CONFIRMED:HDMI-enabled black Xbox 360 out on April 29!

[quote name='linkpwns']I got my weekly gamestop newsletter, and there it was! Omg, it looked cool.

But I thought that it was going to retail for 400, the current premium then going to 300?[/QUOTE]

You've been reading too many of propeller_head's posts, which turned out to be wrong.
 
[quote name='nharmon91']Anybody look at ebay prices for the premiums? Seems they are going for about $250 avergae now. Damn, thats low.[/QUOTE]

Hmm. Well, truth be told, if I was in the market for a premium 360, I'd be all over that price (though I'd have to ensure with the seller that they had not paid for an extended warranty so I might try to get one myself through MS).

Guess some of you will be paying $230 to upgrade to an Elite.
 
[quote name='PyroGamer']Currently the 360 only supports 20GB partion.

Also, I think the software for the 120GB might be on the bundled disk... so it might not be a dashboard update.[/QUOTE]

People play burned 360 games, I'm sure there is a way around this. I know I will be looking into it myself because I want to upgrade the HDD to my 360, but not for $180.
 
[quote name='opportunity777']People play burned 360 games, I'm sure there is a way around this. I know I will be looking into it myself because I want to upgrade the HDD to my 360, but not for $180.[/quote]

Yea I believe the fun factor on my orginal Xbox tripled when I put in my own 180Gig hard drive which I got extremely cheap since its computer hardware, duh.
 
Stolen from some guy on the internets:

"Once the 120GB drive is availible, we'll be able to upgrade our existing 20GB drives to 120GB drives using the hash stored in sector 16 on the drive. By buying a bare 120GB 2.5" drive and doing some hacking with TheSpecialist's HDDHacker, you can save $100+ over buying m$'s ripoff 120GB drive if you already have a 20GB one.

You'll need a WD Scorpio BEVS series SATA HDD, you can pick up one for less than $85 with free shipping from newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136072

And you'll need TS's HDDHacker tool:

http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/xbox360pc/harddrive/hddhacker.rar

Once you get your new drive, you'll need to copy sectors 16-22 from the official m$ 120GB drive to your new bare drive. This will be widely availible after the drive is released. Then make sure your new drive is the only one connected to your SATA controller on your PC, boot to DOS, and run HDDHacker. Once it's done, just swap out your new hdd with the old one in the 360's HDD case and you're done!:

http://www.xbox-scene.com/tutorials-xbox360/open-xbox360-hdd-drive.php

I'm sure once we have the proper hash someone will release an all in one easy to use tool that preps the drive for you, but the current process isn't too bad"
 
[quote name='zewone']Stolen from some guy on the internets:

"Once the 120GB drive is availible, we'll be able to upgrade our existing 20GB drives to 120GB drives using the hash stored in sector 16 on the drive. By buying a bare 120GB 2.5" drive and doing some hacking with TheSpecialist's HDDHacker, you can save $100+ over buying m$'s ripoff 120GB drive if you already have a 20GB one.

You'll need a WD Scorpio BEVS series SATA HDD, you can pick up one for less than $85 with free shipping from newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136072

And you'll need TS's HDDHacker tool:

http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/xbox360pc/harddrive/hddhacker.rar

Once you get your new drive, you'll need to copy sectors 16-22 from the official m$ 120GB drive to your new bare drive. This will be widely availible after the drive is released. Then make sure your new drive is the only one connected to your SATA controller on your PC, boot to DOS, and run HDDHacker. Once it's done, just swap out your new hdd with the old one in the 360's HDD case and you're done!:

http://www.xbox-scene.com/tutorials-xbox360/open-xbox360-hdd-drive.php

I'm sure once we have the proper hash someone will release an all in one easy to use tool that preps the drive for you, but the current process isn't too bad"[/quote]

kickass!!:bow:\\:D/
 
[quote name='zewone']Stolen from some guy on the internets:

"Once the 120GB drive is availible, we'll be able to upgrade our existing 20GB drives to 120GB drives using the hash stored in sector 16 on the drive. By buying a bare 120GB 2.5" drive and doing some hacking with TheSpecialist's HDDHacker, you can save $100+ over buying m$'s ripoff 120GB drive if you already have a 20GB one.

