XBOX 360

[otispunkmeyer]

well, i have always said that i will buy a PS3 when it arrives, but having seen what it has so far im not impressed with the price, and definately not impressed with the features for the cheaper version

the 360 however seems like a better and better deal each day, and theres some seriously good lookin racing games i wanna try, PGR3, Forza 2, Test Drive unlimited etc

im still iffy about deciding though. at current the 360 has no HDMI out, no wifi, no HD disc drive and a relatively puny 20gb hard drive

is there any info out there pointing to like a refresh product of some sort? will the 360 get an update and sell with wifi, HD-DVD, and HDMI out at a later date?

im telling you, if the 360 had those things i just mentioned i would jump on a 360. and if GT5 is nothing more than GT4 with nice graphics then sony wont be seeing my green.

 

[BlacKJesuS]

.....i have console systems now....although it is advertised....people always want the extra stuff b4 the games :-

 

[Aluvus]

There's already a first-party wireless adapter available, and a HD-DVD drive is expected in the future. I would be very surprised to see the HD-DVD drive integrated in a future version, not least because of the cost issue.

HDMI is a possibility for the future.

 

[TerryMathews]

MS claims that the AV port on the current 360 can support DVI and HDMI - there are certainly enough pins on it.

Personally, I think the 20GB HD is plenty big considering you can't store videos on it. YMMV of course, but it's not like there's a ton of content you can throw on there to start with - just like the 8GB on in the Xbox.

 

[SuperFreaky]

I just saw something today about HDMI support coming shortly

 

[SuperFreaky]

I woudn't be suprised if there wasn't a Plantium version release with a internal HD-DVD drive and 100GB HD around the time of the PS3...

 

[zephyrprime]

I bet there will be improved XBoxes in the future but who knows when? Maybe when the ps3 comes out like SuperFreaky says.

 

[Mavrick007]

I remember hearing about a refresh being done in the spring before the Xbox 360 came out but I haven't heard of it since. I know they wanted to put HD-DVD in but it was too expensive at the time so they are supposedly releasing an external drive. I would expect a new version with a HD-DVD (again depending on price), and other A/V connectors when PS3 comes out.. that would not surprise me in the least.

 

[Fox5]

Look for an xbox 360 refresh in early to mid 2007. At the very least, it will have die shrinks down to 65nm, making the chances of overheating go out the door.

 

[Slicedbread]

Sony is hoping people will buy the PS3 because its familiar, but American consumer loyalty goes out the door when you raise the prices so it will be interesting. $100 gas would draw more people than the "valuable" features Sony has packed into it. Get a 360, most of the games are the same, Forza 2 = GT5, and it supposed to have the lower price with the new core.

 

[GimpyFuzznut]

I'm sure there will be some repackages of Xbox 360 coming down the line but it isn't really worth the wait. I just found a 360 off some guy from Craiglists for $150 CDN (like 135 USD) which was a crazy retarded hot deal. What had happened was MS accidently said him two consoles when he sent one in for repair. Granted, the console didn't come with cables or controllers, but MS sent me a power supply and cable for free and I just bought the HD cables for 20 bucks online.

Anyway, point of the story is - if you are into consoles and like relaxing back on your couch in front of your big ass HDTV, then 360 is definately worth it. There are some great games (racing too) like GRAW and Oblivion on the 360. If you want the console, just try to find a good deal on it and don't worry about future upgrades. Thing with the 360 is that the upgrades down the line will still be available to you.

HD-DVD - they are going to release this as an external device. If they decide to include it with consoles, it will most likely be a holiday bundle type thing but it will still remain external I believe.

HDMI - there hasn't be any official word on this but it will most likely NOT be built into the console. There is only one audio/video plug on the back of the Xbox and it is the same for svideo, rca, VGA, component; they all just have different break out boxes/connectors. So if they include HDMI or DVI later down the line, it will most likely be an external cable/adaptor you buy and just pop into the back of the Xbox. Like someone said, there is enough pins on th cable to support DVI so it is a possibility.

HD - there is a possibility that they may increase the hard drive size so they can expand the Media Center functionality and offer music videos, TV shows, concerts etc on Xbox Live but as it stands, the hard drive isn't really lacking. You actually only get 13-14 GB after you install it because Xbox Live and other things use up that first chunk of space, but you still won't really run out of space unless you are using it for storage. You'll have more than enough spaces for all your saved games - music, you can stream that from your MP3 player or PC anyway - videos, you can download things from Xbox Live but after you watch em, you don't really have to save em and if you want to, you can move it to a PC. Either way, I think the HD, while a bit on the small size, does what it should and offers more than enough space for most things.

