Anyone care to help an Xbox noob with some hard to find info?

I'm new to the original Xbox stuff and have spent the better part of a month hunting down info. So far I know that there are many things that can be done: HDD upgrade, Linux, XBMC, soft mod and mod chip for unsigned code and game ripping, USB support, ect. So I have a few questions that my searches for either end up dead or led to defunct sites that seem to be shut down. Here goes...

The NTSC models seem to have component video out as the highest quality video available. I also found a post somewhere (think it was here and made by Bad_Ad84) that says the PAL Xbox can put out RGB SCART. I'm wondering if this is true and if the PAL models can be modded to run at NTSC spec with the RGB out put. I thought it would make using VGA monitors easier and cheaper this way. My TC set does take component input but is limited to 480i. I have a monitor that takes 720p over VGA. Any recommendations on getting VGA out of Xbox at NTSC spec for a reasonable price? That is the real question here. Also, I have a 320 GB IDE/ATA 133 HDD and IDE/ATA 133 cable I plan to use. Heard the IDE driver in Xbox is capable of IDE/ATA 100, origninal HDD is IDE/ATA 66, and original cable is IDE/ATA 33. What sort of speed improvements you think I'll get with the upgrades when running Linux or a ripped game from HDD?

That is all for now. Hope some one can make sense of this mess...

 

http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Mods/xbox_ata100_cable_benchmark.htm

 

Seen that. That uses the stock HDD at 66 MB a second. My upgraded drive I will use is rated for 133 MB a second with same speed rated cable. I know my drive will perform better than those tests since at this point the bottleneck will be the Xbox controller itself. It is rated for a max of 100 MB a second or so I've heard.

 

If you put in a 133 cable, you will probably notice a good speed improvement. Things seemed to load about 20% quicker. Granted, you probably won't get 133 MB/sec as the hardware is not designed to handle that, but as far as easy, cheap modifications go, it is well worth doing.

As far as the NTSC RGB goes, I don't have a clue, as I've never done that mod before. You probably saw this already, but in case you haven't: http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/gamescart/gamescart.htm#xbox

 

I thought the ATA cable upgrade was B.S. But i bought one a while back and ill have to agree, it DOES make a difference, mostly if your playing games or videos off your hard drive...

Also, the VGA mod is pretty complex...but here is a good guide: http://antibeat.host.sk/vgaguide/guide.html

 

Good question. I've never seen anyone attempt to use a SCART lead with the NTSC Xbox. It could go either way, I guess. Seeing as NTSC PS2 supports 15khz RGB. Yet not NTSC Gamecube.

 

I know I won't max the HDD and cable out because the Xbox itself supposedly has a 100 MB a second driver. Perhaps I'll see improvements in the 30 to 40 percent range since the HDD will be faster than the original one is. It is rated at 133 MB a second.

Never saw it. I might be able to use it for some references. I don't have anything that uses SCART over here in the USA. The pinouts on diagram may prove useful.

EDIT: correction, I have seen this page and used to have it book marked. Then my old lappy died...

Exactly what I plan to do. I may have a deal to get a 750 GB HDD so you can see why I want the setup to go as fast as possible. Gonna have plenty of games from various consoles on it when finished.

Thanks for the link. Exactly what I was looking for. As for it being complex, please... That schematic is simple compared to some fix up jobs I did. Easy for me to make. Might be as hard as my custom Sega Genesis 3 button 1 handed joystick I built. Now I definitely will need a mod chip that has a bank for 4 BIOS files for my setup since I will also be using component on my TV set at times.

Any suggestions on a good chip with 4 banks and a switch for selection? My model is a 1.2 with the 15 pin debug port. Should be getting a similar model with the double RAM mod sometime.

 

I had the X2VGA for my Xbox 1 and the output wasBEAUTIFUL!

http://hardware.teamxbox.com/articles/xbox/702/Review-Neoya-X2VGA-High-Definition-VGA-Pack/p1/

I thoroughly recommend hunting one down on eBay. I imagine it'll work witheither region box - can't remember the exact details now as it was quite sometime ago, but my PAL Xbox was modded and I could switch it to NTSC outputthrough the 3rd party dashboard I was using. This may have given me the native1080i output that the PAL didn't have (from memory).

It may not have been needed to plug this adaptor in, but anyway, it's a damngood adaptor and it doesn't look like it's faking the output to VGA, it lookslike the machine was always designed to have a VGA output. AND you don't have to worry about trying any kind of hardware mod - even if you're capable, this is more elegant.

 

I will have to look into that now. So much to think about with my project. Gonna take me a few months...

 

Most Xbox games support PAL 60Hz and all run over RGB, just to clarify.

 

FrostyTheSnowman hacked the bios for VGA output and made a cable based on the lm1881 chip once upon a time. It was sold in divineo.com a while ago.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEZAVFEuEFTLODoFTW.php

Natively Xbox doesn't have a VGA mode but it can be hacked if you have a rev. 1-1,5 board. Rev 1.6 board doesn't support that.

PAL or NTSC modes can be changed by a utility called Enigma after the console modded. PAL console can be changed to NTSC or viceversa.

Absolutely there is a slightly performance improvement over the original hdd when using a newer model Hdd with that cable however ripping games from DVD to HDD is still slow.

 

Probably see some benefit using a SSD or speedy CF card for that matter but there will be a limit to that. Halo 2 is the only exception I can think of that gets worse off performance from not running off a DVD.

 

Does the NTSC console allow RGB from SCART? That seems to be what we're unsure of.

 

Yes, it can output rgb from scart, no problem.

 

SCART is just a type of plug used over in Europe. It seems to be able to carry most of the common video signals. RGB is just 4 signal wires plus ground: Red, Green, Blue, and a composite sync. RGB SCART has the same signals. Reason some people have issues with setting up RGB SCART on some consoles like a Sega Genesis (Megadrive for those outside USA) is because of the frequency. Some TV sets are very picky on the frequency. Others don't seem to give a shit and will play anything that's RGB output. In other words, yes. RGB SCART can be used on an NTSC console. Just be sure that your TV set that has a SCART plug on it will run NTSC video. Otherwise you need to change console to PAL. Either way, RGB is the best video quality you can get for these older systems. And the added bonus of that is VGA support depending on how finicky the console is. Only thing that's really needed is some capacitors, resistors, and a LM1881 sync separator.

 

Component cable and setting output to 720P (on PAL console ) is about the best thing you can do to an old xbox especialy if running xbmc or coinops, i have no idea how NTSC works though.

 

I call BS on that claim, the PAL Xbox natively doesn't support 720p, you need to change the output signal (region) to NTSC for that.
So yeah, technically you're nearly right, but seems you haven't got the facts straight....

 

Aw shit I just bought a component cable for my xbox, does this mean it won't work?

I had my xbox modded years ago before I got into console mods. I am keen to put more emulators on it but don't even know how to do that lol!

I can repair the fuckers I just don't know software.

It's a ver1.6 with aladdin 2 mod chip with a 160gig hdd.

 

If I understand correct the unmodded Microsoft PAL dashboard doesn't offer progressive scan. Component cables will be interlace only.

 

You boot the original dash in NTSC mode, then you can enable the 480p/720p/1080i options from there. Once enabled in there, then your games will run in those modes - I did this only 2 weeks ago on my PAL v1.1.