Gromit,
How difficult was it to install the Xecutor? I have a 1.0 XBox(from what I can tell. My XBox was made in Feb 2002) and from what I've gathered it's not very difficult(just heat the existing solder in the points and insert the wires). I've not done much soldering before but I do have steady hands. In addition my friends little brother has modded a PSX before and he offered to do it for me if I want. Any feedback you can provide would be much appreciated. The main reason why I'm considering doing it is for the media player. I have all of season 2 of Twin Peaks in DiVX and converting them to VCDs would take forever and require a bunch of CDs. Being able to view them on my TV is very enticining to me as it won't be until atleast 2004 that Season 2 makes it to DVD here in Region 1.

I have a 1.0 box too but I *don't* have steady hands. I did 3 of the 'easy' wires myself, but had a co-worker finish it up. The d0 point is really tiny and is the hardest part by far. The easy part are the wires you referred to (heat existing solder and insert the wires). For the most part, 1.0 boxes are like this. 1.1 and 1.2 boxes will have empty holes that you have to fill with solder yourself. No big deal from what I understand though.

It would have been easier if I had taken the motherboard out of the box. I probably could've steadied myself more.

If you have any soldering experience, I'd say it's a no-brainer. If you don't have much soldering experience, but feel confident about the steadiness of your hands, go for it.

One tip: buy flux! Putting a bit of flux on the d0 point made it much easier for my co-worker to do. I probably would've tried it myself after seeing how much the flux helped 'attract' the solder on one of the bigger points.

Also, when I was doing the 3 points that I did solder, I screwed up and got solder on a nearby trace. I used solder braid and it cleaned it up just fine. My co-worker kept telling me that I couldn't screw this up. While it's very possible to fry your Xbox, I'd have to say that you have more wiggle room in terms of screwing up the soldering than I originally thought. I thought my box was fried when that bit of solder splashed over into another area.

Stupid tip: The Xbox doesn't boot if you don't have an audio/video cable plugged into it! I was working on the box in my study and I was just checking to see if it would boot. I kept getting what I thought was flashing red and green lights around the eject button. After scratching my head for a while I realized it was orange and green, which means "plug in an audio/video cable dumb*ss". It booted fine after that.

I'd say go for it. One you see how big the solder points are, find an old modem or video card and practice on that. Try doing one of the larger points and if it goes well, keep going. If you have someone handy with more soldering experience, all the better.

Gromit,
Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. I've still yet to actually open the box to get a look at the solder points but I'll definately do that before I buy the modchip and commit to doing it. I'm glad you mentioned the flashing light if you don't have an AV cable plugged in. I never knew that but sure enough when I unplugged the advanced av pack from my xbox just now, flashing green orange light. Good to know in advance so I don't freak out after the mod is installed

Can anyone tell me what file formats the xbox media player will play? I am really interested in its capabilities to stream video files from the PC to the big screen. I was going to buy this http://www.sonicblue.com/shop/_templ...del=168&cat=37 when it comes out, but why bother if the xbox can do it all? Will it play a variety of codecs, or only VCD files?

answered my own question:

XboxMediaPlayer 2.3 source code supports the following:

