XBox 360 hard drive question for MS staff - semi off topic

XBox 360 hard drive question for MS staff - semi off topic

• darkwarrior0404

  I always wondered if it could be swapped DIY style. Might have to investigate :)
  
  

• HSBF Lewe

  HDMI with HDCP seems like it is a "must" for HD-DVD a few years from now, like it or not. I don't like the HDCP part -- I like HDMI 1.3a as an interconnect standard, though I'd have preferred a straight, shielded cable instead of UTP.
  
  I suppose they could go DVI-with-HDCP which is very similar (minus the digital audio transport). However, I can't see a component-only next-generation media terminal. Not even Microsoft is going to muscle the movie people away from HDCP, and on analog (non-HDCP) cables, you won't get the HD signal.
  
  
  
  

• Umberto

  I don't want to replace my box either. I wish we could write to external USB hard drives and flash drives rather than using them read only. The more we can comfortably store, the more we might buy...
  

• billb59

  That's fine if you're in the market for a new XBox. I've already got one and don't plan on buying another one. ;)

  
  

• oipreS

  buster2000 wrote:

  The new 360 that was shown in Vegas last week has a 120GB drive and a built in HDMI port.

  Is that fact or rumor   I had heard there are rumors about the "Zephyr" XBOX 360 with HDMI, 120GB hard drive, and a smaller/cooler processor, but MS said that was just one of their many experiments.  I think it would be a great idea personally, especially with everyone moving to HDTV lately, all the enhancements make perfect sense.

  
  

• kfsoft

  It's the natural progression of the machine just as the PS2 was later slimlined. The model shown, while seeming to be feature complete, does in fact seem to be a proof of concept rather than a production model. It looks like the larger hard drive and the cooler processor are definitely on the way pretty soon. This is partly because the original 360 suffers from what can only be called solder issues. Why not simply use a bloomin processor socket instead of soldering the chip directly to the board I'll never know. The cost had to be cheaper than forking out for the amount of repairs that will inevitably plague the first gen boxes.
  
  
  It doesn't look like the new chips will be publicised when they start going into boxes as they don't actually affect the machine as such. Simply a result of natural processor development and cutting die sizes is something that intel have done since forever.
  
  So in conclusion. I would expect a public announcement on the larger hard drive (probably to go along with the new TV service) and expect NOT to hear anything about the new die size processor being slowly phased in.
  
  
  

• Canalside Studios

  drawle wrote:

  I don't want to replace my box either. I wish we could write to external USB hard drives and flash drives rather than using them read only. The more we can comfortably store, the more we might buy...

  I may be wrong, but MS could probably cannibalize the majority of parts from the current 360. It would be cool if they roll out the Zephyr (XBOX v2.0) with the option to send in your current 360 plus a cost recovery fee (labor + parts) to upgrade. The people that don't care about the extra features will be happy with their current XBOX, but someone using it for games, videos, tv, and XNA would probably jump all over the upgrade option. Having an "ultra" XBOX 360 (in addition to the core and premium models) will also improve on the competition side against the PS3's feature set.

  But I agree on the flash and USB hard drive storage...I'm surprised they haven't added that functionality yet. Or at the very least, storage on the Zune. Is there a fear of piracy

  
  

• Glenn Burnside

  The new 360 that was shown in Vegas last week has a 120GB drive and a built in HDMI port.
  

• Nially

  That sounds pretty realistic. I also wouldn't be surprised if they built an HD-DVD player into the next, "ultra" 360 model. The format war is still in full swing and Blue ray has the advantage of being built into all PS3 systems.
  

• John McMillion

  What I would most like to see in terms of additional storage is the ability to use a standard USB external hard drive.  Similiar to DVR's.  For instance, my Explorer 8300 DVR, made by Scientific Atlanta, does this very nicely.  And it formats the drive in a way my PC does not understand, which reduces the risk of ripping content from it.   I connected a 250GB unit for around $100.

  It would be a shame for Microsoft to only offer the use of a limited capacity drive, made or re-branded by them, at a price well above that of the external storage marketplace.

  
  

• Tvercel

  From what I hear they are working with their partners from the IPTV service to figure out exactly what sort of storage capacity would be best for that service. I imagine once they figure that out we'll get access to some larger hard drives that are designed for that service AND for the storage we're all craving.
  
  The Xbox 360 was made upgradeable specifically for peripherals and accessories of that nature. It'd be just silly to assume that there is no larger hard drive headed our way. =)
  
  
  
  

• IlCapo

  I think it is safe to assume that something is coming, but you won't get a peep out of MS until they make it official to the press.
  
  

• roni102

  Well it is already possible to connect a flash drive or portable hard drive to the 360 to store movies or films. And the local Forbidden Planet shop near me sells a device called the 360 SATA XTream that lets you plug your 360 harddrive into your PC via USB so that you can back your stuff up onto the PC and organise your files by moving them back and forth between your xbox and your PC.
  As for a propper larger harddrive all the 360 drive is is a 2.5" laptop drive and there are already mod sites that have swapped them for larger units. The only thing that concerns me is would xbox live block you for having a non standard hard drive.
  
  Also if anybody saw the frank savage XNA video on channel 9 his screen shows a 60GB drive and although it doesn't show the 360 he does say in the video that it's just retail kit and not a dev kit.
  

• bes7252

  As we can see, XBOX 360 can use USB peripheral for data stockage.
  HD DVD... => and a version of driver have been made for using it one a PC.
  
  so we need to wait...
  
  
  
• XBox 360 hard drive question for MS staff - semi off topic