Xbox 360 v2

[Lazybones]

Watching the Keynote live right now..

Windows Home Server... Confirmed... Includes serving content to Xbox
IPTV Runs on Xbox 360.. available by the end of 2007!
- Instant channel changing unlike mose Digital SAT/Cable
- Picture in picture channel changing....
- Probably offered as a subscription from a content provider. Not many details given...

[Shayne]

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEyluVZEpuTtQuUycc.php

Experimenting

GameSpot: What can you tell us about the HDMI-enabled Xbox 360 rumors that have been going around?

Chris Satchell: We're always working on prototypes and new technologies and just playing with stuff in Redmond to see what's interesting. I think at the moment we have the widest available connections on the system. If you want to get great HD, I think we've got a good solution for that. In the future it's interesting to see where standards evolve to. I think one of the problems that the whole industry, us and entertainment, are facing at the moment is we're in this world where standards are evolving very quickly.

We have different high-definition standards for discs that we know are competing at the moment. We think HD-DVD is going to be the right way to go, but really it's all about choice in that system so that's why we're offering these sort of services with downloads--skip that whole "format wars" problem. With other standards, audiovideo standards, they're evolving very quickly as well. We're obviously keeping an eye on that and saying, "What are the future standards and how do we give consumers the right choice for that?"

At the moment, everything you might have seen is just looking at our experimentation back in Redmond, not really a product that we're thinking about announcing.

[Cova]

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEyluVZEpuTtQuUycc.php

Experimenting

GameSpot: What can you tell us about the HDMI-enabled Xbox 360 rumors that have been going around?

Chris Satchell: We're always working on prototypes and new technologies and just playing with stuff in Redmond to see what's interesting. I think at the moment we have the widest available connections on the system. If you want to get great HD, I think we've got a good solution for that. In the future it's interesting to see where standards evolve to. I think one of the problems that the whole industry, us and entertainment, are facing at the moment is we're in this world where standards are evolving very quickly.

We have different high-definition standards for discs that we know are competing at the moment. We think HD-DVD is going to be the right way to go, but really it's all about choice in that system so that's why we're offering these sort of services with downloads--skip that whole "format wars" problem. With other standards, audiovideo standards, they're evolving very quickly as well. We're obviously keeping an eye on that and saying, "What are the future standards and how do we give consumers the right choice for that?"

At the moment, everything you might have seen is just looking at our experimentation back in Redmond, not really a product that we're thinking about announcing.

I wouldn't say the 360 has the widest selection of connectors available - the original Xbox has all the same ones.  You could call this an area where they didn't improve at all from the previous generation.

[TheDruid]

I agree, this is a classic example of Microsoft do a poor job on anticipating the market. Or purposly ignoring trends.

I think at the moment we have the widest available connections on the system. If you want to get great HD, I think we've got a good solution for that.

I would hardly call Analog only output "widest available connections on the system". Having to constantly manually adjust screen ratio to fit my viewing preferences is a really pain, especially though VGA. As a matter of a fact, for TV DVD viewing I’ve switched back to component. Where as HD DVD i switch to VGA. I have both connecters hooked up to my TV and just swap them on the back of my console. Still a REAL pain that could have simply been avoided with a digital connection.