You'll need a WD Scorpio BEVS series SATA HDD, you can pick up one for less than $85 with free shipping from newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136072

And you'll need TS's HDDHacker tool:

http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/xbox360pc/harddrive/hddhacker.rar

Once you get your new drive, you'll need to copy sectors 16-22 from the official m$ 120GB drive to your new bare drive. This will be widely availible after the drive is released. Then make sure your new drive is the only one connected to your SATA controller on your PC, boot to DOS, and run HDDHacker. Once it's done, just swap out your new hdd with the old one in the 360's HDD case and you're done!:

http://www.xbox-scene.com/tutorials-xbox360/open-xbox360-hdd-drive.php

I'm sure once we have the proper hash someone will release an all in one easy to use tool that preps the drive for you, but the current process isn't too bad"[/quote]
I planned on doing this until the rumors started flying about the existence of the official 120GB version. But $179?!

H E L L fuck I N G N O ! ! !

I can get a 160GB sata drive and STILL save money.
 
I can understand why MS made this system. They have the largest hard drive of any console, HDMI so they can do 1080P on more tvs, and if they want to do IP TV they need more hard drive space.

The problem is that now they have 3 systems and a price much closer to the PS3 lite version.

I think MS has gotten a large head due to the screw ups at Sony. It's time for a price drop on the system if they want to hold the leadership position.

$250 core, $350 premium, $479 elite? Come on MS at least make the pricing make sense! Charging existing customers $179 for the HD but giving new adopters the drive for less than $60! That's really not fair.
 
I'm really upset over the HDD price. That is just crazy. I was going to look into IPTV when it is available, but for that price...probably not.

I prefer my white-ish console anyways. I don't have HDMI either....so that is just another knock.

Oh well....I can wait for a cheap 120GB HDD. At least they have a migration software for going from 20 to 120.
 
[quote name='Indiana']I can understand why MS made this system. They have the largest hard drive of any console, HDMI so they can do 1080P on more tvs, and if they want to do IP TV they need more hard drive space.

The problem is that now they have 3 systems and a price much closer to the PS3 lite version.

I think MS has gotten a large head due to the screw ups at Sony. It's time for a price drop on the system if they want to hold the leadership position.

$250 core, $350 premium, $479 elite? Come on MS at least make the pricing make sense! Charging existing customers $179 for the HD but giving new adopters the drive for less than $60! That's really not fair.[/quote]

i have to agree. theyve gone off track w/ this. i mean its nice that theyve incorporated these features. but it better be part of a short term plan. and Limited better mean limited. otherwise they're going to turn their happy customers into bitter customers just like sony did.
 
I love the matt black colour, it would go with my original Xbox perfectly. Shame the black is a limited edition (though 'limited' is relative - remember the crystal Xbox).
 
I think I will hold out if/when IPTV comes to my area. I have a HDMI port, but my TV only goes to 720p, so that's useless. I don't need the bigger HDD unless IPTV comes to Chicago. It doesn't have the smaller/cooler/quieter components, i.e. chip and drive, so I can wait. At the minimum, I'll get a new wireless black controller.
 
[quote name='killthebunnies']I love the matt black colour, it would go with my original Xbox perfectly. Shame the black is a limited edition (though 'limited' is relative - remember the crystal Xbox).[/QUOTE]

It's not limited.
 
Nah... my tv does not output 1080p so I don't need to spend $479 + tax for this. 120 gigs of memory? Nah, I don't download movies nor videos (just demos but I delete them after a week or so). I am perfectly fine with my white 360. This would have been an awesome deal IF the elite had the HD-DVD drive on it but no, so fuck the elite... Definitely this is a bad move for MS...
 
Yeah, I blame Sony and their $600 (or $500 if you can find it) price. I think that allowed Nintendo to price the Wii at $250 instead of $200. And now it has kept MS from dropping the price of the 360 when it was due for one. Had the PS3 been a bit cheaper, we'd probably see $200/$300/$400 pricing for the 360 models.
 
I wish I could find a website or store that is offering pre orders for this...

I really want one, considering my current has conviently broken, and I had a core, and would be spending 100 dollars on a hard drive alone anyway
 
[quote name='Lieutenant Dan']Sorry for not reading through all of these posts, but is this version supposed to be more reliable?[/QUOTE]
It's using the 90nm chip still, but it may come with the newer BenQ drive. The picture I saw of one had the Samsung drive. So, it'll probably be as reliable as the ones we have now i.e. not very.
 
[quote name='zewone']It's using the 90nm chip still, but it may come with the newer BenQ drive. The picture I saw of one had the Samsung drive. So, it'll probably be as reliable as the ones we have now i.e. not very.[/quote]
but they did say its a new chipset. so it may be. no1 really knows at this point. and supposedly it does have better cooling. you can see it has more vents than the premium.
 
Woah...some (hopefully not all) of these still have the older blender drives?!? Geez, I figured at the least it would guarantee you'd get one of the new drives.
 
