Secrets of the Original Xbox DVD Playback Kit | MVG

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Enjoy this bonus mid week video

[@Mavvric]

Will do

[@AntChannel]

Okakoy

[@goodBEan]

guessing this is release is because of the holidays. a couple other channels are deviating from their schedules this week. Its all good.

[@age2gold]

Thank you love the channel!

[@stanneh1978]

Thank you!

[@MrMario2011]

I remember somehow convincing my mom to buy this! We definitely knew the Xbox could play DVD movies, rented a few, and were greeted to that screen. I never thought the XBE was actually on the dongle itself, always assumed it acted as an unlock key of sorts.

[@PhirePhlame]

...this could be a softmod exploit

[@randycandy5717]

mrmario i fing love your rgh vieo on phat consoles

[@heterlook9798]

I put a dvd it doesn't work when I put a dvd on the Xbox or the Xbox Classic remote control kit but it doesn't work as ever

[@Astranix59]

Your guides are amazing!

[@CertifiedAsher]

​@@heterlook9798 clean dvd reader

[@ADukesJustice]

Microsoft in 2001: "Let's not force a DVD player in the Xbox so it won't be expensive" Microsoft in 2013: "Let's force Kinect with the Xbox One so it'll be more expensive"

[@nagsterthegangster3548]

The exact difference between people working for SOMETHING and people working for SOMEONE. After the technology caught on and they got a customer base they no longer needed to innovate. If you dont have one YOU'RE now the outlier. They're trying to make it so if you want to hang with your goddamn friends you gotta own the same console they do. They're marketing and developing based on our willingness to connect and play with our friends. Make it so you can only buy OUR SHIT to play with ALL YOUR FRIENDS and a lot of people are all too willing to overlook sketchy marketing tactics... Man I just wanna play some f*cking video games, not mind games. lol

[@ringodooby]

Such a good point

[@DH22013]

The kinect was actually a selling point and you can't get the tech anywhere else. Everyone had a dvd player already , it is mentioned in the video.

[@lmcgregoruk]

@@DH22013 Well the Kinect being a selling point of the Xbox One kind of backfired for them, since it made it more expensive to buy than the PS4, so everyone just bought that instead, also >50% of people with an Xbox 360 had the Kinect for the 360, and they definately didn't want to pay AGAIN for basically the same thing, but just an updated version of it. I know I didn't buy my Xbox One until the Kinect was no longer mandatory to buy with it in a bundle. Like how the Wii U sold poorly, because people just seen it as an updated Wii, with the same old gimmick, that's those who even realised it was a new console and not just an add-on for the original Wii. Of course Microsoft wanting people to be ALWAYS online, and not being able to swap rent sell 2nd hand games didn't help them much either, they pretty much had to 180 on a ton of stuff after Sony were like, see all that stuff that MS is doing that you DON'T like, yeah we won't be doing that.

[@Spiredmg]

The problem with the Kinect that Microsoft was trying to solve was that not everyone had one. And developers didn't want to support a piece of hardware that so few people had, it would be a waste of time and money for them at the end of the day. If they knew every player had a Kinect they could use, the developers would of been more tempted to actually develop games for it.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I've always just left the DVD player module plugged in the 4th player port and not worry about removing it most of the time

[@Hornet135]

JessicaFEREM same here. It’s probably been plugged in for most of 18 years.

[@amylee9092]

I frequently had the rest of Evanescence over so I had to remember to unplug it and plug it back in when they left and I sometimes lost the dongle 🤣

[@rat9625]

@@amylee9092 why is there an Evanescence roleplayer in this thread

[@amylee9092]

@@rat9625 I'm the real deal.

[@minimimimaxiboy1]

@@amylee9092 Thanos: "I don't even know who you are"

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Magically enable DVD playback = magically made my money disappear.

[@ZaJaClt]

Listen to the intro at 0.25x to get money back

[@Lightblue2222]

It's like buying a seperate DVD player, except it's invisible!

[@CecilTheDarkKnight234]

thank god for thrift stores, I have around 5 of these things now. That aside didn't Microsoft eventually offer a 20$ mail in rebate if buy one?

[@unfa00]

It also magically made the base console cheaper.

[@SeGey512]

Magic (∩ᄑ_ᄑ)⊃━☆ﾟ*･｡*･

[@dj68k]

I always thought the dongle was just an infrared receiver that might've had a small chip in it to set a "flag" in the console to activate the built-in DVD player and activate the licensing for the MPEG playback. It's super-cool to see there was a companion .xbe on the dongle, and how it could be loaded. Great video!

[@jmshrv]

If I remember correctly, the PS4 does something similar to this with Blu Ray and DVD. You need to connect your PS4 to the internet the first time you play a Blu Ray or DVD to activate the feature, presumably so Sony can reduce licensing costs.

