DV Info Net

DV Info Net (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/)
-   Sony HVR-Z1 / HDR-FX1 (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-hvr-z1-hdr-fx1/)
-   -   Xbox 360, the first big HD player for PAL? (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-hvr-z1-hdr-fx1/49976-xbox-360-first-big-hd-player-pal.html)

Bjorn Moren August 25th, 2005 07:09 AM

Xbox 360, the first big HD player for PAL?
 
Instead of waiting for something like AVeL LinkPlayer for PAL countries, what do you think about the Xbox 360, due to be out in Q4 2005?

It seems Microsoft wants to push the masses into HDTV, and that the box will have a broad customer base. Perhaps this will mark a major breakthough, the way for us to get HD material out to the masses?

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360/factsheet.htm

Steve Crisdale August 26th, 2005 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bjorn Moren
Instead of waiting for something like AVeL LinkPlayer for PAL countries, what do you think about the Xbox 360, due to be out in Q4 2005?

It seems Microsoft wants to push the masses into HDTV, and that the box will have a broad customer base. Perhaps this will mark a major breakthough, the way for us to get HD material out to the masses?

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360/factsheet.htm

Interesting how the PAL flavour of HD is giving all of the media player manufacturers a real headache!!

Despite nearly 2yrs of development, Roku is no closer to getting useable PAL HD support for their Photobridge... Zensonic is announcing a November release for their PAL HD Z500 media player, and even the X-Box should have been happening earlier than Q4. I bet even the PS-3 is going through the same trauma.

As much as the 'gurus' of video who know all about NTSC say that HD is 'the same' regardless of PAL or NTSC, the truth for those in PAL regions is - statements like that are just conjectural postulation with no real understanding of the reality of the situation. Too many 'believers' have been duped by the 'multi-format' capabilities of HDTV sets into pronouncing that this or that media player can do PAL because the specification sheet shows it does 720p and 1080i to multi-format HD monitors. Imagine their surprise - that soon mutates into angst, when they connect their Media Player up and try watching some PAL HD material via the hardwired network connection and the video plays like crud, and the audio pops and crackles before dying...

To be honest: I'll believe the PAL HD dillema for Media Players has been solved, when I actually see it. I got conned too much by the hype with the Roku -HD1000 (Photobridge) to ever believe the marketing guff from these corporations again.

Of course, if you'd like to purchase an X-Box 360 when they hit the stores where you are and see whether it does work with true PAL HD and PAL HDV, I'd love to hear that one of these players finally does what it's supposed to do.

Bjorn Moren August 26th, 2005 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Crisdale
Of course, if you'd like to purchase an X-Box 360 when they hit the stores where you are and see whether it does work with true PAL HD and PAL HDV, I'd love to hear that one of these players finally does what it's supposed to do.

Yes that will be interesting to see. The games will work in PAL HD for sure, that would be a too huge bummer to miss for Microsoft. But will the HD codecs for video (wmv etc) be stable enough and glitch free for PAL? I honestly think so. They already have a working codebase for PCs, and they have too much to loose if not.

Latest I heard the Xbox 360 comes in early november, and that's not very far away. Too bad they couldn't agree on the HD-DVD/Blue ray thing though. Looks like one has to buy two sets of players and burners.

Joe Carney September 5th, 2005 10:11 AM

This is mainly for those of us who are not hard core gamers, but still curios about the new game consoles coming out.

I purchased the promotional videos for the E3 conference 2005. They cover all the new info/propoganda for the new PS3 and Xbox 360, plus the other major players (Nintendo....).

If even half of what Sony showed is true, Xbox is already going to be just another 'Brand X also ran' as soon as the PS3 is released.

The MS launch event was attended by a relatively small number of hand picked people. The heads of the MS development team came off like a bunch of suits unsuccesfully trying to be hip. The entire presentation was actually sort of wierd and strangly subdued. Not what you would expect from a system only a few months away from actual release. Maybe it actually happened after the Sony promo and they got blown away too :). Just guessing on that one.

The Sony presentaton on the other hand, seemed like a true event, even though launch date was farther out. Faster, more features, more options, more everything.

To make it pertinent to dvinfo, is their announcement about every PS3, when hooked up with a new type of HD camcorder coming out, will itself be a personal broadcast station, they called it HD IP (it was late, I may have it backward). The system itself can process up to 12 1080i streams at one time (so you can have live conferencing with your friends around the world).
Each system is coming with gigabit ethernet also.
Bluetooth for the wireless handheld gaming devices (up to 7 for a single unit) and of course lots of options for online gaming.
Sonys HD will also support Blue Ray (as if it wouldn't :).