I haven't gone next gen yet but the Elite is looking very good to me. I've been debating between getting a 360 or a PS3 for months now and this news brings me closer to getting a 360. So from what I'm reading, some of the improvements you can't upgrade with the current 360 premiums that come with the Elite are, HDMI, quieter DVD drive, no more power brick, possibly new chipset, possibly system runs cooler...
 
[quote name='MadFlava']I haven't gone next gen yet but the Elite is looking very good to me. I've been debating between getting a 360 or a PS3 for months now and this news brings me closer to getting a 360. So from what I'm reading, some of the improvements you can't upgrade with the current 360 premiums that come with the Elite are, HDMI, quieter DVD drive, no more power brick, possibly new chipset, possibly system runs cooler...[/QUOTE]

HDMI is the only thing confirmed in your list. I've not read anything about "no more power brick" (it would be a miracle if they could squeeze all those components into the 360 console *and* cool it down). There's no truth to the quieter drive or smaller/cooler processor. Really, the differences, at this moment, are HDMI, the HDD, and the color.

Personally, if I were in the market for a 360, I'd buy one off of some sucker looking to dump their Premium and upgrade to an Elite. You can get a Premium off of eBay for $250 now. That's a steal, and, IMO at least, a much better option than the Elite.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']HDMI is the only thing confirmed in your list. I've not read anything about "no more power brick" (it would be a miracle if they could squeeze all those components into the 360 console *and* cool it down). There's no truth to the quieter drive or smaller/cooler processor. Really, the differences, at this moment, are HDMI, the HDD, and the color.

Personally, if I were in the market for a 360, I'd buy one off of some sucker looking to dump their Premium and upgrade to an Elite. You can get a Premium off of eBay for $250 now. That's a steal, and, IMO at least, a much better option than the Elite.[/quote]
actually they (MS) have confirmed a new chipset and it running cooler.
and it all but has to use the new BenQ drive since thats all they're putting in the 360s now. you think they'll put a noisy drive in the "Elite" and the quiet drive in the premium? doubtful
 
[quote name='propeller_head']actually they (MS) have confirmed a new chipset and it running cooler.
and it all but has to use the new BenQ drive since thats all they're putting in the 360s now. you think they'll put a noisy drive in the "Elite" and the quiet drive in the premium? doubtful[/QUOTE]

I think people are saying it's not the quiet drive because there are pictures of the Elite with their trays open and they are NOT the BenQ drives. I guess nobody will really know until the thing is released and people start voiding warranties.
 
I can't imagine the Elite's don't have the BenQ drives, but anything is possible.

One reason why MS won't come out and say one way or the other on these "minor" issues is that if they say they improved drive noise/cooling/reliability then they are admitting that they had problems with those before. If they haven't fixed these things, then they don't want to say they haven't because, well, they should have... I'm really hesitant now at buying an Elite if it doesn't at least have the BenQ drive. I figure the bigger HD and a quieter DVD drive is well worth the $80 (as HDMI is meaningless to me now). But $80 just for the HD when maybe I can wait a few more months for the 65nm chipset AND a potential price drop... I dunno...

If I can get a current premium with the BenQ that seems like a better deal.

Bah! Why did they have to come out with this half-assed new model!?

Where are these pictures of the Elite with an open drive tray? This is news to me. If they are sticking the old drives in these that is absolutely asinine on MS's part.
 
[quote name='zewone']

That's a Hitatchi drive. The worst one.[/QUOTE]

What's the source for that? Hopefully that is an early pre-production model or something and the new ones currently rolling out of the factory will have the new drives.

I mean, wouldn't it at least be bad PR for MS to stick the noisy drives into this thing? We know they have a source of quieter drives, so why wouldn't it be a priority to get these into their top of the line model? The change is insignificant in terms of cost to them, so you'd think they would want to make these new ones as slick as possible. If they come out with the new drive (which is not widely known by most of the public to be in the latest Premium models), then they'd probably get bonus points for making the system significantly quieter when reviews of the Elite come out. Hmmm.... As high as I was on this thing a few weeks ago, my enthusiasm is at an all time low now. Meh...
 
[quote name='io']What's the source for that? Hopefully that is an early pre-production model or something and the new ones currently rolling out of the factory will have the new drives.

