Topic: 120GB HDMI Xbox 360 in April?

[Pugnate]

source

   
Just yesterday our inside source gave us a tip that Microsoft Australia has told a store named Myer to prepare the store for a Black 360 with a 120GB hard drive in April. Well day 2 of product knowledge today (Brisbane, Australia) featured Microsoft themselves and it's now 100% official that the Black 360, (with black controller), 120gb hard drive and HDMI is due out in Australia for $749 AU in April. They will try to push this forward to late March to deter buyers from the March 23 PS3 launch. Hopefully we see this good news sometime in Europe and USA.

[scottws]

Figures now that I just bought my system.

[Pugnate]

Well I've been posting about this for some time, but yea it looks expensive. $750 AUS is about $550 US.

I think they may have the price wrong. Every news outlet has pointed out that this will be the same price as the original and will slowly replace the originals.

Then again if they are releasing it in black, then maybe it will be its own thing and not a replacement.

[scottws]

I saw the previous posts about it, but then I had heard the rumors weren't true so I went out and bought it.

[Pugnate]

Well if it is going to be that expensive, I'd rather just get the normal version. I don't think a bigger hard drive + HDMI is worth the extra money.

[scottws]

Well the bigger hdd maybe.  I'm already down to less than 6.0GB free because of all the demos I downloaded.

HDMI I could do without.  It's really only useful if you get the HD-DVD (or later on Blu Ray, if that wins) drive.  The system looks fine with component cables at 1080i.

[Pugnate]

Can't you open it yourself and add another hard drive on your own? I guess that would void the warranty. My original Xbox I swapped the HD for a bigger on myself.

[scottws]

Do you have to format it first?

[beo]

there's various interface devices so that you can copy the 360's system files across to your computer via usb. the 360 drive connection is non standard, so it's not as easy as on the original xbox, but i'm sure i've heard of it been done. either way, i have little doubt that the 120gb drive will be available separately.

[gpw11]

Yeah, unlike the first xbox, you don't even have to open it up to swap the hdd out, it's easily done with pretty much a push of a button.  The only real benefit here is the larger hdd, and you'll be able to buy it anyways.

[Cobra951]

This may still be just a BS rumor.  I have not seen it confirmed anywhere by anyone credible.  HDMI would be the better way to go, given that not only does it keep the picture in the digital domain until it reaches your eyeballs (assuming you're using a digital display such as LCD) but it also includes digital audio.  I think the reason it wasn't there to begin with is the monumental bullshit that is HDCP.  There are digital pinouts in the X360's AV port already.

And yes, the X360's HDD is really external.  It attaches to the top of the unit with a simple swivel-and-click motion.  It would be a snap (literally) to install a new one.  The real bitch is going to be transferring everything you have in your current drive.  You can't even copy your profile, only move it.  So even if you get the needed hardware and software to make a data transfer possible, you can't simply duplicate everything.

[iPPi]

Still, I would probably get the larger HDD if it were available.  I mean, I have 11GB free on my current HDD on my 360, but that's only because I don't generally download any demos and stuff, but I will be getting some Xbox Live Arcade games so that'll eat up some more space.  And yea, the HDDs are very easy to swap and stuff.

I'm kinda interested in the HDMI thing though.  I got HDMI inputs on my TV that I don't use and would like to use 'em.  But, then again, my TV only supports 1080i, which is already possible through component inputs.  But it'll look better (I think) using HDMI.

[scottws]

Can't imagine how much better it will look.  I think it looks great with the component cable.  Very sharp.

[Cobra951]

Do you get any color bleeding on the dashboard?  The red "A" button (displayed at the bottom) has some ugly bleeding horizontally.  I haven't noticed this in any games, and I don't think it was there when I was using a VGA connection to the Acer 22" monitor.  (Now I'm hooked up to the Samsung 23" TV with component cables.)  I think it has to do with adjacent color fields being the same intensity, or brightness.  Maybe red is a bad boy, as with NTSC?  Don't know that much about it.  I also know (now that I've been reading up on this) that VGA is component plus H Sync and V Sync lines (5 wires total), so it really should be no worse as far as display quality.

Edit:  Oh, and when I was using the Acer, I had one PC connected through DVI-D and the other VGA.  The difference was very noticeable, but then again, the res was a lot higher (1680x1050).  There was some ghosting on the VGA connection, probably due to the switchbox and the high frequencies needed for this res.  Pixels looked sharp, until you switch over to the DVI image.  Those are sharp as tacks with absolutely no spurious crap anywhere.

[Jedi]

HDMI will be needed for HD content that's encrypted as you'll need more bandwidth than what the component cables can give you. or so I've been told from a number of people (and currently there's no encryption).

[Cobra951]

It's worse than that.  The movie people are trying to force all hardware makers to disable HD even on analog connections if the digital signal is encrypted.  I'm not sure where this stands now.  It's been a big fight.  If VGA can handle 1920x1080 resolution, then so can component.  The problem is political, not technical.

[Jedi]

hmm I agree with you, but HDMI carries both audio and visual data all of which is encrypted and its this encryption that blows out the bandwidth. I know the standards for HDMI were up in the air until late last year (which its self is probably politcal) so maybe that's why MS didn't commit to it at release.

[Cobra951]

Right.  When the 360 came out, all of this meneuvering was taking place.  Personally, I say go behind everyone's back and support IEEE ports.  Screw all these control freaks.

Edit:

. . . HDMI carries both audio and visual data all of which is encrypted and its this encryption that blows out the bandwidth.

Uh, OK.  How does that affect analog connections?  It doesn't, unless some bastard decides to nerf them.

[Jedi]

Right.  When the 360 came out, all of this meneuvering was taking place.  Personally, I say go behind everyone's back and support IEEE ports.  Screw all these control freaks.

Edit:
Uh, OK.  How does that affect analog connections?  It doesn't, unless some bastard decides to nerf them.

Not sure other than analog is analog and I think the big push with HD is to be digital from the media to your eye balls - that's the first thing that came to my mind anyway.