PAL Xbox + LCD Monitor + Xbox Live = Dilemma

[Revolution6000]

I'm in a spot of bother. I'm moving to university next week and my TV is far too big for my new room so I initially planned to get a VGA box for my Xbox and just use my basic capture card for the TV signal on my 17" LG LCD Monitor. But upon further research much to my dismay I discovered that MS disabled HDTV support on PAL Xboxes Why? I don't know... so I can't use the X2VGA or VD-Z3 VGA box I've heard so much good stuff about unless I mod the the Xbox, which I guess I would be willing to do if that didn't render my soon-to-be super fast Xbox live connection absolutely useless as I wouldn't be able to have the Mod chip on while using Xbox Live.

So what is the best alternative or way to get around this dilemma? Are there any good PAL VGA boxes is there a way to turn the chip off and still have HDTV support? Maybe a new TV card that could give me an RGB picture for the Xbox? Or am I wrong can I play PAL Xbox Live games online in Hi-Def mode with a modded Xbox?

Thanks

[Weinberg]

You can play a modded Xbox on Live-just play the Live games from the Microsoft dashboard, and your chip will switch off, or just manually switch the chip off if your modded Xbox uses an older chip. I always am on Live on my modded Xbox with no problems.

So I assume the answer to the dilemma is to get your Xbox modded so you can play in Hi-definition, and just play your live games with the switch off. Unless you HAVE to have the modchip on to play in HD but I doubt it, as US Xbox's obviously do work with HD out of the box.

[JaysonG]

Ah but could he play the play PAL Live games if his Xbox is in NTSC mode?

[edandersen]

Ah but could he play the play PAL Live games if his Xbox is in NTSC mode?

PAL/NTSC and the Game Region are seperate settings. WIN!

[randombs]

yes he can

switching between pal and ntsc just changes the screen mode, not the game region.

just switch to ntsc and turn off the chip. reboot the machine and it'll be in ntsc. when you're done, switch back

i always keep my xbox in ntsc mode even when playing on live and i've had no problems yet.

btw i haven't heard about chips doing anything for HD compatibility other than being able to run the switching program

oh you can also just get yourself a copy of agent under fire (?6 at my local cex. shop around) and then get a ?4.99 memory card from gamestation and do some funky stuff. then you don't even need the chip and your warranty will (probably) remain intact. pm me if you wanna know more. only downside to this is you'd need to run the game every time you wanna switch back and forth, but only a miniscule amount of pal games (such as enter the matrix) will not run in ntsc mode anyway

[randombs]

PAL/NTSC and the Game Region are seperate settings. WIN!

win what?