arfows

Yes, having two pieces of artwork displayed simultaneously (logo displayed in game name "wheel" list on the side, screenshot or boxart in the middle, and synopsis on the bottom is my ideal, but as I don't exactly know the difference between hard coding and soft coding, I expect I'll have to leave this idea alone for a while as I gain experience All I've got are composite cables so it looks like I'll be stuck using SD on my various HDTV and monitors. Final step will be trying to figure out how to make that combination look good. Thanks as always for all the work you've put into this and for answering m'questions!

Rocky, Thanks for the reply, beyond excited! I figured out that changes to the theme level synopsis layouts didn't have an effect, but if I went one folder further to the sd_ntsc, they did. Was able change the synopsis start time and scrolling speed. Follow up question from that: A) <scrolltime>300</scrolltime> //what does this control, I couldn't tell much effect// B) Confirm color palate is ARGB format? Same thing for trying to add artwork categories, had to go to sd_ntsc folder to get changes to take (unless I did something wrong with trying to add the lines to the default xml code the first time) The only hiccup is that one of the categories I added was a videos category, yet when I select it, the videos don't appear even though they are in a media/console/videos folder. If I select videos view mode from the UI menu it plays then. If I wanted to replace game text names with artwork, you mentioned I'd have to add the images in the xpr files (and assumably add someway to point that direction and look for image vs text). Is there a guide/program to edit xpr files? Thanks again so much for all of your efforts, and thanks in advance for any replies!

Love this dashboard! Was setting up my artwork, which displays as designed, but I wanted to modify it a bit and was wondering if the following was possible (most seem like a simple tweak in a setting somewhere but the last one may be a little more advanced - i know there are XBMC limitations on what is possible). I truly do appreciate the dash in its current form: 1) Add an artwork type to the current selection list of 2d, 3d, logo, mix, screenshot. (I'd like to add Titles and Carts). I currently have one of them in loaded in 'Mix' slot but would like option to have them both in there so the art selection category would be 2d, 3d, cart, logo, mix, title, screenshot. I created the folders alongside the others, just need to find out how to get the system to point there and show them as options. 2) I know we can hit Y to see preview videos, but is there anyway to make videos the default artwork displayed...aka adding the category to the list as described above and make it play on a loop? 3) Where does emustation draw game overview/description info from? I've added some homebrew ROMs but their info is pretty limited. 4) Is there a way to change the default delay time before the overview starts scrolling? 5) Once a console has been selected, is there a way to have the list of games on the right hand side of the screen utilize logo artwork instead of the standard font? Thanks in advance!