Until I saw all this, I was going to get an Xbox 360, mainly because of the MS marketing machine getting too much brain space in my head. With the features on the PS3, I can wait.

Remeber how Spot is telling everyone they will be happier with 1080i source in the long run? The PS3 will be one of the first reasons.

Oh, and it's backward compatible with all existing PS and PS2 games.
There was some additonal info about sharing between the PS3 and the new verson of the PSP, but I fell asleep.
All the cool stuff (new games...) was coming out of Sony Europe too.

What was also interesting was what wasn't said. Like how much memory will you have to add to get all those nifty features and incredible graphics and sound.
There is lots more about these systems, but I think I told enough.

Douglas Spotted Eagle September 5th, 2005 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Carney
Remeber how Spot is telling everyone they will be happier with 1080i source in the long run? The PS3 will be one of the first reasons.

Joe, it's not so much about 1080i, but 1080p, which they likely told you the new PS outputs.
Here's a short story that might make some folks do the "hmmmm" thing. Others may respond differently.
http://www.vasst.com/search.aspx?text=1080

Joe Carney September 5th, 2005 10:26 AM

Spot, thanks, they mentioned both. I should have said that.
While the PS3 can display at up to 108060p, I think they were talking about 1080i for personal HD broadcasting over the internet, so I was inferring that if you want to set up a PS3 for broadcasting over the internet, any 1080i footage around will be ready to go. Maybe I misunderstood them. But I'm pretty sure they talked about a new consumer HD cam specifically for the PS3, but stands to reason you could use an existing one.

All I know is on paper they blow the Xbox360 away in every catergory. Be interesting to see what actually ships. I hope buyers won't have to do expensive system upgrades to get all those features.

Douglas Spotted Eagle September 5th, 2005 10:45 AM

Can you imagine having 2 1080p displays sitting side by side as you game? All I can say is "Sensory Overload!" That will be so sweet, so realistic...I'm not a gamer, but this is enough to make me want to become one.

Sony will likely be delivering as advertised. Their consumer division has been pretty good about that, and they've got a lot on the table by announcing this early. The techology is entirely there now, and if any of the rumors I've heard are true, this will be much more than just an X-Box killer. Imagine being able to burn BD's on your home computer/office station, and then displaying it on the PS3 as your DVD player at home? Wonderful integration. And if all goes as planned, that will be happening in less than 9 months.

Joe Carney September 5th, 2005 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle
Can you imagine having 2 1080p displays sitting side by side as you game? All I can say is "Sensory Overload!" That will be so sweet, so realistic...I'm not a gamer, but this is enough to make me want to become one.

.

I hear that, 32:9 display in real time. The fight night promo from EA was unbelievable too along with the virtual Alfred Molena (Doc Octopus) from Spiderman.
Another interesting promo was the complex CG explosions done without using the Nvidia GPU. Very impressive. Can anyone say 'machinima wll rock'?

Bjorn Moren September 5th, 2005 12:23 PM

Thanks for the info aout PS3 Joe. I agree it seems the PS3 will be slightly better than the Xbox 360. But it's hard to compare tech items when they dont lauch at the same time. From a European perspective they're tailing a year behind the Xbox 360. I'd expect a launch here in Europe in late 2006 or early 2007.

I will buy both I think. I cant wait any longer for a more permanent HD solution, and I used to be a gamer (even worked in the game industry) so the Xbox will be a sure buy for christmas.

The PS3 as an Internet broadcast station sounds cool. I wonder if they'll pull that off in HD though. They surely have the muscle for real time mpeg4 compression, but will the bitrate be low enough to fit regular folks' internet connection?

Joe Carney September 6th, 2005 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bjorn Moren
Thanks for the info aout PS3 Joe. I agree it seems the PS3 will be slightly better than the Xbox 360. But it's hard to compare tech items when they dont lauch at the same time. From a European perspective they're tailing a year behind the Xbox 360. I'd expect a launch here in Europe in late 2006 or early 2007.

I will buy both I think. I cant wait any longer for a more permanent HD solution, and I used to be a gamer (even worked in the game industry) so the Xbox will be a sure buy for christmas.

The PS3 as an Internet broadcast station sounds cool. I wonder if they'll pull that off in HD though. They surely have the muscle for real time mpeg4 compression, but will the bitrate be low enough to fit regular folks' internet connection?

I guess from what I saw, the PS3 seemed more than a little better. MS didn't even talk about the technical aspects. Still, both are a huge leap over even the best current PC gamer setup. As far as broadcast, Sony defintely said HD over IP at 1080i or p (forgot which now). But didn't say how. If you can find the E3 access 2005 DVDs, thats what I was watching. I got them at Gamespot.


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:40 PM.

DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2024 The Digital Video Information Network