they have been deleted by connecting the xbox hd to a computer. File Recovery tools work on xbox hard drives as well.

If the new owner knows what he is doing and suspects you had some personal files on the hard drive he might want to take a look. The same holds true of course for every other sort of storage device that you are going to sell. It is possible to recover files even though you deleted them.

The only secure way that I know that would delete the files safely would be to connect the hard drive to your pc and use a tool like eraser to erase the personal files on it.

You need to unlock the hard drive of the xbox before you can access the xbox hard drive in windows.

It is also a good idea to remove account data from the system before you are selling it, this can be done from the menus provided which means you do not need external tools for it.

Tags: file-recovery, ps3, selling video game system, xbox, xbox-360

gHacks technology news » xbox-360

Three Things That Are Holding Back The Sony PS3

Related posts

Microsoft Apologizes for Next Gen Console Mixup

Related posts

Xbox Project Natal

Related posts

Best Games Of E3

Related posts

Computers’ energy costs

Related posts

I’m on a shopping spree

Related posts

No HD DVD Players for XBOX 360 anymore

Related posts

Video Game Systems Modchip Hysteria

Related posts

50 million for exclusive GTA4 content

Related posts

So, who is winning the HD war ?

Related posts

Is Microsoft banning modified Xbox 360 consoles from Live ?

Related posts

Replaced Xbox 360 Troubles

Related posts

Wii outselling PS3 in Japan Three to One

Related posts

Play Divx Movies on your Xbox 360

Related posts

HD-DVD Encryption has been hacked

Related posts

Xbox 360 HD can be connected to your pc

Related posts

What you should consider before selling a video game system

Related posts