I mean, wouldn't it at least be bad PR for MS to stick the noisy drives into this thing? We know they have a source of quieter drives, so why wouldn't it be a priority to get these into their top of the line model? The change is insignificant in terms of cost to them, so you'd think they would want to make these new ones as slick as possible. If they come out with the new drive (which is not widely known by most of the public to be in the latest Premium models), then they'd probably get bonus points for making the system significantly quieter when reviews of the Elite come out. Hmmm.... As high as I was on this thing a few weeks ago, my enthusiasm is at an all time low now. Meh...[/QUOTE]
They probably don't all have BenQ drives because they have to mass produce 360s (not just Elites) and they need to source it out to the three companies they have deals with. This is also a post production unit: http://kotaku.com/gaming/360-elite/gallery-elite-360-naked-and-unsupervised-247671.php
 
[quote name='zewone']They probably don't all have BenQ drives because they have to mass produce 360s (not just Elites) and they need to source it out to the three companies they have deals with. This is also a post production unit: http://kotaku.com/gaming/360-elite/gallery-elite-360-naked-and-unsupervised-247671.php[/QUOTE]

Damn, well that sucks - no preordering for me then, and a longer wait. If I can find one with the BenQ then I'll probably get it. We'll have to get a list of lot numbers and such like with the premium to know (before opening) which has the BenQ. And that will take some time after release. Ugh...
 
I read that there was an issue if you want to swap consoles not just HDD, so what about that?

That means that even if you have the money to buy the elite you won't have the chance to transfer your live account as well.

On that interview thats is going around they said they are working on "that" issue.
 
[quote name='obijuan71']I read that there was an issue if you want to swap consoles not just HDD, so what about that?

That means that even if you have the money to buy the elite you won't have the chance to transfer your live account as well.

On that interview thats is going around they said they are working on "that" issue.[/QUOTE]
The issue is that you wont be able to "use" your paid content offline.
 
[quote name='zewone']

That's a Hitatchi drive. The worst one.[/quote]
hmm well have to wait and see i guess. maybe its a newer version w/ dampeners. it would be pretty dumb for them to have it noiser than the premiums when they're touting that it has better cooling. and when people hear that what they really hear is "quieter". since most people think the noise comes from the fans rather than the dvd.
 
[quote name='propeller_head']hmm well have to wait and see i guess. maybe its a newer version w/ dampeners. it would be pretty dumb for them to have it noiser than the premiums when they're touting that it has better cooling. and when people hear that what they really hear is "quieter". since most people think the noise comes from the fans rather than the dvd.[/QUOTE]

That's what I'm sayin'. If the gaming press gets a hold of these things in the next few weeks and they are as noisy as the noisest of the older models, I would think that would be some major bad PR for MS.
 
[quote name='io']That's what I'm sayin'. If the gaming press gets a hold of these things in the next few weeks and they are as noisy as the noisest of the older models, I would think that would be some major bad PR for MS.[/QUOTE]
Did MS ever tout them as being quieter? I think the only features they are advertising is the HDMI port and the 120GB HDD. They have been saying the Elite would have the same components.
 
[quote name='zewone']Did MS ever tout them as being quieter? I think the only features they are advertising is the HDMI port and the 120GB HDD. They have been saying the Elite would have the same components.[/QUOTE]

Hmm... Not sure - I know there was some statement about them running cooler, and as propeller head says many will equate that with being quieter. But perhaps you are right, and they will just market these as being as noisy as they've always been. I guess if the BenQ's were more well-known in the current model it might be viewed as a step backwards if all Elites didn't have them. But then maybe it's just us and a few other gaming-site regulars that know about those and MS doesn't care if they piss of a very small segment of the market.

However, I hope some review sites will make it clear to everyone that these are the same as the old ones - with all the same issues and problems, unless MS is keeping quiet about some improvements they've made. I mean, everyone keeps mentioning the quote where they said they have the same chips and all, but clearly there is some difference as they added the digital scaler chip for HDMI. So perhaps there are other subtle changes to the circuitry that will help with noise or cooling, or, more importantly, reliability.

I dunno... I'm just disappointed and grasping at straws here :lol:.

I have a question: if I decide to wait, is there a way I can use a 12-month Xbox Live code (or two) on an account I create on the PC (ie, without ever having a 360)? I have a couple of those kits that expire on June 30th. If I want to wait for the 65nm chips I'll be waiting for 4-5 months after that. But since I got the kits so cheap I might as well create a Gold account if I can. I'll only lose that 4-5 out of the 24 months total, so that would be better than selling them for less than $30-$40 and buying a full-priced Live sub later.
 