[@AtariBorn]

PS3 does something similar with WMV and DIVX, I believe.

[@kirkmbutterfield]

Xbox one did the same thing. Right out of the box in my new apartment, no internet. Had to download the bluray app to play the stupid disc.

[@MetallicBlade]

Except Sony completely botched the PS4 by not letting it have any CD playback. So no music CD or PSX capability. How the PS4 in ways has less features than the PS3 still baffles me. I hope the PS5 reverses these decisions.

[@DrBagPhD]

PSP did the same with MP3s. Really smart way to save on license fees.

[@MythicSuns]

@@MetallicBlade well, it does and it doesn't. The media functionality is still there, but it's overreliant on external sources; you can't place any media (except for games, obviously) directly onto the PS4 hard drive, or play it through the disc drive, but you can playback media through a USB device or Media Server, which weirdly involves having to download a separate app from the Playstation Store. The alternative is to have your music play from Spotify which the PS4 is weirdly quite buddy buddy with, to the point that you can even use Spotify to wake up your PS4 and start playing music, kind of like a slightly less seamless version of Chromecast. But yeah, the lack of CD playback is definitely a weird decision on Sony's part, and it's part of the reason why the PS4 is now the only Playstation that can't play PS1 games.

[@MrUnknownuser164]

I honestly feel like the Xbox 360 was the true DVD player. The original Xbox felt more like an old analog, single-purpose device. The Xbox 360, which still held on to its analog TV connectors, introduced digital connections and built-in video upscaling. Both features allowed native support for widescreen TV's and widescreen DVDs. I recently bought a small 24'' TV for my desk, and I reconnected my old Xbox 360 to play some older games that I missed growing up. I used the console to play a widescreen DVD that was recently made, and it worked great. On a side note, I just had an idea. While DVDs have had lots of support on several devices, native Blu-ray Disc support is mostly limited to dedicated Blu-ray players and current generation consoles. Playing a Blu-ray Disc on a PC would typically require an additional disc drive and additional software. Also, Blu-ray playback is intended for HD flatscreen TVs and strongly encourages online connectivity. As such, here's my idea: Smart TVs, which always support HD viewing and online connectivity, should contain a bulit-in Blu-ray Disc drive.

[@jakethreesixty]

As someone who had this, it's very interesting to learn that there was more to it than just senseless money grubbing.

[@not_my_fn_real_name2689]

On the one hand I was forced to purchase a remote control for what was essentially my daily driver DVD payer back then, on the other hand I really didn't care to use the wired controllers to control media anyway, so it was almost a necessary evil.

[@krazycharlie]

But in the end, it's just senseless money grubbing, no matter how you look at it or whose perspective you look it from.

[@jakethreesixty]

@@krazycharlie Maybe, but I guess it also makes sense not to tack on the extra cost to the Xbox itself, for a feature not everybody was going to use.

[@jakethreesixty]

@Brett Kozlak I had the 40gb HDD for the PS2

[@MinecraftLD10]

@@krazycharlie It isn't senseless when it has a sense of logic to it. Why add the cost of a feature a small amount of people were going to use to a console you needed to price competitively with another product when the cost of the feature was going to raise it further than the product you're competing with? Which is exactly what Microsoft answered by bundling the feature separately for those that wanted it while keeping the Xbox a primarily gaming machine, which is exactly what the main market of an Xbox is, just look at the Xbox One launch. No one wanted all these media features as the main staple thing, and wanted the gaming features to be the main thing instead, so Microsoft did exactly the opposite of what they did with the Xbox One which that is senseless money grubbing, but not for the Original Xbox, which did it for a sense of resource logic.

[@manuelvillalta3793]

The xbox was my dvd player of choice during those Matrix/Star Wars/Lord of the Rings days. Ah, memories. Another great OG xbox video, great work.

[@MrFRNTIK]

I always thought the dongle just added the ability to use a remote with it. I may be misremembering, but I lost that dongle at one point and my xbox still played DVDs so I was always confused when people told me they needed the dongle to do it.

[@DFX2KX]

I think the later revisions of the Xbox had the DVD software in the bios. 1.1 or 1.2 mainboard. Mine was a 1.2 and I do believe it'd work without the dongle plugged in-but the controller didn't work, so you couldn't actually DO anything.

[@ZeldaTheSwordsman]

@@DFX2KX Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a change made over the system's life cycle. I think our Xbox might be a 1.2 as well.

[@RetroPCUser]

Funnily enough, the remote worked with my big RCA DVD player. And there's an AV switch box that connect to the Original Xbox's controller port that not only does it allow you to switch AV sources, but it also allows you to watch DVDs and controls every other device, like a VCR, cable box, etc with the remote, which is pretty darn cool. Even my DVDO Edge remote doubles as my Original Xbox remote control.

