I finally got around to updating my Xbox with the latest version of Xbox Media Center and damn, a lot has certainly happened in the three and a half years that have passed since my previous version was released.
Yeah, that’s right I was running a version from 2004 and yes, it’s scandalous. So enough about that.
The reason it’s taken so long is that up until recently it’s been sufficient for my needs and working flawlessly. But lately I’ve stumbled upon several media-files that have been giving me problems so I cracked and got myself an upgrade.
XBMC has really matured and I gotta say that now it’s about as good as a media center application can get. I’ve been wracking my brain the past ten minutes trying to think of a feature that I really miss, but just can’t think of one. That’s how good I think it’s gotten. It’s free, it’s open and it’s very, very usable. What more can you ask for really?
It’s displaying movies in real 16:9 ratio on my big screen LCD-TV, and, even though I might be imagining this, I believe the quality of the media looks better than before. I just can’t praise this software enough. Until there’s something like this for the Xbox 360 the original black monster is still the better of the two, no matter how many awesome games there are for the 360.
The scripts addition I especially like. Being able to easily watch movie trailers from Apple.com for example directly on my Xbox rocks my socks off.
All this and “Halo” too! Praise the Xbox! Praise the modchip! And especially praise the Xbox Media Center developers!
OK, so the Xbox 360 Elite is on it’s way and all the fanboys are so psyched. But over at Gizmodo there’s a story that reveal some unflattering details about the much longed for HDMI-addition that the Elite sports.
Apparently the cheapskates at Microsoft have chosen to not supply the Xbox 360 Elite with HDMI 1.3 but with HDMI 1.2 instead. This is particularly odd, as someone commented on Gizmodo, since TrueHD and DD+ (which are the advantages 1.3 holds over 1.2) are optional on BluRay but mandatory on HD-DVD (the chosen HD-format of the Xbox 360). The choice of 1.2 over 1.3 thus makes absolutely no sense.
Are they doing this to save a buck? Because if so, that’s just retarded. I mean, how big can the difference be in manufacturing costs? A dollar maybe? Even if the Elite sells two million copies in the first quarter after it’s release that’s still not even close to a dent in Microsofts economy. For fuck’s sake, two million dollars is not more than lunch money for Steve Ballmer.
If you’re gonna upgrade the Xbox 360 then please do it right, go all the way and don’t be cheap about it. It’s bad enough that the HD-DVD drive wasn’t included in the new package. Cheap fuckers.
If this article speaks the truth, the competition might stiffen even more for Sony and their unfortunate PS3. A “stronger” edition of the Xbox 360 is definitely a blow aimed straight at the jaw of Sony.
However, when examined a bit closer (and I don’t mind ‘cuz the Xbox 360 Elite looks totally sweet, and just made me sound like a surfer retard too…) it’s not that much of a PS3 killer when you think about. At least not at that price.
With the PS3 you get not only a high-end gaming console but a Blu-Ray player. Sure, there’s a pretty inexpensive HD-DVD player available for the 360 but it is not included in the machine out of the box. Not even in the Elite package, and this is important.
The 360 Elite has a harddrive twice the size of the PS3 Premium but everybody knows harddrives are relatively cheap hardware while a stand-alone Blu-Ray player will set you back somewhere around €700 (about $850) over here. And if I buy an Xbox 360 Elite and the HD-DVD player for it I’ve already spent a bit more than what a PS3 Premium would set me back.
Personally I don’t understand what they’re thinking at Microsoft by not including an HD-DVD player with this Elite edition or in upcoming Premium editions. That would really stick it to the competition, and would make myself seriously consider buying a 360. It really makes me wonder, just like someone commented on the article above – do they know something we don’t since they don’t seem to be taking HD-DVD seriously?
This article puzzled me a bit. OK, so well over a year after the release of the Xbox 360 the console’s developers are “reducing the focus on backwards compatibility”?
