September 21, 2007 – 11:27 am
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redesigned the Xbox 360 during it’s life cycle to add new hardware features (HDMI ports), but now peripherals might be outdated within 2 years on the same console life cycle?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.
August 27, 2007 – 10:51 am
With my new addition to my gaming stock, I currently have a Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP and a DS now. Each with it’s own pros and cons, and just showing how big of a game junkie I am. What really struck me the other day as I hooked up my new PS3 to the HDMI slot in my TV was the drastic change that gaming has taken in the last few years.
I was now hooking up my systems into a HD television via either component cables or HDMI, which in the past I used to just hook up my NES into Red/Yellow/White inputs, shoot I thought I was cool when I got an AV switcher and could go from my PS1 to my GC or Dreamcast by flicking a button. Now I do this from my television remote and it’s numerous AV inputs in HD.
Not only have the hookups changed drastically, but just the mind frame in general. Gamers are now interested in the FPS (frames per second), HD capabilities, size of HDD and wireless connectivity. Right now I have the Wii, PS3 and my Xbox 360 all running via wireless networks, not to mention my PSP and DS as well.
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August 23, 2007 – 12:01 pm
I recently picked up a PS3 due to the price break, 5 free movies and wanting to see 300 on Blu Ray. I opted for the regular 60 gig version with no frills added and an HDMI cable (not included) over the new 80 gig bundle with Motorstorm for $599. After playing around with it and setting it up I have the following inital impressions:
- This thing is heavy!
- PS3 is whisper quiet, my 360 is ridiculously loud and even my Wii is louder
- The PS3 controller is feather light in comparison to other controllers due to the lack of batteries, this takes some getting used to
- PSN is pretty good and can match or even over take the other two consoles download netwokks, IMO
- HDMI was simple to hook up but expensive
- Downloading demos is awesome, it is interesting that you have to install them once you have downloaded them, which is different than the 360
- Six axis controller recognition works very well
- Resistance Fall of Man looks like a good shooter, very much a cross between COD and Halo
- Online play in Resistance with 32 players was lag free, this was very impressive
- Folding@Home looks interesting and confusing at the same time
- Looking forward to increasing my PS3 library with Stranglehold
August 11, 2007 – 9:51 am
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?
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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.
On the heels of the new Elite 360 comes rumors of the next iteration of MS consoles already. Many are skeptical if the Elite will catch on and wonder when MS will drop their real “Elite” system.
Some speculate that this machine will have functionality to link up your Windows Mobile phone, MS Zune, your laptop and even your existing 360 to a master console at the heart of the network, allowing them to share all their files. Perhaps this magical machine will be the much rumored 720.
The current 360 Elite can’t handle 5.1 – 7.1 channel uncompressed Linear PCM audio, reallistically it can only handle 2 channel. This is REQUIREMENT for all hd-dvd movies, unless you don’t value quality. You need hdmi for linear pcm audio, and not including it in the Elite is a mistake by MS. I believe it’s a hardware issue and the 360 doesn’t have enough audio pipes to handle it, while the ps3 does it out of the box with both games and blu-ray movies. Resistence is true 7.1 channel linear pcm. 360 needs to step up their game and skip this silly Elite system and move on to bigger and better things like the 720!
