Andre Vrignaud Confirms no HDMI-cable for 'old 360s', HDMI Advantages Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Andre Vrignaud Confirms no HDMI-cable for 'old 360s', HDMI Advantages Posted by XanTium | March 30 21:43 EST | News Category: Xbox360

Andre Vrignaud (Ozymandias) working for Microsoft confirmed in a reply on his blog what we kinda already knew ... but it's the first time Microsoft says/admits it ... the 'old 360' will not get a HDMI cable: [QUOTE] Re: "Will there be an HDMI cable released for us early adopters? If not that kinda sucks." Unfortunately there will not be an HDMI adapter released for the original 360. The HDMI spec is basically a 2-way street and requires the specific port on both sides to be enabled. This is why we had to change the box. [/QUOTE] Thanks to Jake for the link. Yesterday, Engadget ran a story that Microsoft support claimed a component-to-HDMI adapter might be released. Even if true, they are probably talking about an analog-to-digital converter (which are already available out there btw) which obviously misses the point of using HDMI. Talking about the advantages to use HDMI, kotaku.com has an interesting story about that: [QUOTE] I'll explain why someone would want HDMI: 1: DVDCCA, AACS consortium & ICT (& 360 VGA wonkiness) 2: Very few HDTVs will not accept 1080p over component, and most will not take it over VGA. 3: HDMI 1.3 provides audio options that optical or coaxial audio do not. 4: HDMI can carry higher quality video. 5: HDMI is a wonderful cabling solution. If you have 4 component video devices on a switch box (4:1), like I do, you have at least 20 cables on the back of that box. [/QUOTE] Full Story: kotaku.com

[epsilon72]

Confirming what we already knew....


At least this'll put to rest all of the "HDMI adapter for current 360" speculation.

[TheIrishLad]

At least this'll put to rest all of the "HDMI adapter for current 360" speculation.

Seriously, that it was even brought up boggles my mind...

[ILLusions0fGrander]

Very few HDTVs will not accept 1080p over component

= Most HDTV's accept 1080p over component ?

was that misstated or just written to try and confuse people?

This post has been edited by ILLusions0fGrander: Mar 31 2007, 04:05 AM

[Deihmos]

.

This post has been edited by Deihmos: Mar 31 2007, 04:25 AM

[kidkinetix]

= Most HDTV's accept 1080p over component ?

was that misstated or just written to try and confuse people?

hehe, i'm sure the word "not" was extra.

[HackMy360]

Well we all new this a long long time ago. We all new hdmi wasn't possible on current 360's
cuz of the analog signal even though MS said it was possible and I think thats what is pissing a lot of people
off including me MS don't say hdmi is possible when you know it ain't. So i guess I bought a HD DVD for nothing and when the AACS is enforced I will have to buy another 360 damm well way to screw us MS

[Maverick0984]

Well we all new this a long long time ago. We all new hdmi wasn't possible on current 360's
cuz of the analog signal even though MS said it was possible and I think thats what is pissing a lot of people
off including me MS don't say hdmi is possible when you know it ain't. So i guess I bought a HD DVD for nothing and when the AACS is enforced I will have to buy another 360 damm well way to screw us MS

Explain to me how you bought an HD DVD drive for nothing? I'm pretty sure they would plug into the Elite boxes as well, if HDMI meant enough to you to buy a second 360.

[llindeen]

Hmmmm... well I guess I'm stuck in a pickle then. I care less about the hard drive, but I do like HDMI because of the fewer wires, and the 1080P. But I get 1080p over component on my Sharp LC46D62U TV anyway. Is 1080p going to be THAT much better over HDMI, versus component if your TV does 1080p over component? I've not even played a game yet that looks any different to me at 720p vs 1080p. I guess we'll have to see some screenshots of games built at 1080p to really know. Right now its all upcoversion to 1080p. I play gears of war at 720p and 1080p. I cant see a difference at all. Any ideas?

[epsilon72]

Hmmmm... well I guess I'm stuck in a pickle then. I care less about the hard drive, but I do like HDMI because of the fewer wires, and the 1080P. But I get 1080p over component on my Sharp LC46D62U TV anyway. Is 1080p going to be THAT much better over HDMI, versus component if your TV does 1080p over component? I've not even played a game yet that looks any different to me at 720p vs 1080p. I guess we'll have to see some screenshots of games built at 1080p to really know. Right now its all upcoversion to 1080p. I play gears of war at 720p and 1080p. I cant see a difference at all. Any ideas?

There may be a slight difference, depending on what tv you have, but probably not enough of an improvement to justify buying another 360 on that alone.

[lcprove]

Hmmmm... well I guess I'm stuck in a pickle then. I care less about the hard drive, but I do like HDMI because of the fewer wires, and the 1080P. But I get 1080p over component on my Sharp LC46D62U TV anyway. Is 1080p going to be THAT much better over HDMI, versus component if your TV does 1080p over component? I've not even played a game yet that looks any different to me at 720p vs 1080p. I guess we'll have to see some screenshots of games built at 1080p to really know. Right now its all upcoversion to 1080p. I play gears of war at 720p and 1080p. I cant see a difference at all. Any ideas?

i can see a good bit of difference between playing games at 720p or 1080i (my tv only supports to 1080i) so i'd imagine difference between 720p and 1080p is even greater. 1080p component vs 1080p HDMI i'm not sure. either way, 720p looks good enough to me, my tv just goes to 1080i so i use that (and it does look just a bit better, little less cartoony).

