New XBOX 360 with HDMI and 120GB hard drive in the wild
Submitted by rapture on Fri, 01/05/2007 - 9:34am.
Engadget is reporting that an insider has provided them with information on and a picture of the XBOX 360 v2 which is to be available "soon". According to them, the new XBOX 360, code named Zephyr, will support 1080p output via HDMI and have a 120GB hard drive. Also, the console is set to come with that new, faster and cooler 65nm chip that hit the news sites last week.
Update: Looks like there is more "proof" here at XBOX-Scene.com.
In my opinion, the most important upgrade that the XBOX 360 can get right now is a larger hard drive. HDMI isn’t as important right now because very few people have 1080p monitors.
Luckily, XBOX Live Arcade games are required to be less than 50GB, however, that's not true for demos of major title games. Some demos are well over 1GB in filesize. In addition, Microsoft just launched their movie download and TV show download service. 720p high definition versions of full length movies can be over 6GB in filesize. A puny little 20GB hard drive will fill up fast. Mine already has and I haven't downloaded any full length movies yet. I only have downloaded a lot of demos, patches and addons for games (like HALO 2 maps), and some game and movie trailers. If I had 100 GB of free, unused hard drive space, I would have an urge to use it. I probably would have already bought two or three HD movies from the Microsoft Video Marketplace. (I was wanting to own V for Vendetta anyway). 1080p downloads of movies and TV shows would be considerably larger in file size. Will we see 1080p movie downloads in the Marketplace?
Recall, the 20GB hard drive actually only came with 12GB of free space new. Delete those videos and movies that come pre-installed if you are hurting for more space.
Additionally, some games like the Final Fantasy beta installed directly onto the hard drive. FF installed, what was it, 2GB of data onto the hard drive. That’s a gamer tax!
Will we see new XBOX 360 titles installing to the hard drive? I think in time we will, especially if there isn't a clear winner in the HD-DVD vs. BluRay optical media battle. Games could ship on multiple DVD’s with one or more DVD’s getting installed to the 120GB hard drive. Pre-rendered HD cutscenes take up a lot of space. Some game developers could switch from using scenes rendered by the game engine to pre-rendered cutscenes. Visually, this would be better for some games. I bet there are a lot of content producers out there that don’t want to worry about compression and the storage space of DVD media.
Will HALO 3 ship on multiple DVD’s? Will there eventually be a HD-DVD version of H3? For marketing purposes, their might be an HD-DVD version of HALO3. However, I haven’t seen any indication that the HALO 3 game will ship on more than one DVD. I don’t expect this game to install GB’s of content onto the console hard drive. However, there’s always addon and bonus content. Who knows what Bungie has in store our empty hard drive space? HALO 3 would be a great way to get gamers out to the stores to buy more accessories and add-ons (like the bigger HD) for their XBOX 360.
The HDMI port is a welcome addition. However, it will only pay off for owners of monitors that display in 1080p. Even still, if your game or media isn’t delivering a 1080p signal (say it’s only delivering a 720p signal), then you aren’t getting the added benefit of 1080p anyway. Eventually, fiber and cable providers, and satellite TV outlets will push 1080p video over their networks. Once that happens, more people will begin adopting 1080p sets.
I think now is a great time to put an HDMI port on the XBOX 360. Microsoft could now tout that their console can out put a digital 1080p signal, rivaling the puny PS3. (As if SONY needed the wind taken out of their "sales" again). Also, the early adopters would use the HDMI port and provide feedback to Microsoft and the game developers. There’s not been a 1080p game released for a Microsoft console. Surely there's a lot to learn about producing game content in 1080p both on the hardware and software side. I don’t think HALO 3 will render out to 1080p. I think if anything we’ll see 640p to 720p out of HALO 3.
What do you think about this revelation? Is it what you wanted in the next version of the 360? If it were available today, would you upgrade? Are there any other features that you’d like to see on the XBOX 360?
I'm a tech gear junky so I would probably purchase this system ASAP. For one, we need another DVD playback device in the house. Secondly, as I said in my post, I want more hard drive space. Of course, it would always be good to have an extra box for a LAN (or to boost my gamerscore by setting up bogus online MP matches with dummy "second controller" players. Muhahaha. Texas Hold 'Em backroll anyone?).
It's been hard enough for me to lay off getting an HD-DVD drive add-on for the 360. I have to keep telling myself that the only benefit to it is watching HD movies that are burned to HD-DVD. Since I get hundreds of movies in 720p and 1080i through Comcast each month, I've got my HD movie fix. But if games started shipping on HD-DVD, I'd feel it as almost necessary to upgrade.
I guess if anyone is considering getting an XBOX 360 soon that they should hold off until we hear more news about the release date of this updated XBOX 360. I could see this new system costing $500 with the 120GB HDD.
I wonder if this console will ship with an HD-DVD drive in place of a DVD drive?
I guess that's $600 with the bigger HDD and HD-DVD drive.
This is fantastic. I know I wanted hdmi from the beginning. I don't know if it's worth it yet to chunk out the money for a whole new system. I still have that new console feeling from the last one. If this is true, GG Microsoft/Xbox, these guys are the emitome of super-competitive.
I'm suddenly glad I decided to hold off an getting a 360. I hope this new version comes out before H3 gets released, as that was my target for getting it. Perhaps an Xbox 360 Zephyr/H3 bundle would be in order?! One can only hope....
I doubt they'll be a bundle like that but the timing would be prefect for the late adopters in getting the latest and greatest hardware with the killer software app for the system. Looking forward to you getting a 360, Dis.
Actually, Splinter Cell: Double Agent supports 1080p.
Also, you can't "buy" the movies in the XBLM, you're just "renting" them. They don't self-delete, they just won't play after they expire.
Glad to hear about this. My guess is that we'll see this product upgrade instead of a price drop. I need another 360 so the wife can play at the same time as I do, and for LANs, so I'll probably hold off on the 2nd system until this one comes out.
About upcoming and upgraded XBOX 360 hardware:
* The Xbox 360 is built to be modular, and while we haven’t announced anything specific, the hard drive on the Xbox 360 was made to be easily swapped out.
* We have made no announcements about a new SKU, any new accessories, or any plans for a price drop.
Finally, while it’s true that leaks “happen,� much of what gets reported as leaks ends up being untrue, so take everything that’s not confirmed with a grain of salt.
I'm sure they'd never market a HD exactly double that of the PS3 while adding the PS3's posterboy for hi-def connections: HDMI. Nah...
BTW, I recently compared the same video source (an upscaling DVD player) through both component and HDMI connections on an Olevia 42" LCD. The HDMI connection showed noticeably more accurate color replication. The component connection saturated the human faces with red and provided less contrast between areas of light and dark. Each source and monitor are a variable in picture quality, and the Olevia may have just put all its effort into the HDMI circuitry and not the component, however...
Point: For those of us who can use the HDMI connection on the new 360, assuming it exists, the video quality may be well worth it.
Good, I was wondering how they would matchup. I'm guessing that we'll have to take into account any lag that may accompany the HDMI vs VGA vs Component. I do like the vga, it hasn't had any lag so far that I've noticed.
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