Microsoft officially adds HDMI to Xbox 360 Premium
By Ryan Block 
posted August 8th 2007 7:33PM
posted August 8th 2007 7:33PM
Sorry early adoptors (both of the Xbox 360 Premiums and Elites), Microsoft finally made official what we've long since known: it's no fluke, and Redmond will be ("gradually") adding HDMI out to the 360 Premium models moving forward. Here's Microsoft's official statement:"Yes, we are offering an HDMI port for Xbox 360 simply as another choice in Xbox 360 owners' games and entertainment experience. Retailers are gradually introducing HDMI-enabled Xbox 360s into the channel to meet demand."
How do you know if your new $350 Xbox 360 will have HDMI out? Simple enough: according to Microsoft PR, the applicable systems will now sport an HDMI logo, so keep an eye out for that and you'll be all set.
Update: We also asked if these new systems would ship with cooler 65nm chips and quieter DVD drives, but all we got back was the usual song and dance about "not commenting on details of specific components or manufacturing processes." In other words, if you want to see if Microsoft switched out their chips, you'll likely have to run to the store, buy another Xbox, and tear it down for yourself, because Xbox isn't engaging consumers otherwise.
I dont know how anyone would dare compare the P$3 to the 360 at this point? Its funny how fanboys come out the wood work and say stupid things.
Overall @ the moment the P$3 is not in the 360s league, if you wanna praise the P$3 goto a blu ray form because thats all the thing is good for @ the moment.
M$ adding HDMI is to shut people up, HDMI vs Component is virtually no difference, I challenge anyone to goto a Best Buy and say "HEY THATS RUNNING ON HDMI, NO THATS COMPONENT!" you cant tell, kudos to HDMI for being on plug!
The game list alone on the 360 kills the competition for the time being RRofD and all. Sony wont sell 6 million more units before holiday season wraps but fanboys will find an excuse for that.
bottom line if you're gonna bash a product for changing for the better after almost two years on the market but praise a product that has changed skus around a few times under its first year, than good for you!
@
MxSix
"Don't worry Microsoft, it will catch up to the PS3 someday..."
Fact is Sony is playing get like M$! Lets see drop the dropped the 20gb sku in first few months because no one would buy it, make an 80gb with software emulation and soon to be fazing out the 60gb models, cant wait for that rumbling controller to come out, yeah M$ is catching up to Sony, keep telling yourself that, Sony is still catching up to the n64, early adopters got screwed in their first year, bigger HDD, bundled game, same price, you're an idiot!
The Xbox 360 sold 6 million in it's first year worldwide.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20061026175627.html
The PS3 has sold over 4 million worldwide since launch.
http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/26-07-2007-6094.html
By November the PS3 will match or only be slightly behind the Xbox 360's 6 million. Which is actually better than the Xbox 360 since it's more expensive.
The Xbox 360 is currently on track to ending up in third. Microsoft should stick to software.
It has been proven that people are buying the P$3 for the BD, not to play games
hey all u dipshits shut up ur bitching bout MS screwing us up the ass over and over againg and someone fig out if the new 360 has the new 65nm chips in them plz which would be more timeworthy for everyone and honestly u can bitch all u want but MS will still screw u all they want cuz they can do wat ever the fuk they want nd we just gotta deal with it nd the next best thing the PS3 has no got damn games and costs a shit load
Console fanboys, please go hang yourselves.
"Yep, once they bundle it with the HD-DVD drive and sell it for the same price. Until then it's PS3 1, XBox 0"
Just wanted to note also that it makes no difference if the xbox was bundled with HD-DVD drive as it cannot be used for gaming because MS was not smart enough to see the value in greater then 9Gb discs, id's game dirt will be the first of many multigame discs on xbox while they are single game discs on PS3,
Actually ids game is Rage. Dirt is by codemasters and is already out on the 360 and is 1 disc, thanks.
So following your logic, there are 2 games coming to the 360 that require a disc swap - Blue Dragon and Rage. In Blue Dragon thats 1 swap in the whole game, I imagine its the same for Rage. To save your lazy ass from swapping the disc you are willing to pay $200 ??? O-K....
And don't tell me game design is being limited by avoiding multi-disc titles. Go tell me that Oblivion, Mass Effect, Halo 3, COD4, Assassins Creed, Bioshock etc. are in some way limited. If you think they are you're just an idiot.