- DivX ;-) 3.11 and OpenDivX 4.0 Playback (uses FFmpeg lib)
- DivX 5.0 - 5.02 Playback inc. B-frames, GMC & QPel (uses FFmpeg lib)
- XVID Playback (uses XVID codec)
- MP3 playback (uses libmad lib)
- OGG/OGM Support (uses libvorbis/FFmpeg/XVID libs)
- Windows Media Files WMA/WMV/ASF (inc. WMV9 via DLL's)
- BivX (multiple audio streams/tracks) Support
- MSMpeg4v1 and MSMpeg4v2 support (uses FFmpeg lib)
- AC3 (Dolby Digital 5.1) Support (real AC3 5.1 output or down-mixed to stereo)
- MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 (inc. .DAT & .BIN VCD/SVCD files) (uses FFmpeg lib)
- Unencrypted VOB playback (uses libmpeg2 lib) & encrypted via IFO parsing from DVD
- Subtitle support (MicroDVD, srt, smi, vplayer, rt, ssa, aqt, sub, jss, mpl & VobSub)
- True FFWD/RWD during AVI (DivX/XVID) & MPEG playback
- Seeking during AVI (DivX/XVID) & MPEG playback
- Playlist's for audio & video files (inc. save & play playlist to/from M3U)
- Video bookmarking (so can resume a movie later, even after reboot)
- Post-Processing filters for better video quality
- Audio amplifying & normalization filters
- Video resizing/scaling and zooming functions
- ISO 9660 - Mode1 CD-R/RW compatibility (caching or on-the-fly)
- ISO 9660 - Mode2 CD-R/RW compatibility (caching or on-the-fly) (VCD/SVCD)*
- JPG, GIF & BMP Picture viewing (uses FFmpeg lib) & picture slideshow (using CxImage)
- Tumbnails (folders and applications) for easy localization
- Picture tumbnails (automatically generated)
- Launch XBE's (dashboard replacement mode)
- Build-in FTP Server (using XBFileZilla module)
- IMDb information (The Internet Movie Database)
- SHOUTcast & Icecast support (native and/or streaming form XNS Server)
- File streaming from a PC or Server over a network from a XNS (XStream Server) software
- File streaming from a PC or Server over a network from Windows SMB (Samba) share/s*
- Stream video/audio/pictures directly from a ISO/BIN/IMG/ZIP files via RelaX
- 8092Kb memory buffer for video/audio playback (can be configured)
- Control XboxMediaPlayer via Xbox™ controller or the Xbox™ DVD Remote
- Language files for translated user interface (over 20 languages so far)
- International subtitle fonts (manually exchangeable using TTF fonts)
- International GUI fonts (manually exchangeable using TTF fonts)

No Quicktime, 3ixv, real media or Divx 5.04 or VCD/SVCD

Convert em

Can anyone recommend me to a site, or tell me how to load files onto my xbox from a CDR? PLEASE!!!

By the way, this is the guy who is making my console to jamma converter. It's a bit pricey, but the work is top notch! Here is his site! Tell him Jesse sent ya! The site is kinda quirky, but you get the idea

Here is the email he sent to me:

I am sending this email anyone who has inquired about the JAMMAcast Arcade Console System and might have thought it to be too expensive. I am now dropping the price down to $199.00 for the PS2 version and $249.00 for the combo unit which is PS2 and XBOX RGB cables with PSX controls which can be easily converted for XBOX (original price $280 and $320). Shipping and insurance in the US is still $15.
Thank you for your interest!

Michael Ahrens

JAMMAcast Converters
http://www.angelfire.com/dc2/jamma_converter/

Don't burn the to a CD-R. Fully erase a CD-RW and burn them on that and the Xbox will read it just fine. Alternatively a DVDR/W will work the same way. Or you could just use the Samba client on Evox to get the files onto the xbox hd via the ethernet port.

The best way to get files to your Xbox is by FTPing them over. You must boot with an Evox CDRW (if you don't have it installed already), that automaticly enables an FTP server on the XBox. Then from you PC, connect and copy over whatever you want.

I have this thing called "Boxplorer" on my unit. All I really want on my unit is M a m e, and S N E S emus. Maybe a Turbo Grafx emu. When I got my X b o x back from the guy who chipped it I noticed that there was a port sticking out from behind the unit. I assume this is where I would connect it to my pc? So a CDRW is the best way to go?

Sorry to be such a noob. I just wanna be sure I am doing it right. If anyone wishes to be a big help, please email me at [email protected]

I am missing alot of the CPS2 stuff on M a m e, and I just wanna load it on there, but I dont have the slightest clue as to WHERE i put it once I get in there

Its funny....I can tear apart a Honda motor, and rebuild it but I cant do this!!!

Jesse,
check out this link for eveything you'd ever want to know about xbox mods and software
http://www.xbox-scene.com/ The site has tons of tutorials and excellent forums where the people know almost everything about modding. Definately give it a look.

How is the video quality on the Media Player? I also have a lot of TV episodes in Divx because i don't have much time to watch TV and have been wondering how to watch them on TV. They are pretty good quality and about 100 megs each. I couldn't really tell what the video quality was like on TSS when they showed it and they didn't explain what format or size it was.

Awesome! Thanks for the link!

Ordered my Xecutor 2 chip. Downloaded Evox and I'm Quadsucking xbox-scene.com. Trying to decide whether to get a new Xbox or a refurb.

