Print

[XanTium]

The guys over at TrustedReviews.com went to the IDF (Intel Developer Forum) in the Moscone Center, San Francisco. As you all know already the Xbox 360 is powered by IBM PowerPCs, so they were pretty surprized when they saw an Xbox 360 at IDF.
A pre-production Xbox 360 hooked-up to a Samsung DLP rear projection TV has shown as part of the MS Media Center demonstration. The Xbox 360 was streaming 720p HD video content from the MCE PC, but MS assured 1080i would be possible too.

The Xbox 360 was connected via component video to the HDTV, but what's more surprizing is that MS told TrustedReviews the Xbox 360 can ouput over HDMI, but that the cable isn't available yet.
That's news for me ... so far MS has never announced HDMI (or any digital video output for that matter). Will it work on the 1st version of the retail Xbox360 or will this need a new Xbox 360 with modified video-encoder? A digital video output certainly would put an Xbox360 version with HD-DVD (or Blu-Ray) much closer, as the next-gen DVD formats require digital outputs as part of their copyright protection. This HDMI-news is not confirmed for now. We'll report back when we have more about this.

[LowProfileWurm]

I was under the impression that HDMI was impossible for 360 due to the nature of its analog output converter.  Am I incorrect?

[mirx999]

count on MS to throw you a curveball at the last second.  This is great news if it's true, and might just be the edge the 360 needs to beat out the LaminationStation3...

[LowProfileWurm]

There's a difference between throwing a curveball and changing out the silicon.  I would be THRILLED if the 360 came with HDMI.  Only problem is, I only have 1 HDMI port on my TV and if PS3 has it too, i'll have to buy a receiver that accepts HDMI.  Hmm.

[nj12nets]

or just dont buy the grill

[thax]

This may be an expensive "cable" which includes an analog to digital converter built into it. This way people can think they are getting digital, when they are just getting a digitized analog signal.

It may be possible that they made changes to the webtv chip at the last moment to enable some sort of digital output, and with the assistance of some additional logic in the cable allow for HDMI compliance.

The cable pricing and size should reveal how they accomplished all of this.

[LowProfileWurm]

QUOTE(nj12nets @ Aug 24 2005, 03:42 PM)

or just dont buy the grill

There are some Sony exclusives that I'm looking forward to.  Specifically, if Wipeout and Twisted Metal come to it, I'm buying it.  I'm also looking forward to WarHawk and Devil May Cry.  I won't buy it at launch, but if the price comes down a few bucks, I'll pick up a cheap BluRay player.

[mirx999]

The silicon may have been in development for a while.  This is MS we're talking about...they have the money to keep stuff like this hush-hush.  My only concern is whether the XeDK will automatically adapt the code to display in digital.  I'm not familiar with analog/digital outputs in the A/V sense, but I don't think the process of replacing an analog output with a digital one is all too complicated...I think all you would really need is a digital chip and a logic IC of some sort.  If analog-digital converters can be made, I have the feeling that replacing an analog encoder with a digital one would be a simple task.

[twistedsymphony]

QUOTE(LowProfileWurm @ Aug 24 2005, 02:16 PM)

I was under the impression that HDMI was impossible for 360 due to the nature of its analog output converter.  Am I incorrect?

Well no one ever said that that it wasn't capable of outputting in digital... just that it does it's scaling in an analog fashion so even if it does output digital it would essentially be an analog->digital conversion.

This is great news Xan!

Also another dotted line towards HD-DVD seeing as there are rumors that HD-DVD players will only output in HD by way of DVI or HDMI for their signal encryption abilities.

[LowProfileWurm]

QUOTE(twistedsymphony @ Aug 24 2005, 04:30 PM)

Well no one ever said that that it wasn't capable of outputting in digital... just that it does it's scaling in an analog fashion so even if it does output digital it would essentially be an analog->digital conversion.

Ah, I thought it was a limitation of the WebTV silicon they were using.  Got my wires crossed I guess.  In that case, HORRAH!    

[strobbe]

There are more pics here

[schizzlefuzz]

I sure hope this is the case.  Right now I don't have an hdtv, I play my xbox on a CRT with an x2vga+, and that's what I will do with the 360, but in the next year I will get an hdtv and I want to be able to hook it up with HDMI when I get it.

[Aristotle16]

just a quick question...did an MS rep ever OFFICIALLY confirm the WebTV analog chip in the 360?

[darth_jarret]

QUOTE(Aristotle16 @ Aug 24 2005, 04:51 PM)

just a quick question...did an MS rep ever OFFICIALLY confirm the WebTV analog chip in the 360?

Thats a great point, I dont remember seeing an announcement stating that it will be the WebTV chip, just a bunch of speculaton circleing these forums. i could be wrong of course.

if there using the web tv chip to make the 360 compatable with analog TVs, i assume its a digital signal nativly thus it wouldn't be too hard for teh firmware in the cable to tell the webtv chiip to turn off, or something like that.

[stevox]

i believe it, the fact that the remote control for the 360 has a button with red text titled "rec" on it, this feature is probobly there.