Xbox 360 Setup

Now that you've gotten a look at what the console is like before you even turn it on, lets get going w/ the convergence and whatnot. BTW, I must say I detest the packaging the peripherals came in, it's of the quarter inch thick plastic break-the-scissors variety. That out of the way, turning the console on was great, to hear the Xbox sound and bang I'm at the prompt, this thing starts up quick.

Setup was pretty painless, almost to the point of "did I miss something? I must have missed something" because it went so quickly and easily. The 360 detected my internet connection with absolutely zero input from me, connected, downloaded an immediate update and restarted. After that, activating my existing Xbox Live account was as easy as entering my MSN passport from Xbox.com (must link your gamertag to do this) and I was set.

Enabling HD output was easy, there is a slider on the cable itself to switch from HDTV to standard television, and the system settings blade of the dashboard lets you select 480i, 480p, 720p or 1080i as well as widescreen or 4x3 output. Once you've set that, it remains for all your games and you can forget about it. When I took my 360 to my sisters house for Thanksgiving, a flick of the slider set the 360 for standard def, when I came back home, switched it back and it automatically went back to 1080i.

I'll be back with more on Xbox Live Marketplace and how the Xbox 360 does at delivering HD content, but lets take a break for some Joust in 1080i.