Id's new engine actually may require a second disc because its uses very large textures (mega-textures as they call them). An entire level can be handpainted. Tell me, how is the PS3 better designed to handle this when it only has 256mb of graphics ram vs the 360's open 512mb ? See, that is a real design issue. Not 1 disc swap during 20 hrs + of gameplay....
@alexrose
1) It would require more than one disc swap. Say 1/2 the levels are on one disc, 1/2 on the other.
2) Nice try but the PS3 has 512 total RAM too, even though it is split, the gaming RAM is XDR RAM which is much faster than standard RAM(we are talking more than 2x here) and the gaming RAM can dip in to the system RAM.
I cant complain about my xbox 360 i have one from launch day with no problems no ring of death no scratched discs waa waa waa, i was smart enough to keep it on its side and not block the air vent and accidently tip it over while a disk is spinning and cause scratches. I learned my lesson with the ps2 i went through 3 vice city games due to the ps2 cheap unbalanced console and finally turned it on its side. i have friends who have lost their console because they keep it upright on shag carpet and have their thermostat on 90. this is a high tech piece of machinery for low tech pot head slobs.
Does the HDMI xbox360 version also have digital out (optical or coaxial) sound? My Epson TW600 projector doesn't have a digital sound output to loop it to my receiver.
Actually I would probably want to use the analogue output (with the 3 cables) as my dvd player already is using the hdmi input on the projector.
i cant believe nobody has asked this yet but does anyone know what hdmi spec this is for the 360 premium? everyone seems to forget that the M$ elite was released AFTER the PS3 yet has hdmi spec 1.2 And in case your wondering the jump from hdmi 1.2 to 1.3 is quite a significant one, deep color anyone? but im not tryin to fanboy rant or anything, just curious if anyone knows. c.h.e.e.r.s
lol............
they dont care about 1.3 because they plan to release the Xbox 1080 by the time 1.5 comes out around 2010.........lol
well well well........didnt they say there was no NEED for HDMI??? LMMFAO!!!!!!!
oh well at least I aint gotta dish out $450 for the Elite simply for HDMI now........although I still want my 360 to be black.........hmmmmmm.......maybe they will make black premiums as well.........
As soon as the premium drops another $50 or $100 I'm hopping on board. Why?
1) Price. Heres the comparison, even with the prices as they are now:
1 360 Premium = $350
1 year online service (XBL) = $50
total = $400.
1 360 = $500
total = $500.
I don't care about WiFi - the 360 is going to be used with my BenQ FP241W (which has an HDMI port), alongside my PC and Gigabit router. I don't care about hard drive space - I'm not downloading HD movies or anything to the hard drive, that's what I've got my PC for! And oh by the way I've already got a wired controller so I don't need a play and charge (3 feet from the console, who needs wireless?).
And now for actually comparing the consoles - the only thing that matters are the GAMES. THAT'S IT. What does the 360 have? Dead Rising, Crackdown, Halo 3, Ace Combat 6, Gears of War, Forza 2, Viva Pinata (I don't want it, but people will buy it for their kids) etc. ALL of which are exclusive to the 360. I could go on all day. What does the PS3 have? 2 games that I can readily remember - Motorstorm and Time Crisis 4 (seriously, if you haven't played this in an arcade (like your local movie theater) you need to now. It's hella fun). In case you haven't remembered, most of the playstation exclusive studios are leaving the PS platform like rats from a sinking ship. Plus, the online experience is nowhere near that of XBL, of which I am happy to pay $50/year for (much better than $15/mo = $180/year for WoW). I mean seriously: why does anyone buy Nintendo consoles? The Nintendo exclusives - so that the kids can enjoy Mario etc. Why did anyone buy a PS2? The PS exclusives - GTA, Gran Turismo, etc. But now, there are hardly any good exclusives left to the PS platform.
If all we really cared about was reliability, we wouldn't be buying PC's would we? Most PCs have parts that are either DOA or fail within the first year, yet we still build and buy more than ever. With the new heatsinks, 360's are not going to have anywhere near a significant fail rate, and with the 3 year warranty no one is going to be left out in the cold. Plus, this holiday season I think people are going to take one look at that 360 price ($350) and one look at the PS3 price ($500... if Sony doesn't get rid of all the 60 GB SKUs by then) and walk home with the cheaper console.
