MakeMHz just discounted its XboxHD+ and Stellar Plus mods

MakeMHz has launched a summer sale on its lineup of original Xbox hardware modifications, including the Project Stellar Plus and XboxHD+ kits.

I will say this right up front: if you love the original Xbox, now is the perfect time to mod yours. The discounts are currently live on the MakeMHz store. These are the steepest price cuts the company has offered on its flagship boards.

Digital video without the lag

The XboxHD+ is the standout item here. It is a digital-to-digital HDMI modification. Instead of taking the analog video output and converting it to digital, this board pulls video directly from the GPU's pixel data bus.

This matters because the original Xbox was uniquely capable of 480p and even 720p output back when most consoles were stuck at 480i. Analog component cables used to be the gold standard for getting that progressive scan image. Today, modern televisions handle analog signals poorly, often adding frames of latency and muddying the picture. The XboxHD+ bypasses the console's analog video encoder entirely. The result is a clean, pixel-perfect image on modern displays. It also handles surround-sound digital audio pass-through.

The standalone XboxHD+ and Stellar Plus bundle is currently on sale. MakeMHz warns that inventory is extremely low.

Bluetooth and automatic port mapping

The Project Stellar Plus board is also on sale at a 20 percent discount. This is a complete replacement for older modchips. It runs MakeMHz's custom StellarOS firmware.

The "Plus" revision integrates BlueRetro hardware directly onto the board. Original Xbox controllers are over two decades old. They frequently suffer from cable rot and drifting thumbsticks. Finding pristine OEM replacements is expensive. The onboard BlueRetro support lets you sync modern Bluetooth gamepads to the console without plugging external dongles into the front ports. You can use an Xbox Series controller, a DualSense, or a Switch Pro controller. The board handles automatic controller port mapping so the console thinks a standard wired pad is connected. It also includes Wi-Fi for over-the-air firmware updates.

Solderless RGB and USB adapters

If you want to customize the console shell, the Stellar RGB kits are also on sale. These are solderless boards that add customizable lighting to the controller ports and front panel.

Standard Xbox USB adapters are also on sale. The original Xbox controller ports are essentially modified USB connections. These adapters let you plug in standard flash drives. In the early days of Xbox modding, people spliced USB cables to load exploited save files for games like Splinter Cell or MechAssault. Today, a clean USB adapter is just a convenient way to move files around.

The original Xbox has seen a massive resurgence in the modding scene over the last few years. MakeMHz produces some of the most technically impressive hardware for the system. They have, however, drawn criticism from the wider homebrew community over closed-source software practices and DMCA disputes. Regardless of the community politics, their boards solve the biggest headaches of keeping a 2001 console running on a 2026 television.