Xbox.com confused about the 360's bundled AV cables?
by Dan Choi 
{ Aug 18th 2005 at 6:26AM }
Xbox.com can't seem to get its story straight. After holding
a post from going public for over an hour (in order to check and double-check the facts concerning the 360's
standard AV cables), I finally went ahead and complained about
the lack of HD AV cables for the 360 Core system
around 6:00 PM ET yesterday. Of course, the real story was that the very same page linked at the bottom of that
post was in the midst of some rather odd turmoil that I did not report on, attributing it to some messy site
administration by the webmasters. As of this moment, however, it looks like
Microsoft's official Xbox site is claiming that
HD AV cables will come standard with both Xbox 360 packages this fall. Again. (See the screen capture to the
right.) Or maybe not, if you believe the other pages on the very same site. Confusing, isn't it?
Update: According to Major Nelson, a big-time Xbox Live guy at Microsoft (he filled us in on the details of J's extreme injury), the Xbox 360 "Console" will come with the HD AV component/composite cable (which also includes a Toslink-style optical output for digital audio), and the Xbox 360 Core system will come with an S-Video AV cable standard. Wow, that's one more contradictory report to manage, unless, of course, S-Video is standard and bundled with composite (which I may have read somewhere quite a while back). [Thanks, Catalin, it looks like they're bundled!] On the other hand, David Reid, Director of Xbox Marketing for Microsoft, told TeamXbox yesterday afternoon that the Core "Edition" Xbox 360 will only come with "a standard AV cable," whatever that means. Also, as of 10:00 AM ET, that picture above is still current. More to come. [Thanks, Morgon!]
Update #2: The AV cable listed for the 360 Core system on the Console & Accessories page has been updated once more (sometime between 11:00 AM and noon ET), this time to an S-Video cable, in line with Major Nelson's comments and S-Video/composite-bundling info. Look's like you can put a fork in it: this post is done. Thanks to all the contributors!
Update #3: Sometime between noon and 12:15 ET, the Console & Accessories page was updated once more (ha!), changing from S-Video back to regular composite AV cables. The (S-Video?) line about "RGB-quality gaming" remains intact, however. So, in the end, no hybrid, no nothing. Well, just when you think you've got it figured out. Oh, and the major's changed his mind as well, though his site appears to currently be inaccessible. Will wonders never cease. [Thanks for the latest update there, Morgon!]
Update #4: The major's "unofficial" blog has returned to life, and we have now received word directly from Microsoft that the Core system will only come with composite AV cables; no S-Video, VGA, or component cables — just the composite RCA alone. Shucks, sometimes it hurts to be right.
What actually happened was that sometime prior to 5:00 PM ET,
Wednesday, the Consoles and Accessories page, starting off with “The Future of Entertainment,” listed VGA (HD) AV
cables as the standard for the Core system, and S-Video as well as VGA cables for the $399 one (hence the talk of
VGA adaptors in my previous post). That’s some crazy talk there, which is why I delayed my post as long as I did;
it appeared to be eventually correctly by 5:00 PM. (The display of a portion of that page’s HTML is depicted to
the right.) But it doesn’t end there: the site then had the audacity to exchange the then-corrected page with yet
another slightly redesigned, but incorrect(?) one later that evening, well after my 6:00 PM entry went live. After
kicking myself for not taking a screen capture of the original VGA-laden page (I also couldn’t find it in my
browser cache), I decided to start keeping some visual records. Click on the picture above to the right, and
you’ll be treated to the latest HD AV cable mix-up taken around 4:00 AM ET today. (Any time-stamped files linked
may be an hour off because they match my Central Time Zone. Any files purportedly from the 17th that are dated the
18th may have been inadvertently modified due to copying and/or renaming for clarity.)