TL:DR: Tested some Chinese adapters. The RXD-629A7-7 have the fastest boot time out of the two Chinese Adapters i could test and in one configuration was only 3 sec slower than a stock XBOX in This may be due to the R4 resistor being a 101. (The other XBOX/Dash combo we tried the RXD in it took twice as long as the stock to boot, still that's only 18 seconds more. The M03E were very precise in their boot times as there was zero variability between each of the four M03E adapters I tested but they were significantly slower that the RXD. The white Microsoft logo seemed to be an indicator of adapter performance. If it took a while to load, then it was easy to identify that the adapter would have significant challenges booting. The RXDs were fairly reliable as long as you didn't have one with "2036" printed on it. None of the boards that had a "01A" on the R4 slot ended up working. Coincidence? Maybe. Full story: I have a lot of XBOXs that I am modding/have modded so I ordered a bunch of the china adapters and randomly got three batches of different model numbers: JP103-5 (Qty 2): 470uF caps, chip labeled IDE/SATA, RH1 spot has a 103 labeled resistor, R4 was a 01A RXD-629A7-7 (Qty 5): 470 uF caps, chip labeled IDE/SATA, RH1 was a 103. For the R4, 3 of them had a 101, and two had a 01A. Of the two that had a 01A, one was reversed so the lettering was facing the opposite way of the board markings. The two that had the 01A also had a marking of 2036 which none of the other three did (spoiler alert, the ones with 2036 did not work) M03E (Qty 5): 220 uF caps, no visible markings on 3 of the 5 chips, and very very feint IDE/SATA markings on 2 of the 5. No resistor on the RH1 or R4 spots. Here is where I unnecessarily induced bias. The JP103s and the two RXDs marked with a 2036 looked like they had really bad solder jobs from the start so I reflowed those before even starting testing, which is a big error. I shouldn't have done regardless of how they looked (and some looked pretty bad). None of them ended up working even when tested on multiple hard drives. One of the M03E's also did not work, but I hadn't done any work on that one...so if you are keeping track at home, 4 out of 4 of adapters i worked on never ended up working. 1 out of 8 adapters that I didn't touch didn't work...I probably did not help the situation, and lesson RElearned to always due an incoming test first. Anyway, on to discussing the ones that DID work: Methodology: Ran each adapter through two tests: 1) a timed power on test from power button push to display of white microsoft logo and subsequent full dash load. 2) a timed game load of Burnout 3 that was loaded onto the hard drive. Each test was repeated three times per adapter and on two separate XBOXs. Four other XBOXs were put through the same testing regiment for comparitive analysis (I couldn't call them controls since they aren't set up exactly the same and i couldn't control for all the variables) Box A: V1.0, TSOP with ind-bios, unleashX dash, WD3200AAJS (320GB total 80GB free, 75% full) HD, 80 wire cable, Thomson DVD Box B: V1.1, soft mod with Rocky's softmod dash v1.1.6, WD 1002FBYS (1TB total, 705GB free, 25% full) HD, 80 wire cable, Philips DVD Box (comparison) V1.6, soft mod, XBMC Emustation v2.0, WD 1200BB 120GB IDE HD, (13% full), 40 wire cable, Thomson DVD Box (comparison) V1.0, TSOP, Cerbios 2.3.1 UDMA 4 with Stock HD (8GB, 2.7GB free 66% full), 40 wire cable Box E: (comparison) v1.6, soft mod, Rocky Softmod Dash v1.1.6, Stock HD, (44% full) 40 wire cable, Samsung 605F Box F: (comparison) XBOX in native state Attached are the raw data collection results. I have some 101 resistors that I could put on the M03E boards in the R4 slot but do not yet have the skill to solder them on. I may practice on some of my DOA boards and once I get confident enough I'll see if adding the 101 makes a difference on the working M03E boards. Right now I don't know when I will have time for that however. I welcome your thoughts on testing methodology, results, analysis, and conclusions. Most of the XBOXs are still open if there are other tests you think I should run. Thanks! UDMA 4 SATA adapter comparison.xlsx

Thanks. I’ll try downloading it on another network then and see what happens

Do you have 3 TB of space on a drive on your PC? If you are worried about losing/corrupting the 3 Tb HD contents, you’ll want to copy the drive contents to your PC using a program called FatXplorer. It’ll take a good long while but will be worth it should something go wrong with the original drive because you could just format it and put the info back on the drive. You can use an ide to Sata USB adapter to get it done or I just plugged the drive into an open SATA slot on my PC

Was trying to download the "HDD fix for games.7z 1.0.0" off of the downloads section on this site and it bounces between 90 and 100 kbps every tenth of a MB and then after about 85% is downloaded I keep getting a "Couldn't download network issue". Tried it 3-4 times now, varying times of day and it always ends up the same. Tried to resume download after it happens and it immediately times out and says "couldn't download - no permissions". I'm able to download larger files from other sites just fine. I know there is a 2 downloads per day restriction on this site which may cause the second fault, but not sure if anyone else is having problems downloading things from here, if it might be this one file that has issues, or if its me. Thanks!

Awesome, will do. I just unplug my DVD drive and use that port. thanks!!

Thanks for the great info Nikey...I have a couple of isos and I'll have to compare them to the HDD games. Read the thread you linked, thanks for sharing. Your example of Emustation being a huge offender is also well received. Even though the 32kb clusters for my size HD means I won't see near the same amount of wasted space from what you are experiencing it does make me rethink my plans as I was going to include ALL the artwork: boxart, 3d, screenshots, title, carts, etc so that people could swap back and forth about what previews are shown on the game selection screen if they so chose - but now I'm re-evaluating that -- wonder how much space the artwork takes up, synopsis txt files as well, especially for the NES with over 1000 games...and using a PC to look at folder size doesn't mimic that because they are NTFS based and so cluster size they use is different? Meaning the only way i would know in advance of the end result of the size on disk on the XBOXwill be is to format a Hard Drive connected to the PC in FatX format and then dump the games/artwork in there? I've got a spare 120GB that's fairly free I could use to test if that is the case. How many emulators/artwork did you have loaded that resulted in 53GB of wasted space? Again, with a smaller drive I won't see that much but I may be able to squeeze a couple more xbox games in there if I cut out some of the art and its dead space. This is great info that I looked at before and started to work on but didn't get too deep into it. If I find my previous work I'll post the results on here. Thanks again!!