[@bobingabout]

I think the fact that the PS3 came with a BluRay player built in, and the XBox 360 had an external HDDVD drive is part of the reason why BluRay won the format war.

[@methical__]

Bought the HD DVD kit when the format died for like 5€. Also had the DVD kit for the old xbox just because of the remote, because my edition of the xbox didn't include a remote. Bought it although it was already modded with xbmc. 1st world problems I guess.

[@mytiliss682]

Reminds me of blu-ray at home that has like 4 disks to play and so used exclusively with flash drives. Wonder if it was ever actual to burn blurays.

[@Thematt11]

Same here. Bought the drive for about a fiver and a massive box of HD DVDs from a local store for about a quid a disc. I'm probably one of the few people today who still has shelves full of HD DVDs.

[@cmac6136]

Xbmc was Kodi in its early stages

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

Wanted to buy the one for PS3, slipped away from me.......

[@Kalvinjj]

It makes me wonder what kind of stuff they could fit in therms of games if the HDDVD drive was built-in and used for game storage, it's 15-25GB per disc right? A significant (albeit not absurd like BDs) jump from the 8.5GB of dual layer DVDs

[@user-rd6uc2sf6i]

So Microsoft was afraid that a DVD license might put them behind in the competition yet 12 years later they shipped a useless motion camera that added 100$ to their price tags 🤔

[@ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Because that 12 years made them cocky. That, and the Kinect was being pushed as a DRM mechanism initially.

[@GeorgeBPryor]

I wonder whose idea at Microsoft it was that pushing the Kinect was so important that it was worth sabotaging the launch of their flagship console to try and brute force it into the market.

[@Cynderfan35]

@@GeorgeBPryor whoever came up with that idea, probably got fired as soon as the failure of entire launch was seen.

[@califaern3sto]

And their ps4 pro had no 4k blu ray player and the xbox one s and x do

[@at-cj2iy]

@@GeorgeBPryor the same people in charge of the company back in the early 2000s are not there anymore You have a new people every few years

[@Astfgl]

Hey! I used the external HD DVD player with my Xbox 360! It was the most affordable way for me to get into HD movie collecting back when Blu-ray was still incomplete and the cost of owning a player was astronomical. Besides that, the HD DVD player could be hooked up to a regular PC and be used to backup my movie collection when the format started dying off. I still have mine and I've never regretting buying one.

[@Truthhurtz4u]

Favorite part of this video is when he sees the 10 mins mark hit on his timer, he speeds up his voice to end the video lol.

[@numbrr5.]

COMBO !!

[@TheDREproductions]

Two Vids in one week!? We do not deserve this!!!! Thank you!

[@FlintG]

The ps2 was actually my first dvd player lol

[@Tyler_Dahlin]

Awsome

[@rapmastac1362]

I'm sure the PS3 was many people's first bluray player. Bluray players were the same or more expensive than the PS3, even a few years after the PS3 was released, it was the cheapest bluray player on the market. That's why I got mine, I was an Xbox guy for a long time so the gaming was secondary. Little Big Planet was honestly the only PS3 game I really played.

[@zerotolerance5581]

The ps2 was *alot* of people’s first DVD player.

[@bangerbangerbro]

@@rapmastac1362 Yeah I always had PS because that is what my parents bought but LBP is the only PS exclusive that I really like. One of the few games (well LBP2) that I paid decent (to me) money for and absolutely do not regret now. PS3s were absurdly expensive when they came out though so I wouldn't have thought they would have been in the same position as the PS2 at least on launch.

[@tonivoul1971]

I had just a dvd player not a console and guess what the dvd player i have was manufactured by sony cus Sony makes incredible dvd players back in 2000s

[@dbdigi]

This video brought back fond memories of my 3 original xbox consoles all with DVD dongles networked with an XP MCE PC with tweaked registry settings to allow 4 PCI TV cards to be installed. Watching a different TV station on each xbox or record 3 channels and watch a 4th and that was 20 years ago. I found it very difficult to move on from that setup.

[@Castaa]

I still watch HD-DVDs with my 360 :D The used DVD store near my house had dozens of titles for $1 or 2. Looks just like blu-ray. :D

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

Hey, cheap movies am I right?

[@davidsummers6700]

Yeah, but weren't HD-DVDs only released between 2005-2007? That's quite a limited run of movies.

[@Castaa]

@@davidsummers6700 ya a few hundred movie titles

[@AoiRozlin]

8:18 "From the author of the Twilight saga: XBOX MEDIA CENTER" Damn, who knew Stephenie Meyer had a hand in the original xbox mod scene?

[@montecri]

This channel is underrated. It should have way more subscribers. This guy knows his stuff and presents in a clear, almost documentary and always fascinating way.

