Slashdot Mirror
XBox Adding HD Tuners Next Year
iloveCarla writes "Microsoft is partnering with Toshiba to turn the Xbox into a full fledged HTPC. With built-in HD DVD, a larger hard drive, revamped "MCE" interface, and possibly HDTV tuners, the Xbox would be in a better position to compete against the PS3 in the race to serve as the defacto entertainment hub for couch potatoes. According to the article "The new device is expected to be released late in 2008 or at the 2009 CES show in Las Vegas."
Even if I had a screen big enough to enjoy the real benefit of HD, why the fuck would I want a locked down platform that goes out of its way to restrict my usage?
The real question is: Will they start making the 360s reliable enough to reduce the failure rate down to something reasonable? I don't really care about HD tuners and stuff like that, what I really care about is will it keep running long enough for me to finish a game before having to send it back to the shop?
I read the internet for the articles.
Adding new features to consoles just makes people who bought 360 early upset. If the HD-DVD had been included since the beginning, I would be buying HD-DVD movies, and I really enjoy my high-def 360 playing when I'm home from school. Well, since my Xbox is off at the repair center for red-ringing, back to my Wii.
.. they'd better also do something about the terrible noise the 360 is producing. There is no way I would use my 360 as an HTPC as long as it produces so much noise. I can live with it when playing games, but when watching a movie I want the silent scenes to be just that: silent.
Unbelievable - "better position to compete"? Are they so incredibly afraid of Sony, then, despite their enormous lead? Or are things not quite as rosy for the XBox as various sources would have us believe?
The one feature that would make the 360 into a descent media centre would be support for SMB (aka Window's) shares, so you can easily access all the media from your PC or NAS. It's the thing that makes XBOX Media Centre rock. No-one wants to be forced to use Media Player 11's crappy media streaming when they could just as easily browse their network shares.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
beefing up the hardware so it lasts more than six months without getting the 3 rings of death!
I sure am glad I rushed out and stood in line to buy the original $460 version, spent another $179 to add an HD-DVD player, and now I get to buy one all over again if I want the extra sexy-ness in a single box version?
I know what you're thinking. Did I forward 65,535 packets or 65,536 packets?
I actually really dislike the way this new console generation has gone, and am glad I have held off buying so far. There is way too much SKU shifting, with new better versions constantly being released to one up the other guy and keep the console "relevant". Its all well and good if you don't care and are sitting on the fence, but as a person actually interested in a next generation console instead of dropping a grand on a gaming PC it is really aggravating. Kudos to the Wii for avoiding this, but its not really what I'm looking for.
Examples of this abound. The one that pisses me off the most is Dual Shock 3. Some of the upgrades have been less than necessary, such as the Elite Xbox SKU, but rumble is a novel game input that you're completely missing out on for no reason if you bought or will buy a PS3 in the next six months. Some weren't even able to make the choice to wait because Sony lied about it.
Now with the HD tuner incorporated HD DVD Player MP3 jack extravaganda, why buy now? You know there will be a new SKU and it will make your box look like a chump. And this isn't like Apple releasing something new and you're paying opportunity cost (forgetting about the iPhone for a second), because most of these upgrades already exist and are minor. The only difference is if you buy them now you're paying probably twice as much for something that's half as well integrated with the box.
Maybe I should just buy a Dreamcast...now there's a stable SKU!
...to own one of these new 360's you'll need to buy a tv license as if you own any equipment capable of receiving TV signals you need to own a license. That's an extra £130/year (unless of course you have a license anyway).
Flibberdy
Looks to me like we'll be seeing XBOX and PC gaming being synonymous in the next year or two. They've already got the hardware rating system in Vista as well as USB adapters for their wireless 360 controlers. It's just a matter of adding direct game support for XBOX titles on the PC.
Considering how fast PC hardware advances in comparison to consoles there is no reason not too. The only thing they'll have to watch out for is letting the software developers get too far head of the average customer's hardware, the very reason many gamers have abandoned PC gaming in the first place.
