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Microsoft Xbox 360

My original core 360 (which I sold to my old housemate) died recently with 3 red lights...

Also during the PGR4 Demo using my Elite I had a 3 red light experience! when the machine dimmed the screen for the usual screen saver 3 red lights on the machine! Restarted and played for hours on end with no problems. Jees this machine is seriously worrying me now!
 
I've just been and spent £20 on a decent Argos HDMI cable for this new 360, and I'm gutted. The quality (on 720p OR 1080i) is nowhere near, NOWHERE NEAR as good as the VGA cable on 1380x768.

It's exactly the same as a component cable, the fonts are blurry and there's jaggies everywhere. Really disappointed.

Is it worth me buying an official 360 HDMI cable or are they all the same?
 
Japan
Xbox 360 Elite Selling Out (At Multiple Stores!)

Last Friday, the Xbox 360 Elite went on sale in Japan. By the end of the day, the black HDMI console with a 120GB HD sold out at several major Akihabara retailers.
AsoBitCity, Gamers, Messe Sanoh and Sofmap sold through all their Elites on launch day. When the Xbox 360 originally went on sale in Japan, it bombed. No, it worse than bombed.
The 360 launch was a miserable failure, and Microsoft has been playing catch-up ever since. These Elite sell outs do come as a surprise.
Are things beginning to turn around? Maybe, just maybe.
 
Xbox 360 Arcade unboxed (and still unannounced)
engadget-xbox-360-arcade-unboxed.jpg

Over the weekend, we got about a dozen tips sent into our graciously accomodating tips box with info on xbox 360 Arcade console spottings. A couple of you even sent in pics (thanks, guys!). Next door ar Engadget, a tipster snatched up one of the yet-to-be-announced (but expected to be released on Oct. 23) consoles and snapped pics of the contents. What's notable: a 256MB Memory Unit, a wireless controller, HDMI port, and a disc that includes five Xbox Live Arcade trial games: Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Pac-Man Championship, and Uno.

What's not included: An Xbox Live headset, an ethernet cable, an HDMI cable, high-def component cables (the Arcade is composite only we're afraid) ... oh, and the full version of the above listed trial games. Though Amazon listed a $279.99 price point, the tipster reports a price more like $299. Now all we need is a press release acknowledging this thing exists so we can double check that price.
 
embraceuk1 said:
Japan
Xbox 360 Elite Selling Out (At Multiple Stores!)

Last Friday, the Xbox 360 Elite went on sale in Japan. By the end of the day, the black HDMI console with a 120GB HD sold out at several major Akihabara retailers.
AsoBitCity, Gamers, Messe Sanoh and Sofmap sold through all their Elites on launch day. When the Xbox 360 originally went on sale in Japan, it bombed. No, it worse than bombed.
The 360 launch was a miserable failure, and Microsoft has been playing catch-up ever since. These Elite sell outs do come as a surprise.
Are things beginning to turn around? Maybe, just maybe.
Click to expand...

:lol: I thought one of the stores was called AsboCity!
 
Jack Bauer said:
I've just been and spent £20 on a decent Argos HDMI cable for this new 360, and I'm gutted. The quality (on 720p OR 1080i) is nowhere near, NOWHERE NEAR as good as the VGA cable on 1380x768.

It's exactly the same as a component cable, the fonts are blurry and there's jaggies everywhere. Really disappointed.

Is it worth me buying an official 360 HDMI cable or are they all the same?
Click to expand...

Just use the VGA cable you have then. HDMI cables dont vary at all according to resident mr HIGH TECH MAN ash, he says unless its over 5m in length. Very surprised at that though, HDMI was certainly sharper and richer colours on my tv over component, I dont have VGA in on my tv, but it was certainly brighter looking than my monitor.
 
I am using the VGA cable, I don't have much choice. Component is blurred but bright, HDMI is exactly the same.

I think there's something funny going on though, there's an option that says "optimum resolution" on the 360 that becomes available when you plug a HDMI cable in, and it automatically selects 720p for me - when the 360 and the TV supports 1080i. You can select 1080i yourself but it's really not that much of an improvement.

Spoke to JayD on MSN and he said on some TVs you'll find the VGA connection is crap and HDMI is brilliant, and vice versa. It certainly wasn't as good as VGA on mine.

You can tell straight away from the text, and the movement from blade to blade. The text on VGA is as sharp as a knife, on HDMI it's blurred and when moving between each option there's a funny fast-moving-freeview-on-a-poor-LCD-screen-style corruption. Really weird.
 
Jack Bauer said:
I am using the VGA cable, I don't have much choice. Component is blurred but bright, HDMI is exactly the same.

I think there's something funny going on though, there's an option that says "optimum resolution" on the 360 that becomes available when you plug a HDMI cable in, and it automatically selects 720p for me - when the 360 and the TV supports 1080i. You can select 1080i yourself but it's really not that much of an improvement.

Spoke to JayD on MSN and he said on some TVs you'll find the VGA connection is crap and HDMI is brilliant, and vice versa. It certainly wasn't as good as VGA on mine.

You can tell straight away from the text, and the movement from blade to blade. The text on VGA is as sharp as a knife, on HDMI it's blurred and when moving between each option there's a funny fast-moving-freeview-on-a-poor-LCD-screen-style corruption. Really weird.
Click to expand...

Must be your TV??? Must be do better with VGA than anything else. On my TV, the difference between component and VGA is very small.
I'm not sure, HDMI in theory should be better than VGA.
 