Of course, you can’t have a contradiction without another page on the same site stating something completely different. Check out the Xbox 360: Your Choice link (off of the same Leipzig Games Convention mini-site on Xbox.com where I found all the “official” news through yesterday), and you’ll discover each system’s included accessory lists clearly split between the component HD AV cable and the standard AV one (which is expressly supposed to hook up quickly to “any TV or VCR with Audio/Video inputs”). If this weren’t clear enough, you can visit the FAQ linked at the bottom of this post, which makes it quite apparent that the Core system won’t be coming with HDTV cables standard. So why keep changing the lists from right to wrong (or wrong to right) on the Console and Accessories page (aka “The Future of Entertainment”)? Who knows. Maybe someone in Redmond wants a standard HD cable for the Core system as much as I do. One can only hope. But yeah, I fully expect MS to fix the future of entertainment any day now… but most likely after I finish this post.
[To knowledgeable Joystiq visitors, if you could suggest some free public file-hosting services somewhere, I might be able to link to a few archived HTML files that show the different HD-HD and HD-standard permutations from the past twelve hours. I would use the services I’m currently aware of, but they don’t like files that aren’t images, and I don’t want these files to require a specific client app to download and install. Yeah, I could take screen captures of those broken web pages, too, to meet the image requirements of said services, but that would eat up a bit too much bandwidth for my free tastes. I’ll work on posting files on Joystiq’s servers later today, but it would be nice to have something up in the meantime.
Update: Not to worry, I’ll post any relevant changes to pages here as screen captures from now on. Thanks for all the suggestions, though.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Proper Bo @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Hey everyone,
As in my other posts, im going off of the promotional PDf file from Microsoft. It stsates clearly that a composite lead is included. Not the HD cables. And this is what retailers are supposed to say to customers so meh!
Palmer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
741.com allows for free webspace. Uni.cc accounts allow one page of HTML (no image I don't think) per address.
What about use stone age people in the UK with HD TV, wheres the standard normal cables?
Dan Choi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
#2 (Palmer): There were some problems with the sites you listed. First, 741.com's ToS explicitly forbids the use of its accounts for file storage: "6) Sites used primarily for storage will be removed from our servers. This is site hosting, not file storage." Distributing an old page from one of Microsoft's sites might be frowned upon. And second, Uni.cc does not offer hosting. Thanks, anyway.
Palmer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Uni.cc offers one page of HTML per address. I'm pretty sure it is anyways.
Dan Choi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Yeah, but I wanted to host a few comparison pages, so one page wouldn't do it for me. Sorry.
Morgon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
http://www.majornelson.com/2005/08/18/confused-about-cables/
Major Nelson confirms HD cables with 'premium' package only. 'Core' will receive the S-video cable.
Dan Choi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Wow, Morgon (#6), I wonder if the major is mistaken this time. I haven't read that S-Video was going to be the hook-up for "any TV or VCR with Audio/Video inputs" on any major news site. He should spread the word up the corporate ladder if that truly is the case. I'll update the main post, nonetheless. Thanks for the heads-up!
Morgon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
I don't know. He -usually- gets better information than what's on the Xbox sites, just because he is on the front lines, and as you know, it's easier to update a small site, than a corporate one.
Also, I think nobody was expecting this second 'rogue' system to come along and call itself the 'Core' package. There have been tons of quotes being pulled up, showing many different people from Microsoft talking about the one-SKU launch (Ballmer, J Allard) and how every one was going to have HDD and Wireless controllers (Every single interview).
So there's going to be some inital confusion, especially with major news sites who are not directly affiliated with MS.
I'm inclined to believe that Major himself did not really learn of this until he went to Liepzig. I plan to make sure he answers that question at whatever point he comes back to his blog in a non-cleanup position.
Digi Smalls @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
so thats it? there's no word on HDMI or DVI?
Morgon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
There's a VGA cable that will be available at launch (Not DVI, but... it's something).
MS won't release a HDMI until the market's there.. which 'supposedly' won't be there for at least another year or more. I wouldn't hold my breath for one til at least late 2006, if I had to guess.
