Official Xbox 360 Topic

[ryuclan]

You bought a game before the console? lol.

I bought COD4 before I had an Xbox 360 haha.

[Damo.]

I bought Shenmue II and the strategy guide some 2 months before I got an Xbox. I thought I'd be getting the Xbox sooner than I did and I was enormously hyped up about Shenmue.

[ryuclan]

I bought Shenmue II and the strategy guide some 2 months before I got an Xbox. I thought I'd be getting the Xbox sooner than I did and I was enormously hyped up about Shenmue.

Yeah same here. I wanted COD4 so bad, and someone else was going to buy the 360 so I went and bought it. I can't do that anymore, the anticipation was horrible.

[Pat]

 

Excuse me if I sound like a retard here, but I thought I should at least know just encase. But what is a HDMI Cable and what does it exactly do? Is it some extra cable that you need to plug in to get HD quality on the TV, instead of having all those different colour wires stuck into the back of the TV.

I could be wrong, but from what I've heard, it's the most convenient way to achieve 720p or 1080p. With the stock cables, you'll either have composite (yellow, white, red, which is 200-something, and the quality is, quite frankly, horrible), or component (red, green, blue, which is 420p, IIRC. That's what I use, and it works pretty damn well).

 

Check for an HDMI port on the back of your Xbox 360 before buying the cable, though. The older, pre-mid-2008 models, other than the Elite, don't have it.

 

Also, I bought Saint's Row a few nights before I bought my Xbox 360.

[Rebel]

I've never bought a game before having a console. I don't see the logical reason behind it, I mean why have a game before the console when I can't even play it and could use that money to save up for said console.

[ryuclan]

I've never bought a game before having a console. I don't see the logical reason behind it, I mean why have a game before the console when I can't even play it and could use that money to save up for said console.

Well like I said, I knew someone was buying me the console and at the time the game was very high in demand and hard to find. Actually when I bought it they only had the GOTY edition. If I would have waited until Christmas when I got my console I wouldn't have been able to buy it.

[Slamman]

The reason is as simple as having the game MORE affordable and less a question of WHAT game, over which USED console to get. There are at least two locally at $150. I am not sure if they are the right way to go, but certainly JUST out of reach for me. My energy bill is behind....nearly as much as rent and I have to pay some of that to keep from getting it shut off.

 

Gas is going up too. Saving up for a console is great, but I'd just need to sell me these extra laptops which is just not happening. I don't get it. They are cheap and working!

 

Rebel, there's much previous convo on HD and it's requirements, I've often stated myself via my home theater experience. You have component which is progressive scan delivery in composite RCA style cables. You have computer RGB style VGA for HD and I bought that, however, misplaced the damn thing!

 

I do need it, but you also have HDMI, the intent there is video and audio DIGITAL in one cable, no fuss, no muss. It's DIGITAL discrete surround multichannel in that cable, not stereo L/R!

 

Also covers studio's demands for copy protection in consumer electronics. The fight was always active and seen in DAT tape long ago, the higher the delivery, the more stringent and paranoid studios became and are today. They want to make you pay them directly in their ideal marketplace, and never physically touch the creative content. That's a whole nother ball of wax, obviously.

 

HDMI doesn't lose much of what it's intent is however, in terms of any downgrading of quality HD. Luckily. Compatibility with ANY convention hardware standard is everyone's job to figure out before hand, don't buy what you can't use.

Edited May 12, 2009 by Slamman

[asimov]

 

Excuse me if I sound like a retard here, but I thought I should at least know just encase. But what is a HDMI Cable and what does it exactly do? Is it some extra cable that you need to plug in to get HD quality on the TV, instead of having all those different colour wires stuck into the back of the TV.

 

Component cables send an analog signal, as compared to the digital signal you get from HDMI cable. Analog is much lower quality, plus the quality of the signal largely depends on the quality of the cable, with HDMI cables you can just buy a sh*tty $10 cable and it will work as well as a $100 one.

 

Unless your HDMI cable runs for more than about 5 meters, in that case you'll need to buy a better one.

Edited May 12, 2009 by asimov

[Slamman]

I still use single composite over S-video and the differences are slight, dependant on displays I'm sure Otter will tell you, which is true.

 

I don't have a use for component but it's the most common still. HDMI is making headway nowadays, and it is digital audio/video.

The Xbox has the HiDef VGA as mentioned, you can go direct to a PC monitor for taking the Xbox with you which I would want to do when going on trips.

