Today Microsoft released a major update to the X-Box 360 dashboard as well as Windows Media Player 11. In concert, these upgrades allow you to stream video to your X-Box 360 from your PC, flash drive, CD/DVD, or soon-to-be Zune! The 360 dashboard upgrade is rather exhaustive, but the video sharing features are the most compelling.

The 3DO, and the CD-i before it dreamt of transcending label of “game console” and providing multimedia entertainment beyond the traditional video game. Enter 2006, and Microsoft is among the companies best poised to finally package gaming, video, music, and communication in a convenient set-top package. Microsoft’s in-house audio/video formats and DRM standards will become more formidable when joined with partnerships, the 360, and the Zune.

Windows Media Center edition was previously necessary to stream video to the 360, but the new dashboard and the sharing features of Windows Media Player 11 obviate the need for MCE. Now WMP11 can stream Microsoft’s video formats as old as WMV7 and as new as VC-1. Just go to the Media tab in the dashboard to browse videos a flat list of videos on your computer. This would quickly become unwieldy with enough videos, but it’s functional. Strike two is that non-Microsoft formats are not supported, but it’s easy enough to convert to WMV9 using Windows Media Encoder.

My first attempt at a WMV9 720p conversion worked flawlessly. For another WMV quick fix, I tried some content from Microsoft’s old WMV HD Content Showcase, and a couple of trailers from gametrailers.com — aside from occasional studders, all of the content I tried worked flawlessly. On a side-note, I’m curious if the short-lived WMV HD DVD “standard” will work on the 360.

Microsoft’s media arsenal offers a potential alternative to the next-generation DVD formats. While HD-DVD and Blu-Ray basically upgrade the existing DVD sales/rental model, Microsoft’s hardware/software is a candidate for a successful next-generation approach that is more portable, and more convenient for both content consumers and providers.

Console gamers like myself are largely insulated from problems that plague PC gamers. Just insert game, press power, and play. No specifications or tweaking to worry about, no drivers to upgrade, no crashing… Here, let me turn on the X-Box 360 and show you. Wait, what?! No, Dead Rising is not supposed to look like colorful HD noise! I’m sure it’s a fluke, I’ll just reset… Uh oh…… the pretty green lights around the power button have turned red and the 360 refuses to boot!

The above tale paraphrases my X-Box 360 experience this weekend. Apparently I am not alone — m0thman’s tale is just as woeful. Kotaku documented his tragedy in an operatic video. The8thsign needed three X-Box 360’s to get one that worked. Not only does Microsoft have a Knowledge Base article on the red “Ring of Light”, but they even offer free repairs on 360’s manufactured in 2005 if you call 1-800-4MY-XBOX. Mine happened to be manufactured in February 2006, and would have thus required a $140 repair fee.

Update 2006-10-19: My 360 died again, after the below fix afforded me 24+ hours of error-free operation. No Red Ring of Death, but it reverted back to the random crashing. Others have reported continued success with this technique and, despite my results, I feel the theory is sound. Something related to the problem obviously changed. I decided to cut my losses and get a new 360.

Not anxious to drop another $140 or potentially wait several weeks for a refurb system, I proceeded to search for a solution. I followed a technique found on xbox-scene.com to determine my error code (0102, “unknown error”). Then I came across the below video entitled “Hot Air Gun Fix – XBox360″:

Intrigued by the video, I looked for more info on this “Team MODFREAKz” person, and found the original xboxhacker.net forum post detailing the hot air gun theory, which was basically arrived at as follows: MODFREAKz realized that his freezing 360 would function after several reboots. He surmised that the eventual success might be attributable heat expanding solder joints and improving connectivity. Specifically, the solder joints that connect the RAM and graphics chips to the motherboard. These devices use Ball Grid Array packaging (wiki). Rather than traditional pins and holes, BGA packages use tiny solder balls. During manufacture, BGA chips are attached with intense heat, so the hot air gun fix is a sound theory.

So I purchased a hot air gun, and proceeded with informit’s fairly comprehensive disassembly instructions. Despite the thorough instructions, dismantling the 360 was a hassle at times. I found it easier to remove the front cover by pulling from inside the USB flip-cover rather than the memory card flip-covers. The heat sink retention mechanism was particularly difficult to remove and reattach, but force and patience prevailed. I set the temp. on 750F, followed the video, and crossed my fingers while it cooled off. Since I had the thing open, I applied Arctic Silver to the GPU and the CPU.

When I reassembled the 360, I was first impressed that it still worked after my battle with the heat sinks, then I was pleased to see Dead Rising again, sans glitchy video. Several hours of running the title screen and intro suggest that my 360 is healed. One could argue that the new heat sink compound (e.g. arstechnica), or even the jostling during disassembly is responsible for the fix. In any event, I’m happy with the result, and will live happily ever after with my X-Box, and my new heat gun and Torx T8 screwdriver.