At their pre-TGS press briefing in Tokyo today, Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 will support 1080p content through a software upgrade. The "p" stands for parity.
Microsoft's announcement -- which effectively parries Sony's bold claims regarding the merits of 1080p high definition content or, as Sony calls it, True HD -- is their latest move seeking to blunt the impact of the oncoming Sony PS3 hype-train. With the True HD cat de-clawed, Microsoft's mantra of choice will appear even more appealing. It's another bullet point taken out of the next-gen console war equation.
Joystiq spoke briefly with Shane Kim, General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios, about their announcements in Tokyo today. First off, Kim clarified that, while the software patch would upscale all content to resolutions as high as 1080p, Microsoft themselves had no plans to produce gaming content taking advantage of this ability. He was similarly convinced that very few other developers would see the value in producing 1080p games, with the singular exception of Sony's first-party studios, eager to validate the value of the capability.
Similar to the way the Xbox 360 upscales original Xbox games from 480p to 720p/1080i, you'll be able to enjoy your existing Xbox 360 games at the new resolution. As if you needed more proof that Microsoft's adoption of high definition HD-DVD is little more than a strategic move to limit Blu-ray's potential sphere of influence, Microsoft's 1080p software upgrade will also remove some of the value of their upcoming HD-DVD add-on by upscaling your existing DVD movies to HD resolutions, including 1080p.
So, Microsoft just announced that the Xbox 360 will play your existing DVDs back in high-definition -- in addition to being able to play back legitimate HD-DVD content if you're interested -- and they're gonna do it in 1080p. In the bullet point war, Sony better hope that extra Blu-ray disc space is worth it; they'll have a chance to prove it at TGS this week.
Microsoft's TGS press briefing:
HD-DVD add-on hits Japan Nov. 17th for ¥19,800
Blue Dragon hits Japan this holiday
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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That just saved me a big chunk of cash, not to mention the time needed to find a decent DVD player that can upscale over component video. It's a logical step for a HD console to take and credit to Microsoft for deciding to include it in the 360, even if it did take a year (or more, I didn't see a release date for this upgrade in the post?).
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Isn't upscaling bad or is that just an HD elitist point of view?
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Is what the above post should have said.
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So, since we already found that no TVs will be accepting 1080p over component cables, how DO they plan on getting that shiny new resolution TO your TV?
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How...expected.
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So Wii and 360 will be the same price. And both will have games and one controller. Hmmm.. what is a nintendo fanboy to do?
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i duno bout component but i use vga which can do 1080p with ease. already been watching upscaled dvd's woth my 360 using vga. now i will be able to do 1080p with the update. and over component.
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i do have a tv with vga u need to do some real research buddy
not to mention the constarint was turned off as the members decided its better wait. which saved the 500 dollar ps3/ but i guess ms just lied to the world than if we belive u
i think i will go by what ms says not u. i am sure thye know just a smidgen more
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get hd-dvd u get native.
next 3rd party devs can make games with native 1080p if they want. ms is choosing to support 1080p but will make 1st pary games 720p. they feel few if any devs will go any higher than 720p because of costs. but it can be dine native for games after the update if devs choose it 2
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People moan and complain about the PS3 catering to only a small demographic, this update caters to an even smaller demographic of only people who have PC monitors over 24" that they use to watch movies on and play games, and even then it's only upscaled. Weak.
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1080p can be done with component outputs.
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I dunno... I'm still going to go with a machine built from the ground up for HD.
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u work for micorsoft. they justs tated to the whole world 1080p for games and upscaled dvd, and hd-dvd over component. is ur only rebutle is that it canlt cause u said so lol.
u sound like a whiny fanboy now. MS just stated to the world it can and will be done. wake up my friend. the hd era began with ms not sony.
sony insert foot in mouth
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the 360 was built for hd gaming. now it does full hd gaming natively if the devs want it. or it can be upscaled. not much lossless from 1080i to 1080p even in an upscale. now an upscale from 480i is another problem.
now if i choose to have native movie playback i wil but dvd's are cheaper. i can play any dvd in hd. for much less. u think while i am watchign a stunning picture i say damn i wish this was native?
next have u seen an upscaled dvd in action. I donlt think so cause ur comments about ground up sound like ur fighting for a reason to spend 200 more. I will even give u a break. 100 more.
this move is huge. the major selling point of the ps3 was 1080p. remebr. well now devs can support it. expect virtua tennis to supprt it now. nd any 3rd part game that is multi platform and 1080p.
its over. siny is in big trouble my friend. watch stock prices drop sig tomm my friend. if u own stock sell sell sell. I am glad i sold mine when they were still in the high 40's. should ahve when thye were at an alltime high befor e3.
