Read this if you mod your console or are thinking about it

[Razgriz]

This article is pretty eye-opening...and apparently even if you don't profit from the mods you make to your console (such as XBMC), it's still technically illegal. Is it any wonder that people don't take the content providers seriously?

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[Dumac]

If you aren't modding other people's consoles for them, especially for money, you will be fine.

 

[purbeast0]

honestly that is a pretty lame article that doesn't go into any worthwhile detail.

sure modding your xbox to run homebrew can be considered illegal since it circumvents the copy protection, however they did not even touch on the fact that the illegality of that comes from the bios that is put onto those chips, which includes hacked code that is owned by microsoft.

those modchips that you used to get for the xbox that came w/the crono bios (or whatever the linux bios was called) are 100% legal, however you won't be able to do much with it.

when you went and installed a bios that allowed the unsigned code, that is where it becomes illegal, mainly due to the fact that the bios has hacked Microsoft owned code on it.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
honestly that is a pretty lame article that doesn't go into any worthwhile detail.

sure modding your xbox to run homebrew can be considered illegal since it circumvents the copy protection, however they did not even touch on the fact that the illegality of that comes from the bios that is put onto those chips, which includes hacked code that is owned by microsoft.

those modchips that you used to get for the xbox that came w/the crono bios (or whatever the linux bios was called) are 100% legal, however you won't be able to do much with it.

when you went and installed a bios that allowed the unsigned code, that is where it becomes illegal, mainly due to the fact that the bios has hacked Microsoft owned code on it.

purbeast brings the truth!!!

 

[RaiderJ]

As someone who has modded tons of consoles and was part of the "scene", all I can say is it is not worth it. Some friends had their entire lives destroyed by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Basically they'll come and take everything electronic you have if they decide you are a target. Good luck trying to explain differences in BIOS code, however truthful it may be. People who will come to your house to do search and seizure are doing it for corporations with pockets bigger than yours.

That said, if anyone needs a console modded, especially a PS2, feel free to contact me for advice

 

[chalmers]

What percent of console modders mod their console or get it modded by someone else for reasons that do not include playing pirated/downloaded/copied games I wonder.

 

[DaveSimmons]

What percent of console modders mod their console or get it modded by someone else for reasons that do not include playing pirated/downloaded/copied games I wonder.

xbox1 was a special case since it was a PC being sold at half-price and the XBMC (xbox media center) software was very popular for turning it into a HTPC that also plays games. XBMC was good enough that it's still in use on both xboxen and linux PCs.

(Of course most of the movies they play with XBMC are pirated.)

The 360 has media center features built-in so most 360 modders are doing it for piracy.

Most wii and ps2 mods are for piracy too, though some people mod the PS2 to load games they own without heading to blockbuster to load up on games to "burn and return."

PSP mods are probably 50/50 between media player features and piracy (including "homebrew" that is emulators + pirated roms and isos)

Summary: Yarrr Matey for the majority, with some legitimate use.

 

[Industrial]

You still need to physically mod a PS2? I thought HDL And HDA was just software based running from the HD?

 

[DougoMan]

What is the state of Xbox 360 modding? Can you play backups easily enough now? And do they work with Xbox live? Just curious..

It is just insane how successful people have been hacking the Wii. It is the first system I have ever seen that copies work *better* than the originals. Copying games onto an external hard drive and pluging them into the USB port makes for much faster load times / game switching than running them off the orignal disk.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: DougoMan
What is the state of Xbox 360 modding? Can you play backups easily enough now? And do they work with Xbox live? Just curious..

It is just insane how successful people have been hacking the Wii. It is the first system I have ever seen that copies work *better* than the originals. Copying games onto an external hard drive and pluging them into the USB port makes for much faster load times / game switching than running them off the orignal disk.

mod the DVD firmware, get good legit and checked game images and your good to go on XBL if you want.

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: DougoMan
What is the state of Xbox 360 modding? Can you play backups easily enough now? And do they work with Xbox live? Just curious..

It is just insane how successful people have been hacking the Wii. It is the first system I have ever seen that copies work *better* than the originals. Copying games onto an external hard drive and pluging them into the USB port makes for much faster load times / game switching than running them off the orignal disk.

That was one of the best features about modded PS2's - playing games off a hard drive. Just boot to a menu, select your game, and off you go!

 

[mmntech]

A lot of PS2 owners mod their consoles to play European and Japanese titles that don't get released here, and vice versa. I don't see how that can be considered piracy but it still falls under the DMCA. Thankfully the PS3 is region free.

 

[DougoMan]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ

Originally posted by: DougoMan
What is the state of Xbox 360 modding? Can you play backups easily enough now? And do they work with Xbox live? Just curious..

It is just insane how successful people have been hacking the Wii. It is the first system I have ever seen that copies work *better* than the originals. Copying games onto an external hard drive and pluging them into the USB port makes for much faster load times / game switching than running them off the orignal disk.

That was one of the best features about modded PS2's - playing games off a hard drive. Just boot to a menu, select your game, and off you go!

That is cool I didn't know that was possible on the PS2. I'm surprised nobody has figured this out for the Xbox yet.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Originally posted by: DougoMan

Originally posted by: RaiderJ

Originally posted by: DougoMan
What is the state of Xbox 360 modding? Can you play backups easily enough now? And do they work with Xbox live? Just curious..

It is just insane how successful people have been hacking the Wii. It is the first system I have ever seen that copies work *better* than the originals. Copying games onto an external hard drive and pluging them into the USB port makes for much faster load times / game switching than running them off the orignal disk.

That was one of the best features about modded PS2's - playing games off a hard drive. Just boot to a menu, select your game, and off you go!

That is cool I didn't know that was possible on the PS2. I'm surprised nobody has figured this out for the Xbox yet.

You mean the XBox 1? People were doing that on the XBox 1 long before the PS2.

 

[Onita]

Originally posted by: chalmers
What percent of console modders mod their console or get it modded by someone else for reasons that do not include playing pirated/downloaded/copied games I wonder.

Who knows. I "modded" my Wii. By mod, I mean homebrewed it. I use it w/ a hard drive to load all my games. I also own every game that's on my hard drive. Maybe I'm special

 

[DougoMan]

Originally posted by: Krakn3Dfx

Originally posted by: DougoMan

Originally posted by: RaiderJ

Originally posted by: DougoMan
What is the state of Xbox 360 modding? Can you play backups easily enough now? And do they work with Xbox live? Just curious..

It is just insane how successful people have been hacking the Wii. It is the first system I have ever seen that copies work *better* than the originals. Copying games onto an external hard drive and pluging them into the USB port makes for much faster load times / game switching than running them off the orignal disk.

That was one of the best features about modded PS2's - playing games off a hard drive. Just boot to a menu, select your game, and off you go!

That is cool I didn't know that was possible on the PS2. I'm surprised nobody has figured this out for the Xbox yet.

You mean the XBox 1? People were doing that on the XBox 1 long before the PS2.

No sorry I was thinking Xbox 360. I know it HAS a hard drive but it would be nice to just plug in an external 3.5 inch and have an easy switching menu so you didn't have to always insert the disk.