RD50 + xbox + divx stuff

[locky79]

Hullo everybody!

well just curious about this but for those who own the RD50 or RD65 (yes you mr razor) and a modified xbox can you tell me if watching divx or xvid movies on it has any judders?

i assume it wont as you can set the dash board settings to pal 50hz but just would like more of a confirmation as i like to watch anime that i get from the internet on my nice tv rather than a small 17" monitor (actually viewing size is 15.9" or something).


hope i can find some answers ROARR!!

[Razor]

Yo Locky how are you

I think it should work, there might be a little judder due to the conversion of 60hz to 50hz but nothing like what you would normally see. I think steve would be your best bet as he has a modded xbox (naughty man lol), my xbox is just a standard afair.

The 50Hz definately sorts out judder for the games, so it should be the same for divx.

[St_ve]

Hi Locky
should work it runs R1 movies fine.
My Xbox is on loan from my Grandson (forgot it when i took him home after a visit)
I'll have a go tomorrow & let u know.
Is it illegal to mod an Xbox, or to turn a DVD player into a multi region one ?

[Razor]

Originally Posted by St_ve

Is it illegal to mod an Xbox, or to turn a DVD player into a multi region one ?

Yes it is. If you go online (xbox live) with your mod on you will be banned and loose yuor subscription.

Region modding is illegal but nothing is done to enforce it. Panasonic or Denon for example cant relaese a region free player. Although there are hacks and hardware mods availible to get round this. They brought out a region coding called RCE a few years back and everyone was in a panic. It wasnt long before they got around this too and RCE became a flop.

[St_ve]

Playing online has no interest for me but i would have thought modding an Xbox for storage of MP3 songs or photos or using it to run Linux was fair use. When you buy a DVD player & make it region free by entering a code surely it's not against the law.

[willwood]

I believe its illegal to sell the mods but not to install it.

[Bacus]

Originally Posted by willwood

I believe its illegal to sell the mods but not to install it.

I thought it was legal for a shop to sell Multi.R. but illegal for a customer to use it for watching out of region dvd's ?

[locky79]

i just want to use it to watch anime not really bothered about playing it in high res modes hehe

but yup most important is if i use my xbox to watch divx stuff it means no need to buy another player, less wires and saves space taken up on my glass stand

tell me how it plays, i dont want it to watch dvd's just divx and xvid stuff
i already payed a lot for my pana s97 :P

[St_ve]

My boy says he's got divx on the Xbox but i will have to wait till tomorrow to check it out with the RD50

[Razor]

Originally Posted by sikenny

I thought it was legal for a shop to sell Multi.R. but illegal for a customer to use it for watching out of region dvd's ?

Correct

A bit like those speed trap radars, legal to sell, illegal to use.

[St_ve]

Whatever the true legal position in the UK i feel entirely justified in modding an Xbox there are many benefits of doing this that does not involve piracy of games.The act of modding should be legal.
Can you buy a DVD player in the UK that cannot be made region free ?
The only purpose of dividing the world up into regions is so Holllywood can charge inflated prices in non regions & at the same time offering less content.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/...fe/2197548.stm

[Razor]

Originally Posted by St_ve

Whatever the true legal position in the UK i feel entirely justified in modding an Xbox there are many benefits of doing this that does not involve piracy of games.The act of modding should be legal.
Can you buy a DVD player in the UK that cannot be made region free ?
The only purpose of dividing the world up into regions is so Holllywood can charge inflated prices in non regions & at the same time offering less content.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/...fe/2197548.stm

Region coding is all about keeping control. Sony USA for example want their profits as does Sony Europe. They are run independantly of each other evan though they are the same company. Films used to come out a lot earlier in the US than they did in the Uk, this has changed because everyone has region free dvd players. When you get a big film release such as i-robot, Lord of the rings etc the dvd release date is very close if not the same. Now there is little benifit ordering a dvd from the US if its out in the UK a week later.

There two different types of region hack one is by hardware which involves a chip. The player wont accept any multiregion disc with out the chip.
The second is a lot easier and it involves the remote hack.

The reason why remote hacks exisit is that these dvd players are mass produced for the world over, not just one country. When they export a player to a new country all that needs to be done is change the software to read a different region. They also make it easy to hack into a multi region player, as all the multi region (back in the day ) dvd players were in huge demand and were prefered over non multi players. Basically giving the customer what it wants.

