Archive:HOW-TO:Enable HD (High-Definition) on a softmodded European PAL Xbox

HOW-TO enable HD (High-Definition) on a softmodded European PAL Xbox

The is instruction on the process of turning a standard-definition XBMC installation on a PAL Xbox into a high-definition XBMC installation (which involves) connecting a Xbox high-definition cable-adapter and converting the Xbox to NTSC mode.

Audience

This guide is aimed at owners of PAL (i.e. european) XBoxs who have already soft-modded their Xbox using ndure (I used version 3.0 but I imagine later versions should work). You should also have XBMC installed and preferably have some experience using it.

Ndure has many settings and options. I followed a guide written by a guy called Textbook (google "ndure xboxhdm textbook" to find it) when I softmodded - with one exception; I unselected "Default boot xonlinedash console" because I wanted to have easy access to the Settings page of the standard XBox dashboard.

If you followed another guide when you softmodded then the process below may still work for you but no guarantees.

Disclaimer

You perform the steps in this guide at your own risk. If in the course of doing so you destroy your xbox, your TV, your house, yourself or planet Earth then I accept no responsibility. Xboxs were designed to play official games and sit in the corner of a room looking ugly, any modding or running of homebrew software is done at your own risk.

Prerequisites

Okay, so you have a Pal xbox running ndure and XBMC, what else will you need?

• A High Def TV that can display NTSC input (most should be able to)
• A High Def cable (see below)
• An Xbox gamepad (I don't think you can perform the steps with just a remote)
• XBMC running the default PMIII skin (at least while you do the upgrade)
• An xbox program called Enigmah* (Google is your friend)
• FTP access to your Xbox

Note! Enigmah Video Selectory software usually comes as a CD-image (ISO or IMG). For the guide you just need the program so you'll have to locate a utility that will allow you to extract the files from an xbox ISO image - note that ordinary ISO readers won't work, xbox cd images are a non-standard format.

The cable adapter

You need a special cable to get the high-def signals from the Xbox to a high-def TV or projector. The cable will have a standard Xbox AV connector on one end and five RCA jacks on the other (three of these are component video connectors, the other two carry the left and right audio signals). The cable may also have a socket or connector for a TOSLink optical/digital audio cable.

There are several brands of xbox high-def cables available and they vary a lot in quality. Bad cables can really mess things up so this is one area where spending a bit of money up front will prevent headaches later on. Two types of cables are generally recommended as being reliable.

The official Microsoft High-Definition AV Pack

These weren't sold in Europe because HD was still very much a niche technology here at the time. You can sometimes pick them up on auction sites like ebay though. There are two versions, as far as I know both perform equally well.

The first version is a two (or three) part cable - first there is a block with the xbox connector, five RCA jacks and a TOSLink socket, second there is a set of component leads included that can be used to connect each RCA jack on the block to the corresponding jack on your TV. If you want digital audio you have to buy a TOSLink cable and plug it into your AMP and the socket on the block.

The second version does away with the block in favour of having a chunky connector at the xbox end and five built-in component leads at the TV end. The chunky connector end has a TOSLink socket - again you have to supply your own cable for that.

Monster GameLink 400 X

This is similar to the official MS type 2 version - it has a chunky end with the xbox connector and a digital audio socket and five RCA component leads at the other end.

The digital audio connector isn't a standard TOSLink socket. Moster sells a companion TOSLink cable (the LightWave 100 X) which comes with an adapter to plug into the socket on the GameLink.

The HD enabling process

• 1. Hook up your Xbox to your High Def TV using your shiny new cable. Don't worry if the picture looks a bit poor at this point, you haven't actually enabled HD mode yet.
  

• 2. Create a blank text file on your computer and rename it "EEPROM_off.bin" without the quotes - make sure that is the whole name, Windows sometimes hides the last extension and EEPROM_off.bin.txt is no good to us.
  
  

• 3. Connect to your xbox using an FTP program (you'll have to find another guide if you don't know how to do that). Once connected copy over the Enigmah program folder (I put it in E:\Apps\Enigmah) and copy the "EEPROM_off.bin" file into the root of E.
  
  

• 4. Switch off your xbox then power it back on. Use your dashboard to run Enigmah. If you are in XBMC you can use the filemanager to search your XBox drive for the program. Click on "default.xbe" in the Enigmah folder to run it.
  
  

• 5. The Enigmah screen should say "Current Region: PAL". Press B on the controller, the screen should now say "Current Region: NTSC". Exit the program by pressing Left trigger, Right trigger, Back button and Black button all at the same time. You should now be in your default dashboard, start XBMC if you aren't already there and go to Settings-Appearance-Screen. The resolution choices should now be NTSC based rather than PAL based.
  
  

• 6. Switch off your xbox then power it back on. Start XBMC and go to the Settings-Appearance-Screen. The resolution choices should still be NTSC based rather than PAL based. If they are PAL based then check that "EEPROM_off.bin" has the right name and is in the right location, then go through steps 4 through 6 again.
  
  

• 7. Your Xbox is now running in NTSC mode. You need to delete "EEPROM_off.bin" from the root of E. Probably the easiest way to do this is to use the filemanager in XBMC. Navigate to the file, highlight it using the Y button, press the White button and then select delete from the menu. When that file is deleted it is important that you switch off your xbox.
  
  

• 8. Switch on your xbox USING THE EJECT BUTTON. This should take you to the standard MS dashboard. If it doesn't you could try starting the MS dash by using the XBMC filemanager to locate and run the program file - it should be "c:\xboxdash.xbe" - I don't know if the settings you are about to change will stick if you do it this way though.
  
  

• 9. In the MS dashboard go to Settings-Video and enable all the HD resolutions your TV supports. If you are using the TOSLink digital audio connection then go to Settings-Audio and enable the audio types your decoder supports.
  
  

• 10. Switch off your xbox then power it back on. If not already in XBMC start it up. In XBMC go to Settings-System-VideoHardware, hopefully it will reflect the settings changes you made in the MS dashboard. You might want to check that the audio settings stuck too.
  
  

• 11. Still in XBMC go to Settings-Appearance-Screen and select the resolution you would like XBMC to run in from now on. Most users seem to recommend 720p as providing the best combination of resolution and speed.
  
  

• 12. Still in XBMC go to Settings-Video-Player and change the resolution you would like videos to be played at. I believe that XBMC will scale the video up or down as necessary and output it at this resolution. If you chose 720p for your screen resolution then 720p would be a good choice here too.
  
  

• 13. Since you are running at a new screen resolution you should probably go through screen calibration again, just to make sure you are seeing all of that HD goodness.

All done

That's it, you should now be enjoying XBMC in high resolution. I know moving to 720p made a huge difference in my setup - everything in the interface appears crisper, I can read small text on album and dvd cover images, even the standard resolution video files seem to look much better (presumably because of upscaling).

I've only just started messing around with HD in XBMC so if I have left out any steps or settings that should be applied then perhaps people could mention them in this thread. For instance I'm not sure which of the render methods work best for HD, or whether changing the cache settings would improve performance. Any tips from long time HD users would be appreciated.