 

The cable I had allows a TosLink optical cable to a decoding system, so you still get DD surround from that!

[Blackadder.]

Excuse me if I sound like a retard here, but I thought I should at least know just encase. But what is a HDMI Cable and what does it exactly do? Is it some extra cable that you need to plug in to get HD quality on the TV, instead of having all those different colour wires stuck into the back of the TV.

I could be wrong, but from what I've heard, it's the most convenient way to achieve 720p or 1080p. With the stock cables, you'll either have composite (yellow, white, red, which is 200-something, and the quality is, quite frankly, horrible), or component (red, green, blue, which is 420p, IIRC. That's what I use, and it works pretty damn well).

The hell? The stock HD cables are not 420p. Far from it. They go right up to '1080p' (which is in quotation marks due to the fact no games actually run in 1080p natively). SD is over double what you suggested too, running at 480i.

[Democrab]

Excuse me if I sound like a retard here, but I thought I should at least know just encase. But what is a HDMI Cable and what does it exactly do? Is it some extra cable that you need to plug in to get HD quality on the TV, instead of having all those different colour wires stuck into the back of the TV.

I could be wrong, but from what I've heard, it's the most convenient way to achieve 720p or 1080p. With the stock cables, you'll either have composite (yellow, white, red, which is 200-something, and the quality is, quite frankly, horrible), or component (red, green, blue, which is 420p, IIRC. That's what I use, and it works pretty damn well).

The hell? The stock HD cables are not 420p. Far from it. They go right up to '1080p' (which is in quotation marks due to the fact no games actually run in 1080p natively). SD is over double what you suggested too, running at 480i.

No games go to 1080p? Maybe on 360, PC games can go right up to 2560 x 1600, which beats 1080p easily.

[Blackadder.]

Excuse me if I sound like a retard here, but I thought I should at least know just encase. But what is a HDMI Cable and what does it exactly do? Is it some extra cable that you need to plug in to get HD quality on the TV, instead of having all those different colour wires stuck into the back of the TV.

I could be wrong, but from what I've heard, it's the most convenient way to achieve 720p or 1080p. With the stock cables, you'll either have composite (yellow, white, red, which is 200-something, and the quality is, quite frankly, horrible), or component (red, green, blue, which is 420p, IIRC. That's what I use, and it works pretty damn well).

The hell? The stock HD cables are not 420p. Far from it. They go right up to '1080p' (which is in quotation marks due to the fact no games actually run in 1080p natively). SD is over double what you suggested too, running at 480i.

No games go to 1080p? Maybe on 360, PC games can go right up to 2560 x 1600, which beats 1080p easily.

Last time I checked this was the Official Xbox 360 Topic.

[Democrab]

Excuse me if I sound like a retard here, but I thought I should at least know just encase. But what is a HDMI Cable and what does it exactly do? Is it some extra cable that you need to plug in to get HD quality on the TV, instead of having all those different colour wires stuck into the back of the TV.

I could be wrong, but from what I've heard, it's the most convenient way to achieve 720p or 1080p. With the stock cables, you'll either have composite (yellow, white, red, which is 200-something, and the quality is, quite frankly, horrible), or component (red, green, blue, which is 420p, IIRC. That's what I use, and it works pretty damn well).

The hell? The stock HD cables are not 420p. Far from it. They go right up to '1080p' (which is in quotation marks due to the fact no games actually run in 1080p natively). SD is over double what you suggested too, running at 480i.

No games go to 1080p? Maybe on 360, PC games can go right up to 2560 x 1600, which beats 1080p easily.

Last time I checked this was the Official Xbox 360 Topic.

Last I checked "no games" is a blanket statement and, even if it is in the 360 topic, could be taken as such to apply to all games.

[Freakorama]

Last I checked "no games" is a blanket statement and, even if it is in the 360 topic, could be taken as such to apply to all games.

I'm pretty sure it was abundantly obvious he was talking about 360 games only.

[Democrab]

Last I checked "no games" is a blanket statement and, even if it is in the 360 topic, could be taken as such to apply to all games.

I'm pretty sure it was abundantly obvious he was talking about 360 games only.

Yeah, but as I said, it's a blanket statement still, just because it's in the Xbox 360 topic, doesn't change that fact, not every single game is on Xbox 360.

 

Granted, it is being a bit Nazi.

[JayC]

Excuse me if I sound like a retard here, but I thought I should at least know just encase. But what is a HDMI Cable and what does it exactly do? Is it some extra cable that you need to plug in to get HD quality on the TV, instead of having all those different colour wires stuck into the back of the TV.

