the "HD era" is for real.... But it requires a HDT

[Tritoch]

I'm one of those gamers stuck without a HDTV...at least until Tax Season 2007 in my case unless something radically changes (like I get a huge promotion). Too many other committments, planning for another baby, etc. I think the Xbox 360 looks great on my 32" Sony WEGA, but I can definitely tell I'm missing out on the full experience.

[Trebuken]

I think the biggest problem with the HD era is that most HD TVs are still three times as expensive as regular TVs. In a couple of years things might be more even, but really, HD is not something most people care about yet.

I think the biggest problem with new cars is that they are three times more expensive then used cars. In a couple of years things might be more even, but really, NEW is not something most people care about yet.

People get five times as much use out of their TV then their car, yet or only willing to spend a 30th the amount. Why? Vanity. No one sees you sitting in front of that embarrassingly small TV. They do see you in your new SUV. The money you can save on gas could pay for a HDTV.

Open Box Bargains..you can save a ton if your careful and no something about the product before you buy it....

Later,
Trebuken

[Anthony1]

Anybody that has a 360 needs to at the very least see the damn thing in High Def.



It's very cheap to get High Def up and running. Some very impressive High Def, by the way. You can spend under $200 and get a kick ass 21 inch HDTV with 5.1 experience.


Here is what you need:


1. Go immediately to www.craigslist.org and go to your closest city, and check under computer items. Find somebody with a 21 inch CRT computer monitor for $80 or less. Believe me, you can find one, because everybody wants lcd computer monitors now, so people practically give away the old huge CRT ones. But here's the thing, a nice 21 inch CRT computer monitor is like a 20 inch HDTV. It's just a $80 20 inch HDTV. A CRT monitor will give you a way, way, way better image than a LCD one. So you are getting a better image than what you see on those Samsung LCD monitors at the XBOX 360 Kiosks. It's not widescreen, but you can either letterbox it, or convert it to 4:3.

2. You are going to need to track down the XBOX 360 VGA cable. I think they are $29.99

3. You need to get a self powered mini 5.1 computer speaker setup. Get the one with a good subwoofer. Best one you can get for the leftover dough.



I'm telling you it's under $200, and it would blow most peoples home theaters totally out the water. Watching DVD movies on it will be hellla cool too. And you could get a XRGB-2 plus and play all your retro systems on it in a psuedo RGB mode.

[InsaneDavid]

Yet another thread shot to hell.

TRUNCATE YOUR LONG LINKS!!

However there's been so much quoting of the offending links, this thread shall remain unreadable.

[Jibbajaba]

I think the biggest problem with new cars is that they are three times more expensive then used cars. In a couple of years things might be more even, but really, NEW is not something most people care about yet.

Apple, meet orange. That is the worst analogy I have ever read.

Anthony, your $200 technique will only work with systems that have a VGA cable, right? Is there any way to go from component to VGA?

Chris

[Chronodriftersx]

Yet another thread shot to hell.

TRUNCATE YOUR LONG LINKS!!

However there's been so much quoting of the offending links, this thread shall remain unreadable.

WELL WHY DON'T YOU POST AN HANDY EXAMPLE HOW SINCE MOST PEOPLE DON'T BOTHER TO FIGURE IT OUT SINCE THE BOARD WON'T DO IT FOR OUR ASSES

[Trebuken]

I think the biggest problem with new cars is that they are three times more expensive then used cars. In a couple of years things might be more even, but really, NEW is not something most people care about yet.

Apple, meet orange. That is the worst analogy I have ever read.

Anthony, your $200 technique will only work with systems that have a VGA cable, right? Is there any way to go from component to VGA?

Chris

I know it's bad. People are constantly yammering about the price of HDTV's (and Xbox 360's for that matter), yet the reality is that HDTV's are not over priced. You'd pay more for a car to get extras and those extras are absurdly priced. People are just ignorant of HDTV technology and jealous they don't have one, or can't afford one...

The analogy is redundant because the 'too expensive' argument is redundant and, essentially, nonsense.

