From perfect pictures to pimped controllers, it doesn't take long to customize your Xbox 360 experience. Give us 20 minutes for each of the following projects, and we'll show you how.

How to Take Decent Pictures Using the Xbox Live Vision Camera

How do you make a 1.3-megapixel digital camera take dark, blotchy, crappy photos? Simply put it in the hands of an Xbox 360 gamer. Taking a crisp, clear picture using the Xbox Live Vision camera isn’t as hard as it seems: a little prep work can improve your Gamer Picture dramatically. And if these tips still don’t do the trick, there’s always plastic surgery.

1. Connect the Vision camera to one of your 360’s USB ports. You don’t need to turn off the console, as it’ll detect the camera immediately.

2. Head over to the System blade and select “Xbox Live Vision” from the menu. You should see a live feed from the camera almost immediately.

3. Put a placeholder object wherever you usually sit while playing, and adjust the focus ring until things sharpen up.

4. On the menu, you’ll see a couple of adjustable settings: Room and Lighting. Room usually works just fine when left on “Auto (Default),” unless you have a particularly light or dark wall behind you, in which case, hey, you have Light and Dark options right there. Put ’em to work!

5. Though the image might look passable with Lighting set to “Auto (Default),” you can usually get better results by selecting the type of light filling the room. Having a white surface in the frame to refer to is handy, as it’ll help you detect tinting. If you have tons of windows, select “Daylight." If that setting gives you an orange tint and you have the place lit up with standard bulbs, go with “Incandescent.” (Or, if the image seems a bit too green or blue, simply try “Fluorescent.”)

General Tips

• Don’t overuse the Xbox 360’s digital-zoom feature. It’s convenient, but it makes the image awfully grainy. For a cleaner, smoother result, whenever possible, get physically closer to the lens instead of zooming.

• Reflective materials can make it easy to ruin a potential icon with bright specular highlights from the television and room lighting, and they may even reflect the camera’s green ring back at it.

Tilt the object so that this light is cast above or below the lens rather than into it. The perspective distortion shouldn’t be noticeable because your final image will be quite small.

• Avoid backlighting, as it results in murky photos that lack detail. And nobody wants that. Setting up your first HDTV system can be an annoyance; even a pain. But in the end, your efforts will be well-rewarded with the personal satisfaction only hardship (and high-def cables) can bring.

— Cameron Lewis

How to Change the Face of Your Controller

Hey, Hacker!
Microsoft doesn’t make controller faceplates, so anything you buy to alter your gamepad will be an unlicensed third-party accessory. It might not fit; it might break; it might not work at all. (In fact, our controller didn’t feel as good as it did with the original faceplate: the D-pad was a bit loose.) If you have any doubts about your hacking skills, don’t do this project. If things go poorly, you’re not getting a new controller from Microsoft or OXM.

Faceplates on consoles? Sure — but that’s designed to be something you change on a whim. Your controller, unfortunately, isn’t so easily altered, but don’t let that stop you. Look around online and you’ll find new faceplates for your controllers. Armed with a little patience, a clean work surface, and a few precision screwdrivers, you can install that sucker yourself and never have to ask “Which controller is mine?” again.

1. We bought an Evolve 360 chrome plastic controller plate, made by Talismoon.com. It came with the tiny tools we needed, but if yours doesn’t, you’ll need to pick up a very small #00 Phillips-head screwdriver and a Torx T8 security screwdriver from the local hardware store. Ask for “micro” or “precision” screwdrivers.

2. If you’re working on a wireless controller, remove the battery pack. The rear of the controller shows six screwholes, but there’s actually a seventh hidden behind the serial-number sticker, which you’ll have to break through. That means if you go any further, you are voiding your controller’s warranty. This experiment has no guarantees and might not work even if you follow the directions correctly. You’ve been warned! Fashion comes at a price.

3. Using the T8 screwdriver, remove the seven screws. Turn the controller over and get your fingernails into the groove around the controller’s outer edge. Carefully lift it straight up. At this point, expect parts to start falling out — all the buttons are now loose, as are the shoulder buttons, the digital D-pad, and two pieces of rubber that go along with them. Don’t lose anything or you’re hosed.

4. The D-pad is held in place with two tiny Phillips-head screws. Be very careful not to strip these screws when you remove them. The teeny screwdriver Talismoon provided started to do exactly that, so we used a Wiha 261/PH precision screwdriver with a #00 tip that worked perfectly. You can use the same screwdriver to gently pry the tab inside the D-pad; it should now separate with ease.

5. The faceplate’s documentation was labeled “Disassembly Instructions.” Figuring out how to put it back together is apparently up to you! Just do everything in reverse, of course. Reassemble and screw in the analog D-pad first, and then set the new faceplate face-down on your work surface and load the buttons into it. Luckily, they’re all “keyed,” so the Y button fits only into the top button slot and so forth. Don’t forget the bar with the bumper buttons. Lay the rubber pads in place behind the buttons precisely and carefully; make sure you slide the little tab on the D-pad’s backing onto the small shaft at the lower right. If the rubber isn’t exactly aligned, your buttons won’t work properly.

