Xbox 360 HD DVD Addon -- Works on an HTPC!?

[bton]

Originally Posted by madpoet

I'm trying to avoiud duplicate posting, so feel free to read my last post here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post8872426

I THINK I now have a hybrid player . I'd like to solve the 540p question though... is there a method to determine what the resolution is?

Are you running these on XP or Vista

[madpoet]

Xp

[arfster]

Originally Posted by jruser

I was looking at the Windvd 8 trial, and if you click the 'i' in the title bar it will show the resolution. Whether that is showing the original resolution or the resolution it is outputting, I don't know.

There doesn't really seem to be a good way to find out since the video card would scale to overlay to whatever the desktop resolution is.

Scaled 540p should be pretty poor quality - compare it with some real HD and it should be obvious.

[lymzy]

someone from thegreenbutton seems to say so.

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/per...ad.aspx#148368

Quote
"SUCCESS!!!

I re-installed the Japanese version I downloaded in September since Chris didnt seem to think that downloaded version wouldn't work. And low and behold everything works perfectly! I am watching an HD-DVD on my PC for the first time...

Setup was easy, just plugged the xbox hd-dvd drive in, XP found it quickly. It couldnt find an Xbox 360 HD-DVD Memory driver, but it doesnt appear to be needed.After the drive was connected I re-installed WinDVD 8 HD, rebooted and all is good with the world!

Thanks M$!!!

Charles"


I am waiting for reports from madpoet.

[bton]

madpoet,
What do you think about picture quality using WinDVD8? Is it compatible with Xbox360?

[madpoet]

Ok... I also have success . As above, the memory controller is not found but I just finished watching King Kong and had ZERO issues. My specs are as follows:

E6600 C2D at stock
GeForce 8800GTX
NVidia 680i MB
2GB Corsair Dominator DDR2-8000 RAM
Sony BRU-1000 drive
XBox HD-DVD drive

Software:
Japanese WinDVD8 platinum
Altiris SVS Personal Edition (Not required, I just prefer WinDVD to PowerDVD especially since the PowerDVD version is crippled)

If you don't want to bother with using Altiris to virtualize the software, then you can simply install PowerDVD that comes with the BD drive and the Japanese WinDVD version. They coexist fine if you turn off autorun. If like me you want to use WinDVD for both, you have to use Altiris SVS. Create virtual layers of the WinDVD installation for both HD and BD, and switch between them as required.

So how does it perform? Well right now I'm outputting to my small monitor which is 1280x1024 so it's not a completely valid test. However, as an important note, I am outputting via VGA! So even though WinDVD checks that your video card is HDCP compliant, it doesn't actually care that your monitor is or is not. Weird, huh? Access time from insert to Play is 12-15 seconds. For some reason my Video Acceleratin settings are greyed out. I'm not sure why this is. It could be because of the Altiris software layer, and I'll have to test that. So I can only assume I am running stictly in software mode, which at this point gives me around 45-50% CPU usage on both cores.

PQ: I don't actually have a 360 . I bought this drive simply to test this theory. Glad it worked! On my small monitor it looked spectacular, but I admit I need to hook it up to a big one.

So... SUCCESS! VICTORY! Long live the hybrid player!

[lymzy]

Originally Posted by madpoet

Ok... I also have success . As above, the memory controller is not found but I just finished watching King Kong and had ZERO issues. My specs are as follows:

E6600 C2D at stock
GeForce 8800GTX
NVidia 680i MB
2GB Corsair Dominator DDR2-8000 RAM
Sony BRU-1000 drive
XBox HD-DVD drive

Software:
Japanese WinDVD8 platinum
Altiris SVS Personal Edition (Not required, I just prefer WinDVD to PowerDVD especially since the PowerDVD version is crippled)

If you don't want to bother with using Altiris to virtualize the software, then you can simply install PowerDVD that comes with the BD drive and the Japanese WinDVD version. They coexist fine if you turn off autorun. If like me you want to use WinDVD for both, you have to use Altiris SVS. Create virtual layers of the WinDVD installation for both HD and BD, and switch between them as required.

So how does it perform? Well right now I'm outputting to my small monitor which is 1280x1024 so it's not a completely valid test. However, as an important note, I am outputting via VGA! So even though WinDVD checks that your video card is HDCP compliant, it doesn't actually care that your monitor is or is not. Weird, huh? Access time from insert to Play is 12-15 seconds. For some reason my Video Acceleratin settings are greyed out. I'm not sure why this is. It could be because of the Altiris software layer, and I'll have to test that. So I can only assume I am running stictly in software mode, which at this point gives me around 45-50% CPU usage on both cores.