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I don't think that's an accurate way to describe what's happening - When playing an XBox backward-compatible game on the 360 (like, say, Ghost Recon2, Splinter Cell, Star Wars Battlefront, Halo2), the 360 up-rezzes the game's XxY resolution at a 3D-geometry level, before it's created what you see - like when you switch your resloution setting on a PC game from 640x480 up to 1024x768 or whatever. That's why while the game's 3D objects are sharper and higher quality, the sprite-based graphics like the texture maps, the 'radar,' the bullet count, the HUD info, menu selections, etc. will often stay at the older XBox resolution they were created for.
An over-all up-res would look very different, as it's interpolating the image up AFTER it's been created. Since a movie is not 3D geometry created by the machine you're watching it on, it's only going to be what you expect: 720x486 pixels interpolated to be 1920x1080.
The up-shot possibility here is that if Microsoft can get a good interpolation happening, the games could look good too - although, interpolating a movie to 1080 is likely lesss work for the machine than running a game AND uprezzing it to 1080.
I have my doubts - For example, the uprezzed-to-720 gameplay in Project Gotham Racing 3 is not as good-looking as the 'honest' 720 menus, countdown-to-race scenes, or anything NOT actual gameplay.
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p.s. - upscaling blows.
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i donlt want them to fail. infact i wanted a ps3. but i for one don't like pushing formats on us only for the benefit of the company. Not the gamer. and we pay to fight that war
oh Universal dropped bluray support today. Another sony hit. once again sell ur stocks. try to cut ur losses. if i had niot sold when i did i would be out thousands
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once again ur wrong, it can be done over component.
next it will only upscale dvds and 720p games. devs can make games native if they want. so games can be 1080p native.
i watch dvd;s upscaled to 720p and its stunning. so once again ur wrong there 2
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wasnlt bashing sony or supporting hd-dvd. just letting u know what i read. here is the link. so apprently they did support it or were going to
http://www.slashgear.com/universal-drops-blu-ray-support-201719.php
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It's great that MS is improving their system and adding features, this is good news. I was just wondering how viable it is since I wasn't aware of a way the 360 could actually put those 1080p images on my HDTV that I will someday buy. I know they can't use HDMI which is in position to become the new HD standard cable, so what else could it really use? There were arguments about if component could be used, but those concluded with, "well, it is possible, but no TV supports it". I wasn't clear on how you could actually get a 1080p signal to a standard HDTV.
I don't want MS to fail, nor Nintendo, nor Sony. I want all to succeed because I want a greater variety in games. If anything, you should all thank Sony for pushing 1080p so much, or you probably wouldn't be getting this update at all.
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I agree 100%. I got my 1080p TV for the PS3. M$ is doing a good job of putting the consumer first.
Del Taco is right, there is NO HDTV or even monitor that can display 1080p over component. If there is, someone post a link. This also means only the $600 PS3 will output 1080p through only HDMI.
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I too use VGA, it is capable of the 148.5 signal.
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sure i can upscale my vhs to see in my hdtv
even i can upscale my vga photo to 10 megapixel
i can play video from my cell phone at full screen
i remember my digital 500x zoom from my camcorder
UPSCALE... yeah... who doesnt like to see big squares all over and pixelates images...
if UPSCALE is the answer, why we dont buy just vga cameras, and UPSCALE the image to the size desired. You want a bigger image for a poster, forget your 10 megapixel camera, just use your cell phone, then by SOFTWARE, UPSCALE it to fit the poster.
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pretty sure my upscaled Halo 2 (480p to 720p) doesn't have "big squares all over and pixelates images." What makes you think 720p to 1080p or 1080i to 1080p will look "pixelates?"
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{Kim was clear that the console could support true 1080p out.
"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."}
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/shane-kim-talks-360-1080p-game-output-201816.php
upscale for if u donlt want to buy the add on. and iof games support 1080p it will be native. if its 720p it will upscale. same with the ps3. oh yeah 200 less though
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There isn't a single method you can use to resize content. Some look better than others. Some are faster than others.
Personally, I suspect the scaling hardware in most TVs is somewhat less sophisticated than the hardware present in a 360.
That, FYI, is why people purchase expensive upscaling dvd players and why people are getting excited about the 360 being able to output dvds upscaled.
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