As for HD... I don't think people will want their console to also play their HD movies, especially cause none of the consoles say stuff like "I play the DTS-HD audio codec" or something like that when the standalone players do. In any event, they're using standalones to play the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies in stores, not PS3s and 360s.
whoops sorry meant 1 *PS3* = $500
OK,OK, you can do all the stuff the ps3 can do on how many seperate items. How much did all those other items cost you? We're talking about one console here that can do anything that you just named. Yea ok, the ps3 does have crappy titles, but what was so great about the 360 when it first came out, The madden 06 grahics and any other first generation games for the 360, those graphics weren't that great, the ps3's graphics are way better than the 360's when they first came out.
so does this mean that all the elites made around this time will ship with the 65nm chips aswell ???
I'm not going to sweat having a non-HDMI Xbox360. Sure I'd like one, but I'm using the VGA connection to use my 360 on both a 20" widescreen computer monitor and my 50" Sammy DLP. Looks terrific on both. I've seen comparisons on various websites before and the VGA output has no visible disadvantage over HDMI (as long as your HDTV has a VGA input - many don't of course). This is especially true since Microsoft offered the color pallete fix that eliminated the washout issue.
And to all the fanboyz saying the PS3 is better, I have two words for you: "Xbox Live". Say all you want about HDMI, game quality, the future, etc., but the 360 owners out there know just how awesome Xbox Live really is, and how many lightyears ahead of anything else it is. Sony may have big ideas for the future, but frankly I'll believe it when I see it.
Yup, XBOX Live indeed sets the 360 FAR FAR apart than what any other brand has out there. Even when Sony comes out with its Virtual Home world, or whatever it is that they call it, it won't even come close to XBL. I went with the Elite, cuz simply, the black is bad ass. I have a 50" Sony LCD, but it's not 1080P, but having the 1080P output will be nice for when I upgrade sometime down the line. I'm not a Sony hater, not by a longshot, but right now, the PS3 has nothing that I need.....at least not yet....in the future, maybe the PS3 rakes the floor with the 360, but till then, 360 > PS3.
As someone who works in Home entertainment. We ran rigorous tests on both Blu-Ray and HD DVD. The HD-DVD surpassed the Blu-Ray in every test. Color depth was better, picture clarity was crisper. We tested both on numerous TV's and if the Blu-Ray was not on a Sony TV it looked awful.
On the console front if your going to rave about the blu-ray in the PS3, that is the cheapest blu-ray that is made. So you are getting the cheapest parts available.
The new 360 HMDI is 1.3 which supports both full and tru 1080P. I don't remember what the PS3 is. We tested the real deal players, not the game players.
But what I do know is that every gamestop I have been in has told me that they have gone through at least 3 PS3's due to heating issues or drive problems.
But just remember no matter what you say about the PS3, it does not have Halo. Halo is one of the highest grossing games out there and will sell consoles just for that game. PS3 does not have a horse like that.
Not to mention that a lot of game designers don't want to make for the new sony console because of the ass backwards programming (these are game designer sources I know).
There are several points in your post that I'd question. To say that the PS3 doesn't have any console-selling games is probably the most obvious of these. Gran Turismo will sell consoles. Metal Gear Solid will likely sell consoles. Final Fantasy will also likely sell consoles.
Unfortunately, none of these are out yet.
As for Blu-Ray looking "awful" on any TV except for a Sony, the lack of clarity in your statement makes it rather dubious. Sony LCDs? Sony LCoS? Sony RPLCD? All of the above? Furthermore, you should substantiate your claims with some sort of objective facts.
I'm not arguing the point one way or the other, since I'm not going to get into the BRD vs HD-DVD pissing match. I hate both formats and their backers for acting like petulant children and doing nothing except hurt the consumers.
Grand Turismo have never had people lining up to buy it on its release date. GTA, RockStar announced a while back they would make for all platforms. People will be buying the 360 just for Halo. PS3 does not have games that promote that type of following.
On the TV front we tested them on a 60 in SXRD (that would be rear projection), 62in Mitsubishi that is 1080P. Sony 46in LCD, LG 37 LC2D, LG 42 LC2D, Sharp Aquos 46 in, 50 in Panasonic Vierra plasma.
The Blu-Ray looked good on the 60 in SXRD and somewhat decent on the Mitsu. We used the same cables and models of each players that had the same specs, or the closest specs. The HD-DVD player looked great on all the players.