Japan
Xbox 360 Elite Selling Out (At Multiple Stores!)

Last Friday, the Xbox 360 Elite went on sale in Japan. By the end of the day, the black HDMI console with a 120GB HD sold out at several major Akihabara retailers.
AsoBitCity, Gamers, Messe Sanoh and Sofmap sold through all their Elites on launch day. When the Xbox 360 originally went on sale in Japan, it bombed. No, it worse than bombed.
The 360 launch was a miserable failure, and Microsoft has been playing catch-up ever since. These Elite sell outs do come as a surprise.
Are things beginning to turn around? Maybe, just maybe.
Click to expand...

They failed to mention they only shipped 5 boxes to begin with. :D
 
Please feel free to laugh at my ignorance.....

Ok so tomorrow we're going out to get a HD Ready TV, I have a 360 core, do I just buy a HDMI cable, plug it into the 360, plug it into the TV, choose the output mode within the 360 and bingo I'm playing in HD?
 
You can just use the component cable that comes with the 360. I dont think the 360, except the new ones, have an HDMI slot. Some people say VGA cables are better quality than component... so all you'd need for that would be the Xbox 360 VGA cable.
 
Core 360s don't have HDMI sockets anyway, do they? I thought it was the latest Premiums and Elites only (plus that Halo Limited Edition one which looks like a kid's toy).

If you get a 1080p TV then HDMI will be great, if the TV only supports upto 1080i then a VGA cable produces the best picture, from my experience. Component is fuzzy in comparison (although if you never see VGA then you'd never know just how fuzzy it is).
 
Right, I had the feeling that the cores lacked some kind of element that made HDMI applicable, so I need to buy a VGA cable and then the image will be HD? The first TV we're getting will be a no name one so the HD will be the minimum, I guess the usual 720p/1080i
 
The image will also be HD with Component, also the Core/Arcade's are getting HDMI, as it seems all the newer machines are. However, I have heard from JB and CW that VGA is a sharper image than HDMI on their tv's thus they are still using the Official VGA cable.
 
The new Core's do have HDMI, the Core is renamed to the Arcade pack. Not out yet though.

I can't use VGA 360 on my TV as I've got my PC connected to it, using HDMI at the moment. Finding HDMI is a big improvement over Component.
 
If you're getting a 1080i maximum TV then I would say make sure it has a VGA connection and get an official VGA cable, you'll be amazed. If it doesn't, then get a HDMI cable (any will do), and it will be pretty good.
 
Last edited:
Jack Bauer said:
If you're getting a 1080i maximum TV then I would say make sure it has a VGA connection and get a VGA cable, you'll be amazed. If it doesn't, then get an official VGA cable, and it will be pretty good.
Click to expand...

Your making no sense JB........... read it again mate
 
When using a VGA Cable my games appeared to stutter... When I got the 50" LG HD Plasma which is up to 1080i (then the bastards released a 1080P version at pretty much the same price a few weeks later!) and I got the 360 Elite I could notice my games appearing to run smoother via HDMI compared to VGA... wonder why that is?
 
JayD (who's an AV Forums nut) said that on some TVs VGA is better than HDMI and vice versa. The stuttering you mention happened on my Samsung via HDMI, but with VGA it's incredibly smooth. Weird.
 
Battlestar Galactica escapes to XBLA next week

Next week Battlestar Galactica, a "3D space shooter played on a 2D plane," makes its way onto PC and Xbox Live Arcade. Based on the popular television show, the game didn't really wow us when we played it back in July, but that's OK because it's meant as a felgercarb "mass appeal" cash-in on BSG fans who've been waiting forever for the final frakin' season to start in January. Thankfully the two-hour BSG special Razor premieres Nov. 24.

The Battlestar Galactica game has 10 single-player missions based on battles from the show. There is also a multiplayer component supporting eight players on XBLA and 16 on PC. Players can choose from four different types of ships on the Cylon or Human sides. The game will cost 800 MS points ($10) on XBLA and $20 on PC, available off XBLA on Oct. 24 and PCs Oct. 23. Now can we please get a real Battlestar Galactica game?
 
September NPD: Xbox 360 takes the lead, Halo 3 to thank

Though August was an unseasonably successful month for video games, we all saw September coming. Despite being released at the tail end of the month, Microsoft's Halo 3 juggernaut walked right up to the reigning NPD champ and rifle-butted it from behind. The Xbox 360 console jumped up two places with sales of over half a million units, nearly twice as many as in August. Total industry sales for the month: a staggering $1.36 billion thanks in large part to the efforts of Mr. Chief; hardware sales alone rose 188% to $418.6 million.

Microsoft Xbox 360: 527.8K (6.8 million total)
Nintendo Wii: 501K (4.5 million total)
Nintendo DS: 495.8K (13.2 million total)
Sony PlayStation 2: 215K (39.3 million total)
Sony PSP: 284.5K (8.6 million total)
Sony PlayStation 3: 119.4K (1.87 million total)
 
Jack Bauer said:
If you're getting a 1080i maximum TV then I would say make sure it has a VGA connection and get an official VGA cable
Click to expand...

Well I was planning to get the official VGA cable anyway, but I didn't realist some TVS don't have a vga connection? Well that's poo then :(

The one we're buying tomorrow has HDMI but then you said with my core I can't use a HDMI cable? :(
 
Only the newest Cores have HDMI or should I now call them Arcades. Thus they may not be on shop shelves yet, but dont worry, Component does give HD gaming.
 
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