[@SteelSkin667]

It's not just the Dolby 5.1 license, but also the actual DVD Video license that was pushed into the dongle. Not many people know that in most jurisdictions the right to sell devices or software with video DVD or Blu Rays playback functionality is something you have to license, due to the software being patented - which is also why Windows no longer ships with DVD playback built-in, and never shipped with Blu Ray playback software. I didn't pick this up back in the day, but used my PS2 for DVD playback, which interestingly came in a bundle that included a DVD remote and a copy of the original Spider Man movie. I kept using the PS2 after modding my Xbox because of the remote.

[@Macho_Man_Randy_Savage]

I still remember walking into stores and seeing HD-DVDs and Blurays side by side and it's amazing how short it was before HD-DVD was declared dead thanks to the PS3. Probably owned half a dozen PS3's and PS4's in the last 10 years and never owned a Bluray movie 😂

[@Petar321_GT]

Your dreamcast 2 is hella hot, i like it a lot.

[@vkhelldog]

Calm down billiam

[@ZeldaDD]

Nice rhyme, do you do that all the time?

[@ximonx]

*a lot, ftfy ;)

[@Petar321_GT]

@@ximonx thank you simon. you will be the first one to get a xbox series x, signed by me.

[@pinklightninggacha]

@@Petar321_GT when are we getting a new version of windows Bill

[@woodch]

This blew my mind. I would have easily thought it was one of the first two reasons (some keyed dongle that unlocks an app already on the xbox, or a simple "check if dongle connected, then run dvd player thing). I would have never guessed that it actually contained the player on the dongle and ran it from there. Thanks so much for this video. Learn something new every day.

[@di380]

This is one of the best videos and even today I was wondering why after I moded my OG Xbox my DVD playback kit would not work any longer. This explains it all. Thank you!🙏

[@Epsilon-5]

0:29 concept art for the arbiter mission on halo 2.

[@stanneh1978]

I can’t believe I never knew there was a tsop with an xbe payload in the dongle and I can’t believe I didn’t know about the dongle flag either! Still learning about the greatest console ever made all these years later what a console!

[@omegarugal9283]

i dumped the tsop back in the day but never knew it was a standar xbe file inside... i always though the player came in the dash and the data in the dongle had a security key or a decryption algorithm

[@adrenalinex4]

the console was garbage

[@Nomad-Rogers]

The Xbox was the first console to make me feel like a gamer. I remember I had the DVD kit too, but my favorite part was ripping CD to the hard drive, it work great with WWE Raw custom music for your create a superstar, and GTA III-San Andreas custom radio station.

[@mariodiy4517]

I have the Media Center Extender version of the dongle and remote. Which looks a whole lot better. Had options to also control your media center PC and Xbox. XBMC took care of this a whole lot better.

[@goclunker]

licensing ruins everything, like usual

[@DxBlack]

LONG LIVE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE...no, wait, those have anti-commercial licenses too. :/

[@goclunker]

@@DxBlack eugh, no disagreement there either

[@cam545]

Licensing ruins a lot of things - but better to pay license fees than have no standards

[@GoldSrc_]

Depends, some licenses are needed, but when greed enters the picture, that's when everything goes to shit. Let's hope that open standards take over the world in the future.

[@deekaneable]

@@DxBlack It depends. A lot of the open source software we use at work is fine to use for commercial purposes as long as we aren't including it in a derivative product.

[@regeneric928]

Oh boy, another video?! You are fantastic!

[@IceKoldKilla]

For anyone who ever wondered, the music in the background is a rendition of Nero - My Eyes. It's off their amazing concept album Welcome Reality from 2011. I believe it was their debut. I remember when I listened to it! Incredible! I don't know how I found out about them though. Maybe from a videogame soundtrack? I'm gonna guess maybe a remix song? Was it on Midnight Club L.A. maybe? I might be getting confused with Crookers. But I was amazed by the album quality and even cohesiveness. I can't say I followed them afterwards but I do intend to return and see what they did after.

[@jokeletsplay]

yeah the video was very nice and all but the sound of the xbox running during the facecam takes was just perfect. i love that sound

[@-DeScruff]

I had feeling it had something to do with licensing, trademarks or whatever. Regardless, if the Xbox did play DVDs out of the box, I'm pretty sure Microsoft would have charged $15-20 for the remote anyway, and I still would have bought it because teaching your parents how to use a videogame controller as a DVD remote is too difficult.

[@LumenateTV]

I still got my dongle and remote to this day.

[@jimmymkirk]

As a fellow modder from back in the days of ZSNES and Nesticle, I love your videos!

[@dabombinablemi6188]

My Mum forked out for the adaptor when she bought my Xbox. Got plenty of use from it up until around 2011, when we discovered soft modding. Funnily enough loads are turning up at my local CEX, for $10 in poor condition (grubby, damaged etc). Still, not going to throw them out. Being able to sit back and use the remote for DVD and a wireless controller (heavy as it may be) is quite nice.