PQ: I don't actually have a 360 . I bought this drive simply to test this theory. Glad it worked! On my small monitor it looked spectacular, but I admit I need to hook it up to a big one.

So... SUCCESS! VICTORY! Long live the hybrid player!

Screen shots please!

[madpoet]

Erm, not sure I can screenshot... they disabled that. What do you want screenshots of?

[jvincent]

Originally Posted by madpoet

So... SUCCESS! VICTORY! Long live the hybrid player!

Well done! I hereby nominate you for the Early Adopter of 2006 Award.

[madpoet]

Make it 2007, so I'm REALLY early

[lymzy]

Originally Posted by madpoet

Erm, not sure I can screenshot... they disabled that. What do you want screenshots of?

A picture showing your PC with the add-on while play HD DVD kingkong on the screen. A picture is worth a 1000 words!

[jvincent]

Originally Posted by madpoet

Make it 2007, so I'm REALLY early

I'll have to check with the Academy on the cutoff date.

The good news for me is that I will probably be getting the HD-DVD player for my 360. Once TheaterTek has a solution for HD-DVD I can either just use the drive for that (either external or cannibalized) or get a new one assuming they are cheaper than $200 by then.

[GMan4911]

Originally Posted by madpoet

So how does it perform? Well right now I'm outputting to my small monitor which is 1280x1024 so it's not a completely valid test. However, as an important note, I am outputting via VGA! So even though WinDVD checks that your video card is HDCP compliant, it doesn't actually care that your monitor is or is not.

Nice job! A few questions, if you don't mind. Your graphics card is HDCP compliant right? Have you tried it without an HDCP compliant graphics card? I'm wondering if HDCP is really a requirement even if VGA output is being used.

[madpoet]

It is compliant. I have not tried it myself, but in the past people who have used the Japanese WinDVD said that it does check to make sure you are compliant. Since I don't have one that isn't I can't tell you for sure.

Check that, I do have a 6800 upstais. I'll try it tonight and let you know.

[Blippy2005]

Last Update: 11-24-2006

Thank You MadPoet for the confirmation of it working and what was needed.
Thank You CandyRocket786 for the great tips especially on how to order WinDVD8 Platinum from Japan!.
Thank You Monkeyboy1010 for the Blueprint UDF 2.5 driver for XP!
Thank You MidnightWatcher and Patsfan123 for your help as well!
Thank You Microsoft and Toshiba for HD-DVD, the Xbox 360, All the great software (looking forward to Vista) and the Addon! Special thanks to AmirM and the MS AVS presence.
Thank You Universal/Warner/Paramount for giving us awesome HD-DVD's
Thank You AVS for all the great information and for the Circuity City coupon bringing the total price down to $173 for the HD-DVD addon + king kong HD-DVD + remote

Link to Circuit City Coupon. This coupon is good until November 30th, 2006.
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/2546/editedym4.jpg

Below is a link to CandyRocket786's guide for ordering

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post8871286

CONFIRMED!!!! It's working with Batman Begins HD-DVD =)

It works and it works great! 1080P is now working as well, but you need Cyberlink PowerDVD 6.5 HD-DVD version (OEM release not commercially available to order yet, real release is sometime in February/March according to Cyberlink phone support).

Audio: Dolby TrueHD can be selected. When I have Intervideo WinDVD menu/setup/Audio Tab/Audio Output Configuration set to Analog sound card it does work but appears to be 2 channel only. When I switch to Digital S/PDif out to external processor which is what I typically use for DVD's, then i get nothing but static noise. Normal Dolby Digital works fine though with Digital S/PDif to ext proc.

Cyberlink PowerDVD 6.5 allows you to select TrueHD however reports a system support error for Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro system.

Video: Looks great but still not perfect even under Cyberlijnk. In WinDVD 8Plat (JPN) Under Setup/Performance there's a slider for decode quality/compensation. Unfortunately it appears we are only getting 960x540 progressive right now? This had better be fixed by Intervideo soon. But for now I'm happy that it works. Software always gets better in the future. The video quality did look better from the HD-A1 and the Xbox 360 with HD-DVD addon connected. At this point definitely better than SD-DVD but not yet 720P or 1080I/P.