I don't know if that is enough "substance", if you would like I can have my 10 other co workers log on and tell you what they thought? This is what we collectively decided. We used a wide variety of TV's in different styles and the blu-ray could not hold water to it. Oh and we used a Monster HDMI 1.3 cable. would you like the barcode numbers of those?
Microsoft, stop foolin around and drop a built in HD-DVD drive into the Elite version ASAP!!! Sell it for $499 and everyone will be happy. Seriously, this should have been done when the Elites first shipped. If you lose your position to the the PS3 by next year you'll know why AND you'll deserve it.
As a current 360 owner that would give me enough reason to buy another console: 65nm cpu, 120gb HD, and built in HD-DVD drive!!!! Come on hurry!
why the hell did this become a ps3 vs microsoft debate? isn't there some other place to do that, like www.annoyingfanboys.com or something.
LOL every piece of news about the 360 nowadays invariably attracts a heckling PS3 fanboy audience. I guess they have lots of (non-gaming) time on their hands :P
@ dsg
I dont know how you follow statistics but Sony wont overtake the 360 or Wii anytime soon, They have no holiday line up at all.
With this price cut, 3yr warranty and the release of Halo 3 you can expect to see a lot of people whom were sitting on the fence picking up a 360 this holiday season, besides a lot of people were happy playing Halo 2 on their old xbox and now they have to upgrade in order to play Halo 3, Nintendo and Sony's best games this year were avialable on their last gen systems(God of War 2 and Zelda Twilight Princess) people still stuck to their PS2s and their Game Cubes, but people want to play Halo and play 4 player co-op, you will see a sales spike soon, just as long as M$ doesnt push Halo back
No line up? Wow. Let's see time crisis 4 Uncharted, SingStar, Unreal Tournament 3, Haze, GT5 prolouge, Ratchet and Clank, Folklore, plus all those 3rd party games.
Check out this:http://ps3.ign.com/index/release.html
Steve, and I still repeat what line up? BTW if you haven't noticed Sony tends to delay things a bit, even so all those games come up short next to the competition's line up.
Time Crisis who cares? Uncharted looks terrible. Unreal and Ratchet and Clank look most promising.
I still dont think Sony will get the above titles before 2008. Halo 3 will be the biggest game of the year as Gears of War was last year. No Sony fanboy can even argue that.
With a bigger install base, better game selection, lower price and now 3yr out the box warranty, its easy to see M$ holding its lead well into the new year, the Wii is more of a phase type thing, Nintendo plays the "we cant produce enough to meet the demand" game which is a bogus marketing ploy. (My little sister has a Wii lol she likes it)
PS3 makes a good blu ray player. Which seemed to be Sony's primary focus. Being honest theres more money to make if blu ray succeeds, but its sad to see a solid company exploit a brand loyalty such as the Playstation to launch blu ray into the mainstream. Ironically people are in denial that they've been duped and insist that they bought the PS3 for blu ray! Knowing they bought it because PS1 and PS2 were great.
The promised next gen "supercomputer" that only runs Madden at half the speed of the competition has fallen very short so far, fact is only thing that gives the PS3 a tech edge is that blu ray drive Sony smuggled inside it, enjoy your Trojan Horse this holiday season, at least you've got Spiderman 3 coming to Blu Ray
Uncahrted looks terrible?......RIGHT.
Plus all the games are actually coming now, like Warhawk Lair Heavenly Sword and Hot Shots Golf 5(Which is not good in US but Golf is like madden in Japan)
I do agree the Wii is a phase.
Well the warranty is nice but if you keep having to send it in who cares? I won't add more than that though, as you can always pick up an instore warranty.
And I really can't argue that halo 3 won't be the biggest game of the year. Who can? I'm not big on Sci Fi stuff and even I like Halo. It's just a little OVER hyped right now, but I still expect it too be good. I'll be picking it up at launch :)
I'm just trying to say the PS3 lineup isn't as bleak as everyone makes it to be.
And who said I was a fanboy? Did I say anything bad about the other consoles?
Nah I wasnt calling you a fanboy, I was referring to the people who come here and start claiming the the "360 will someday catch up to the PS3" how fanboy can you be? You cant call the losing team a winner only fans do stuff like that, I'm a Lakers fan from L.A born and raised and I refuse to say they're doing bad, because I'll admit I'm a Laker fanboy.