Thanks, great info!!

I recently bought a bunch of these adapters off of aliexpress - most were M03E but I do have JP103-5s and I'm getting a couple of the RXD boards off ebay. Plan on testing them all out and will report back here and on the original post about them on xbox-scene (if the site is still active) IDE to Sata Adapter compatibility thread - Official Team Cerbios Forums - Xbox-Scene. I also bought some resistors - my soldering skills leave a lot to be desired so i have not yet tested my ability to safely solder those on yet. Gonna take a lot of practice.

In Rocky’5s emustation downloadeder there are a bunch of updates, mostly title updates. are those the fixes needed for the HDD games that don’t work properly? He also has some DLC on there with maps and updated rosters etc but I am specifically wondering ask the other stuff outside of that. Additionally, I downloaded some of the updates without having the games already installed but don’t see some of those downloads anywhere in file manager or taking up part of HD storage block so maybe you have to wait to do the updates until you have the game loaded…or maybe In the wrong place. Thanks in advance!

Is there a comprehensive list out there of the games that are not HDD ready and need an iso/xiso/CCI? From Bowl's post earlier in this thread & prtscn mentioning Desert Storm i parsed the list below, but based on Dempsey's comment it isn't complete. Bowl you had talked about going through the 800+ games on Origins and testing to see if they booted, did you ever get through that Herculean task? I found these two threads and am wondering if these lists are well known/legit or if they are to fix a pack that wasn't well ripped (I do see some of the games from this thread listed in these links). and this one from the archive Xbox HDD ready game fixes : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Here are the games mentioned by Bowl and prtscn from earlier in this thread: Desert Storm 2 An ESPN 2k5 or 2k6 Games (I have about five of these 2K5 HDD ready, I know 2 of them at least load, and can test the others tomorrow). Fable... without dlc Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkahban Jurassic Park Monster Garage Toca3 (this one must be a full dd xiso) Tony Hawk: American Wasteland Tony Hawk: Project 8 The following games are present on the Origins image and are known to not work for one reason or another, or just have issues: - Medal of Honor: Frontline - There are many videos that have been removed, I'm assuming due to filenames. - Fight Night: Round 2 - There's no music in the menu there. - Arctic Thunder - Freezes while loading a race - Midtown Madness is freezing halfway the game if you play washington undercover the mission Diva Manners - Nightcaster II: Equinox has 5 missing .bik files causing the game to crash - TOCA 3 has a dirty disc error when playing the world tour (Why ISO is needed) - Jurassic Park Operation Genesis also has dirty disc error (Why ISO is needed) - 1 of the unreal tournament games is a prototype game. - FIFA 07 is freezing - Return to Castle: Wolfenstein has a dirty disc error while loading a mission

Oh the iso split into two files makes sense. I was wondering why there were two listed per game. Then it doesn’t appear to have much benefit to go iso/cci unless it is used with insignia or there is a problem with an HDD ready rip. If that’s the case is there a known complete list of games that need an iso due to Hdd ready not working properly and/or insignia issues? I’ve seen some partial ones but nothing comprehensive. I guess one benefit for iso/cci could be that the reduced file count/large couple of files in an iso/cci may make the ftp faster. side question, does GLO mean “global” (as in universal compatible region) in the region on the compatibility list? and finally does anyone have any insight into question 2 about data viability if a drive is repartitioned? Thanks again, this is all great info that is much appreciated!

Great info, thanks! So as I understand it basically what i currently have is HDD ready files. In general, comparing the three games I referenced in my OP to the file sizes shown on the compatibility list you graciously provided, it looks like xiso files save roughly 20-30% space but the CCI files are roughly the same size as the HDD ready (aka larger than the xisos). To make sure that wasn't an anomaly I randomly checked 10 other games and it held true 8 out of 10 times. If CCI are compressed ISO, I must not be understanding something as that is confusing. HDD ready can't be compressed or repackaged into an xiso since that is completely different, correct? if so, I would have to find corresponding iso's or extracted iso's for each of the games and then create CCIs from that to realize any storage efficiency?