[Drunken Master]

I heard a rumour that the X-Box needs a higher powered Stepdown than most normal consoles is this true??

[Ten]

Hi

I've heard that a 100w stepdown is the minimum but 150w is recommended.

The US Xbox can consume up to 100 Watts of power.
As you will probly be playing the Xbox non-stop I would suggest buying a Heavy Duty Step Down Converter that can handle 100 Watts.

Look in your local yellow pages and contact a local electrical parts store (like Maplins)

Or you could just wait and buy a UK Xbox, as the release date is not that far away, and that way you will not need a Stepdown converter as it will be inside the Xbox.

Anne

[thestorm]

Hi Druken Master!

i hope this fax helps, i saw it on www.xbox.com forum,

**********************************
* XBOX UK FAQ *
* *
* by Tim Newman *
* *
* Version 1.0 *
* *
**********************************


1. GETTING THE RIGHT STEPDOWN TRANSFORMER

As many of you know, the voltages in the UK and
US are completely different. This means that if
you plugged your xbox in without using a stepdown
transformer in europe, the machine would just burn
out completely, and you would not be able to fix
the bloody thing without getting a new power supply
unit, with are not available at this present time
(keep an eye on http://www.lik-sang.com as they usually
get these sort of things in. Anyway enough of that,
lets get down to the dirty work. When i imported my Xbox
finding the correct stepdown transformer was a real pain.
I was hearing alot of false information about what kind
of power the Xbox consumes. After asking Microsoft, they
kindly gave me an answer, they said that the Xbox cosumes
UPTO 100watts of power at its peak (IT says this in the
manual now). As soon as i heard this, i thought that i would
have a hard job on trying to find a stepdown that would
give enough power to get the thing going.

I brought the one from:
http://www.lektropacks.co.uk/acatalo....html#aSDTRANS

This particular stepdown does get very hot, and of course
the more i push the xbox, the hotter the stepdown was
going to get. I have tested this stepdown for about 2 hours
without having any problems.

If you have tested any other Stepdown converters with sucess
please can you contact me with a link to where you
purchased from.



2. Scart, S-Video and AV!

Before i imported my Xbox, i had to check that my TV
was compatible with the NTSC signal, luckily it was.
If your TV isnt, then you will have to use
you XBOX in black and white until they release a
RGB scart lead with is availble only in the UK, and
these babies are going to appear around March 2002.

At the moment i use the standard AV cable that comes
with the XBOX unit itself, this cable does not give
the best picture in the world, but it will get me by
untill the scart lead comes out.

My Television, does not support S-Video either. But
for those of you that have a TV that supports
S-VIDEO, then i suggest that you order yourself
one of the S-VIDEO cables, these are availabe at:

http://www.lik-sang.com/catalog/prod...ducts_id=1477&



3. PAL/NTSC Games.

If you order a nice US Xbox, then you are guaranteed to get
the full speed, 60hz gameplay. In the UK, games are normally
slowed down by 15%, maeaning that they are boardered. It was
like this with my Dreamcast much of the time.
Game developers have realised that us european people would
also like our games UN-CRIPPLED! so now that are starting
to add 50/60 hz switches in games. Lets hope that this
is the same for Xbox when it is released over here in March
2002.

Nobody knows yet, if the Xbox will be able to play games
from all around the world, without the need for any MODDing
of the machine. I will update this scetion as soon as more
information becomes available.

4 DVD Playback.

US Xboxes will only be able to play DVDs that are Region 1.
As far as i know there are no ways to make the Xbox mutli
region DVD compatible as of yet, this means that you
will have to import your DVD movies from the US aswell for
the time being.


5. RGB SCART LEAD - MAKE ONE!!

At last... here it is!
First the complete Pinout (except Pin 16) of the Xbox A/V-Out (with the RGB
functions).
Below the scheme how to connect the Xbox-Pins to the Scart-Pins.
Thanks! to everyone who contributed whatever he/she was able to find out.
#### off! to everyone who tries to make money instead of sharing
(digital-x).
To everyone else: have fun soldering and enjoy your Xbox in RGB-quality for
free!

Xbox A/V-Plug:
(Looking from the front of the connector not the wire side)

1 1 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
------------------------
_| + + + + + + + + + + + |_
| + + + + + + + + + + + + |
----------------------------
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4


RGB Pinout:

1 - Right Audio Signal
2 - Right Audio Ground
3 - SP-DIF Signal
4 - RGB Switching Signal
5 - Jumper to 17 (all 3 Jumpers
6 - Jumper to 18 need to be
7 - Jumper to 19 set for RGB)
8 - Blue Ground
9 - Blue Signal
10 - Green Ground
11 - Green Signal
12 - SP-DIF Ground
13 - SP_DIF +5
14 - Left Audio Signal
15 - Left Audio Ground
16 -
17 - Jumper to 5
18 - Jumper to 6
19 - Jumper to 7
20 - AV Select Signal
21 - Red Ground
22 - Red Signal
23 - Composite Ground
24 - Composite Signal (Sync for RGB)


Xbox Pin-> Scart Pin
1 -> 2
2 -> 4
3 -> -
4 -> 16
5 -> -
6 -> -
7 -> -
8 -> 5
9 -> 7
10 -> 9
11 -> 11
12 -> -
13 -> -
14 -> 6
15 -> 4
16 -> -
17 -> -
18 -> -
19 -> -
20 -> 8
21 -> 13
22 -> 15
23 -> 17
24 -> 20

Scart Pin 21 (Shield) & Xbox-Plug Shield should be connected to all the
Ground-Pins (like in the XBOX-Plug).
If you want SP-DIF you need to extract a seperate cable.





************************************************** *
This FAQ is not yet finsihed, if you wish to
add anything, then please email me:

tnewman2000@hotmail.com

[Drunken Master]

Thanks for this, nice Transformer!!

I'm going to wait for the UK X-Box just in case online gaming takes off.

I'm gonna get a US Gamecube hopefully next week.

i bought a 150W step-down converter, brand 'MWP150'. this sould be a high-quality converter and should also fit the need of any hardcore-xbox-gamer