Xbox DVD Incompatibilities and the Xbox Media Center

June 24, 2004 at 03:25 PM in

Thinking about buying an Xbox? There are three brands of DVD drives used in the Xbox: Thomson, Phillips and Samsung. The Thomson drive was used in the original Xbox and was prone to problems, and according to IGN the Philips drives weren't much better. MSFT has switched to using Samsung drives in all the new standard Xbox units and apparently they perform quite well. "Samsung Inside" - that's the ticket. Important to consider: a little bird told us that some of the new, Green Halo Limited Edition Xbox units use Thomson drives, so if you are thinking about going "special edition" you may want to do some research first. (We don't think that will hinder Jason's quest, however.) IGN has the "how-to" on checking your Xbox to see which drive you have, as well as a list of incompatible DVD titles by drive type.

Why our sudden facination with the Xbox? Why, that would be the Xbox Media Center. We recently witnessed a demonstration of this (free) media center software and were very impressed with how it can query IMDB to gather info about titles, query weather.com for weather in your area, and more. (A modification to your Xbox is required to make this puppy work, but it's tempting...so tempting...)

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Reader Comments

birq @ June 25, 2004 05:56 AM

I can't believe you're considering getting an Xbox. I don't even know you anymore.

iamlegend @ June 25, 2004 08:13 PM

Recently I did an extensive review of the XBMC on several gaming sites? Would you like me to post it here? Or send you the copy. I love my XBMC and the streaming stuff is insane. Anyway drop me a line and I will send the review your way....

treven @ June 26, 2004 02:08 AM

My tiny little nipples went to France. XBMC is the shizzle!