Once PowerDVD 6.5 HD is available (or if you for instance buy an OEM system with it, e.g. ACER Aspire 9520, 9810) you can get 1080P support working. Warning it is VERY CPU intensive. With Batman Begins, 0 hardware acceleration on it chews up 100% CPU on both CPUs on an Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (manchester core), with Nvidia Geforce 7950GT and stutters on any scene where more there is more than 20% of frame change. With hardware acceleration on (have to stop power dvd and turn it on from Configuration\Video Tab\Hardware Acceleration checkbox), the same clips take up 30-50% CPU on both cores and it plays smoothly with no skip/stutter. Looks pretty nice.

Playback: Startup takes 30-45 seconds depending on what sequence of startup you use. From no disk in drive to first video (studio opening logo) it's about 37 seconds for me. If for some reason the drive decides to do a double read from autorun + WinDVD autostart it seems to add 5-10 seconds. With disk in drive and WinDVD program already opened but not playing it takes like 11 seconds =) Menuing system is instantaneous. Just as responsive as Xbox 360 and more responsive than Toshiba HD-A1. However I couldn't find how to operate U-Control within WinDVD. Maybe this is why it's not out in the USA yet? Some people have problems with IME/U-Control getting stuck on it seems. I didn't have this issue with Batman Begins but I did have it with King Kong.

Cyberlink PowerDVD takes 56 seconds from open disk tray to first sign of disk play (FBI warning screen). 27 seconds from PowerDVD already open and disk already in drive, then hitting play to video start. The menu system is VERY responsive if the playback is paused at the time otherwise it's less responsive than WinDVD/360 playback if Hardware Acceleration is off. It's more responsive than WinDVD and just as responsive as 360 with Hardware Acceleration on.

Just a side note, the Xbox 360 + HD-DVD addon is still the fastest startup from no disk in drive, 7-9 seconds for me.

DON'T run the Cyberlink Advisor if you are playing WinDVD HD-DVD at the time. The video in WinDVD disappears =( sound keeps working though. Stopping and restarting the player (without closing it) fixes it.

Also here's an example of a Beta of PowerDVD showing more functionality including what looks like 1080P support. Thanks MidnightWatcher for posting it further down in the thread.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=3

Related Software used:

MS Windows XP Pro SP2 (note this isn't WINMCE2005 or Vista atm but will upgrade to Vista later)
Intervideo WinDVD 8 Platinum ordered from Japan as per the above link.
BluePrint UDF 2.5 inf file for Xbox 360 HD-DVD addon drive (You should not need this driver, people have gotten it to work just fine without the UDF 2.5 driver. It's only if you want to be able to explore the contents of the drive.) even if you don't install this, you should get the drive installed by XP/Vista as Toshiba DVD/HD X807616 USB device without any problems. Ignore the Xbox 360 HD DVD Memory Unit's that don't detect properly. They won't hurt playback.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post8875463

http://localhostr.com/files/c46c39057dc3fbe73d9f.rar

The public Toshiba link if the above doesn't work.
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...ngdgmn.0&ct=DL

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_d...betadriver.html

PureVideo™ HD BETA drivers
92.91
Windows XP / 2000 /MCE 32-bit
Release Date: September 14, 2006
BETA driver

Note: I also have Nvidia PureVideo Decoder installed. Not sure if this is necessary or not though I would expect not past 92.91 drivers so long as you have WinDVD 8 plat+.

*some screenshot software*


Related Hardware used:

Gigabyte K8N-UltraSLI motherboard
Enermax Liberty ELT-620AWT power supply
Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (Manchester core)
4 gigabytes of RAM PC3200
800 gig local HD (5 terabytes networked storage)
Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
ASUS EN7950GT (Nvidia Geforce 7950GT with HDCP support)
Xbox 360 HD-DVD addon drive connected via USB2 on Motherboard

Westinghouse LVM-37W1 1080P LCD connected via DVI1 (HDCP compliant) 1920x1080 32-bit 60hz

The below are 1920x1080P 32-bit screencaps, Jpegs though so some artifacts as you can tell from the full desktop capture. But the important thing is everything works =)

