[@Drimirin]

PS2 supremacy baby!!! Best console ever made. You missed out if you weren't there, sorry for your loss.

[@Judyhopps-1iq]

in your dreams kid but gamecube beats ps2!

[@Sammy-34079]

NAH 2001 XBOX supremacy baby!!! Best console ever made. You missed out if you weren't there, sorry for your loss.

[@Xathian]

"No one bought the HD-DVD player" Haha want to bet? Worst decision I could have made. Damn thing died and stopped reading discs after about a year just to add salt to the wound.

[@sofakingonmynuts1438]

I never had problems with the original xbox

[@JohnSmith-fq3rg]

Pretty sure those things had a warranty.

[@matthewross3635]

Casual side note from someone who's first new system was an og Xbox as a kid, I bought the DVD playback kit in order to watch movies on my TV, I found out that the remote was made by rca and was damn near identical to my TV remote down to being able to control the Xbox. Not backwards though.

[@74bobby]

2 MVG Videos in one week is a great Christmas gift.

[@TeruteruBozusama]

What they never quite have given up on: Nintendo: weird 3D Xbox: TV Playstation: play DVDs and evt. Blu-rays The most successful, PS honestly.

[@AnthonyZenrick]

> built in ethernet Which is something that should be one EVERYTHING. Wireless is a convenience, wired is more reliable and faster.

[@CircularMirror7]

Keep fighting the good fight. More PORTS MORE WIRES! A Dongle only future would be grim.

[@austinismadcrunk]

Everything does have ethernet. Switch needs a USB dongle for the dock but who cares.

[@DEMENTO01]

wifi wasn't even a commercial thing in 2000 lol

[@danl9621]

Thanks a lot for this video, I always wondered how that worked, you solved one of the biggest mysteries of my life.

[@ErdrickHero]

I had the DVD playback kit, but at the time I got it, I didn't have a PS2 or a standalone DVD player, and my computer at the time was lacking proper video drivers (as well as Wi-Fi, so I couldn't just download them - it was basically just a giant paperweight).

[@TheCampervanBuilder]

Excellent, two videos in a week, I thought my eyes deceived me for a second, a little bonus from MVG at this festive time

[@magreger]

Microsoft has been trying to take over the living room for decades. Remember Web TV? Poor microsoft.

[@louistournas120]

They were trying to take over everything including the web. Remember IE vs Netscape? Remember ipod vs Zune? cellphone vs windows cellphones? There is also their search engine: bing. There is their webmail: hotmail now renamed to outlook.com

[@MythicSuns]

​@@louistournas120 hell, the original Surface was a tabletop with a giant touchscreen built into it. Microsoft is one of the few companies I can think of who tried to make a smart table.

[@avenger25]

As seen in the movie The Island

[@zenmashofficial]

@@louistournas120 My friends were confused. They always thought we said "hot male"

[@ZombieBarioth]

That's because they wanted Windows to be everywhere. Xbox was straight up pitched to Bill Gates as Windows in the living room, its the only reason he initially approved it.

[@ITSTAKING]

That OG Xbox UI is still damn amazing.

[@vrgimp8548]

Hey man, I bought and used that HD DVD add on for Xbox 360. I still have it today, and it still works. ; ) If Microsoft had put it inside the 360 (as they originally planned,) blu ray would have been screwed. HD DVD could be manufactured at the same factories as the old DVD format without modification, and as a result the discs were way cheaper. The early discs were also way better quality due to the VC-1 codec used on HD DVD from the start. Early blu rays were just giant higher bitrate Mpeg2 transfers, with all the associated issues.

[@official_kex]

Would have loved to see how to connect and exploring the files on the dongle, but still a great video :)

[@SE-lc4hm]

I have a topic you could talk about. Most people know that the OG Xbox ports are just proprietary USB 1.1 ports. However, there is a 5th pin, known as the video sync. What is it? Why is it on the controller port? Etc?

[@rasz]

this pin is supposedly used by Light guns, some people modded their xbox by rerouting this pin to reset signal and adding custom button on the controller You can read about it in a Joe Grand book "Game Console Hacking: Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Game Boy, Atari and Sega", preview is available on google for free

[@eddiejeffrys1985]

It is in fact a sync line for light guns. I.E the video passthrough for the ps2 lightguns.

[@SE-lc4hm]

Are there any light guns/games for the OG Xbox though? I can't say I remember any.

[@franklinmillard2424]

@@SE-lc4hm "House of the Dead 3" is one. I think there may have been plans to release "Virtua Cop 3" as well, but it was never released (although it's possible to play the arcade version on a regular Xbox if you mod it and add more RAM)

[@Shane-Singleton]

I actually didn’t have a standalone DVD player back in the day so the DVD kit for my Xbox got quite a bit of use. And after I finally modded the console I continued to use the remote for XBMC. I had always thought that the dongle was nothing more than an IR adapter to allow the use of the remote. Thank you for putting together this little cool piece of history on that accessory.

