Where can I buy a US Xbox online?

[Lyris]

As the thread title asks really... need a US one for reasons regarding Xbox Live.
Does anyone know of a site that'll ship over here?

[anephric]

It'll cost a bomb shipping and duty wise... even buying a US 'Box from CEX or suchlike will prolly be cheaper (plus you can return to vendor if it's borked). I think CEX still stock them...

[Lyris]

CEX's site is only listing second hand stuff. I know it'll cost a lot of money but I don't seem to have any other choice...

Is there no way at all I can get a UK version and somehow convert it so that it's a US one, in every single way (bar the power supply?)

stick in non-solder mod chip, run Video Selctor to change video mode to NTSC and take the chip out. Now you have PAL Xbox with all the NTSC HDTV feature (480p/720p/1080i) outputting in NTSC signal...

(From older thread)
Would that work? I don't care about playing PAL games at all - I just want an Xbox I can play my US titles on, and not get thrown off of Xbox live using.

I hear there is some sort of Region Selector disc? Can I use that and a Euro Xbox will instantly be identical to a US one in the eyes of Xbox Live?

[anephric]

EDIT: Aha. You've answered.

No: if you did the above it doesn't flash the Xbox bios. You've just enabled the NTSC elements of your dashboard, hence Hi-def outputs. You wouldn't be able to run US/J games, just output PAL ones in 480p etc and go on Xbox Live with progressive enabled.

[Lyris]

delete

[anephric]

Just buy a 2nd-hand US machine, Lyris. Why do you need a new 'un?

[anephric]

boing!

[Lyris]

Hmm might end up doing that... but I'm looking into having a friend in Canada send one over.

According to a friend, the rough dimensions of the Xbox packaging are 6x15x15.5 inches... and it weighs about 9lbs apparently? (Sorry for the old fashioned measurements...) Meaning it will only be about 99 pounds for the Xbox (including Canadian sales tax) and about 21 pounds shipping according to Canada Post. Then add some more for Import Tax. So I think my crazy import plan is worth it so I get a nice new one. I'll let you all know how this goes.

[Hammie]

you can modify a uk xbox to behave exactly like a us xbox, the eeprom in the xbox stores 2 region info items

one is video region, this is used to change the xbox video output

the other is xbe region, change this to specify which region discs to run

change both of them to the US values and you have a US xbox, most people tend to only change the video region to enable hi-def but both can be changed

i have an ntsc copy of ninja gaiden and i did exactly this to download the xbox live content, changed it all back afterwards without problems


as for actually changing it without chipping your xbox, it can be done but you'll need a memory card and a way to get some files onto it and a copy of either splinter cell (non classics), mechassault or agent under fire

it's a pain to do but less so tha importing an xbox

[Lyris]

Excellent news, thanks a lot for that!

So, my plan is to buy an Xbox with the Executor 2.6ce already fitted.
All I have to do after that is get ahold of both of those two programs (where from?) and I'll essentially have an Xbox that thinks it was bought across the Atlantic - sounds great

[Lyris]

Another question

There's an Xbox on eBay that's been modified without a chip. The case has never been opened... soft-mod.

The seller tells me that the console is multi-region, and I won't be able to use it on Xbox Live - is that true?

[Lyris]

Wellp, the dirty deed is done, bought this sucker:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8187706191

Thanks once again for all the advice.

[Hammie]

a softmodded xbox is totally incompatible with live

a chipped xbox is compatible with live, you just have to be a little careful and obviously make sure you have the chip turned off (although if it has a recent bios it will prevent live access when the chip is on anyway)

while your waiting for it to arrive, do some reading on the xbox-scene forums, lots of good info there

it's worth noting that xbox live does 2 checks when you sign in, first it checks for any modified bios (which it won't find if your modchip is off). Secondly it checks that your xbox serial number and hard drive serial number match with the numbers it records the first time you sign in, any discrepencies and it bans your xbox

therefore if you plan on upgrading the xbox hard drive, make sure it's the first thing you do, once you've been on live even once, if you change the hard drive you get banned, just something to think about as a large hard drive is a nice thing to have on a chipped xbox

as far as changing the region to US, you will want a program called config magic final, using that you can quickly edit the regions, you just need to do it once and your set, pretty sure there's tutorials for it on xbox-scene

[Salsa Party Animal]

Don't forget you need a powerful step down transformer if you used an american xbox. the normal one you can use on DC or Gamecube or whatever wouldn't be stronger enough.