I installed a Xecutor 2 pro a few months ago. Got it from extreme-mods.com and it came promptly. Install was pretty easy, my prior soldering experience was only the afterburner in a GBA. The d0 point seems difficult because it is so small, all i did was dab some solder to the tip of the wire and put it on the point and heated the wire. Working great ever since. Even put a 120 gig hard drive in there. Couldn't use the 80 gig I had because it wouldn't "lock". Which is necessary if you want to switch off the modchip and use the xbox normally. I can finally watch my region 2/3 dvds on my TV as well as DivX and mp3 files networked from my computer. Mame emulator is sweet also.

That is where you would plug in a parellel cable if you wanted to flash your mod chip with a new bios. All data transfer would be done through the ethernet port.

I dont use Boxplorer, I use XCommander, but I am pretty sure they do the same thing...allow you to copy files from the DVD Drive on the Xbox to the Hard Drive.

Once you install Mame-X (the Xbox version of MaMe), you will see a 'Roms' folder under the MameX folder. You just copy the Roms right there.

Gotcha! I have both Xcommander and Boxplorer.....but the problem is I don't have a crossover cable. Now lets say I have a bunch of files on my PC, and I wanna transfer them over to my xbox....

1. Can I use a CDR?? If so, which ones work, because my Digital Research ones arent being recognized in my Xbx.

2. Do the files have to zipped in order to run on mamex?

I spent all night last night looking for walkthroughs on doing this and found nothing. I did find useful info on how to work with boxplorer and xcommander though. Now my only problem is being able to transfer files off of a CDR, finding out which CDR's work, and whether or not my files have to be zipped or not to work.

Thanks for all the help guys!

PS. I DO have a 5 port switch with CAT 5 cable going to my PC and my XBOX.....would I be able to FTP to my Xbox like this? Sorry for the noob questions. This is all one big learning experience for me. Even those support sites are kinda cold towards noobs with this stuff.

Jesse, either get a crossover cable, an ethernet hub, or a router with a built in hub/switch. Alternatively, like I said earlier, get a CD-RW. If it's one that's been burned before do a FULL ERASE and burn the stuff to it. That might work.

A switch should work. If you are using the Evox dashboard you can get the IP address of your xbox from the settings and then you can ftp into it. As for CD-Rs, almost none of them work on XBox. Only certain CDRWs work on certain XBoxs. I used a Verbatim that worked okay. Once in awhile it wouldn't read.

Pulled this from the Day Two page at Tech TV
I was thinking about getting an xbox just to try out all of this nifty stuff, and stopped cold right here:
Now that you're happy with the evox.ini file, it's time to burn EvoX to a DVD-R. Wait, you need a DVD burner? Yup. Not a CD burner, but a DVD-R burner.

Is this not entirely true?

Thanks,
Nooby Nubinstein

Yup, that's not true. I used a CD-RW and it worked fine.

If you really are a nooby, I'd look for a utility called "Slayer's Auto Install". You burn this bad boy to a CD-RW, and boot up your xbox with it after you install your chip. It has an easy to use menu that will set up everything for you: Install EvoX along with a bunch of other utilites (media player, dvd player, hard drive utilites, DVDripper) and it will even lock your hard drive (if you installed a new one).

This is great! So I just go into my Xbox dashboard and get the settings from there?

Now, does anyone know if my files have to zipped before I load them onto my xbx?? Right now, almost all the files I have are RAR files. Can I still just transfer them over like that? Or do I have to UnRAR them and then Zip them up?

As far as I know, you need to unrar everything before you copy it to your xbox. The only things that should still be zipped up are mame roms (or snes roms, etc..).

Yes, these files are for MAMEX and SNES.

So DON'T TRANSFER THEM OVER IF THEY ARE RAR files??

I remember reading somewhere that Mame and SNES files had to be zipped. Gosh, i am SO close to having this thing just the way I want it!!

I guess I am just confused between RAR and ZIP. If I cant use RAR files on my Mamex, do I have to Unrar them and then ZIP them up using winzip.....my head hurts! Its not a tumah!

Oh, and here's the ad for the Console to Jamma unit

Well, after FINALLY getting the Chip from easybuy2000 I can say everything said in the thread is true. While it didn't take 3 months, it did take almost 4 weeks to get. I did get the "it will ship begining of next week" story (only to not have it ship)

I would avoid them and order from anyone else.

That said, I'm chipping/add drive tomorrow. I plan on using the Slayer 2.1 installer to add everything since it's for noobies.

-Chris