[@Shane-Singleton]

@Mammoth Supremacy 55 Honestly as far as DVD players go it's pretty good.

[@saulstryver836]

It was weird that I couldn't watch original DVD movies but I could watch bootleg ones without the adapter. The reason was because the bootleg DVDs did not have a startup menu.

[@The_Evil_Monkey_93]

Hi MVG. Could you do a video outlining the biggest failures of both the X360 and PS3 and determine which system ultimately got off better in terms of public reputation through company management and/or 3rd party fixes?

[@kobe1902]

I swear the controller would work without the dongle after you used it. Could be kid memory doing me bad.

[@ninovanhooff3926]

Isn't the dongle also an infrared receiver for the remote?

[@AtariBorn]

@@ninovanhooff3926 Yes, it adds an infrared receiver but only modded systems could use the controller for playback controls. Never made sense to me as analog triggers are always better for seeking. XBMC baby!

[@patricks.7951]

@@AtariBorn I remember I'd always use my ps2 to play DVDs because I always lost the remote for the xbox, and kid me was very annoyed that the ps2 could play DVDs with the controller and my favorite console (the xbox) couldn't. First world problems I guess

[@michaeldickens1101]

@Patrick S. I feel the same way, I have always been a Microsoft fan over Sony (I’ve had a huge grudge against Sony for a long time for personal reasons) but video playback is just something that only Sony seems to get right I can see Microsoft’s reason for not licensing DVD playback on every Xbox (definitely when not everyone is playing DVDs on them), though there were much better ways for them to do it The Xbox comes with a DVD drive, a controller fully capable of controlling video playback (without the need of an IR remote) an IDE hard drive, hardware fully capable of DVD playback and network/Internet connectivity (for Xbox Live), they could have added DVD playback as a downloadable option only for Live subscribers (since you had to pay for Live), problem solved Instead they decided to make a playback kit that required you to buy physical, otherwise unrequired hardware to store the playback software required to play DVDs on the Xbox, then remove the possibility of using a controller to control playback, even if you have the dongle plugged in I even sided with HD-DVD during the format war, ended up getting a PS3 and going with Blu-Ray anyway, I was going to get both and just gave up getting the HD-DVD drive before the format lost

[@patricks.7951]

@@michaeldickens1101 yep, then with xbox one they tried too hard on video, they just cant get it right lol

[@NinjaRunningWild]

Fun fact : Xbox DVD receiver takes RCA remote codes. So, if you lose your remote, ANY programmable remote set to RCA DVD will work.

[@halfblindchaos2506]

If you lost the remote have no fear. You can use a standard universal remote from RCA outside of the box without the need to program it. The remotes even looked similar in design.

[@MaleficWeegee]

Is this from a time when team X-ecuter wasn't engaging in shady business practices? Very early this morning, I heard they did great things back in the day. What do I find near the end? MVG uploads a video that mentions them! Quite the coincidence haha

[@NightFlyStudio]

More MVG can only be a good thing.

[@johnathin0061892]

Some people bought the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive to watch HD-DVDs on their PCs. It also made for a handy external CD/DVD drive as a bonus.

[@smithincanton]

I never really cared about dvd playback when I had my modded xbox back in the day. With XBMC installed and all my movies "ripped" and stored on my computer on my network I could watch anything streaming over the network. It was great stuff!

[@nicholsliwilson]

We actually have a small collection of HD-DVD’s and watch them through our Xbox 360’s external drive. 😊

[@edmund-osborne]

@@chadbrick67 who asked?

[@nicholsliwilson]

referral madness my GF & me.

[@nicholsliwilson]

Edmund Osborne just ignore it, it’ll get bored and slink back under it’s bridge.

[@Mattscreative]

i own a ton of hd-dvd and use that add on all the time when i feel like being strange so as a someone i use it alot

[@ripper253]

What's fascinating is they kinda keep a similar concept alive when they required Xbox One's to download (for free) the Blu-ray player software at no additional charge, because then they'd only have to pay the licensing fees for the accounts that claimed the free software off of Xbox Live, I can't remember if the Redbook Audio CD player was a similar setup, either way it's still a little better than the CD Player software on the PS4 huh? :P

[@8ullfrog]

This video was fantastic. On point, doesn't ramble, gets the job done, and gets it done right. Thank you.

[@john-paulwallcraft9362]

But if the option to play dvd from the start was there, I’m sure a lot more people would of used it.

[@AtariBorn]

You could get cheap DVD players by then.

[@FireMrshlBill]

@@AtariBorn True, but PS2's were a lot of people's first DVD players. Would have been a selling point for Xbox and often came up in the lame PS2 v Xbox arguments.