I believe 2009 is the new digital deadline for all stations to be broadcasting in digital (not sure if it passed the Senate yet). HDTV's have fallen in price but the technology continues to improve driving new models back up.

Get a HDTV if you don't have one. If you don't have the money, well then, sucks for you...

Later,
Trebuken

[Richter]

Yet another thread shot to hell.

TRUNCATE YOUR LONG LINKS!!

However there's been so much quoting of the offending links, this thread shall remain unreadable.

WELL WHY DON'T YOU POST AN HANDY EXAMPLE HOW SINCE MOST PEOPLE DON'T BOTHER TO FIGURE IT OUT SINCE THE BOARD WON'T DO IT FOR OUR ASSES

http://tinyurl.com/

use it

[stonecutter]

I just got a HDTV, a Sony Wega model. But there are no 360s to be found now..... doh.

[Captain Wrong]

IMO, my opinion of the 360 graphics, and a lot of others comes from seeing them in store, setup, in kiosks...........

wait for it................................................ ..

Here it comes.............................................

On the HD Plasma screens that MS setup with the kiosks!!!

The menus look FANTASTICLY sharp. Then COD2 pops up on the screen and it looks like a 4 year old PC game, or a standard PS2 game frankly. I expected to be vaguely unimpressed when I saw the 360 in action, but I was COMPLETELY underwhelmed personally.

i must say, i think that the fault partially lies with the monitors.
i do not think those demo monitors are very good, despite being able to show somewhat higher resolutions.
final judgement should be saved for when this thing is used with a television/monitor that can do 1920x1080i without downscaling.
those monitors definetely can not.



willie

I was thinking the same. I played King Kong on a kiosk and damn, early PS2 graphics. I mean alright detail but jaggy as all hell. I hope it was the monitor, but you'd think they'd get something better after hyping this up as the second coming for HD graphics.

Yet another thread shot to hell.

TRUNCATE YOUR LONG LINKS!!

However there's been so much quoting of the offending links, this thread shall remain unreadable.

Ahh...you aren't missing a whole lot. Still, I do wish people would use TinyURL.

I wonder what would shock people more: destroying an Xbox360 or playing it through an old 13" portable black and white television?

[kainemaxwell]

Graphics mean nothing if the gameplay sucks though, remember that.

[Trebuken]

King Kong is a multi-platform title. It was noted early on that these sorts of titles would be much less impressive because they are not made for the 360 but for the PS2 or Xbox and then ported to the 360. It's graphics are less than inspiring, but you do get the feeling that the 360 is not really working hard when the game is in action. It is probably more fluid then the other versions. Yet it is a game based on a movie which are traditionally cheap and hurried...

Of course Call of Duty 2 does not have the same problem...

Later,
Trebuken

[Captain Wrong]

King Kong is a multi-platform title. It was noted early on that these sorts of titles would be much less impressive because they are not made for the 360 but for the PS2 or Xbox and then ported to the 360. It's graphics are less than inspiring, but you do get the feeling that the 360 is not really working hard when the game is in action. It is probably more fluid then the other versions. Yet it is a game based on a movie which are traditionally cheap and hurried...

Of course Call of Duty 2 does not have the same problem...

Later,
Trebuken

Point taken.

You'd think that for the first out of the box games MS might encourage original content rather than ports. Of course, I understand that's pretty much standard operating procedure for the industry these days and ports pad the launch lineup.

[kevin_psx]

The bad part is that the 360 doesn't look that great on my 51 inch Sony in my living room. "Ok, so the 360 looks great on gigantic screens and looks mediocre on normal screens, who gives a rats ass, none of us have a 8 foot screen in our damn garages".

Well, the 360 looks absolutely astonishing on my little 30 inch 16:9 princeton graphics AF 3.0 HD precision HDTV reference display.

Yeah good. But are the games FUN??? Take Star Wars Prequel Trilogy - beautiful computer graphics projected on a giant IMAX screen and 12 speaker surround. Wow.

But prequel trilogy sucked. It looked gorgeous. But sucked.

Are the X360 games fun?