Xbox 360™ For Dummies®

by Brian “Brize” Johnson and Duncan “Festive Turkey” Mackenzie

Xbox 360™ For Dummies®

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River St.
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 permitted 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 registered 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.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

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

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 probably 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.

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

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 Media Development

Project Editor: Pat O’Brien

Acquisitions Editor: Melody Layne

Copy Editor: Tonya Cupp

Technical Editor: Bill Moorehead

Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner

Media Development Specialists: Angela Denny, Kate Jenkins, Steven Kudirka, Kit Malone, Travis Silvers

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)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Adrienne Martinez

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Andrea Dahl, Mary J. Gillot, Stephanie D. Jumper, Barbara Moore, Lynsey Osborn, Heather Ryan

Proofreaders: Leeann Harney, Jessica Kramer

Indexer: TECHBOOKS Production Services

Special Help “Secret Squirrel”

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

Contents

Title

Introduction

What’s in This Book

How to Use This Book

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I : Xbox 360 out of the Box

Chapter 1: Meet the Xbox 360

Parents, Start Here

Playing with an Xbox 360

Xbox 360 Packages

Shopping Smart

Making Your Way around the Xbox 360

Connecting to Your Home or the World

Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Xbox 360

Opening the Box

Planning Your Xbox 360 Installation

Connecting the Xbox 360 to a TV

Connecting Your Sound System

Connecting to the Internet

Flipping the Switch and Testing

Troubleshooting Error Messages

Part II : The Xbox 360 Blades

Chapter 3: Dealing with the Dashboard

Initial Setup

Finalizing Setup Details

Introducing Blades

Multiple Gamers

Chapter 4: The Live Blade

What’s Xbox Live?

Send and Receive Messages

Using the Xbox Live Marketplace

Finding Out What’s Happening Online

Chapter 5: The Media Blade

DVD Movies

Accessing Your PC

USB Media Devices

Videos

Chapter 6: The System Blade

Setting Up with the System Blade

Console Settings

Family Settings

Memory

Network Settings

Computers

Initial Setup

Chapter 7: The Games Blade

Saying Hi to the Games Blade

Listing Your Achievements

Reviewing Played Games

Playing Games on Xbox Live Arcade

Playing Demos and Viewing Trailers

Part III : Xbox 360 in Your Entertainment System

Chapter 8: HDTV, EDTV, Plain Old TV

Television Basics

Thinking about a New TV

Using a Computer Monitor

Recording Your Games for Fun and Posterity

Chapter 9: Getting the Best Audio Experience

Xbox 360 Game Sound

Hooking Up Xbox 360 Sound

Great Sound Systems

Buying a New Home Theater System

Chapter 10: Customizing Your Console

Faceplates

Dashboard

Wireless Accessories

Part IV : Pushing the Outer Limits

Chapter 11: Parental Control

Rating Systems

Controlling Access

Xbox Live

Family Rules

Chapter 12: LAN Parties

What’s a LAN Party?

Play Games with Your “Real” Friends

System Link

Going Mobile

Chapter 13: Windows Media Center Extender

What Is Media Center?

Extenders

Setting Up the Xbox 360 as an Extender

Comparing Media Center with TiVo

Getting Windows XP Media Center Edition

Using Media Center through Your Xbox 360

Part V : The Part of Tens

Chapter 14: Ten Great Web Sites

www.xbox.com

http://forums.xbox.com

www.bungie.net

www.majornelson.com

www.joystiq.com

www.activexbox.com

www.teamxbox.com

www.officialxboxmagazine.com

www.g4tv.com

www.xbox4dummies.com

Chapter 15: More Than Ten Great Games

Perfect Dark Zero

Kameo: Elements of Power

Project Gotham Racing 3

Top Spin 2

Gears of War

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

Quake 4

Dead or Alive 4

Halo Series

Call of Duty 2

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Gun

Full Auto

Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland

Chapter 16: Ten Tips for Parents

Gaming Safely

Communicating with Your Family

Chapter 17: Ten Ways to Make Friends

Xbox Live

Online Communities

The Real World

Chapter 18: Ten Great Accessories

Memory Devices

Wireless Gaming

Xbox 360 Headset

Windows Media Center PC

Video Connections

Faceplates

Appendix: Original Xbox Games

Hard Drives

Software Downloads

Compatible Xbox Games

Introduction

Welcome, gamers! Before you get started, let us tell you a little bit about this book. Xbox 360 For Dummies started life as a little book that I (Brian) started writing in order to help my nephews and other family members get their original Xbox consoles online. We wanted to spend a little family time playing games cross-country. When the Xbox 360 was announced, we decided to write the book with the new console in mind.

For that to work out, I needed to bring in a couple of big guns to help. I contacted Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, who was immediately interested in helping users get up and running with the Xbox 360. We added Duncan “Festive Turkey” Mackenzie, because he’s an expert in audio, digital media, HDTV, and the Windows Media Center PC.

We’ve come up with a book we hope helps gamers get up and running quickly with the Xbox 360. We also wrote this to help parents understand the console and get a firm idea what gaming is all about.

As you can probably tell, the Xbox 360 holds much, much more than meets the eye. There hasn’t been a game console quite like the Xbox 360, and never has a home entertainment system been anywhere near this powerful. This book’s ultimate goal is to help you get the most you possibly can from your Xbox 360.

What’s in This Book

This book is designed to get new users up and running quickly with the Xbox 360. In the course of working on the book, we discovered something pretty interesting: The Xbox 360 works really well out of the box. Much of what we needed to do as advanced gamers is right there and pretty easy to figure out.

