New to Xbox, need pointers plz

[SmashinGit]

You may need to instal xbox media center to be able to play music cd's.

[Mr_Biggs]

well, it runs my commercial CDs, but none of my homeburnt CDs.

[BrooksyX]

Most xboxs dont read burnt cd-r discs but can read burnt cd-rws. Plus I would forget chipping your xbox, softmodding is the way to go. As long as you backup your eeprom and msdash there is no way you can f up your xbox. If you do f up it you can always build a new hdd image (is illegal to host the files though, so it could be a little hard.) Plus with softmodding it is easier to upgrade your hdd because their is a tool called xboxhdm_v1.9 that makes an image of your xbox hdd then lets you burn the image to the new hdd. Then all you have to do is switch the hdds.

As for dashboards I would suggest UnleashX or XBMC (Xbox Media Center).

[Mr_Biggs]

well... i wanna save money, but i want that sweet replacment front panel by Xecuter with the LCD screen too... Hmmm.... Looks, or money?

[Mr_Biggs]

ok, ive decided to softmod my xbox. my neighbor has a copy of splinter cell, and i plan to make a usb adapter so i can hook in my camera, which has a SD card reader built in. now i just need to work through all the crap to get a gamesave exploit.