Its sad when people stay in denial and yeah I repeat Uncharted looks like crap. I personally wasnt too impressed with Metal Gear's 15 minutes of game play. Splinter Cell looks much better than that and its almost a year old. I'm just not falling for Sony's propaganda, whats your take on my comments about blu ray being a trojan horse?
People said that the DS was a "fad" and that PSP wouldtake the throne, obviously that didn't happen. The reason Nintendo is in short supply is because PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT IT! When I say "people", I mean everybody from Grandpa to the average gamer wants one. Nintendo is becoming responsible for 69% of the video game industry's growth, Microsoft is ate less than 1%. Nintendo is saying that if the growth trend continues the way it has, the Wii will become the top-selling next-gen console and will surpass the PS2 in sales by the end of it's life cycle. In my mind, the Wii is not a "fad", but a revolution in gaming.
I still would disagree sdman, the Wii is a success because of kids and then gamers. It just so happens that the kid's parents play it with them or that the guy's girlfriend plays it with him.
Fact is the Wii is the cheapest system to produce and Nintendo could produce enough to meet the socalled demand but why do that? Nintendo is playing this very cleverly by creating a false need for this system. The Wii will fizzle out after about another year and half.
When it comes down to "next gen" developers will be limited with the Wii and the competition's hardware superiority as well as high definition graphics and high end media enhancements (Xbox Live and Playstation Network) will beat out gimmicky game play. Nintendo will always have an audience and it's loyalist but I still say its nothing more than a phase and will be done in a year to a year and a half.
I must say you sound a bit like a PR for Nintendo but you're entitled to your opinion. Nintendo dropped the ball in the hardware department. My guess was they wanted to get some of that money back from the Game Cube. Nintendo's trump card is its first party stuff, you know Mario, Metroid and Zelda series but answer this, how long can you run jump and shoot? How long can Link go on the same quest until something has to change? People get tired of waving their hands around, they'll eventually want something better to look at.
I'm not pro Sony I picked M$ to win this race and I'm sticking with my pick. However M$ and Sony both have its share of titles that will wow gamers and be visually impressive, high definition has caught on and games like Halo3 and God of War 3 in high def, Nintendo will be left hanging.
Someone crack one open already! Come on! :)
since the launch of the ps3 both the Wii and the 360 have outsold it.
also since the launch of the ps3 over 50% of game sales (for the 3 consoles combined) have been 360 games.
I bought a 360 because I like shooters and the ps3 controller is awful for that imo, in fact i find it severely outdated for most games I would choose to play.
Also because the 360 already has several great games on it, and has the best holiday lineup of the consoles (August - January. The Ps3 looks very power, but Sony are very arrogant and have shot themselves in the foot several times allready.
also anyone want to explain the logic behind this comment:
"Sales of the PS3 have risen but we booked losses due to our strategic decision to price it below the (production) cost. Actually, because the number of units sold was not as high as we hoped, the loss was better than our original expectation," Sony 19s CFO Nobuyuki Oneda said.
It's like shooting your foot off then commenting on how you no longer have to treat your athlete's foot problem
I cant wait till HDDVD wins the format war and all your PS3s cant play high def movies, well the xbox 360 sits next to its HDDVD add on playing DVDs in stunning quality
It's funny with all this M$ vs $ony fanboy discussion of P$3 vs Xbug$ 360 vs Wii that no one has mentioned the following facts:
M$ abandoned ship on all you fanboys out there with Xbug$ 1. How many of you blew money on that console? And to play those games on the new console, you have to download a different friggin patch for each game, and not all games have patches. Now who is to say M$ won't suddenly abandon ship on its new console? From reports I read, they are operating on $1 Billion loss.
P$2 has outsold all consoles combined, and has been going strong almost 8 years now. How's that for product support. P$3 has full support of these titles with the 60gb model, and 89% support of these with the 80gb model. Not only does P$3 improve the graphics of these old titles, you don't have to download a stupid patch for each individual game.
Wii (obviously named that because the target audience is for people who's Wii haven't dropped yet) is backed by a company who has made family games for decades now. Even when their gamecube failed, they didn't abandon their customers. They kept chugging along, and now still rules the handheld market.
So why so faithful to M$? They abandoned you once in the gaming market, can't compete in the iPod market, and took 5+ years to deliver you Vista, the... repainted Windows Operating System.
Lol, both you xbox and ps3 geeks need to get a life and a girlfriend!! How pathetic!!!