6. Take the rear half of the controller and slide the two rumble motors into the new faceplate’s grooves. Guide the analog sticks through the holes and squeeze the shell together.

7. Install the Torx screws and tighten the shell. If you did everything right, your controller should be ready to power up and test out.

— Dan Amrich

How to Create Your Own Dashboard Theme

If you’re sick to death of looking at the default interface on your Xbox 360, you can jazz it up by purchasing one of the bazillion themes available on Xbox Live Marketplace — or you can whip up one yourself.

1. The first thing you’ll need is a suitable picture. The system will resize any image you give it, but your best bet is to avoid distortion and start with a 1172 x 720 JPEG. If you can view it on the 360, you can make it your blade background, whether it’s on a digital camera, CD-R, portable USB drive, or your PC (accessed through a file-sharing connection). For this example, we’ll use the JPEG of the purple flower that comes with Windows XP as a desktop wallpaper.

2. Go to the Media blade, select “Pictures,” and press the A button. Select the device where your chosen photo is located and navigate the folders until you find where you put it.

3. Highlight the picture you want from the available selections, and then press the X button to “apply as background,” as indicated in the lower left of the screen. Select “Yes, use this picture” when asked if you really want to do this, and press the A button. Ding! Your selected picture is immediately applied.

4. Now for the guide background, the interface that slides open whenever you hit the guide button. Press the guide button on your controller, select “Personal Settings,” and choose “Themes."

5. Notice that the name of the picture you selected for your blade background is now listed as a theme name. Keep in mind that selecting it in the future will reset the guide background and dashboard settings you’re about to change back to their defaults. Select “Customize,” then “Guide Background.”

6. From here you can select any texture from any theme in your collection, including those downloaded as part of purchased packs. If you want a College Hoops 2K7 hardwood floor to go with photos of your new house, feel free.

If you’re not into textures, create your own custom color using red/green/blue color sliders, which will then be made part of a simple gradient.

7. Press the B button to back out to the customization menu. Select “Dashboard Trim” and press the A button. You’ve got a whopping three selections to choose from — Default, Carbon, or Glass — and you’ll have to close the guide pop-up window to really see the difference each makes.

8. If you’ve got a Live Vision camera, you’ll see an additional option in the Customize menu: “Camera Effect." (If you don’t, skip to the next step.) You’ll see three options, each of which overlays a live feed from your camera onto your blade background. The results can vary wildly, but they’re fun to play with. Pick one that strikes your fancy, or turn it off completely.

9. Voilà! Customization complete. With any luck, one day Microsoft will give us more dashboard trim styles to play with, or at least grant us the ability to specify different backgrounds for each blade. Until then, at least you’re not stuck with the same-old same-old.

— Cameron Lewis

How to Set Up Your HDTV for Maximum 360-ness

Setting up your first HDTV system can be an annoyance; even a pain. But in the end, your efforts will be well-rewarded with the personal satisfaction only hardship (and high-def cables) can bring.

1. Match the curtain with the drapes: Your TV’s native settings should be reflected in your 360’s Console Settings (on the System blade). If your TV is widescreen, as most HDTVs are, make sure your Xbox knows.

2. Check the cables. It goes without saying, HD requires at least component cables, but if your TV supports it, consider a VGA connection instead. Whether you’ll see a substantial difference depends on your set, but it’s the only way you’ll be able to achieve a true 1080p resolution with your HD DVD add-on. Also, if you’re used to the look of computer monitors, the VGA’s crispness may look more “right” than component cables.

3. Now check your TV. While an HDTV manual might say the device works with a particular format — say, 1080i — your TV’s resolution is the truest indicator of its preferred mode. If your TV’s native resolution is 1280 x 720, then the native format for your TV is actually 720p and it’ll run best in that mode. Selecting 1080i will actually force your TV to downsample the (debatably) higher-quality input, which might give you a worse picture than the “lower” format.

4. Feeling the delay? Some HDTVs have built in image-enhancing software that actually causes a delay between your input and what appears on the screen. Disable all the imageenhancing functions on your TV, or check to see if your television has a “game mode” to combat this specific pesky issue. And hey, here’s another good reason to try switching to a VGA connection if you can, as this lag doesn’t affect the computer-like VGA signal.

5. Play around! With so many sets and configurations on the market, getting the perfect picture is often a matter of trialand- error, and you’re not going to do anything to damage your set by constantly fiddling with its zillions of tweakable options — inevitably, there’s a “default” setting, so you can always undo whatever you’ve done. Calibration DVDs like Digital Video Essentials can help advise you on the “proper” settings for brightness and contrast, but don’t assume that everyone has the perfect answer for your personal setup. Tinker away, then go chainsaw your buddies.

— David Murphy