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[thax]

From Rockster on Beyond3D Forums, who seems to have some additional information from somewhere:

QUOTE

According to the TCR's devs only need to target 720p. The outboard display chip is responsible for scaling the image. It can scale up to 1080i or down to 480i/p. MS made this decision in order to support ALL HDTV's without requiring specific developer support for each display mode, as was the case with XBox 1. Many older HD displays are limited to supporting only 1080i or only 720p.

Because it does its scaling in the analog domain, this display chip is incapable of digital outputs like DVI/HDMI or supporting 1080p. It was designed by MS's WebTV group. Right now it is limited to composite, s-video, component, and vga. The chip can be re-engineered and changed later since it is seperate from Xenos to support digital out, but that could create consumer confusion as to which XBox units do what.

TCR means Test Condition Requirements I think.

If this is true then it means that all games will be rendered in 720p and up or downscaled to all other resolutions.

[twistedsymphony]

this is both good and bad news...

bad
-we wont be getting true resolution outside of 720p on games were developers are lazy
-people with 4:3 TVs might be playing games with lazy developers in letterbox
-no digital out (though due to the nature of the chip it wouldn't matter because it's an analog signal anyway)

good
-Xbox games running through the BC emulator might get up-scaled
-at least all games will be running in True HD 720p

[mbaez99]

Well, in a way its good news to know that I'll never have to worry about games that support 720p but not 1080i (my TV only supports 1080i...).

However just as twisted mentioned, developers will probably just develop for 720p which means most -if not all- of the games I'll be playing in 1080i will be upconverted. This isn't necessarily a bad thing since most people won't notice the difference but still...

[deftonesmx17]

QUOTE(twistedsymphony @ Jun 23 2005, 07:55 PM)

-no digital out (though due to the nature of the chip it wouldn't matter because it's an analog signal anyway)

This really bothers me and always has. Considering that all HDTV's now come with either HDMI or DVI, I dont understand why M$ is not supporting it. I don't consider an analog signal as HD, it needs to be digital. There is a very big difference between components and HDMI/DVI when in 720p or 1080i in my opinion.

[nectar12]

im kinda confused about that .. my tv supports only 1080i and 480p/i..
so the game itself will convert 720p to 1080i?. or is it up to the tv to do the converting?  i hope its not the tv cause mine wont do it ..

[thax]

QUOTE(nectar12 @ Jun 24 2005, 09:59 PM)

im kinda confused about that .. my tv supports only 1080i and 480p/i..
so the game itself will convert 720p to 1080i?. or is it up to the tv to do the converting?  i hope its not the tv cause mine wont do it ..

My understanding is that all games will be rendered at 1280x720 then the webtv chip will convert that resolution to whatever mode your television supports, whether it is 480i/p, 720p or 1080i. Earlier MS had stated that they would encourage developers to support 4x3 mode, and most kids games will probably support this mode.

This means that the average person doesn't need to do anything, the games will work on all televisions without problems or knowledge of what is happening behind the scenes. It is probably a good thing that the xbox chip does the upscaling / downscaling because I have heard of televisions that do a horrible job of doing this. I bet that the 720p to 1080i output will look real nice.

[nectar12]

QUOTE

My understanding is that all games will be rendered at 1280x720 then the webtv chip will convert that resolution to whatever mode your television supports, whether it is 480i/p, 720p or 1080i. Earlier MS had stated that they would encourage developers to support 4x3 mode, and most kids games will probably support this mode.

This means that the average person doesn't need to do anything, the games will work on all televisions without problems or knowledge of what is happening behind the scenes. It is probably a good thing that the xbox chip does the upscaling / downscaling because I have heard of televisions that do a horrible job of doing this. I bet that the 720p to 1080i output will look real nice.

i hope youre right.. im sure the 360 will look fantastic in 480p as well, but i'm hoping all of us schmuks without 720p will be able to play in 1080i.

[JMan8108]

i dunnno about the whole DVI/HDMI thing. I went to best buy the other day to grab an optical cable, they had on display some 55'' with the HDMI plug being used and I have to  tell ya my MITS. diamond with comonents picture was better. I would love to try them out on mine becuase my DVD player upconverts to 1080i but only with the HDMI plug, which my TV doesnt have an input for.

[Legendary Badass]

Can someone please help me. Does anyone know if the Monster cable component jack I have for my Xbox will work on the new one? Will I have to buy a new component jack? MY tv supports 420p and 1080i. Will I not be able to get 720p games in Hi-Def?
 

[Carlo210]

Guys, MS said that the games also support a native 1080i. I've posted this in another thread, but I'm sure I remember TwistedSymphony seeing it.

[Carlo210]

Opps my bad, I've jsut read 'THE' article and it says that the xbox360 will most likely scale 720p up to 1080i Of course, it will upconvert the resolution better than your tv wouldm so I guess we should be fine.

I doubt that gaem devs or MS will ignor 1080i though. I meant, it's just not practical enough to just upconvert 720p to 1080i if the upconversion will be low quality. If it is a good upconversion, then I will be happy, but a native 1080i would be alot better if it provides better quality over what the upconversion looks like.

[twistedsymphony]

QUOTE(Carlo210 @ Jun 25 2005, 01:58 PM)

Opps my bad, I've jsut read 'THE' article and it says that the xbox360 will most likely scale 720p up to 1080i Of course, it will upconvert the resolution better than your tv wouldm so I guess we should be fine.

I doubt that gaem devs or MS will ignor 1080i though. I meant, it's just not practical enough to just upconvert 720p to 1080i if the upconversion will be low quality. If it is a good upconversion, then I will be happy, but a native 1080i would be alot better if it provides better quality over what the upconversion looks like.

I should hope it's a high quality conversion... considering most people who will buy next gen consoles will not have HDTVs most if not all of what they see will be filtered through the converter.

As for not supporting digital... it really depends on your display. As far as I'm concerned CRT and Plasma based displays don't benefit from a digital signal the same way LCD and DLP displays do.

MS went after component because ALL HDTVs support component or some derivative of that... only newer displays support DVI or HDMI. I have 3 projectors only 1 of them has a DVI port, though all three support component, none of them have HDMI.

I understand MS's logic in that component covers everybody, they're not making their system very future-proof by passing up digital video.

[crustyteacup]

i don't think it was built with future proof in mind. the 360 will have a shelf life of around 5 years, by that time i doubt most of the population will have hdtv's anyway. having it render at hdtv resolutions is only a little added bonus because its only the few that can take advantage of it. theres no point in making everybody pay a premium because a small percentage of people want it at 1080i without upscaling, the same can be said of the remote control for the xbox.

[nj12nets]

actually by 2009 all US people will need a hdtv because all analog signals will be discontinued for digital signals.

[crustyteacup]

well thats 4 years time, and by that time everyone will be talking about the next xbox anyways, nobody will really care about the 360 anymore. plus thats only the US, there are other markets where this will not be the case.