This coming Tuesday is a big day for people that are both fans of South Park and Xbox 360 owners. Comedy Central is releasing the first ever high definition episode of South Park on the Xbox Live Marketplace to all members (we're assuming this means Silver and Gold) for free. That's right, everyone's favorite word -- free. It will be on Marketplace at that low, low, price of free for two weeks, and will also be available as a free HD-DVD to people buying a new Xbox 360 console or the HD-DVD add-on drive at Best Buy from March 20th through April 3rd.
The episode is a couple of years old, but it is definitely a fan fave. It's 'Good Times With Weapons' from the 2004 season ... better known as the "South Park Ninjas episode. The style changes from the traditional cutout look into anime style pictured above, and it will look, er ... extra-animated in HD. Couple this with the fact that South Park's new season starts this Wednesday, and new episodes will be on XBLM each following week, the fanboys and fangirls should be fairly happy.
Still, for the price, who can complain? Let's hope this trend continues. Give us some free HD Battlestar Galactica episodes already. The timing on this is pretty interesting as well ... right after the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. Does this mean Microsoft might be finally releasing the rumored Xbox 360 v2 with HDMI?
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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How about non-americans who don't have any access whatsoever to the video marketplace, let alone access to this free content!?
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Microsoft determines your region (for the video marketplace) by your credit card, so that method will not work.
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Taisetsu na mono protect my balls!
Boku ga warui so let's fighting...
Let's fighting love!
Let's fighting love!
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Don't use your credit card number and just buy points from the store. It should work.
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Step up and get a Gold account
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the show is made with vectors so it should be scalable to any resolution.
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This is cool, though I am still annoyed we won't benefit from this... Or this video marketplace up in Canada. I'm not sure why this makes the black HDMI 360 any more or less likely though. If they do release one who here will upgrade?
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shame its just for americans though.
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HDMI offers a simplied cable connection, but introduces stricter security measures for DRM enabled content. It does not improve the look of games over existing HD cable options already offered for the 360. It would be great for HD movies once DRM is enabled, but I understand that's still a number of years off.
I don't think anyone will disagree that a larger HD needs to be an option. Microsoft has been mum on that one for a long time.
I don't know how "excessively" high the numbers are, but there have certainly been units that have failed. And to my knowledge, Microsoft has commited to replacing them. Luckily, the one I've owned for about a year has never had a problem. A friend of mine picked up one at Zero Hour. He hasn't had any problems either. We both use our systems practically every day.
As far as releasing a new model, has that been announced? I know's there's been speculation.
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Welcome to a world run by Microsoft
A people ready world (for North American people)
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or were to get the lyrics plz
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I meant to add; its only fair, after all the years the Japanese got the best extra content
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-Leshrac
http://alinktothefuture.com
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As it stands, the primary reason HDMI even exists is to utilize new DRM that has alredy been cracked.
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Why would there need to be DRM in a fuckin' video signal that's heading to your TV anyway? By the time you get the signal onto HDMI, that generally means you have already legally bought/illegally decrypted the signal
That seems needlessly excessive, if true
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@Mr Khan - because Sony et al. are worried that you are going to run that re-encode that signal, and distribute near-perfect DRM-free copies on teh interweb tubes.
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I'm not sure that the failure rates are "excessively high"--but one advantage of releasing a new version, from Microsoft's point of view, is the reduced cost of the smaller chip. Their cost goes down due to die reduction and reduced cooling/power requirements. Larger hard drive capacity may not have been necessary in the past, but it will help them with their VOD plans going forward.
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Sounds like youre saying that anytime you buy something, MS can no longer offer it for free to anyone else if they want to. That's just bad luck/timing on your part, bud.
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Wow...someone who actually knows what they are talking about. The difference between component and HDMI is so miniscule that all the hype is a joke. It's like the difference between VGA and DVI on PC's....it's not worth the trouble and most people don't notice a difference.
Guess what...downloaded content from XBLA in HD look better than the Blu-ray movies I bought and played on my PS3 (even with HDMI). No HDMI required for the XBLA content; component works great. That also means no HDCP hassles.
I'm starting to wonder about the fuss on hard drive sizes. I'll never use the 60GB in my PS3 (Linux, worthless demos, and a couple of gamesaves...that's it), and I still have 6GB on my 360 (had it since launch). Music? Just stream it. The PS3 will support that properly someday...
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1) An all new 120GB HDD.....with no way to attach the old 20GB HDD?? Iffy way to copy items from old HDD?? Waste of old HDDs??
or
2) An attachment for the current HDD that expands storage by 100-120GBHD?? No copying needed or redownloading of stuff.
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Ask Sony, they're the ones that artificially limited BluRay resolutions over component and VGA cable when component and VGA clearly have the bandwidth to display those resolutions. Called business. Why make the PS3 run on a SDTV when they can cross-promote their $5,000 1080p sets with HDMI?
HD-DVD and BluRay companies need those HDMI cables to fit the DRM information in there. They want to sell new televisions, pure and simple. Our older HDTV sets without HDMI aren't good enough for them.
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i they dont, all i have to do is make a US hotmail account?
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One thing everyone is forgetting is that the change from SD to HD will not only improve resolution but it will also change the aspect ratio. They aren't going to crop the original image, they're going to add more to the sides. Should be easy since it's all saved as Maya files. I've heard they've spent the last couple months going through the old episodes and adding the content. I can't wait to see the results.
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Og my god, whatever will I do?
I guess my pioneer elite receiver with 5.1 surround sound is completely worthless, and outdated.
I better throw it away, buy a new receiver. Plus, I'm gonna need two more polk rti's for 7.1, because what's the point of having a 7.1 receiver, with only 5 speakers?
Add to that a playstation 3, because that is the only way possible to get Dolby TrueHD and 1080p.
I suppose my sony hd crt tv isn't any good either, because it doesn't do 1080p, only 1080i (and 720p) and it only has DVI, not the almighty HDMI.
I guess my entire system is completely outdated and worthless. I better upgrade everything, the playstation 3 is here!
Time to start working two jobs, just like Ken said.
I think you forget, for most people, playing video games and watching movies, is a hobby/past time. It's not their life.
Isn't that why the playstation 2 did so well, because it was affordable and appealed to the most people?
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I could vote up #47.
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Damn! I have the first eight seasons of the show on DVD, with the Ninth preordered. And now you're telling me there's going to be better HD versions out there! Arrgh!
I'm already paying arms and legs replacing my SD DVD collection on HD-DVD (And eventually Blu-Ray), and now I'm just going to have to pay more. I'm so glad I didn't buy Battlestar Galactica on SD yet, since Universal said it's coming out on HD-DVD this year (The first season at least)...
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Not 1080i in BluRay, but that is a different story. Also, just wait until Hollywood decides to turn on HDCP. Don't have an HDMI television, your "deal" of a PS3 suddenly becomes incredibly expensive.
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