WIFI - there's an adaptor for it. It is really expensive though. I believe there are other third party solutions available though.

So as it stands, I think you should make the jump onto a 360 now. Its a great system and with Xbox Live, I think MS is going to make some great improvements down the line. My favorite part of 360 is the always on dashboard system and profile system that transfers to all your games and Xbox Live. Its really awesome.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: GimpyFuzznut
I'm sure there will be some repackages of Xbox 360 coming down the line but it isn't really worth the wait. I just found a 360 off some guy from Craiglists for $150 CDN (like 135 USD) which was a crazy retarded hot deal. What had happened was MS accidently said him two consoles when he sent one in for repair. Granted, the console didn't come with cables or controllers, but MS sent me a power supply and cable for free and I just bought the HD cables for 20 bucks online.

Anyway, point of the story is - if you are into consoles and like relaxing back on your couch in front of your big ass HDTV, then 360 is definately worth it. There are some great games (racing too) like GRAW and Oblivion on the 360. If you want the console, just try to find a good deal on it and don't worry about future upgrades. Thing with the 360 is that the upgrades down the line will still be available to you.

HD-DVD - they are going to release this as an external device. If they decide to include it with consoles, it will most likely be a holiday bundle type thing but it will still remain external I believe.

HDMI - there hasn't be any official word on this but it will most likely NOT be built into the console. There is only one audio/video plug on the back of the Xbox and it is the same for svideo, rca, VGA, component; they all just have different break out boxes/connectors. So if they include HDMI or DVI later down the line, it will most likely be an external cable/adaptor you buy and just pop into the back of the Xbox. Like someone said, there is enough pins on th cable to support DVI so it is a possibility.

HD - there is a possibility that they may increase the hard drive size so they can expand the Media Center functionality and offer music videos, TV shows, concerts etc on Xbox Live but as it stands, the hard drive isn't really lacking. You actually only get 13-14 GB after you install it because Xbox Live and other things use up that first chunk of space, but you still won't really run out of space unless you are using it for storage. You'll have more than enough spaces for all your saved games - music, you can stream that from your MP3 player or PC anyway - videos, you can download things from Xbox Live but after you watch em, you don't really have to save em and if you want to, you can move it to a PC. Either way, I think the HD, while a bit on the small size, does what it should and offers more than enough space for most things.

WIFI - there's an adaptor for it. It is really expensive though. I believe there are other third party solutions available though.

So as it stands, I think you should make the jump onto a 360 now. Its a great system and with Xbox Live, I think MS is going to make some great improvements down the line. My favorite part of 360 is the always on dashboard system and profile system that transfers to all your games and Xbox Live. Its really awesome.

wow, thanks for the clarity :thumbsup:

well im definately thinking about it, jus gotta wait for the council to pay me back the tax im owed. im a big racing game fan, so it'll be primary used for that. PGR3, TD Unlimited and Forza 2 coupled with XBOX live really is a tasty mix, hard to ignore for sure.

PS3 is just not getting me excited at all, the price, the cut backs, the games, the graphics (some of them E3 screeens have some apparent aliasing) i dont know, its just not that impressive all of a sudden. what ive seen of GT5 really didnt impress me at all, and im a massive GT fan. test drive unlimited on the 360 looks the dogs bollocks though, stunning stuff

with the wifi, could i just buy one of those wireless reciever things (do they have them?) like a D-link one that will work with my D-link wifi router? and then it just has a ethernet cable to plug into the 360?

 

[NaOH]

Alright, unless you have an HDTV, the HD-DVD drive and HDMI won't mean jack to you. I bought a 360 at best buy last thursday (ordered extra controller, charger and game on overstock). Safe to say, I love this console. Everything from the dashboard, how easy it is to get online, controller, backwards compatibility, but most of all the fact that I can play everything in HiDef. I don't have any games for it right now but I am occupied just downloading the demos and trailers for FREE. Also, I've been playing halo 2 on it and for some reason I can play online even though I haven't signed up for the Gold membership. I am excited to get 2 more controllers and for my copy of GRAW to come. My friends and I are going to have a blast.

Also, 20gb is way more than enough.

