www.sharexxx.net - free books & magazines 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page iii Xbox 360™ FOR DUMmIES‰ by Brian “Brize”Johnson and Duncan “Festive Turkey”Mackenzie 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page ii 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page i Xbox 360™ FOR DUMmIES‰ 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page ii 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page iii Xbox 360™ FOR DUMmIES‰ by Brian “Brize”Johnson and Duncan “Festive Turkey”Mackenzie 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page iv Xbox 360™ For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Xbox and Xbox Live are regis- tered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2005935156 ISBN-13: 978-0-471-77180-7 ISBN-10: 0-471-77180-5 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/RQ/QR/QW/IN 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page v About the Authors Brian “Brize” Johnson is a Program Manager at Microsoft. He’s an avid gamer who spends much of his free time getting pummeled by his kids in Halo 2. Brian lives in Redmond, Washington, with his wife Kathy and their three kids, Will, Hunter, and Buffy. You can contact Brian through his blog at http://bufferoverrun.net. Duncan “Festive Turkey” Mackenzie is a software developer at Microsoft working on their Web publishing systems. When he isn’t working or writing, he spends most of his time with his wife and two kids, and when they are asleep he fires up the Xbox. If he isn’t online playing Halo 2, then he is proba- bly staying up way too late playing an RPG like Knights of the Old Republic, or Jade Empire or (most likely by the time you read this) Elder Scrolls. You can contact Duncan through his Web site, www.duncanmackenzie.net. 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page vi 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page vii Dedication Brian: To my mom and dad, who bought me my first game console in the mid 1970s, before I even knew what a game console was. (How cool is that?!) Duncan: To my wife, who puts up with the game controllers on the coffee table and the long nights I spend “researching” various Xbox games. Authors’ Acknowledgments First we would like to thank our agent, Claudette Moore, who spent a lot of time doing the hard work around getting this book off the ground. We’re sure that it wouldn’t have happened without her expertise and diligence. Putting books together is really, really hard work. With that in mind we would like to thank the very professional staff at Wiley. First, we would like to thank our Acquisitions Editor, Melody Layne, who put up with a couple of gamers putting together a book. We would like to thank the Project Editor, Pat O’Brien, who made sense of the words we wrote and turned our text into a real book. Thanks to Tonya Cupp, and to Andy Hollandbeck and the rest of the Dummies Technology staff. Many thanks to our production and layout experts, Adrienne Martinez, Shelley Lea, and Barb Moore. A big thanks goes out to our reviewer, Bill Moorehead. At Microsoft, we would like to thank everybody from the Xbox and Windows Media Center teams who helped us, especially Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb. Larry’s passion for this console and his dedication to customers comes through in everything that he does. Finally, we would like to thank our families for putting up with us during the process. For Duncan that was his wife, Laura, and his kids, Connor and Jada. For Brian, that was his wife, Kathy, and his kids, Will, Hunter, and Buffy. —Brian and Duncan 01_771805 ffirs.qxp 12/21/05 11:53 AM Page viii Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Composition Services Media Development Project Coordinator: Adrienne Martinez Project Editor: Pat O’Brien Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Andrea Dahl, Acquisitions Editor: Melody Layne Mary J. Gillot, Stephanie D. Jumper, Copy Editor: Tonya Cupp Barbara Moore, Lynsey Osborn, Heather Ryan Technical Editor: Bill Moorehead Proofreaders: Leeann Harney, Jessica Kramer Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner Indexer: TECHBOOKS Production Services Media Development Specialists: Angela Denny, Kate Jenkins, Steven Kudirka, Kit Malone, Special Help Travis Silvers “Secret Squirrel” Media Development Coordinator: Laura Atkinson Media Project Supervisor: Laura Moss Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle Media Development Associate Producer: Richard Graves Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 02_771805 ftoc.qxp 12/20/05 8:24 PM Page ix Contents at a Glance Introduction .................................................................1 Part I: Xbox 360 Out of the Box.....................................5 Chapter 1: Meet the Xbox 360...........................................................................................7 Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Xbox 360.............................................................................23 Part II: The Xbox 360 Blades.......................................39 Chapter 3: Dealing with the Dashboard.........................................................................41 Chapter 4: The Live Blade ...............................................................................................61 Chapter 5: The Media Blade............................................................................................83 Chapter 6: The System Blade........................................................................................107 Chapter 7: The Games Blade.........................................................................................127 Part III: Xbox 360 in Your Entertainment System........139 Chapter 8: HDTV, EDTV, Plain Old TV..........................................................................141 Chapter 9: Getting the Best