Personally I would love to see this since I have already distilled my living room entertainment package down to a PC and a 40" LCD HD TV, and don't care spoil that with the noisy, anemic, unreliable, one trick pony, 360, just to be able to play the few console titles I'm interested in.
Cable cards? Last time I checked, besides over the air or unencrypted HD, the only way devices that can record HD content from your cable or satellite provider is with a cable card. If there is anything that's had more hardware problems than the xbox, without any of the popularity, its cable cards. Until that whole situation gets figured out I don't see anyone providing a good HD DVR.
I'd tend to agree with the suggestions that improvement of the console is required to maintain interest, that a larger hard-drive, or allowing the use of any, generic, hard drive would be a vast improvement, particularly for games developers (if they could count on a hard drive being present then I suspect games might stream slightly better without so many obvious, and sometimes painful, loading screens. The use of a generic hard drive would also have the benefit of reduced manufacturing costs for Microsoft (though potentially also reduced profits) and also a reduced purchase cost for the consumer.
As for the 'better games' that's a problem that's not entirely limited to MS' X-Box, every console, from the NES onwards has had more than its share of paltry games, but so long as sufficient people purchase those games they'll continue to be made and sold, sadly.
May I ask what was your research methodology? While I believe that this would benefit MS, by encouraging people to participate in the X-Box Live! environment it'd be more likely that people would pursue that environment to other platforms (PC, older X-Box and whatever others MS might introduce). It'd also help to increase any potential advertising revenue, which might not off-set the lost income from charging, but would have far more potential viewers which should increase the value to MS and its customers (obviously in this sense 'customers' would refer to the advertisers, not the X-Box purchasers). I also, despite that last, feel that free membership to the Gold service would be valued by the customers but, among others, I don't feel it's at the top of the list. I'd hazard a guess that cheaper consoles, improved reliability, reduced noise levels and improved networking features would be further up the list, as you already noted.
I'd suggest that the success and popularity of Myth TV, HTPCs, Media Center and X-Box Media Center show that there is quite a high level of interest in the HTPC and HD TV tuner addition. If nothing else I'd like to be able to control my TV, Sky, DVD and music from one place without having to get up to change channels, turn on and turn off equipment and then find the right remote for whatever appliance I'm currently wanting to use. I confess that this is 'lazy' but that's part of the innovation and improved convenience to the consumer; and if I get bored with TV or whatever and want to play a game then, with the apathy of boredom, it'd be easier if the X-Box was already plugged in, turned on and ready to go.
And even better if I was able to store game images on the console or network, so I don't have to do the getting-up to change discs. But that might be just too damn lazy...;-)
The PS3 needs help developing native X drivers that work on the Cell's SPEs. Linux currently runs on the PS3 Cell's PPC core, but that doesn't even have the accelerated graphics that cheap PCs have on their videocards (the PS3 RSX is locked out to Linux). The SPEs are so much more powerful, and designed for exactly the pixel pushing that X needs. Once they're running instead of sitting there, the PS3 will be by far the best $600 HD terminal out there. Especially with home theater/automation systems on it like LinuxMCE. But it needs help across that basic milestone.
--
make install -not war
Just ask sega about how well console "upgrades" sell - eg MegaCD, 32X, etc.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Here is one example: The big game recorded off-air in pristine digital HD. Looks damn good in large screen projection - better than DVD video - even with the constraint token enabled.
No MythBox to assemble. 2-Way CableCard support. Begin the build-up to the match with a good console sports game.
In this beer and pizza border town that is not a tough sell.
With their crapulent MCE OS offerrings MS has just about convinced Intel there is no market for HTPC. Now we find that MS wants the whole market with its non-Intel XBox.
Will Intel respond with some non-Microsoft developments, or will they surrender another market to the Beast of Redmond?
Ultimately Microsoft has to take ownership of the entire PC hardware market if they are to sustain growth. They are already an OEM of desktop PCs in India. If they take the consumer electronics space also there's nothing left but servers. How long before they're drooling over that high margin business?
Help stamp out iliturcy.