 

Component cables send an analog signal, as compared to the digital signal you get from HDMI cable. Analog is much lower quality, plus the quality of the signal largely depends on the quality of the cable, with HDMI cables you can just buy a sh*tty $10 cable and it will work as well as a $100 one.

 

Unless your HDMI cable runs for more than about 5 meters, in that case you'll need to buy a better one.

This is nonsense.

 

Component give just as high a resolution and an arguably better picture due to richer colour.

 

HDMI is just more convenient. Although asimov is right about cable quality as you can pretty much use any HDMI cable and get the same quality whereas it does make a difference with component. Luckily the ones that come with the xbox are pretty good.

[Kaj.]

 

[asimov]

That sucks man, has it happened before?

 

@JayC, I didn't do my research, the older analog systems are sh*tty, but component -according to various websites- is identical to HDMI. I just assumed that since it was an analog signal, it would be of lower quality. HDMI is a newer format afterall.

 

I would recommend HDMI anyway, since you don't have to worry about buying high quality cables to ensure a good image.

[Freakorama]

I find the difference between component and HDMI is that with component cables anything that is dark like a shadow or something is just pure black, and I cannot see a damn thing.

[Dope.]

Wondeful!

 

It seems my xbox got the red ring of death! It freezes on the start-up and sometimes will work if I do the towel trick for a couple minutes. So, I decided it'd be best if I sent it in to Microsoft.

 

Now, what I don't know is; How exactly do I send it in?

[Rebel]

 

Now, what I don't know is; How exactly do I send it in?

I feel your pain, I've gotten RROD before but I never bothered with the towel trick since it seems like a useless idea. There are a number of ways you can send in the xbox to MS. You can either ring them up and probably wait a long time to get all the details sorted out and what not. However, I did mine the simple way and did it on the xbox website.

If you sign into your account on the xbox site and somewhere in your user area there would be a 'send xbox for repair' or something a long those lines. All you'd need to do is type in the serial code where the USB slots are at the front and it will see if you have warranty or not. It goes through why you're sending the box back so it will be free anyway since its RROD.

They send you a confermation email, and give you a free postage thing that you need to print off to stick onto the box. I don't know how they do it now, but you usually have to get a shipping box yourself from somewhere to put the xbox in. Once you've done that, I think DHL or whoever come pick it up and its gone for 4-6 weeks for repair.

Don't forget to take off your HDD/plugs + wires & custom face plate if you have one before you post it because you probably wouldn't get them back.

[Slamman]

The one I'm looking at getting is bare bones, error #47 IIRC?

I hear it worked one tme then booted to RRoD... is it the heatsink?

He didn't bother to look into a warranty on the unit.

 

The prior listed one sold. Hoping to get this one today, in fact. Tried last night, but didn't get to the meet soon enough.

 

I will be delving into all things xbox once I get my console. How do you check if your unit can still get replaced? (when third hand used)

[Rebel]

It can only get replaced ( free ) if the xbox gets the RROD or the E74. Even then, an xbox is covered for 3 extra years on top of any warranty on the xbox at the time.

Edited May 14, 2009 by $RebelG

[Kaj.]

Just a note, it's E74 not E47.

[Seddo]

 

Just a note, it's E74 not E47.

So Kaj, you sent your 360 off to Microsoft yet?

 

E3 is up soon, so i'm looking forward to see what Microsoft have install for us

Edited May 14, 2009 by Seddo

[wjf]

I got that E74 thing a while back too. Been too lazy to send my 360 away so far, just ended up buying a new one. Will get it packed off at some point though.

[Kaj.]

Just a note, it's E74 not E47.

So Kaj, you sent your 360 off to Microsoft yet?

 

E3 is up soon, so i'm looking forward to see what Microsoft have install for us

I sent off for the coffin a couple of days ago. Just waiting for it to get here.

[92F]

If I pay for a download then accidentally cancel it, is there a way to retrieve it?

 

The download had'nt even started, I had something else downloading and wanted to make the add-on I paid for a priority.

[TheTank]

If I pay for a download then accidentally cancel it, is there a way to retrieve it?

 

The download had'nt even started, I had something else downloading and wanted to make the add-on I paid for a priority.

I believe you can download it again for free later. Atleast I could, after I downloaded and deleted something from my HDD. Don't know about your situation though, but seeing as you've already paid for the download, you should be able to re-download it.

[92F]

Sorted, thank's to the wonderful Hart.