| Mail |
You might also like: WoW Insider, Massively, and more

Reader Comments (20)

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 10:22AM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
Yup, upscaling existing libraries game and DVD to 1080p and native support for 1080p games as well as 1080p native support on their HD-DVD player. FREAKIN SWEET.

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 10:58AM Bobbo said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
This is truly amazing. DVD upscaling...sweet! 1080p upscaling for games...sweet. Native support for 1080p games is great as it takes away one of Sony's bragging points...but still not very important as developers aren't going to be making native 1080p games for the 360 or the PS3. It's just too much of a performance hit to get 1080p while still maintaining many of the fancy visuals.

All together great news!

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 10:41AM DrHockey said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
Does anyone know if this update will allow the 360 to upscale DVD's to 720p/1080i without the add on HD-DVD player?

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 11:02AM Bobbo said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
#2...according to Kotaku they quote Shane Kim as saying:

"If it is running at 720p we will up-res it to 1080p, if it it's already 1080p then we can display it in 1080p," he said. " This is a great example of our console's ability and the great advantage of being a software company."

"We believe 720p is the sweet-spot for high definition," he said, adding that Microsoft Game Studio titles will, for now, continue to be created at 720p."

and the Kotaku article states:
"they announced that the fall software update for the console will allow the console to output game and movie content in 1080p resolution. That's right I said movies and games."

http://kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/shane-kim-talks-360-1080p-game-output-201816.php

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 11:07AM Bobbo said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
This should really be noted as 2 seperate post.

1) Completely unrelated to the HD-DVD add on...the Xbox 360 will be able to Upscale normal DVD movies and support 1080p output both natively and via upscaling using both component cables and VGA adapter. That support for 1080p for games if developers should create content for it.

2) HD-DVD add on price news and of course will playback HD-DVD movies in 1080p via component cables and VGA adapter.

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 11:43AM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
lol That's Microsoft's way of slapping Sony in the face with the whole true HD thing lol

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 12:53PM DanMacMan said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
Hell ya Microsoft. Now the $3500 1080p hdtv I bought can be justified a little more.

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 12:58PM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
I am all for 1080p, but it is useles for 99% of all HDTVs as they wont accept 1080p through component. If they would just add HDMI support then this announcment would actually be useful.

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 6:40PM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
This is a great tatic by M$, pretending in the begining not to care for either format. That way they would not have to compete with Sony price range.

Sony was hoping that M$ would have made the HD-DVD drive mandatory on the 360, thus playing Sony's game. Then the 360 would of went out the way of the Dreamcast. Because if the price of both systems are the same, even with 360's one year head start, its definite that the Ps3 would prevail. The third party support just would'nt be there for M$.

If Sony wanted a next gen video format war.
Well they got one. Good luck!

Oh yeah...1080p is cool.

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 1:59PM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
#8 Goose...1080p can be achieved through component cables. DVI and HDMI just produce better results.

Read more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video#Analog_component_video

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 4:26PM Thorzhamer said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
This is amazing news.

If you remember back when the 360 launched there were quite a few people upset at the fact that the DVD drive was NOT an upscaling drive..... well to all of those that complained... maybe Microsoft was listening???

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 3:52PM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
Is there a patch to upgrade my Westinghouse from 1080i to 1080p too? Just kidding.

Are there 1080p TVs out there to buy yet and can anyone really tell the difference? Maybe on a huge 62" or 80" TV I'm guessing.

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 4:10PM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
#9 Romo,

I know it is possible to send a 1080p signal through component cables, but the promblem is that very few (if any) TVs accept 1080p through component. For example I have a Sony 1080p RPTV and can only get native 1080p with HDMI.

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 4:36PM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
Wooooo, that's awesome, the monitor I'm going to buy is ALMOST 1080p, it's 1050p (I guess). I wonder if there will be a performance hit, and if so.... how much?

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 6:56PM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
dang MS got some skills.

Posted: Sep 20th 2006 8:17PM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
The Xbox 360 now has more 1080p features than the Playstation 3.

Posted: Sep 21st 2006 1:43AM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
Nice, but even though most HDTVs still do not support 1080p and vast majority of games won't use it (this applies for both 360 and PS3). But this takes away one of Sony's major bloating points about the PS3.

Also, I wonder if there will be more resolutions for VGA due to this? Because for people using LCD Widescreen monitors, it would be great if the 360 will be able to support the native resolution of these monitors (such as most 19 inch widescreen LCDs have a native resolution of 1440X900, which the 360 currently doesn't go up to).

Posted: Sep 21st 2006 4:50AM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
according to boris schneider-johne, the upscaling for normal dvd's will only work with the vga-connector. upscaling with the component cable is forbidden by Macrovision's licence.

isn't that great? :p

http://www.macrovision.com/products/activereach_dvd/faq.shtml#b6
http://www.dreisechzig.net/wp/archives/549

Posted: Sep 21st 2006 10:58AM DanMacMan said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
#11, yes there are a few 1080p sets that accept 1080p signals over component, my Samsung is one of them, and I know Sharp has some as well.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/TV/LCDTV/LNS4095DXXAA.asp?page=Specifications

Posted: Sep 21st 2006 11:58AM (Unverified) said

  • 2 hearts
  • Report
When exactly is the scheduled fall update?

Featured Stories

Engadget

Engadget

TUAW

TUAW

Massively

Massively

WoW

WoW