2 1080P shots from PowerDVD 6.5 HD




Report from WinDVD Setup/Information tab

Version:
7.5 B42.052
Navigation:
Type: HD-DVD
Region: None
Drive: H:
TV System: Unspecified.
Macrovision Level: 0
CGMS Level: 3
Video:
Hardware:
Vendor: Nvidia
Connection type: MEDIASUBTYPE_YUY2
Downstream renderer: CLSID_DisplayServer
Stream:
Type: VC1
Bitrate: 18.999 Mbps
Framerate: 29.970 Hz
Resolution: 960x540
Aspect ratio: 16x9
Audio:
Hardware:
Audio Device: directsound
S/PDIF: Present
Number of speakers: 8
Stream:
Type: DD+
Bitrate: 640 Kbps
Number of main channels: 5
LFE Channel: Present
Sampling Frequency: 48khz
Bits Per Sample: 16
Output:
Sample Rate: 48 KHz
Bits per Sample: 16
CPU:
Name: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
Family:15(Gen:15) Model:11 Stepping:1
Standard Feature: 0x178bfbff
Hyper-Threading: Not supported, Not enabled
Instruction support:
Intel MMX: Enabled
Intel SSE: Enabled
Intel SSE2: Enabled
Intel SSE3: Enabled
AMD 3DNow!: Enabled
AMD Enh 3DNow!: Enabled
AMD 3DNow! Pro: Enabled

[madpoet]

What do you need in detail? I can give it all to you pretty clearly.

[Sisyphus]

madpoet: any idea if your getting a pure progressive image or if windvd is interlacing/deinterlacing?

[madpoet]

No idea. I tried the hitting "i" to get resolution info but nothing came up. Got any way I can test?

[Sisyphus]

Originally Posted by madpoet

No idea. I tried the hitting "i" to get resolution info but nothing came up. Got any way I can test?

Nope

Thanks for sharing your setup with us and let us know if your non-hdcp card works when you get around to testing that.

[stanger89]

Anybody tried yanking it from the case yet?

[Blippy2005]

Heh ya I was tempted to yank it but i'm satisfied that it works fine now. I will keep it in it's case so i can transport it easy and use on other Xbox 360's and PC's when i need to. Basically I now have a portable HD-DVD Video demo kit!

Woohoo!

Updated: Uneasy Silence peeled it from the case! see

http://uneasysilence.com/archive/200...comment-289533

[madpoet]

Blippy, looks good. How did you get the screenshots? This really is seriously cool. Of course we can't get TrueHD, but maybe someday.

[Thuppu]

Does WinDVD 8 give full 1080p resolution? I have heard that with BD it gives out only 960x540p. Have it been fixed? Those screenshots are quite fuzzy, so it could be 960x540p.

[JKohn]

Those screenshots are quite fuzzy, so it could be 960x540p.

I have to agree, those first several full-screen captures don't look nearly as good as what I'm used to with broadcast 1080i, that's looks more like the amount of detail I'd expect from an upconverted standard DVD.

[madpoet]

The screencaps are fuzzy becazuse of the capture and post here.

[Thuppu]

The resolution is easy to check from the WinDVD 8 preferences > video information.

[Blippy2005]

It is indeed reporting as 960x540 in the setup/information tab =(

[MidnightWatcher]

Blippy2005, what version of nVidia drivers are you using? The latest 93.71 should enable full HD shouldn't it?

Release Highlights:

* WHQL Certified.
* NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD driver with support for the following features:

o Hardware acceleration of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 HD movie formats.
o Video post-processing image enhancements.
o Built-in support for HDCP content protection protocol via DVI or HDMI connectors.
o Please visit the NVIDIA PureVideo website for more information on building a PureVideo HD system.

There should be a way to enable the full 1920x1080p resolution. Have you tried a DVI->VGA adaptor to see if you can get the full resolution? Do we need to have PureVideo software installed? There's a trial version, may be worth a try. Maybe WinDVD has been patched to enable full resolution? We're getting there!

[Blippy2005]

I am using Nvidia Beta drivers from nzone

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_do...etadriver.html

PureVideo™ HD BETA drivers
92.91
Windows XP / 2000 /MCE 32-bit
Release Date: September 14, 2006
BETA driver

Where is this 93.71 driver?

Nevermind I found it. installed it and tested and it still works as before, 960x540 still.

Also it's been brought to my attention that for some reason this is Win DVD Version 7.5? Even though it says 8. So hopefully there will be an update in the future to fix this for true 1080P and not 540P.

[madpoet]

I'm using 97.02 and getting the same results. I need to hook it up to an HDCP monitor and see what happens. I've got to get a DVI - HDMI cable for that one though.