Slashdot Mirror
HD Really The Future of Gaming?
Eurogamer.com has an editorial discussing the "HD Future", as revealed in the Microsoft Keynote at GDC. In the article, author Kristan Reed argues that while the crispness of the HD Living Room would be welcome, "using it as a hook to hang next gen console gaming on is misleading to say the least, and there are more than a few barriers to entry for the masses."
What MS is counting on is that consumers will believe that somehow, even though they don't have an HDTV, the HD capabilities of the X-Box 2 will make it display a higher quality picture on their regular TV.
While it almost certainly will look better on a regular TV than an X-Box, HD is not the reason. On the plus side, though, mandating HDTV support in all games is a positive step towards forward-compatability. It will ensure that the console will work well with TV's that come out even a decade down the road.
I still don't understand what all the huge fuss is about though. Was this a surprise to anyone at all? Does anyone think that the PS3 and Revolution won't also have HDTV support in every game? It only makes sense to support the technology as, in 6 years when these consoles are really hitting their mainstream, there's a strong possibility that HDTV will become more of a mainstream technology.
-=-=-=-=-=
I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
One of the semi-confirmed rumors about the Revolution is that it will have a DVI/VGA port directly on the back of the system for connecting monitors. I think it's safe to assume then that they will at least support progressive display in all games. I believe, though, that 1080i or 720p HDTV gaming will be the standard on all 3 consoles.
-=-=-=-=-=
I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
For console gaming, yes.
Next article please.
TFA bemoaning the sporadic HD support in current generation consoles, bringing up PC gaming, etc. seems like it is just trolling for an excuse to pick on MS. Yes HD is the future of TV, so of course it's the future of console gaming. And console gamers everywhere will joyously welcome all the HD gaming to come.
What's the point of this article anyway?
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Spend USD$700 at Wal*Mart? For a low-income family (you know... the type who would shop at Wal-Mart) that's a 1990 Honda Civic for your wife to stop asking you to drive her to Wal*Mart.
(yes it is)
WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
420p is Enhansed Definition and 4:3 (although it is somtimes streched for 16:9)
... ...
720p and 1080i are HD
and nothing the writers ignorance more
it has also been stated (through gamespy articles) that ALL xbox2 games will support 720p
as opposed to the ~31/532 listed on hdgames.net of the current xbox generation
The fact of the matter is that most people don't have an HDTV. That doesn't mean they're not gamers it means they're not yet ready to shell out the cash for one. I'd tend to agree with them. It's good that MS is including all there titles with HD for the xbox but to go on the assumption that the majority of consumers have one is just foolish.
Society never gets more or less violent, the definition of violent just keeps changing.
You can get an equally sized tv for less than a quarter of that price, thats the problem
god. nintendo (who i love btw) has a history of doing this. they removed all the high quality outputs (rgb, s-video) from the later SNES and left you with a choice of Composite... or RF. whoopee. In the UK, we typically get shafted even worse, with more outputs dropped for no apparent reason (or saving a few pence on the connector?). Maybe kids poke the wrong things in the wrong holes, and more is less. i dunno.
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
Having worked at Ulimate Electronics for awhile (before it went bankrupt), I've encountered most of the common questions/confusions regarding HDTV. Despite the fact the FCC is still hammering away at moving towards all digital signals by end of 2006, for the most part the general public is quite clueless about HDTV and digital television in general.
Alot of people I encountered believed that digital cable is HDTV. In realty, the compression used for digital cable usually makes the picture even crappier than analog cable.
And don't get me started about HDTV-built-in vs. HDTV monitors. Alot of people were dumb-founded that their new $5500 plamsa TV actually wouldn't be able to pick up HDTV signals out of the box, but instead needed to be hooked up to a seperate $500 over-the-air tuner to get any local signals.
And this is just for watching television . . .
My point being is that if Joe and Jane Public are confused by just the appliance used to display a game, they're probably not not going to understand how to get their gaming system to work in HD either. When I see a friend's Xbox hooked up to their HDTV with analog RCA cables (at least try S-Video), I realized that most people either don't know or don't care that they are under-utilizing their expensive investment.
PS . . . What the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated --- Mitch Hedberg
I'm not so sure I would like a DVI port. I'd rather use the HiDef cables (can't remember if they are composit or component). I already have my mythTV box plugged into my single HDMI port.
I guess I haven't found any DVI splitters at any of my local shops, but I've found HDTV splitters at Wally World.
The article was supposed to be about the case for HD and the case against HD, but it spent most of its time talking about lack of (good) HD support on current generation hardware and software. What a waste of time.
The article also claims that mass market HD is 5 to 10 years away. 10 years???? I don't think so. Lots of companies in Japan are already working with Super HDTV (SHDTV) with 3840 x 2160 resolution.
The author doesn't even acknowledge the fact that developers can very simply support multiple resolutions so that it runs fast on standard TVs and runs beautifully on HD TVs.
PowerLevel.com - A next generation marketplace for virtual items and services
I say bring it on.. let HD become the standard. Ever since I picked up by 57" hitatchi with 720p/480p/1080i support, I have been blown away by playing Soul Calibur 2 in 720p (although in 4:3 which is strange) and NBA2K3 in 720p is just gorgeous. Tekken 5 for the PS2 supports something around 520p (don't remember) and it too, is beauty in motion. The advent of HDTV could really help console makers pull moderately commited PC gamers off the desktops and onto the consoles. Granted the price of HDTV is not right for a great majority of the public, but hey niether were CD players around 1984-1989, and look at what a low-cost standard they have become. I see HD as the technological future of gaming, that and standard 5.1+.