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

Originally posted by: GimpyFuzznut
I'm sure there will be some repackages of Xbox 360 coming down the line but it isn't really worth the wait. I just found a 360 off some guy from Craiglists for $150 CDN (like 135 USD) which was a crazy retarded hot deal. What had happened was MS accidently said him two consoles when he sent one in for repair. Granted, the console didn't come with cables or controllers, but MS sent me a power supply and cable for free and I just bought the HD cables for 20 bucks online.

Anyway, point of the story is - if you are into consoles and like relaxing back on your couch in front of your big ass HDTV, then 360 is definately worth it. There are some great games (racing too) like GRAW and Oblivion on the 360. If you want the console, just try to find a good deal on it and don't worry about future upgrades. Thing with the 360 is that the upgrades down the line will still be available to you.

HD-DVD - they are going to release this as an external device. If they decide to include it with consoles, it will most likely be a holiday bundle type thing but it will still remain external I believe.

HDMI - there hasn't be any official word on this but it will most likely NOT be built into the console. There is only one audio/video plug on the back of the Xbox and it is the same for svideo, rca, VGA, component; they all just have different break out boxes/connectors. So if they include HDMI or DVI later down the line, it will most likely be an external cable/adaptor you buy and just pop into the back of the Xbox. Like someone said, there is enough pins on th cable to support DVI so it is a possibility.

HD - there is a possibility that they may increase the hard drive size so they can expand the Media Center functionality and offer music videos, TV shows, concerts etc on Xbox Live but as it stands, the hard drive isn't really lacking. You actually only get 13-14 GB after you install it because Xbox Live and other things use up that first chunk of space, but you still won't really run out of space unless you are using it for storage. You'll have more than enough spaces for all your saved games - music, you can stream that from your MP3 player or PC anyway - videos, you can download things from Xbox Live but after you watch em, you don't really have to save em and if you want to, you can move it to a PC. Either way, I think the HD, while a bit on the small size, does what it should and offers more than enough space for most things.

WIFI - there's an adaptor for it. It is really expensive though. I believe there are other third party solutions available though.

So as it stands, I think you should make the jump onto a 360 now. Its a great system and with Xbox Live, I think MS is going to make some great improvements down the line. My favorite part of 360 is the always on dashboard system and profile system that transfers to all your games and Xbox Live. Its really awesome.

wow, thanks for the clarity :thumbsup:

well im definately thinking about it, jus gotta wait for the council to pay me back the tax im owed. im a big racing game fan, so it'll be primary used for that. PGR3, TD Unlimited and Forza 2 coupled with XBOX live really is a tasty mix, hard to ignore for sure.

PS3 is just not getting me excited at all, the price, the cut backs, the games, the graphics (some of them E3 screeens have some apparent aliasing) i dont know, its just not that impressive all of a sudden. what ive seen of GT5 really didnt impress me at all, and im a massive GT fan. test drive unlimited on the 360 looks the dogs bollocks though, stunning stuff

with the wifi, could i just buy one of those wireless reciever things (do they have them?) like a D-link one that will work with my D-link wifi router? and then it just has a ethernet cable to plug into the 360?

I think i saw someone buy a wireless adapter for the xbox 360 on ebay for 20 bucks. It was USB (as is the official one).

 

[diablo900t]

I've got a 360 and have been relatively impressed with it since launch (although my first console was defective). The games have improved a lot since those launch titles and are only getting better.

Also, Sony seems to be expecting people to buy PS3 not for games, but for the movies as well, which may justify the price of $599 if BD players are going to launch at $999.

For me, the launch titles, if there are any, aren't as enticing for the PS3's price. Also, if HD-DVD wins the war, then the BD player in the PS3 is just like the UMD format for their PSP...overpriced and obsolete.

 

[GimpyFuzznut]

Check out http://www.play-asia.com if you want to get games once you get your system hooked up. Not ALL games will work on a US/Canadian console but there are some games that they sell which are region free for $39 USD bucks! I got COD2, Quake 4 and Amped 3 last week all for $39 each plus $3 shipping. These games are like $49-59-69 in the store.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: AMDUALY
Alright, unless you have an HDTV, the HD-DVD drive and HDMI won't mean jack to you. I bought a 360 at best buy last thursday (ordered extra controller, charger and game on overstock). Safe to say, I love this console. Everything from the dashboard, how easy it is to get online, controller, backwards compatibility, but most of all the fact that I can play everything in HiDef. I don't have any games for it right now but I am occupied just downloading the demos and trailers for FREE. Also, I've been playing halo 2 on it and for some reason I can play online even though I haven't signed up for the Gold membership. I am excited to get 2 more controllers and for my copy of GRAW to come. My friends and I are going to have a blast.