[zoltari]

Hmmmm... well I guess I'm stuck in a pickle then. I care less about the hard drive, but I do like HDMI because of the fewer wires, and the 1080P. But I get 1080p over component on my Sharp LC46D62U TV anyway. Is 1080p going to be THAT much better over HDMI, versus component if your TV does 1080p over component? I've not even played a game yet that looks any different to me at 720p vs 1080p. I guess we'll have to see some screenshots of games built at 1080p to really know. Right now its all upcoversion to 1080p. I play gears of war at 720p and 1080p. I cant see a difference at all. Any ideas?

Well, based entirely on my own experiences, HDMI does give a crisper and more vibrant image, especially at 720p and 1080p. I know there are a million people out there who will claim it is no different at all to Component, and that High Def is High Def, end of story, but, as I say, based on my own experience, there is definitely a difference... HDMI just looks better and the colours on movies etc seem a lot more natural.

I hooked up my standard DVD player via component and HDMI, and I can easily tell the difference without having to check and my PS3 (hooked up via HDMI) most definitely looks a lot sharper and more vibrant than the 360 - although I haven’t seen the PS3 via component to be fair, and it is a different machine / graphics chipset.

I would definitely buy the Elite when it appears, but the revised board probably means a new DVD drive and fully up-to-date firmware, so no more backups

This post has been edited by zoltari: Mar 31 2007, 06:54 AM

[The Zep Man]

DVI-D/HDMI: 10 = 10
YPbPr: 10 ~= 11

Off course, an uncompressed (or lossless compressed) digital connection is better compared to an analogue connection. I can even point the differences to you on a 1366x768 27" LCD with a VGA port and a HDMI port and a PC connected using the native resolution of the LCD (over both VGA and DVI-D/HDMI, off course).

1: DVDCCA, AACS consortium & ICT (& 360 VGA wonkiness)

DRM does not seem like an advantage to me.

2: Very few HDTVs will not accept 1080p over component, and most will not take it over VGA.

Just make sure that if your TV has a native resolution of 1920x1080 (and can use that with progressive), that it also supports 1080p over the different inputs. When I would buy such a TV, I would at least do my research.

3: HDMI 1.3 provides audio options that optical or coaxial audio do not.

He means DRM. Not an advantage.

4: HDMI can carry higher quality video.

Compared to what? If he talks about analogue, he is correct.

5: HDMI is a wonderful cabling solution. If you have 4 component video devices on a switch box (4:1), like I do, you have at least 20 cables on the back of that box.

Sure, if you have a 2000$ receiver with multiple HDMI inputs and at least one HDMI output (for your TV). Otherwise, you can just send the audio analogue, since it's probably impossible to hear the difference on the crappy speakers of most LCD TV's. Most people with a HiFi set will use the 'classic' optical cable.

This post has been edited by The Zep Man: Mar 31 2007, 08:09 AM

[jhoff80]

All this completely wrong information going around boggles my mind.

I've taken the points from this post that are completely wrong and quoted them here.

DRM does not seem like an advantage to me.
He means DRM. Not an advantage.

Because HDMI allows for a trusted path, means that if/when the image constraint token does get enabled on HD-DVD software, that an HDMI output will not be limited. Meanwhile, those of you who are using the component outputs because "they don't have DRM" will be limited to a 960x540 output, effectively making your HD-DVD into a slightly better than DVD picture. HDMI will not prevent you from anything you do already, but is more future proof.

The second sentence I quoted is in reference to HDMI 1.3. The new audio formats that HDMI 1.3 supports are Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, and LPCM passthrough. If not using HDMI as an output, the 360 will convert these lossless formats to a lossy format- standard dolby digital. In other words, you're basically getting slightly better than DVD quality sound, as opposed to the formats that exist on the disc.

Like I said, I'm completely shocked at the number of times I've had to point out how misinformed people are about the image constraint token. It doesn't take anything away because of DRM, which people seem to think, but allows people to watch HD-DVD in full quality as opposed to a downrez which would happen to all analog outputs as soon as discs are released with the image constraint token enabled.

[ashlar42]

Hmmmm... well I guess I'm stuck in a pickle then. I care less about the hard drive, but I do like HDMI because of the fewer wires, and the 1080P. But I get 1080p over component on my Sharp LC46D62U TV anyway. Is 1080p going to be THAT much better over HDMI, versus component if your TV does 1080p over component? I've not even played a game yet that looks any different to me at 720p vs 1080p. I guess we'll have to see some screenshots of games built at 1080p to really know. Right now its all upcoversion to 1080p. I play gears of war at 720p and 1080p. I cant see a difference at all. Any ideas?

I wonder why Microsoft isn't making a far bigger deal about how 1080p is pretty much useless for screens not bigger than 50", when watched from the pretty much usual 8-10 feet. You have a 46", how far do you sit from it? Chances are your eyes won't even be able to tell the difference from 720p to 1080p *from your sitting distance*.

Everybody zooms in closer, eyes stuck to the TV and cry "Wow! Look at the marvelous definition!". Then they sit on the couch and their eyes are not bionic... go figure.

PS
This is not an attack on you, mainly on the whole consumer electronic industry, for creating a need that really didn't need to be satisfied for the majority of consumers.

I hooked up my standard DVD player via component and HDMI, and I can easily tell the difference without having to check and my PS3 (hooked up via HDMI) most definitely looks a lot sharper and more vibrant than the 360 - although I haven’t seen the PS3 via component to be fair, and it is a different machine / graphics chipset.

This is totally anectodal evidence, you know? It could tell far more about your TV's connections quality than it could about the respective merits of analogue vs. digital.