Print
Discuss
Send to friend
RSS feedsWhen Microsoft launched its external HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 last Christmas, it’s fair to say many interested parties had no intention of connecting it to the games console.
As the HD-DVD drive uses a standard USB2 connection, the question was whether or not it would work on a PC. After all, At £130, it could be one of the cheapest HD solutions for the PC.
Early pioneers figured out a workaround, although it involved some fiddling. Just a few short months later, though, the situation has changed and getting the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive working on your PC is relatively straightforward – so long as you have the right parts and do everything in the right order.
Installing the drive
The Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive is an external unit which uses a USB2 connection.
Since it’s designed for use with the Xbox games console, it doesn’t come with
any specific Windows drivers, but thankfully Microsoft now provides them.
Windows Vista includes suitable drivers, so just plug the drive right in. Windows XP is almost as easy. It will recognise and install the optical drive, but you’ll be faced with the New Hardware Wizard for an Xbox Memory Controller. Luckily, there are now drivers on Windows Update, so just tell the wizard to check online. The drive will now be operational and read the data on HD-DVD discs, but playing movies is another matter.
Like DVD before them, both HD-DVD and Blu-ray use digital video compression to squeeze a movie onto the disc. Unlike DVD, which exclusively uses Mpeg-2 for compression, HD-DVD and Blu-ray can also use the newer and more efficient H.264 and VC-1 codecs. So to watch a movie on your PC, you’ll need software which can decode the three possible codecs, as well as sufficient processing muscle.
Cyberlink was first out of the gate with an updated version of its popular PowerDVD program. The new Ultra version costs about £60 and includes support for both HD-DVD and Blu-ray, although, at the time of writing, it would only support one or the other. A patch released by the time you read this should allow it to accommodate PCs with both types of drives.
The crucial thing is to set up PowerDVD while the HD-DVD drive is connected and switched on or it won’t install the appropriate version. PowerDVD Ultra will work on systems running Media Center, but not from within the Media Center interface itself. For that, you’ll need Cyberlink’s Playmovie software, which at the time of writing was for OEM customers only.
Now for that processing muscle. Even though much of the decoding work can be offloaded to a modern graphics card, you’ll still need a minimum of a single or dual-core Pentium clocked at 3.2 or 3GHz respectively, or an Athlon 64 4000+.
All Peripheral Devices
del.icio.us
Digg this
reddit!
