Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360’s HD-DVD will be updated sometime in 2008. The news was revealed at Microsoft’s 25th hardware anniversary party in London.
No word on exactly what we can expect from this update, but I’m assuming it will just be a faster drive. If it’s anything else, I think Microsoft will have a lot of angry customers on their hands. Not only have they redesigned the Xbox 360 during it’s life cycle to add new hardware features (HDMI ports), but now peripherals might be outdated within 2 years on the same console life cycle?
Here’s to hoping that’s not the case, but this editor is skeptical.
As you may or may not yet know, the Xbox 360 Premium consoles in the US will all be shipping with an HDMI port soon. So if you don’t want to spend the money on the Elite, you’ll have a chance to get true digital 1080p from the Xbox 360 with the newer Premiums.
The guys over at Joystiq dug a little deeper and found out a very easy way to tell what consoles will have the coveted HDMI port. Just check the side of the box for the “HDMI port” text. Supposedly all consoles manufactured after July 1st will have HDMI.
I’ve been using HDMI out on my Xbox 360 Elite and I have to say it gives a much cleaner and vibrant picture on my HDTV than component. For the record, I have a Samsung 50″ 1080p DLP set.
Joystiq dug a little deeper and found the code name Zephyr on the label, which indicates the new Premiums have the same motherboard and new heat sink as the Elite’s (remember Zephyr is the code-name for the Elite motherboard). This also shows these new Premiums do NOT have the 65nm chips, codenamed Falcon. I guess we’ll have to wait a bit longer for those smaller, cooler chips.
Microsoft announced last night that a limited edition Halo 3 Xbox 360 would be released this September. The new console features an exclusive “Spartan green and gold” finish and comes bundled with a matching Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, 20GB Hard Drive, Headset, Play & Charge Kit, and exclusive Halo 3 Gamer Pics and Theme (available via Xbox Live download).
The funny part is what’s listed further down the description page on xbox.com… an HDMI port is included in the console. Does this mean we’ll start seeing HDMI ports in all 360’s once they switch over to the “falcon” chipset? It would seem plausible, as manufacturing two different motherboards would keep costs higher.
Either way, I doubt too many people will be shelling out more money for another Xbox 360 at this point.
Just in case the Japanese market wasn’t overly saturated enough with Xbox 360’s that no one is buying, Microsoft decided to put even more consoles into the retail pipeline.
Coming October 11th for the cool price of ¥47,800 (which converts to about $390 US, almost $100 less than what we pay in the States), the Xbox 360 Elite will give Japanese gamers the extra hard drive space and HDMI outputs they’ve been waiting for.
Just what the Japanese market needs, even more “choice” with their Xbox 360’s that they don’t want to buy. I think it’s time to invest some hardcore marketing dollars into making the Xbox brand appeal to the Asian marketplace.
There’s a new update available for the HD-DVD addon drive for the Xbox 360 today. Most notably, it improves compatibility with newer titles that are using advanced copy protection schemes, such as Digital Video Essentials, which didn’t play in the 360 drive until today.
You can now also select 2 channel linear PCM as an audio output option if you’re using the Elite. Great, but why give up surround sound for a movie so you can hear crystal clear sound from only 2 speakers?
Hit the jump for more »
So here’s a nice little problem with the transfer process for the 120GB hard drive on the Xbox 360 (thank you to a friend who lent me his transfer cable). While transferring data, if you disconnect anything, the process stops and dumps you back to the dashboard. This includes HDMI handshaking when using the Elite.. So if you change the input on your TV or turn off your TV, the process stops. I found out the hard way after an hour of watching some crap on my DVR.
I guess I’ll have to switch over to component video while I’m transferring the data over, so I don’t have to leave the TV sitting with a nice static image for an hour.
Hey Microsoft… can you please make some of these processes easier?
Even though I said I wasn’t going to, I picked up a Xbox 360 Elite today. The black beast is better than I anticipated.
The first thing I noticed was the Elite is very quiet. Much more so than my older Premium console. This is when idle, playing movies (both standard DVD and HD-DVD), as well as playing games. It’s a treat to not have to hear the fans spinning like crazy. The new Hitachi drive helps too.
The HDMI video connection looks fantastic. There is a noticeable difference in colors and black level on my 50″ Samsung 1080p over component video. Don’t take this to mean the HDMI connection produces a much better picture… it’s a known thing with my model of HDTV that HDMI looks way better than component.
I’m waiting on my transfer cable, so I can’t comment on using the 120GB hard drive yet.
Overall, it’s the best 360 console I’ve had. Is it worth the upgrade for most users? I don’t think so. But if you’re looking to replace a broken console and you don’t have warranty, or you just want to pick up a 360 for the first time, definitely take a look at the Elite.
Yesterday I posted about all the questions I still had about the Xbox 360 Elite. Someone with inside sources at Microsoft from AVS Forum actually got a chance to ask all of those questions.
The 360 Elite will support HDMI 1.2, which means no Dolby Digital+ or TrueHD sound. It will support uncompressed Linear PCM, but only 2 channel. That’s some BS right there. That shoots down my idea of buying one.
Of equal or possibly better news, the Xbox 360 Spring Dashboard Update will see some VGA improvements as well. You’ll now be able to select your video level, 7.5 IRE vs. 0, to get true 1080p from the VGA port. This excites me. No longer will we have washed out colors and such from the 360 with the VGA connection.
Overall, now that these issues have been answered, I am severely unimpressed with the Xbox 360 Elite. I don’t see any point in buying one. I don’t need the 120GB hard drive either, since I’m not storing tons and tons of content.
Read the full post of information…
Hit the jump for more »
So I’m debating getting an Xbox 360 Elite for the HMDI connection for true 1080p, but I still have some unanswered questions…
What HDMI version is the 360 Elite going to use? I would assume it’s v1.3, but you know never know with Microsoft.
Will the 360 Elite be able to send uncompressed Linear PCM audio over HDMI from HD-DVD sources? This is the big question for me. If it can’t do this, I’m not buying one. After hearing LPCM audio from my PS3 on Blu-Ray movies and comparing to Dolby Digital, it’s like night and day. I want my HD-DVD’s to sound like this too.
We’ve contacted Microsoft but have not received any official word either way. Hopefully they’ll come out and answer these questions. I’ve seen hundreds of forum posts, comments on official Microsoft blogs, etc. asking these exact same things. My question is, why no answer? To me, the lack of comment from Microsoft on the issue means the only thing the HDMI adapter is going to give you is a single cable connection for digital audio and video, but no next-gen audio signals.
We’ll see what happens…
Looks like GameDaily Biz was right on the money. Microsoft today announced the Xbox 360 Elite, which will launch April 29 in the US for $479. The 120GB hard drive will retail for $179 and go on sale the same day.
Basically, everything that has been speculation is now true. There will be a 120GB hard drive, HDMI port, black everything, and it will include an HDMI cable. Even those pics of the box and such that people thought were fake turned out to be real.
There’s no official word as of yet on whether the current Core and Premium systems will get HDMI ports in the near future. Also, no official word on the 120GB hard drive including a data transfer cable. Looks like I might have to put my XSATA to work again after all.
[Update] Contacting Microsoft, we found that the data transfer cable will in fact be included with the Elite system and standalone 120GB hard drive.
Recent Comments