Time to buy a new Game System

[Mr. Furious]

So - I've made up my mind. I'm going to buy a wii just to play with my 6 year old daughter. Funny thing is, she prefers my Xbox to my GC right now...

That being said, I'm strongly debating buying a x360 at the same time. Sadly, my whole reason for buying it is Halo 3 and GoW. Sad I know. So the question is this:

1) Which x360 should I get? My AV equipment is a bit on the older side (Anthem AVM20 preamp, Marantz P6111W 1080i CRT RPTV Display). I'd like to max out it's capabilty.

2) Is the HD-DVD player worth it on the x360? Aside from movie watching, why would I get one?

3) I've heard rumors that Microsoft may totally revamp the x360 sometime in 2008 which makes me think I should just pick one up on Ebay to minimize my costs now (and get an upgrade later).

Thoughts?

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Mr. Furious

1) Which x360 should I get? My AV equipment is a bit on the older side (Anthem AVM20 preamp, Marantz P6111W 1080i CRT RPTV Display). I'd like to max out it's capabilty.

If you plan to use the XBOX 360 movie download service extensively to rent movies, I would get an XBOX 360 Elite ($449 - 114gb usable space). Also, if you plan to download a lot of pay expansion packs (usually around $10-$20) for games, the Elite may be worth it here as well to give you more space (expansions for games are generally ~500mb in size).

Otherwise, for general use the Premium HDMI ($349) is probably your best bet. It has around 14gb of usable space which is more than enough for a slew of arcade games and a decent amount of content downloads.

I'd be safe and get one from Amazon so you definitely get the HDMI port as its not clearly marked on the box:
http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Conso...3422887&sr=8-5

2) Is the HD-DVD player worth it on the x360? Aside from movie watching, why would I get one?

I think getting an HD-A2 for $230 is a better buy, as you will get a standalone player with slightly more refined features & functionality for movie watching - that is, unless you plan to use the 360 addon with your PC in which case the addon is a great buy too. If your cashflow is strained there is currently an insane deal on the addon where you get heroes boxset, and 5 other movies free with it at Amazon. The drive then is essentially free:

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-HD-DV...3422958&sr=1-1

The HD addon's main draw, in my opinion, is that you can also hook it up to your PC via its standard USB connection and play HD DVDs on your PC via PowerDVD as well. That way you could "try out" HD DVD, and if you love it you can move your 360 addon to your PC and buy a standalone for the HT room.

3) I've heard rumors that Microsoft may totally revamp the x360 sometime in 2008 which makes me think I should just pick one up on Ebay to minimize my costs now (and get an upgrade later).

If they do revamp it all it will do is become smaller and possibly a bit quieter. Maybe an SKU with an HD DVD builtin strictly for movies as well. But you really don't need any of that for gaming and it won't enhance your gaming experience, so I would just buy a new HDMI premium or elite depending on your content download patterns and you'll be set until XBOX 720

[Mr. Furious]

So you have to pay to rent films and that takes up HDD space. Can't you delete it when you're done? Why would you need the larger HDD?

[MooglePorn]

If you play a lot of games and download a lot of content, even without movies, you would be surprised how fast that 13GB goes.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Mr. Furious

So you have to pay to rent films and that takes up HDD space. Can't you delete it when you're done? Why would you need the larger HDD?

Well, say after using the system for 6 months you have 3gb of arcade games and 5gb of content (your saved games, replays, themes, gamerpics, content downloads, demos, and a few expansion packs) on your machine. That leaves you with 5gb of free space on your HDMI Premium as 6gb of the 20gb is used as an HD game cache (nearly identical to the HD cache in XBOX1, just bigger).

A typical Live HD movie download runs 3-5gb in size, while an SD download is 1-3gb. So, with all of your content you are only talking about 1 HD movie rental or 2 SD movies rentals to be able to fit in your 5gb of space. Now that is probably just enough if you dont mind doing some weeding and HD management, but what are the advantages of 120gb?

Well, you have 14 days to play 360 rentals, and the 24-hour viewing period only begins when you play them. So, with a 120gb machine you could pick 4 HD movies you want to watch over the next two weeks, buy them all at once and let them download overnight. That takes up 20gb by itself but you have that extra room on the 120gb. Then, when you want to start watching a movie you can just pick any of the four and watch them iinstantly each (for a 24hr period) over the next two weeks without waiting for download - therefore, 120gb can make rentals more convenient as you can do more than one HD rental at a time.

On top of this, the Fall dashboard update will enable IPTV and Tivo-like DVR capabilities. This too will need additional space and if you plan to extensively use DVR, Live HD rentals, expansion pack downloads, and live arcade titles all on the same machine then 20gb will definitely not cut it. Using all of that without the DVR could be done on 20gb but it will require some space management and only downloading 1 HD rental at a time. With the 120gb machine, you don't have to worry about all of that.

In short, if you plan to extensively use the Live HD movie rental service available now and/or DVR capabilities coming to 360 you will likely be a lot happier with the 120gb Elite. If you don't plan to use these features and will primarily just use it for gaming, the 20gb HDMI premium will suit your needs fine. So, buy based on what content you plan to download - also note that you can upgrade the Premium to 120gb after you buy it, but the 120gb drive carries a hefty $179.99 pricetag, $80 more than if you bought the Elite w/120gb originally. So you could simply try the 20gb HDMI Premium and see how it goes, but it will cost you an extra $50-$80 in the end if you decide you want the 120gb drive down the road than if you bought the Elite in the first place.

[billnye97]

Hey Ruined,

Do you know if Microsoft will be charging for the dvr service? This is the first that I have heard of it and would like to know more. Also any other significant dashboard updates that you know of?

[Mr. Furious]

Originally Posted by billnye97

Hey Ruined,

Do you know if Microsoft will be charging for the dvr service? This is the first that I have heard of it and would like to know more. Also any other significant dashboard updates that you know of?

I'd hope not. If their DVR costs a monthly fee, I'll stick to my HTPC. Just a better incentive to stay with MythTV - right Tom?

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by billnye97

Hey Ruined,

Do you know if Microsoft will be charging for the dvr service? This is the first that I have heard of it and would like to know more. Also any other significant dashboard updates that you know of?

First thing, apparently the IPTV/DVR has been pushed back to 2008.

Second, from what I understand you will have to sign up a subscription with one of the IPTV vendors and get their IPTV service, then the XBOX 360 can be used as a device to access that service; I'd imagine the DVR will likely be free as MS probably gets a cut of the IPTV subscription.