I’m sorry, but isn’t the whole point with backwards compatibility that it should already be implemented at the time of launch? Isn’t the idea that people that bought the previous model should be able to play their old games on the new console once they’ve bought one, and not fifteen months later? That’s at least what I thought backwards compatibility was all about, and this is also one of the main reasons I will not be buying a 360 anytime soon.
For a good example of what backwards compatibility really should be maybe the 360 team should take a look at what the Wii does with GameCube-games – it actually PLAYS them ALL! Imagine that, and it’s done so since launch. Oh yeah, and so did the Nintendo DS with all Gameboy Advance-games.
Yeah, I’ve been slacking off with the whole “Fighting the flab”-deal with my Wii. Things got a bit crazy when we moved at the beginning of February and I wasn’t able to play my Wii or anything else at all for over a week. After that I basically got lost and strayed from the path.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve playing plenty of video games and a lot of Wii (of course) but my concentration has drifted to “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess”, Virtual Console-games and “Showdown: Legends of Wrestling” on the Xbox.
So I’m a little ashamed now, and I’ve decided to start all over again but go at it even harder this time. Starting tomorrow I’m gonna play my Wii, and “Wii Sports” in particular, for at least 45 minutes every day, 15 minutes before breakfast and at least 30 minutes in the evening after work. I’ll continue this for at least an entire month.
And that’s a promise!
Despite my previous post I’m not anti-360 in any way. I think the Xbox 360 seems like an awesome machine with a tremendous selection of great games for it. I’ve tried a few and I was, and still am, really impressed. The online stuff seems cool too. That I have yet to take for a testdrive though. The fairly inexpensive HD-DVD drive for it is a nice addition too, if you’re into chasing that perfectly crisp movie experience.
However, at this point in time the 360 is not for me. And the reason is pretty simple – I don’t see how it is in reality much better than the original Xbox that I already own.
This has not as much to do with what the original Xbox was once it left the factory as with what a little modchip and a huge harddrive has turned it into.
My Xbox plays DVDs and other digital media (thanks to Xbox Media Center), and not just the Microsoft-approved kinds at that. It is integrated into my home network, has wireless controllers, runs homebrew applications, old-school console emulators and games from any region and thanks to the upgraded harddrive I can store all of my games on the actual machine so that I don’t have to have a bunch of game discs floating about the place. None of these are thanks to the creators of the Xbox hardware though.
The rest of the great things about my Xbox I do give the people at Redmond mad props for though, and they are the original and still primary reasons for me wanting to own one ever since I saw it demonstrated at some tech show on TV years ago.
The Xbox too has an awesome array of games available for it, and being the “previous generation” console those games are since the release of the 360 available for as low as $10, sometimes even lower, if you just know where to look (eBay for example). Part of what makes these awesome games possible is the hardware, software and pinch of magic put into the machine, and that’s why I really owe Microsoft a huge thanks for finally serving up a quality product after centuries of dishing out sub-standard software. I do at the same time have to flip them the bird though, for fighting the hackers that hacked and improved the machine and made it truly, really and unforgettably awesome.
The original Xbox was a mindblowing machine when it was released and it keeps blowing my mind even today. As I see it the only things the 360 has on the original black monster is better graphics and improved online play (which I don’t care much for). It is far from as hacker-friendly and upgradable as its predecessor. It does however have new games coming out for it which the old Xbox doesn’t (Or are the studios still developing for it? Enlighten me.), but that’s not really a selling point either since there are still myriads of awesome games for the original Xbox that I haven’t played.
You could sum it all up by saying that I’m not “done” with the original Xbox yet and the 360 is therefore superfluous to me and in its not-so-hacked state actually has less to offer me. One day that might change, but probably not very soon. Hell, I haven’t even tended to “Tenchu, Return to darkness” properly yet!
I finally got around to updating my Xbox with the latest version of Xbox Media Center and damn, a lot has certainly happened in the three and a half years that have passed since my previous version was released.
