Yes, but the Xbox harddrive is only 8GB, and you can only save about 4GB worth of data to the harddrive, so it's not THAT useful. Some people do a mod to the Xbox to swap in a larger harddrive, up to 320GBs.

Yes. The XNA Framework runtime environment for Xbox 360 requires that a physical hard drive be present on your Xbox 360 retail console.

Yes and you'll have full menu support too. Just rip the DVD movie to your hard drive using DVD Decryptor, then ftp the ISO file to your f:\video or g:\video directory on your Xbox. Once copied over, just play it with XBMC. Or just use the dvd2xbox application on your Xbox and make sure you're ripping in ISO mode. "ISO mode" is for movies and "normal mode" is for games.

The install guide suggests that if I still want to play games, I should install linux with dual boot functionality. My understanding of this is that I would then be booting linux from an xbox dash (Avalaunch in my case). If this is the case would I be still be able to play backed-up games through avalaunch? I would have though this to be an obvious yes, but the FAQ says the following:

Your Vista Media Center should now have an entry for DVD Library on the main screen. Right-click on it to add DVD movies from your hard drive.

To upgrade your hard drive you will need a xbox mod chip installed and a copy of the EvoX cd or dvd. It has an hard drive rebuild option for upgraded large hard drives. When its has finished installing reboot and that all you need to do.

In a word, NO. The xbox has 4 x 16MB chips by default (64MB) they all share address pins i.e pin 1 on 1 chip is electrically the same point as pin 1 on the other 3 chips. The xbox has 4 positions and ONLY 4 positions free in which you can install extra memory chips. There are 2 free positions on the top side of the motherboard and 2 free on the underneath side.

Almost all movies are encrypted with CSS copy protection. (See 1.11). Decryption keys are stored in a normally inaccessible area of the disc. If you copy the contents of an encrypted DVD to a hard drive, the keys will not be copied. If you try to play the VOB files, the decoder will request the keys from the DVD-ROM drive and will fail. You may get the message "Cannot play copy protected files". DVD production has two basic phases: development and replication.

No. You don't need to. The Xbox hard drive has separate partitions for cache, music etc & there is no need to defragment the drive ever, period.

Just like in the previous generation, utilisation of things like Xbox Live and the Hard Drive will be up to the game designers, game developers have also been informed that some scenarios will include a disconnected hard drive.

If Linux is already installed, you'll have to attach one of the hard drives to the DVD drive cable and basically perform a regular Linux hard drive upgrade. See the HOWTO's for more info. If you have not installed Linux yet, you'll have to consider why you need that software - you will not be able to run XBox games with an upgraded hard drive, so you're probably better off doing a hardware mod and installing Linux on the new hard drive while it's still empty. Under the right circumstances, yes.

In a special chat held after the Xbox 360 price announcement, J Allard said: We think game designers have all kinds of innovative ideas that the hard drive will be used for. Use of the hard drive is not limited to game scenarios. Like Xbox 1 you will be able to do things like rip and store music and don't forget about live scenarios and all the downloadable content.

Added Gone With the Wind and Riverdance: Live in New York to "flipper" list. (1.21) Thanks Ed and Rick.

The full path can be found on the bottom of the main screen of the program. If you used the default settings, the file is stored in [your selected- drive]/customshorts/customshortmaker/CSUser. For example, if you installed the program on you C: drive, and didnt change the defaults, they will be located at C:\\customshorts\\customshortmaker\\CSUser. You can open this directory by clicking "Show me my completed movies" on the main screen of the program.

yes; if you have softmodde you xbox with e.g. unleashx you can go into the system settings an scroll right down and it sayes "copy games to hdd"

Yes, but only video downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace or preloaded on the Xbox, not your own videos.

Yes. Game designers will have all kinds of innovative ideas that the hard drive will be used for. Use of the hard drive is not just limited to game scenarios. Like the original Xbox you will be able to do things like rip and store music, plus Xbox Live scenarios and downloadable content.

Yes. The Xbox has a built-in 8GB HDD that can be used for but not limited to storing game demos, ripped CD's, extra characters/maps/weapons in games. The hard drive is not be used as the installation destination of a game, like it is on the PC, rather it is used as a "scratch pad" to avoid DVD seek delays.