Just read this over at xbox scene. They have managed to hack the firmware on the xbox dvd drive so that it will boot copies without a chip or softmod. The really interesting thing is that the drives are very similar to the 360. Could be a way forward.
Anyone in the know, would this allow you to play copies on live?
Xbox DVD Firmware Hacked
>> From TheSpecialist on xboxhacker.net:
Yes! I've just played a backup DVD on a XBOX 1 without any modchip/softmod, just a hacked firmware :-) This completes our work on the XBOX 1. The drive I modded was a 8050L. The good news is that the firmware in this drive is very similar to the firmware in the GDR3120, used in the XBOX 360. I think it's time for me to buy one now :-)
Thanks to all the contributors in the firmware hack1ng thread!
This hacked firmware will fake the disc detection (will trick drive to detect disc as DVDXBOX media), the xbe must still be signed though (for DVDXBOX media), so this hack will not allow to run homebrew/linux stuff, atleast not directly (if there are possible font or other exploits in retail games, this could be used as alternative to gamesave exploits to install a dashboard exploit for example).
The finished hacked firmware (for the H-L 8050L drive) should be able to boot any MS-signed xbox executables (xbe) with DVDXBOX mediaflag and with correct regionflag (in case it's region locked) from any recordable media.
The 8050L is the Hitachi-LG DVD drive found in newer Xboxes