[quote name='zewone']Did MS ever tout them as being quieter? I think the only features they are advertising is the HDMI port and the 120GB HDD. They have been saying the Elite would have the same components.[/quote] thats not what i said. i said they said it would be cooler. and people equate that to meaning quieter. because they equate the noise coming from fans as opposed to the DVD drive. since the DVD drive sounds like a large fan.

and if people casually talking about it on a forum can get up in arms about it using an older noiser drive. imagine what the gaming blogs would do. outrage generates traffic. traffic generates money. they would be on it in a heartbeat.
 
[quote name='propeller_head']actually they (MS) have confirmed a new chipset and it running cooler.
and it all but has to use the new BenQ drive since thats all they're putting in the 360s now. you think they'll put a noisy drive in the "Elite" and the quiet drive in the premium? doubtful[/quote]

I would like a link to this MS confirmation.
 
Amir finally answered some pressing questions about the Elite's HDMI abilities:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10176889&&#post10176889

Hello everyone. Sorry for the late response. As I posted before, I was at a 2-day offsite with no net access (or time to use it!). Trying to catch up with all the questions asked.

Xbox 360 Elite supports HDMI 1.2 profile. For audio, you can select DD, DTS (at 1.5 Mbps), and WMA-Pro (Microsoft high fidelity multi-channel codec supported in some AVRs such as Pioneer). Since it is not based on 1.3, it will not support output of DD+ or TrueHD (even if it did, mixing would have been turned off).

PCM output is available but only for 2-channels (not 5.1). Please, please, don’t say you don’t like this. There is nothing you are going to say which we don’t know . Our goal was to provide a digital connection for video which people wanted for some of their TVs. And of course, single cable A/V connection. So if having analog video bothered you before, you can now use digital. If you lacked component/VGA on your TV, you are in business with Xbox 360 Elite.

Keep in mind that the spring software update for HD DVD substantially improves audio fidelity. Per above, you now have a choice of no less than three output formats.

If you are keen on having 5.1 PCM output, I recommend purchasing the Toshiba A2 player which after the price drop, will be much cheaper than Elite.

Answering other questions, both Xbox 360 Elite and current Xbox 360 units will have a spring (console) update which adds support for different video levels for VGA output (“7.5 IRE vs 0”). And as someone mentioned, using this setting you should be able to use computer monitors in addition to TVs with resolutions all the way up to 1080p with high fidelity and no issues with HDCP handshaking. So for current users, I highly recommend trying this update with your VGA connection to see if it does the job for you. Note that this is a console update and will work for both games and of course, HD DVD. The HD DVD software update is separate from this (and will be available on both Xbox Live and xbox.com).

On output video format, Xbox 360 Elite will perform a handshake and select the appropriate RGB/YUV settings over HDMI. You cannot select it yourself.

The spring HD DVD software update will fix all the lip sync issues that have been reported/we know of.

There is no support for the WMV-HD disc format but of course, you can put WMV files on discs and Xbox 360 will play them.
Click to expand...
 
[quote name='Chacrana']Nice. I'll be cashing in my warranty, losing the annoying as fuck power brick that's probably close to burning down my house, and hopefully playing 360 games with less background noise.[/QUOTE]


People using their warranties will not get the new version of the Xbox 360, you will get the same old version.

If you have a multi-year warranty, or if yours dies a year from now, perhaps you might get a 65nm version- but otherwise, you are screwed.

Just an FYI- so go ahead and flame me with "OMG U teh LIARZ! I gets newer better versions for teh free!" I know how these things work, and there is no chance.

But just think- you've been playing and enjoying games for a while now, and now those of us without the 360 who have been waiting, will be able to wait to the end of the year and get a 65nm version of the black Xbox 360. Whoo hoo!
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']Amir finally answered some pressing questions about the Elite's HDMI abilities:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10176889&&#post10176889[/QUOTE]

So is the Elite going to have some kind of digtial output on the actual system instead of on the cable connections? Cuz it's going to be odd having analog and digital cables connected at once just so I can get 5.1 when I upgrade receivers. And frankly some of that info is disappointing to say the least, I'll gladly wait around til more revisions come about later this year.
 
Looks like the lossless audio won't be much of an issue. The spring update that should be out in a few weeks will allow DTS which amirm from AVS has said is a big jump in sound from what it is currently and that its very hard to tell the differnce between DTS and TrueHD. I Just hope I can use the HDMI for video and digital output for sound.
 
[quote name='LinkinPrime']Looks like the lossless audio won't be much of an issue. The spring update that should be out in a few weeks will allow DTS which amirm from AVS has said is a big jump in sound from what it is currently and that its very hard to tell the differnce between DTS and TrueHD. I Just hope I can use the HDMI for video and digital output for sound.[/QUOTE]

If I understand his posting's lately, the HDMI port won't carry sound at all.
 
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