Also, 20gb is way more than enough.

well i dont have a HDTV no, but there is an adapter that splits out into the 15pin VGA thing, my house mate here has the official xbox one. uses a DVI cable for his computer and hooks the 360 to the VGA input, all hes gotta do is select which input he wants...simple as that. and it looks great.

 

[xit2nowhere]

Guys, can I connect xbox360 to a computer monitor ?
We don't have a tv atm, but my roommie is getting one HUGE tv at the end of June.

Thank you.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: SuperFreaky
I woudn't be suprised if there wasn't a Plantium version release with a internal HD-DVD drive and 100GB HD around the time of the PS3...

naw, waste of money. external package deal maybe. internal no, the drive would have to perform exactly the same as the dvd drive for games right? plus, they wouldn't want to undermine the whole ps3 costing way more thing by coming out with a 500-600 dollar xbox and making the ps3 price seem reasonable at all.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
im still iffy about deciding though. at current the 360 has no HDMI out, no wifi, no HD disc drive and a relatively puny 20gb hard drive

is there any info out there pointing to like a refresh product of some sort? will the 360 get an update and sell with wifi, HD-DVD, and HDMI out at a later date?

im telling you, if the 360 had those things i just mentioned i would jump on a 360. and if GT5 is nothing more than GT4 with nice graphics then sony wont be seeing my green.

First off, there is WIFI. And you're right, there isn't HD-DVD or HDMI atm, but there's no HD-DVDs anyways... and you will be able to buy an add-on if you want to play it from your 360.

As for the 20GB HDD. The best thing about the 360 is how easily it integrates with Media Center. I have a 1.2TB MCE set up in a different room, and i just stream things from the 360. My laptop is running Vista too, and whenever i connect my laptop to my home LAN, it gets picked up automatically by the 360 and i can access the music/videos on my laptop from the 360 as well.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Microsoft themselves have basically said they will make several versions of the 360, and will probably make some ultra set-top box version that might include TiVo.

If they do make a version with an internal HD-DVD drive, expect it to come in a couple of years, if not later. Despite what they say in press releases, they are still waiting to see who wins the format war, and if Blu-Ray wins, they'll probably support it, if things get settled a couple of years before they plan on making a new console.

As of now HDMI is null, and not something you should be worried about. Its nice, but not necessary, and possibly won't be for the entire lifetime of the 360. Now, this might not be true if for some reason the movie studios decide that if Microsoft wants to upconvert DVDs on the 360 that they need something with HDCP compliance. I would say its doubtful, as it sounds like they're not going to require it for even Hi-Def content on HD-DVD/Blu-Ray, in which case it would be just stupid to be making a big deal about it (but we all know how that goes).

I wouldn't be too surprised to see a version with a massive hard drive and an HD-DVD drive intended to compete directly with the high end PS3 around its launch. They could then say they have it covered, they have a version that will do everything the PS3 could (with HD-DVD instead of Blu-Ray), but also have much less expensive versions if you don't want or need the extra stuff.

There's too much information we don't have. None of us can say for sure how the format war is playing out, as its being fought behind closed doors at the moment. We don't know what for sure Microsoft has planned and what timeline they have it planned for.

If you're unsure about things, I would say don't even try to decide until very close to the launch of the PS3 when Microsoft will start to reveal more of its plans as they try to quash the Sony juggernaut. Who knows what we'll see in the couple of weeks leading up to the PS3 launch.

By that time they'll probably start to lower the price on some games, possibly even the system itself, and there will be more games worth playing out for it. And you'll know if the PS3 is going to possibly flop or have anything worthwhile at launch, and we should have a better idea of how the format war is turning out.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: Looney

First off, there is WIFI. And you're right, there isn't HD-DVD or HDMI atm, but there's no HD-DVDs anyways... and you will be able to buy an add-on if you want to play it from your 360.

You're wrong. I can buy 10-20 different titles at my local Wal-Mart, for the same price as a new DVD (if its not on sale or at a reduced price).

 

[Looney]

That's right, forgot it came out about a month ago.