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New Version of Xbox 360 Looking More Likely
Engadget is just one of a number of sites running 'confirmations' of a new iteration of the Xbox 360 hardware. The new black-coloured console is said to include an HDMI port and a larger hard disk drive (120 gigs). While the code-name Zephyr has been bandied about online for quite some time now, Engadget is saying it will be released under the name 'Elite'. Initially to be sold as a third SKU (alongside the Core and Premium packs), when the initial black run sells out the hardware in the Elite will take the place of the Premium sku. An HD-DVD drive will not be incorporated into the unit. All this should be taken with a grain of salt, as the entire thing stems from 'sources' and a supposed article in the upcoming issue of Game Informer magazine; Microsoft has not yet confirmed anything.
Perhaps Microsoft thinks that people who would buy the Premium model now wouldn't if they knew a "Super Premium" model is coming out soon. If they assume rightly, then sales of 360 would dip. If their caution is warranted, the dip in sales would be a large enough number to make the 360 look less strong from a userbase perspective.
So if they were going to release this, they wouldn't announce it until very close to when available. If they weren't going to, they wouldn't say they're releasing it either.
We're not making it, and, if we were, we wouldn't tell you early.
More Twoson than Cupertino
I was kinda banking on the 133 T
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
dump the core and lower the price of the premium 50 bucks.
You mad
If the 133-T model sold well, then Microsoft could consider a new $1000 model with nothing extra except chrome trimmings. They could ID it as the 10-T model.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Penny Arcade is somewhat spot-on with their view that the new $479 X360 is competing against the $599 PS3 since the $499 PS3 is becoming increasingly rare in retail locations.
But come off it, Microsoft. You don't release this data but I put dollars to donuts that the Xbox 360 is the most faulty console release in recent memory. I've seen reports of people on their sixth console. My only hope is that when my current Xbox 360 breaks and I get my fourth one, they give me a working replacement, not the crap they've unloaded over the past year and a half. (That's my only qualm with the 360).
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
I was hoping that this would be the new Premium system at $399, and that the old Premium system would drop down to $350. Paying an extra $80 for a larger hard drive and hdmi seems kinda meh. After all, thats only $20 less expensive than the 20GB PS3. They probably should have thrown in wireless too (if only to get the Sony fanboys to shut up with the "LOL You HAVE to buy wireless you don't actually need for $100 LOL).
I currently have an XBOX 360 that uses a Monster component-out to connect to my 65" Sony SXRD. It's beautiful at 1080i. My understanding is that HDMI has no performance improvement over the display of component though. Is that correct?
I'm not an audio-visual geek necessarily, so I may be confused. However, as I understood things HDMI's real contribution is not that of performance or quality, but of increased capability for content creators to control the data being carried over the signal. Is that true? I would have no problem buying this new 360 when it comes out if HDMI is a significant improvement over component, but it seems the best information I can find is itself indifferent and says that "neither is necessarily better than the other although particular devices may present a better experience with one over the other" (see quote below).
So, the question is - with a high end television and an Xbox 360 - which of the two is going to be preferable? It sounds to me like they're just releasing it with "HDMI" so that people will be suckered into buying the console all over again under a false believe that HDMI is going to provide them a significantly better result.
So, which is better, DVI or component? HDMI or component? The answer--unsatisfying, perhaps, but true--is that it depends. It depends upon your source and display devices, and there's no good way, in principle, to say in advance whether the digital or the analog connection will render a better picture. You may even find, say, that your DVD player looks better through its DVI or HDMI output, while your satellite or cable box looks better through its component output, on the same display. In this case, there's no real substitute for simply plugging it in and giving it a try both ways.
Source: DVI vs. HDMI vs. Component Video -- Which is Better?
Why not build it in for the elite version? Now, you not only have to worry about adding a drive on, but you have to search to get on that's the same color.
Does anyone know whether this means that there will be an HDMI cable released for the existing models? I've poked around the news releases, but haven't seen any mention of it.
Honeslty, I've been waiting for an HDMI 360 with built-in HD-DVD drive. The latter doesn't seem to be the case though; but I'd buy a second 360, the elite, if it had and keep the "old" model in my room next to the PC to test my XNA projects. I'd love to have the HD-DVD functionality in my living room, but the add-on drive, like all add-ons, is clunky and ugly.
Without built-in HD-DVD its worthless to me.
For about a hundred bucks I can pick up a 120gig drive and a copy of Norton Ghost, clone my data over to the new drive and slap it into the 360 (yes, this actually works.) For a few bucks more I can pick up any color of RIT vinyl/plastics dye in any color I want - just waiting on my warranty to expire before I crack it open to dye it, and While I'm at it I can swap out the LEDs for some nice blue ones.
If they name the Premium system the "Elite", it only makes sense that they rename the Core system as "Spartan".
Spartan
adj.
a. Simple, frugal, or austere: a Spartan diet; a spartan lifestyle.
b. Marked by brevity of speech; laconic.
c. Courageous in the face of pain, danger, or adversity.
I can spend $20 more and get a PS3 that has Blu-Ray, free online and Cell processor. This is a disaster for Microsoft, they are tripping up big time. Looks like PS3 is about to dominate.
The huge advantage Microsoft has over Sony is that they can price their systems $200 lower
Except that they are really only charging $30 lower with this Elite model compared to the base PS3.
And the online match play is free with the PS3.
How was that a huge advantage again?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley