360 v2

[Spindryer]

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/xbox_zephyr.jpg

Over at engadget they managed to get hold of a photo of what the second version of the 360 will look like with its new features. As you can see from the above picture HDMI has been added to rival the PS3 and also its reported that the Hard Drive will be upgraded to 120GB! All sounds great but i cant help feeling hard done by as this new upgraded 360 should of had these features from the start as now I’m going to have to go out and buy another bloody 360 just to get the HDMI that is now going to be available.

Read the full article here (http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/05/the-second-xbox-360-revealed-codename-zephyr/)

[sub]

This is actually quite good, if its out before May that is, my wee sisters getting a 360 so I might convince my folks to go halfers and she can have mine :P

[carocat]

What, your broken one? :P

I heard this rumour earlier and that's what I think this is, a rumour. Imo MS are not going to be doing themselves many favours releasing yet another SKU. That would make 3 of the same thing.

[sub]

What, your broken one? :P

I heard this rumour earlier and that's what I think this is, a rumour. Imo MS are not going to be doing themselves many favours releasing yet another SKU. That would make 3 of the same thing.

Well the repaired one :P

I would imagine that should MS go ahead and make a new SKU with a big hard drive and HDMI port then they would bump the current premium to the core price and replace the premium with this at the same price points.

[Azure]

I have it on good authority that the 120Gig HDD will never be bundled with any SKU and that the above picture is in real working prototype stages...

Personally I need a 1080p TV before this, and I need to fill 13 gig before I consider a storage solution [Which would probably be the connection to a PC before forking out

[quickshot89]

i wont be buying a HD-TV for several years after uni, as i wont be able to receive HD signals until 2011, so ill be fine with waiting for xbox '3' i might consider a new 360 in like 3 years time, but for now, i dont care about HDMI, and i dont care about the HDD, so screw M$

[sub]

i wont be buying a HD-TV for several years after uni, as i wont be able to receive HD signals until 2011, so ill be fine with waiting for xbox '3' i might consider a new 360 in like 3 years time, but for now, i dont care about HDMI, and i dont care about the HDD, so screw M$

Why 2011? Just because analog is being turned off in your area doesn't mean you magically get HD. I can understand what you're saying about not getting High Def TV, but do you not have any interest in playing in HD? Or watching HD DVDs?

[quickshot89]

2011 is when the north east gets HD signals over normal subscription, and as a poor student, **** sky tv, although BBand + cable TV might be a gd thing, i would only really get a new tv if i also had the space, which, atm, i dont have alot of space

[sub]

2011 is when the north east gets HD signals over normal subscription, and as a poor student, **** sky tv, although BBand + cable TV might be a gd thing, i would only really get a new tv if i also had the space, which, atm, i dont have alot of space

Can I see a source for that 2011 stat, because I am 99% sure you get analog turned off in 2011 (Scottish - TV region I am in is 2010) and all it means is that the freeview/digital signal is boosted in power for the areas where we can't get it at the moment, if they boost it now analog is lost altogether.

It'll make no difference to the availability of HD unless between now and then a HD Freeview box comes out onto the market, which I don't see happening for a few years yet.

[quickshot89]

i dont hav the source any more, it was in a catalogue of TV's, and it said NE 2011 for HD broadcasts

[sub]

i dont hav the source any more, it was in a catalogue of TV's, and it said NE 2011 for HD broadcasts

Well I'll call it wrong, for one simple reason, Over The Air HD doesn't exist in this country, it was tested in a small area of London for a few months with great success however it used a non-standard format and special set top boxes specifically for the test.

Region Switchover happens in
Border 2008 - 09
West Country, Granada 2009
Wales 2009 - 10
West, STV North 2010
STV Central 2010 - 11
Central, Yorkshire, Anglia 2011
Meridian, London, Tyne Tees, Ulster 2012
Channel Islands* 2013
Source - DigitalUK.co.uk (http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/en/when.html)

And with the digital switchover campaign showing nothing about HD and only talking about a Freeview switch over in your area in 2012.

I think the catalogue, or yourself, got the wrong end of the stick between the switch to digital tv and High Definition, two rather different things.

[BIG D 04]

And with the digital switchover campaign showing nothing about HD and only talking about a Freeview switch over in your area in 2012.

I think the catalogue, or yourself, got the wrong end of the stick between the switch to digital tv and High Definition, two rather different things.

There was talk to use the Space Spectrum after the Analogue to broadcast a small amount of channels in HD or the other alternative was for DVB-H which is a technology that can allow people to recieve TV Broadcasts on their Phone rather than via Downloading.

Anyway back on topic, I see this as a big problem.

Although after giving it some thought it's no different to Xbox 360 turning the Premium package into Core and adding a New Top Package...But it's still a slap in the face of all the people that went out there and paid top dollar for the Xbox 360 and it makes you think that maybe you should of waited and you would of got more for your buck.

btw Slap and Internal HD-DVD Drive and you have me Sold!

[bal]

kind of off topic, but there's a kind of cable TV in London, which comes from a modem. it has terrestrial, and on demand stuff.
like its a

[sub]

Is there any benefit for those without HDTV's?

Not really, the bigger HD certainly, but even if you have a HDTV the HDMI connection isn't needed, despite what so many people believe.

[BIG D 04]

.... but even if you have a HDTV the HDMI connection isn't needed, despite what so many people believe.

There is somewhat a issue over that statement, you are correct in saying that to get High Definition you don't need HDMI, however films for HD DVD and Blu-Ray are using a technology, HDCP, and basically if your device isn't HDCP compliant then they will down convert that picture to 480p.

Currently all Movies released for the HD-DVD Drive do not use this down convert feature however there is nothing stopping them, that means that if you purchased the HD DVD Drive you could be in trouble.

There was speculation that VGA would be sufficient however HDCP Compliant devices only use HDMI and DVI which is a bit confusing.

So all though you can enjoy gaming without HDMI the Movie Entertainment section could be another kettle of fish and considering it's HD DVD giving the Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player backing it does start to get confusing.

Also you have to consider the fact that if true, Microsoft are willing to take the fallout from releasing an upgrade to their Specifications so early and something that isn't upgradeable for every one is a little concerning on top of that.

[Tim]

http://www.younewb.com/2007/01/07/more-news-on-the-xbox-360-pt-2-zephyr-prototype/ some more info.

[quickshot89]

tbh, we all know the 360 can now do 1080p right? so why not just release a

[BIG D 04]

That's not sufficient for the reasons I posted above, it's still an Analogue Output, not Digital therefore wouldn't be carrying the encryption technology that's why to fully support it you need to make these changes.

I suppose from a purely gaming point it's possible but not for HD DVD with HDCP

[sub]

There is somewhat a issue over that statement, you are correct in saying that to get High Definition you don't need HDMI, however films for HD DVD and Blu-Ray are using a technology, HDCP, and basically if your device isn't HDCP compliant then they will down convert that picture to 480p.

True, however the movie studios would be killing a large section of the High Def DVD market (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD), it's the early adopters who will be buying HD DVDs and it's the early adopters who bought LCD and Plasma TVs without HDMI when there was no sign of a need for it.

A lot of TVs do now support HDCP either via HDMI or DVI-D and I would imagine MS could well make a video cable for HDMI, there is no saying that the current video output has NOT got support for digital signals, we just don't know what the 360 can output over that connection, certainly wiring up your own HDMI jack would be a waste of time as it's not a digital signal but the 360 could be set to output a digital signal with a quick dash update and the right cable.

Certainly I don't see any movie studio using the HDCP flag for a few years yet, certainly not until the vast majority of owners have a compatible set, the US is still lagging behind in the HDMI department and thats the movie studios biggest market.

[BIG D 04]

I suppose no one on here knows exactly the potentials of the Xbox 360's video output but we have been lead to believe that it's purely analogue, so therefore would explain why a new chip and Digital Output Connection (HDMI) is required to be added instead of just a cable.

So if the pictures are true it would be a reasonable assumption to make that the current Chip in the Xbox 360 can not provide a Digital Output therefore not allowing "true" HDMI and Digital Output, and then not complying with HDCP Protections.

At the moment it's a case of don't know, but hopefully they will finally explain themselves at CES on the 8th January.

[Tim]

We might find something out in Gate's Keynote tonight.

[quickshot89]

doubt it, tonight is for windows mainly, its the last big speech for gates, as well as pre-vista

[menzo666]

I have a samsung 23" LCD in my room which is HD and i use the component cable and everything looks great on it. I'm at college, i cant afford to go buy a 1080p tv and a new 360 even if i wanted to and i dont think it is going to be that much better is it?

My parents spend

[kHz Sailinkid]

well the things the new one is going to have like can u just buy some of the seperate parts or do u have to buy the new thing. and if some one has a 360 and the new one comes out will u be able to play with them...

[Tugsy]

Someone indirectly has confirmed that this will be released before the end of 2007 to the public. If this is true, then it will mean a very big deal to all owners of the Xbox 360. Expect a nice news article on this tomorrow...

*looks at time* :eek:

Today rather...

[sub]

well the things the new one is going to have like can u just buy some of the seperate parts or do u have to buy the new thing. and if some one has a 360 and the new one comes out will u be able to play with them...

Of course someone with v1 of the 360 can play with the HDMI version owners.

How many revisions of the original Xbox happened? 6 wasn't it, sure it was all internal (bar the DVD drive upgrade)

The 360 has already been through a few minor changes as well.

[quickshot89]

How many revisions of the original Xbox happened? 6 wasn't it, sure it was all internal (bar the DVD drive upgrade)


the HDD, controller, and the dvd were the main revisions, and then there was the 180nm down to 120nm probs etc

[carocat]

the HDD, controller, and the dvd were the main revisions, and then there was the 180nm down to 120nm probs etc
You what...?

[sub]

A decrease in the CPU die size that never actually happened if memory served me correct.

The big reason for a lot of the changes was attempting to block out the hackers, changing d0 positions, video chips and such, never worked though :p

The CPU die size change for the 360 aint going to change much if anything, all the noise comes from the DVD drive spinning at a high rpm to get data off the disc.

[BIG D 04]

Isn't the Change in Size meant to effect all consoles sold from Jan onwards...

[sub]

Isn't the Change in Size meant to effect all consoles sold from Jan onwards...

It's not happening for the forseble future. Too many production problems, it's a big job changing die size by the amount they have been talking about.