*** Official *** XBox 360 Hardware DISCUSSION Thread (1 Viewer)

[Jay Mitchosky]

I just got my 360 today and I agree with Sam. Did a search of this thread and didn't find an answer, but I'm wondering if there is a 3rd party product out there that mimics the original Xbox's connector (ie. allows you to use your own component cables).

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Another accessories question for you all. I notice that there is an IR sensor on the front of the 360. Is that to receive commands from the universal media remote? The reason I ask is that when I want to use the 360 as a DVD transport the controller is rather cumbersome. I would rather program conventional playback and menu commands into my existing system remote (which is RF but has an IR base station, from which I can run another emitter to the front of the 360). I presume that the remote codes can be found online?

 

[Phil Florian]

James T. is right...the games that take advantage of the system like Oblivion and GRAW look freaking amazing. I have a regular ol' Toshiba television and having just upgraded it is very clear that the old Xbox games and the new ones look very different (for the most part). If you weep, it should be for joy. I just got Oblivion with the 360 this past weekend and after a dozen hours on it I still drop jaw over some of the graphics. To me, it is that stunning.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Talking to myself here, but does anyone have the Pronto codes for the universal remote's numeric keypad? All I've found on Remote Central are the transport controls from the "mini-remote" that was (at one time) bundled with the 360. I've also found these (below) that seem to have everything including discrete power but they are in PCF format. I need them in CCF so I can drag into my MX-850 editor but software isn't available to do this directly. Does anyone happen to have a Pronto NG or ProntoNeo and a Pronto TSU 1000/2000 or whatever uses CCF? Idea is to load the PCFs to their appropriate devices from below, then teach to a CCF compatible remote to upload a CCF file. I can't think of any other way.

File #1

File #2

 

[George_W_K]

So, have you guys been downloading the latest additions during this E3 week?

The Lost Planet demo is pretty cool. Graphics are fantastic.

Test Drive was a lot of fun. I liked driving by a bunch of online users and challenging them to races. The in-car view is pretty cool.

I don't know why I like it so much, but I really liked the Halo 3 trailer. I've watched it many dozens of times already. I'm only a casual Halo fan too.

I'm happy to see the Arcade Montage because I really liked the games that are coming. I'll think I'll probably be buying all of the ones in the video.

The 360 Montage was ok, it contained a lot of stuff I've seen on the net already though. And I hope Gears of War's framerate is better than seen at the end of that video. The Gears of War trailer wasn't bad, but I don't think that's actual gamepley. It'd be nice if I were wrong.

Madden 07 looks a lot better to me than the first 360 version. Not hard to do though.

I also downloaded Uno for XBLA. I didn't purchase it yet, but probably soon will. It's only $5. Plus, it compatible with the Xbox camera that's coming in the fall.

I'm happy to hear about the wireless force feedback steering wheel. And the adapter to be able to use the wireless controller on the PC is going to be very nice as well. Finally, I'll have a control for MAME.

Overall, MS has had a way better showing than Sony. But, Nintendo has had at least as good a showing.

I'm still interested in buying the PS3, but I won't be there opening day like I have the past few consoles. I can wait.

The Wii, though, is very tempting.

I wonder what's left for us to finish out the week.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

I downloaded a few things, including Lost Planet. Need to play the other level (just did the one in the blizzard). Also MotoGP '06 and Top Spin 2, both pretty cool. I'll have to try Test Drive.

I really like the Marketplace and ability to download these demos and trailers. What I don't like is the time it takes. The 360 should allow these d/l's to run in the background and let you play a game (or watch other media) at the same time. I could handle having to sacrifice online play during this period, but if it's otherwise local it should be fine. Let us multitask!

 

[George_W_K]

That's supposed to happen eventually, Jay. The latest rumor is sometime in June. I agree that is a much needed feature.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

No s**t! Presumably in the form of an automatic software update through XBL? Very good news. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[London Lawson]

http://xboxmovies.teamxbox.com/xbox-...-E3-2006-Demo/

Watch that live demo of Gears of War and let your doubts be erased. The gameplay graphics look better than MGS4's cg 15 minute movie!

 

[Ken Chui]

No immediate price drop for 360

PC fans may be interested in ATI's upcoming R600; with as many as 64 shader units and DDR4 memory, it will be more powerful than the 360's GPU (article)

 

[George_W_K]

Here ya go, Jay! The update info, should be here next week or the one after.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

George

Thanks for keeping tabs on this. Sounds like a great update! The new features that really caught my eye...

• Background downloader manager allows up to six simultaneous downloads while freeing up the rest of the console's operations, and will pause and automatically restart if you take a game online. Slick.
• Addition of fast forward and rewind controls when playing back trailers instead of just play/pause. Nice.
• DVD bookmarking that remembers place even after removing disc. I don't use the 360 much for DVD playback but still a handy feature.
• Compatibility with wireless USB keyboards for text entry. No details how this would be rolled out. Bluetooth with the little USB key that could be connected to the rear USB slot? If so that would be suh-weet as I happen to have a spare Microsoft USB keyboard with the USB key (incredibly I found a deal on a mouse/keyboard bundle that was cheaper than the BT mouse alone, which is all I actually needed). Don't know how drivers would install though or if this is for a dedicated 360 keyboard peripheral only.
• Boot to dashboard - I like this idea vs. booting to what's in the drive.

Everyone's thoughts? Seems like a good upgrade.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

FYI the upgrade is now available through Live.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Can anyone think of a good reason why they wouldn't have been able to include DVD upscaling in the 360? Progressive is nice, but if I could get away with not having to buy a dedicated HDDVD or upscaling DVD player to get 1080i from my 480p dvds then all the better.

 

[NickSo]

The MPAA, since the X360 does not have (that I know of) any encrypted digital method for video transfer. HD from the X360 (that is, until the supposed HDMI cable comes out) is only passed via analog Component or VGA.

 

[Chris Bardon]

What HDMI cable? All of the press material out of E3 said that the HDDVD addon would support 1080i over component only, which would be suicide if HDCP were really around the corner. If they can do this, then why not upscale?

 

[NickSo]

Note that I said "supposed" HDMI cable. Lik-sang.com has this on their website:

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?cat...ducts_id=8540&

Which says it is from Microsoft. No word of anything official from Microsoft regarding HDMI (that I have read).

They can't legally upscale DVD to HD for the same reason most upconverting DVD players nowadays cannot upscale via component without unofficial "hacks" (and why DVD players that DID upscale via component, like the LG DV7832NXC and its Zenith US counterpart, had their firmware revised to DISABLE this feature).

 

[Rodney K]

I don't know what this article is worth as far as it being factual, but, here's something on the subject of the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on and HDMI.

http://editorials.teamxbox.com/xbox/...-HDMI-Pact/p1/

 

[orestes]

A few days ago, I bought an Xbox 360; however, when playing DOA 3 at 1080i, I get a band of wave lines at the top of the screen. I only notice this problem when I play the game; however, it does have the same problem when I navigate thru the xbox menus. BTW, I did set xbox 360 to output 1080i thru the system menu. Thus, I settled for 480p. My HDTV is a toshiba tw40x81 unit, and it supports 480p, 480i, and 1080i.

I had similar problem at the star of my getting Comcast HD broadcast. A tech person came, and fixed it, but he never explained what he did. I did check the Comcast motorola box set yesterday, and found out that it is also set for 480p.

Now I wonder if my TV has a problem with 1080i.

Regards,
orestes

 

[Chris Bardon]

Not a bad article-that's pretty much what I've been reading for the past little while on the HDDVD front.

I suppose we'll have to wait and see what happens this fall.