[@harb1911]

@@FireMrshlBill launch revisions of PS2 prior SCPH-3xxxx weren't capable to play DVD out of the box ) you had to install DVD playback software on memorycard and optionally buy IR-dongle with remote. also PS2 lacks Dolby DTS and overall support of 5.1 sound in games it does not come close to xbox. in my opinion OG Xbox is most underrated console ever existed.

[@AOClaus]

@@FireMrshlBill PS2 DVD player was terrible. Not to mention the DVD drives had a tendency to go bad, and you would lose audio sync.

[@FireMrshlBill]

​@@harb1911 No, it was compatible with DVD's out of the box. You are talking about the original ones not having an infrared sensor, so the software that was installed on the memory card was just for the remote+infrared sensor you bought separately, and later models had both built-in. But you could use a dualshock to control DVD playback on the launch systems out of the box. Ya, the Xbox had better sound capabilities, however, back then most people connected their PS2 to their CRT via composite and used the TV's built-in speakers, or even those with sound systems would connect via optical separate of the TV. I hated most games only had Pro Logic II at most, especially since my surround at the time didn't play well with it so it was stereo on PS2 and surround on Xbox. But to my original point, it was still a lot of people's first DVD players and would have been nice for Xbox to have out of the gate as another selling point. Not like it matters now, both companies are doing great 20 years later.

[@mOOOp42]

I always wanted an Xbox when I was a kid and my dad bought 2 playstation 2’s because of the DVD support. He used his only for DVD’s and mine mostly played Ratchet and Clank and Crash Bandicoot.

[@Dracalis]

I was puzzled at the time why the Xbox didn't let you control DVDs with a game controller. My brother's PS2 could play DVDs just fine. I thought it was a dumb design meant to get a little bit more money from me, but I bought the remote and dongle anyway because I wanted to watch rented DVDs. I still have the Xbox. That dongle's been sitting in controller slot 4 for like twenty years. Knowing now about licensing fees now, I'm not surprised that was the reason for the dongle's existence. I didn't expect the dongle to have an executable file on-board though. That's kinda neat.

[@Faapu]

I got this dongle with one of my Xboxes, and I actually had no idea what it was until I saw this video.

[@XanCalGil]

So Microsoft designed a console that could do some amazing things, but really just played games. Hackers exploited the anazing things to find out, people just wanted to play games. Who spent the most effort?

[@destoer949]

Cheers for the extra video.

[@paranoidgenius9164]

Thankyou for putting my faith back into what I already knew!😃👍 A guy was telling me that you could play a DVD film on an original Xbox using the control pad when I commented on his video. The guy would of literary been a baby when it launched, I'm 39. He must of been using a jail broken Xbox. I don't think he knew that the Xbox didn't originally play DVDs out of the box.

[@TerminatorZXY]

I still use the kit these days, not for movies but when modding and transferring things into it, it's a lot more practical to just use that than plug controller in every time, and I only need one hand.

[@Allyouknow5820]

DVD business model on Xbox platforms : Mistakes were made :D

[@QuickishFM]

You only see "mistakes were made" for a homebrew or exploit video

[@illmatticx]

For some reason the term "MiStAkEs WeRe MaDe" in context to his videos makes me cringe

[@memorix101]

My Eyes Nero cover

[@gamergod12]

Thank God someone else noticed!

[@jumpingmanjim]

@@gamergod12 I thought I was going crazy for a moment.

[@MatthewWeiler1984]

I bought the X-Box 360 HD-DVD drive and I didn't even have an X-Box 360. I used it, connected to my PC, to rip HD-DVDs. I got it on sale and used my employee discount that I had at the time while working at a retailer while in University. I still have the drive, but mostly as a keepsake.

[@twicethemegapower3995]

The abilty to natively rip audio cds to the HDD made the OG Xbox OP from day one

[@autobotstarscream765]

And it was even part of a feature to let you run custom soundtracks on compatible games, decades before listening to Spotify on your system while you play! 😎

[@JannikVogel]

Some notes: - The Dolby Decoder licensing cost argument is, as far as I know, purely speculation (I believe it originated from xbox-linux); other theories exist. - The hardware itself is dumb! The hardware only supports encoding by means of a MCPX APU EP DSP software.. shipped with each Xbox game. This is also a counter-argument to the licensing cost theory. - However, the separate encoder / decoder software could be binary blobs licensed from Dolby; they might charge separately for decoding or had restrictions. - The XBE in the dongle is not a standard XBE! It acts more like a DLL than an EXE/XBE file; it only shares some structure and the name. - The dongle XBE uses another specialized XBE loader (unlike any other XBE). - The dongle XBE is compressed and the XBE loader decompresses it (unlike any other XBE). - The dongle XBE has an export table (unlike any other XBE); I forgot what exactly it dynamically links against. - Not being a standard XBE, I'm not sure how the DONGLE media flag is used (or if it's necessary). - I'm not sure if the dongle XBE really interacts with dvd.xip; I don't remember this. - XboxDev is still collecting dump metadata (developers can reach us via github.com/XboxDev/XboxDev ).