This book isn’t for the advanced gamer. It’s for the man who’s hooking up his Xbox 360 to a TV for the first time. It’s for the mother who wants an to make informed decisions about the games her children play. With that in mind, we wanted to make Xbox 360 For Dummies a really good reference for users. We add interesting, useful tips where appropriate, we offer cursory advice on equipment, and we talk a lot about the connectedness of the Xbox 360. That is, we make it easy to understand how to hook up your console to the Internet, to other computers, and to your home entertainment system. Finally, we want to help new gamers discover the possibilities for community around the Xbox 360. Xbox Live presents a unique communication opportunity.

Because things change so frequently in gaming, we set up a site to support the book. At http://xbox4dummies.com, you find additional information about the Xbox 360, updates, and a chance to e-mail us with your ideas and thoughts about the book.

How to Use This Book

You can read this book from cover to cover, or you can pick and choose pieces of information.

If you bought this book before you got the Xbox 360, you can prepare for your console’s arrival. Review the first couple of chapters to find out about hooking up your Xbox 360 to your TV and how you’re going to connect to Xbox Live through your high-speed Internet connection.

If you’re looking for a TV or home theater system to go with your new Xbox, read Chapters 8 and 9.

If you’re looking for a quick read, head on to the Part of Tens for Web sites worth visiting, Xbox 360 accessories worth owning, and games worth checking out.

If you’re getting an Xbox 360 for your family, be sure to check out Chapter 11 and Chapter 16. These chapters show you how to set up the Xbox 360 with a password.

How This Book Is Organized

Xbox 360 For Dummies is divided into five parts, each of which explains a different aspect of Xbox 360 gaming and media play.

Part I: Xbox 360 Out of the Box

The first part of the book explains what the Xbox 360 is and how it can fit into your digital lifestyle. We tell you about the console, we introduce you to online gaming, and we help you get a new Xbox 360 hooked to your TV and to the Internet.

Part II: The Xbox 360 Blades

The Xbox 360 is a unique gaming console because of its rich user experience outside of gaming. The Xbox 360 isn’t a PC, but it’s a lot like a computer; the blades let you do things you probably haven’t done through your TV before. This part tours each blade and makes it easy to use some of the powerful functionality built into the console.

Part III: Xbox 360 in Your Entertainment System

We help you pick a new HDTV and sound system, explain the parental controls, describe console customization, and reveal ways your console can entertain guests.

Part IV: Pushing the Outer Limits

Your Xbox 360 does lots of cool stuff. Here’s the maximum chill.

Part V: The Part of Tens

The Part of Tens lists information we thought you might find interesting. What are some Web sites that detail your console? How can you make friends online? How does the system fit into your family’s schedule? What cool accessories are available for the system?

Icons Used in This Book

If you’re a For Dummies fan, then you’ll quickly recognize these icons. If you’re new to For Dummies books, welcome!

This icon indicates a little piece of knowledge that’s going to make your life easier. Take a look and save it for later. Tips are fun, and they can make you seem oh-so-smart.

You need this information almost all the time while you’re gaming.

Be very careful or something bad might happen. You don’t want to lose all your game saves, do you?

This little guy indicates a piece of geek data that you can either read or ignore. If it were important, it would be a Tip, and if it were dangerous, it would be a Warning, so feel free to skip over it.

Where to Go from Here

Read the book. Play some games. Visit the sites. Make some friends. Gaming with this powerful console can be casual or it can consume your life. The choice is yours. This book makes it easy to get into gaming, to get onto Xbox Live, and to get out there and have some fun.

Part I

Xbox 360 out of the Box

In this part . . .

Jump right in here to get up and running with your Xbox 360. We introduce you to the Xbox 360 — especially that all-important little matter of hooking up your Xbox 360 to your television.

Chapter 1 discusses the Xbox 360 and what you’ll find in the box. Two versions of the Xbox 360 are available to customers outside of Japan, and this chapter tells you about the differences between these versions.

Then, plow into Chapter 2 to see how to hook up your Xbox 360 and get playing. Discover how to plug your Xbox 360 into your TV either through the composite video cable — or if you have a television that supports it, the component cables used to hook the Xbox 360 to an HDTV. You’ll also see how to connect your Xbox 360 to a computer network.

Chapter 1

Meet the Xbox 360

In This Chapter

Arming parents with information

Understanding what the Xbox 360 can do

Buying the right system

Touring the console

Checking the connections

The Xbox 360 is a gaming console. The definition of gaming console has evolved over the years, but its core remains the same: a platform from which to play great games. The Xbox 360 does that and much, much more: It rips and plays your favorite singer’s CD, plays the DVD you just rented, keeps you in touch with your auntie, and grabs hold of your PC for a full-on TV experience.

It’s an exciting time for digital entertainment. The Xbox 360 is a hugely powerful system that introduces crisp, clear, high-definition gaming for the first time ever and offers an incredible, fully-featured online service in Xbox Live.

This chapter is worth reading, even if you already have an Xbox 360. But if you can’t wait another second, you can skip to Chapter 2 and connect your Xbox 360 console now. You can read this chapter later.

Parents, Start Here

If your children will play with the Xbox 360 (or any other system), you should know what the console can do. It’s both

A gaming system with games from tranquil to potentially disturbing

A powerful communication device

Children can communicate with strangers on Xbox Live and in the game forums on the Internet. People of all ages and intents frequent the forums. But the Family Settings in Xbox 360 allow you to set a pass code before anyone can use the Xbox Live functions, which means you get to control access and can monitor online use (see Chapter 11 for further instructions on the Family Settings).

There’s a lot to know about Xbox 360 if you’re a parent:

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!