So to answer your quetion Can you buy a DVD player in the UK that cannot be made region free.

Yes and no, you can buy a player that cant be hacked by remote, but you can buy a grey market chip to get round it.

[LV426]

My understanding is that, actually, there is nothing criminally illegal in:

> making or selling or modifying a DVD player to circumvent region coding. The same statement is NOT true about circumventing copy protection (macrovision).

> using such a player

> buying, importing, watching out of region video material, unless it is categorised as "obscene".

The region coding thing is, in effect, a contractual arrangement between the hardware manufacturers and the movie industry. That's all. So the only possible law infringement (and it's a civil matter) is abuse of the DVD Video logo - because to carry the logo, the equipment must comply with certain standards, one of which is effective region coding.

Interestingly, if you buy a DVD player in Hong Kong (even if you live there) they are all sold as multi-region. And, if I remember correctly, in Australia and/or New Zealand, region coding itself has been deemed anti-competitive and hence illegal (quite right IMO).

As for the discs - again, there is the civil matter of copyright infringement - any action would have to be brought by the UK owner against the distributor - the end user has done nothing wrong.

And there is the matter of censorship. In this case, the act of selling the item (in the UK) is the only illegal act. And again, it's actually civil. The Police won't go around arresting people; typically it's the local Trading Standards that are left with this responsibility, and many areas simply don't have the resorces to go on raids. Which is why in some places (eg Leeds) you can walk into a shop and buy brand new R1 DVDs off the shelf.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by LV426

My understanding is that, actually, there is nothing criminally illegal in:

> making or selling or modifying a DVD player to circumvent region coding. The same statement is NOT true about circumventing copy protection (macrovision).

> using such a player

> buying, importing, watching out of region video material, unless it is categorised as "obscene".

The region coding thing is, in effect, a contractual arrangement between the hardware manufacturers and the movie industry. That's all. So the only possible law infringement (and it's a civil matter) is abuse of the DVD Video logo - because to carry the logo, the equipment must comply with certain standards, one of which is effective region coding.

Interestingly, if you buy a DVD player in Hong Kong (even if you live there) they are all sold as multi-region. And, if I remember correctly, in Australia and/or New Zealand, region coding itself has been deemed anti-competitive and hence illegal (quite right IMO).

As for the discs - again, there is the civil matter of copyright infringement - any action would have to be brought by the UK owner against the distributor - the end user has done nothing wrong.

And there is the matter of censorship. In this case, the act of selling the item (in the UK) is the only illegal act. And again, it's actually civil. The Police won't go around arresting people; typically it's the local Trading Standards that are left with this responsibility, and many areas simply don't have the resorces to go on raids. Which is why in some places (eg Leeds) you can walk into a shop and buy brand new R1 DVDs off the shelf.

Hi LV426

I have a friend who lives in Leeds and he also said that you could buy region 1 dvds off the shelf. I didnt believe him untill you posted the same.

[St_ve]

Hi Locky i'm not that familiar with DivX stuff but here's what i found out today.
I have some divx movies on the one DVD
Alexander , Blade Trinity & the incredibles . They all show up as avi files in windows explorer but when you play them in Windows Media Player the Divx logo appears for a few seconds. Alexander played but something was wrong you could see 4/5ths of one frame & a 1/5 of the next or same frame alongside it & the top 1/5th of the picture was shifted horizontly .There were other faults too .Alexander plays fine on my PC & RD50
Blade Trinity & the Incredibles played fine no problems at all.
I did not have any xvid movies to try.
We downloaded Xbox Media Centre & Auto installer a few days ago & while the Xbox was connected we played a few Region one DVDs the picture quality was a lot better with the updated software .Our Xbox was one of the first ones there might not be any difference if you have a new Xbox.
We use the advanced scart lead & the picture quality of the Xbox i would say was better than a PC via the VGA input. ( i'm not certain on this as i last used VGA about a month ago & i'm better at adjusting the user controls now)
Perhaps somebody with more knowledge of the Xbox would get Alexander to run.
There seems a very active Xbox modding community out there.
Link to Auto Installer