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Nah. Robbie Bach has confirmed the story. It's 100% true source - kzbin.info/www/bejne/naLYcolum5yCd7s [at 34:22]

[@JannikVogel]

@@ModernVintageGamer Thanks! Source added to xboxdevwiki.net/Xbox_DVD_Movie_Playback_Kit#Dongle

[@mannhimself]

I still have my HD-DVD add-on connected to my 360. The Wii still sits above it.

[@DigitalicaEG]

That remote control changed the whole XBMC experience and took it to another lever, it was fucking awesome. I still remember editing XML files every XBMC update to set my custom button maps

[@jonsonby]

Used my Xbox for DVDs just as much as games! DVDs were still a new thing in 2001/2002

[@dewlivewireftw]

Pretty sure most people still used VHS til 2003-2004.

[@FlameSoulis]

Could that flag have been used as a way of getting a custom XBE to run on a flash drive?

[@DFX2KX]

Theoretically? Yes. I *think* that's how some mods worked. but I never modded my Xbox.

[@SimX9000]

I love you Modern Vintage Gamer. Please please please tell me you are making a mistakes were made DirecTV H/HU card?

[@jothain]

Cool, I never even knew that kit was mandatory for DVD playback. I used it mostly for stop-stop-next combo and watching stuff from XBMC

[@compunerd]

I probably used my xbox dvd kit more than I played games on my console. It's super interesting to know how it worked, amazing content!

[@omegarugal9283]

good move from microsoft considering how many xbox drives were defective from factory, by the time good drives came out the dongle free version was available... in other words, hwo cares if the OG xbox plays dvds or not...

[@annybodykila]

Reminds me of having to buy the codec liscense to play dvds on the raspberry pi

[@enigma776]

Stupid Mpeg AVC-1 Codec. Its really not needed.

[@dennisanderson8663]

You bought a codec license to play DVDs when software like Kodi and VLC can do it for free?

[@enigma776]

@@dennisanderson8663 Me oh hell no.

[@TheSwartz]

With recent discoveries on the PS2; thank God they put that DVD playback in there!

[@BauTekIndustries]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, our modded Xbox was hands down the best DVD player at the time, at least until the tray drive belts started to get wonky.

[@DeeDub76]

I think the HD-DVD add-on was just a knee jerk reaction from MS once they realised the PS3 had Blu-Ray playback.

[@WellBeSerious12]

No. There's a video about Microsoft secretly playing both sides; trying to get HD DVD to lose. But why when they were losing money in the process, who knows.

[@DeeDub76]

@@WellBeSerious12 I doubt that. Sony invented Blu-Ray and were Microsoft's direct competition. Why would they go through the expense of the R&D to release the add-on if they wanted it to fail? They clearly wanted a HD playback option as to not look behind the times compared to the PS3.

[@dmann1982]

I have a HDDVD player, and a fair amount of HDDVDs.

[@dmann1982]

@Jack I don't use the thing anymore. Its basically gathering dust.

[@Lightblue2222]

I still have original xbox and the DVD remote I decided to buy to get it to work. This is so interesting. It's a good DVD player. Still works like new.

[@Lightblue2222]

Xbox won't play burned CD-R. I remember ps2 did though.

[@DFX2KX]

I bought the kit for mine (the first video game system I bought entirely with my own money) and I didn't want to get a DVD player on top of it. It served very well in that role for YEARS afterward.

[@philipcooper8297]

Sony invented DVD, it was only logical to have DVD playback on the PS2.

[@deucemcallister13]

"TV" - Microsoft

[@jceggbert5]

Dogs

[@DaveSimonH]

The OG Xbox was my first DVD player, and had no issues with it. Got me started and allowed me to finally move on from VHS, both in upgrade in quality but also correct aspect ratios (instead of VHS's dominant 4:3 pan & scan cropping).

[@khuntington]

9:10 just a minor footnote... the xbox hd add-on is actually one of the go-to items for HD-DVD enthusiasts who may or may not even care about gaming or xbox. as of 2020 it is the absolute easiest way to rip HD-DVDs to the pc. plug it up via usb, theres an app you install, and you can rip all your HD-DVDs. the reason for this is a great deal of HD DVDs are now suffering from disc rot, and in some cases, the xbox kit on a pc can get a good enough copy of the main feature that you can then burn it to a blu-ray to keep in the case. of course this defeats the purpose of watching an hd-dvd at that point, but its cool to have the HD-DVD title in your shelf, even though the disc is a homemade blu-ray. other applications include just being able to watch the movies that arent rotters on your pc, as Toshiba only made a few HD-DVD pc drives, and they are really not all that common.