Dan Choi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Digi Smalls (#9), if you believe Todd Holmdahl, Corporate VP of the Xbox Product Group at Microsoft, they'll "provide an HDMI for [their] customers when it makes sense." He told TeamXbox back in June: "The reality is, you don’t need HDMI for HD gaming." How 'bout them apples?
http://interviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/1190/Xbox-360-Interview-Todd-Holmdahl/p1/
SickNic @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Meh, videogames ahve gotten too political. I love my xbox, but right now, nintendo is looking like the only honorable contender left in the business. And that makes me sad...
Sloopydrew @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Let's see if I have this straight. The core system is $299. That comes with one controller and no games. You'll obviously want a game, so that's another $59 dollars. So you're at $358. Throw in a memory card, which you'll need because you won't have a hard drive, and you're at $400 dollars. Your 400 dollar console will not play online games (unless you pay an additional $50.00). It will not let you watch DVDs (you have to pay to unlock the DVD player to watch movies). It will not let you play two players, since it only includes one controller.
It will not let you save on a hard drive, because it doesn't come with one. It will not let you play your games in high definition, because the HD wires are not included. Wow! Look at all that you will not be able to do with your 400 dollar XBOX 360.
Catalin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Actually if you have seen pictures of both the cables you'll notice an extra YELLO video cable. So S-video includes composite, and component includes conposite.
Morgon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Er.. no, you're grossly mistaken.
Of course, the corrections don't make things any better, but we'll try anyway:
Why will the Core system + Memory Unit not let you play online games? Are you talking about Xbox Live subscription, or something else? XBL pricing has not been announced for the Xbox 360 (but god hoping it's the same!)
DVD functionality is not locked this time around, and can be accessed via the controller, as well as the remote.
The HDD is a separate attachment at $99.99 (yuck)
And you're right, the 'core' unit does not allow you to play with the HD cables.
However: The "premium" package, which is $399.99, includes the HDD, HD cables, wireless controller, remote, and headset. The drawback is that XBL "Gold" is still not included in this configuration.
For the record, I think these prices are way too high. They should either sell 1 SKU at $349 with HDD, HD Cables, and Wireless controller -- or they should include a game in the premium config.
Dan Choi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Catalin (#14), you're right about the S-Video cable including a yellow composite-video plug. I'll update the update to reflect this information. Thanks for pointing that out. S-Video being the standard is beginning to possibly make sense.
Morgon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Damnit. Major updated his post - The 'Core' system does NOT include an SVideo cable, but just the composite.
You were right, Dan.
Christ, this just goes to show you that they really do NOT have their act together.
Jizzy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
This is why Im buying a PS3. :)
TiaMaster @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
>"This is why Im buying a PS3. :)"<
HA. Like Sony doesn't do even worse (remember PS2 claims anyone?).
I also don't understand how folks think the $399 price tag is too expensive. We all knew it was suppose to be somewhere around $300 initially. That, together with a $30 Headset, a $100 HD, a $25-$30 Remote, and whatever else (seems to keep changing) is pretty cost-effective.
Of course, since I'm not an idiot and therefore didn't expect M$ to take a hit on every system this time, I was hoping that they would sell the system (with HD) for $360 and be done with it. As it is now they are still taking a hit on each system sold and therefore I don't get the big deal about this new pricing strategy.
Alex @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
The lack of an HDMI cabe kind of sucks for me. I'm sure the picture will be just fine over the component cables, but HDMI transmits digital audio as well. All three of the optical audio ports are used up on my receiver, so now I'm kind of screwed. I don't see myself getting behind the entertainment center every time I want to play the xbox. :(
Stevie Boy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
Alex... if you are using a RCA type digital input for audio... then you can just buy a MONO Y-adapter to give one of your inputs on your receiver 2 plugs. Just make sure both "systems" that are connected together aren't on at the same time... or neither one will output audio. I have been doing this for years and have ZERO sound quality loss. Good luck.
Larky @ Dec 18th 2005 9:36PM
You guys have it lucky, in the UK High Def is just starting to happen and trying to confirm what TV I need to buy to plug the 360 into without hassles is proving impossible. As for the price, £279 for the cosnole with the extras seems like a good deal to me as it replaces the need for a DVD player, stereo etc. Can't wait for the release, and am screaming for Gears of War.