Thread: Xbox question

You should shell out the cash for 360, i doubt anyone plays xbox live on the original system and it does matter which console even if you play live. You couldnt play GTA4 on live with someone with an xbox for example. Keep in mind the membership itself to play online is around 60dollars canadian, so convert that, not too sure how much it is in america, but anyways thats for 12 months. Honestly people bitch about the fee for online but its really nothing in the long run. Xbox will probably have noone online, with very outdated games, the 360 is the better long run investment for sure.

How good is your PC?

PC > consoles for FPS, RTS, and almost everything else

COD4/GTA4 owns on the 360. I can't game on the pc because it seems like you need a new video car every 3 months to play games plus I think WoW is whack

Originally Posted by YSK

You should shell out the cash for 360, i doubt anyone plays xbox live on the original system and it does matter which console even if you play live. You couldnt play GTA4 on live with someone with an xbox for example. Keep in mind the membership itself to play online is around 60dollars canadian, so convert that, not too sure how much it is in america, but anyways thats for 12 months. Honestly people bitch about the fee for online but its really nothing in the long run. Xbox will probably have noone online, with very outdated games, the 360 is the better long run investment for sure.

Cool thanks for the advice. Guess I'll save up a little and grab a 360.

definitly go with the 360. I seriously doubt anyone is playing on the original anymore (online or otherwise), plus there's not going to be any new games for it while the 360 is always pumping out new games to play. Also, the 360 can play the original Xbox's games anyway so you get the best of both worlds.

By the way gamers, greatest news ever:

CHRONO TRIGGER@ƒNƒƒmEƒgƒ�*ƒK[

Could this be the start of future installments? hrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm?

Originally Posted by Goodfella9783

Cool thanks for the advice. Guess I'll save up a little and grab a 360.

check out craigslist first. You can find some great deals on there. Make sure you pick up Halo 3 as well.

xbox isa dead systemthey dont produce new games for that system get a 360 best console out there

Here's another one. What do I get between the XBox 360 Arcade, Premium, Elite? Are the difference really that major? Can I always upgrade the more standard Arcade and throw the HD in there if I really need it? All I really want to do is get some good games like Halo, Fifa, Skate etc. and play Live. I've read that the main difference is memory/hard drives in the 3 models. What do you all have and does the hard drive really make that big of a difference for the extra $200?

The difference is the cords you get and size of harddrive. If you have a hdtv and are gonna get abuch of movies down load the premium is the way to go other then that I would go with the regular

get the premium, not the elite. Elite is a bit of a waste unless u really want to have that 120gb storage. For me 20gb is plenty, it eliminates having a memory card, and save game files are often tiny, thus minisizing memory usage. Then u still have plenty of space for demos and perhaps renting a movie online. I have the premium and dont have a space issue. If you plan to upgrade from arcade to premium it'll cost you more than if you were to buy it as a package. Also, im not sure but i think the arcade doesnt have wireless controllers, where as premium and up does. Not sure so i could be wrong. However one thing to note it, while both the premium and elite have HDMI input, i believe the output is only component HD. Meaning the insertion end for the cable is HDMI format(Highest form of High definition TV) while the other end is component HD cables (like the standard ones you find on a dvd player or VCR). Meaning if you TV has HDMI, you'll need to buy the HDMI-HDMI cable not the given HDMI-COMPONENT.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Red Ring Of Death

I thought this was something you got after an extremely profitable night Min0.....

Originally Posted by goob

I thought this was something you got after an extremely profitable night Min0.....

That would be the green ring of puss.

Originally Posted by bigss75

The difference is the cords you get and size of harddrive. If you have a hdtv and are gonna get abuch of movies down load the premium is the way to go other then that I would go with the regular

Originally Posted by YSK

get the premium, not the elite. Elite is a bit of a waste unless u really want to have that 120gb storage. For me 20gb is plenty, it eliminates having a memory card, and save game files are often tiny, thus minisizing memory usage. Then u still have plenty of space for demos and perhaps renting a movie online. I have the premium and dont have a space issue. If you plan to upgrade from arcade to premium it'll cost you more than if you were to buy it as a package. Also, im not sure but i think the arcade doesnt have wireless controllers, where as premium and up does. Not sure so i could be wrong. However one thing to note it, while both the premium and elite have HDMI input, i believe the output is only component HD. Meaning the insertion end for the cable is HDMI format(Highest form of High definition TV) while the other end is component HD cables (like the standard ones you find on a dvd player or VCR). Meaning if you TV has HDMI, you'll need to buy the HDMI-HDMI cable not the given HDMI-COMPONENT.

Cool, thanks guys. I guess Arcade is the way I'm gonna go. I don't even have an HD TV and I download movies and shit on my comp so that's of no importance concerning the Xbox for me.

I am planning to get one...join a league and kick butt!

Xbox 360: Do More Than Just Game on Your Xbox 360

Millions of homes have an Xbox 360 sitting in the living room, but if you're only using your 360 to game, you're missing out. With some free tools and a little elbow grease, that compact, networked PC sitting under your television can offer a whole lot of useful media functionality. The fact is, your 360 is capable of so much more than just gaming. Let's take a look at a few ways you can get more from your Xbox 360.
I'm a casual gamer who bought his Xbox 360 a solid two years after its release. I've built a dedicated DVR PC for my living room and am no stranger to incorporating computers with my home theater. Once I bought my 360, however, I've been able to get rid of my home theater PC, my DVD player, and even my cable box, so that my entire entertainment system runs through my Xbox 360. It's convergence at its best. The 360 is not perfect by any means, but it's the best multimedia device I've ever used. With that in mind, let's start souping it up.

Turn Your Xbox into a Media Center


Installing a dedicated home theater PC under your TV is overkill for most people, especially if you don't want a big, noisy PC in your living room. But if you've got a Windows computer capable of running Windows Media Center (that includes either Windows XP Media Center Edition or Vista Home Premium and Ultimate) and an Xbox 360 that's already in your living room, you can use your 360 as a Media Center extender. That means that you get virtually all of the goods available in Windows Media Center on your living room TV through your Xbox. If you install a tuner card on your PC, your 360 becomes a full-fledged DVR. Even if you don't take the TV route, your 360-as-extender can play back music and stream video from your PC as well as provide access to other online content.

Microsoft has full details for connecting your 360 to your Media Center here.

Stream Netflix Watch Instantly Videos to your 360


If you've already got your 360 set up as a Media Center extender and you've got a Netflix subscription, you can turn your Xbox 360 into a streaming Netflix Player with access to the over 10,000 titles in the Netflix Watch Instantly library. Sure you could shell out $100 for Roku's official Netflix Player, but this Media Center plug-in works wonderfully with the Xbox to do virtually the same thing the Roku player does and then some (including save Netflix videos on your hard drive to watch later so you don't have to deal with buffering).


Hack Your Network Connection


When it comes time to connect your Xbox 360 to your home network (which is a must if you're looking to squeeze more functionality from it), not everyone is keen on snaking hundreds of feet of ugly Ethernet cable through their living room to get connected. On the other hand, the official Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter lists around a hefty $100. If you're looking to take your 360 wireless without the added cable clutter, you've actually got a few cheaper options, and you may already have all the tools you need.

DIY Wi-Fi Adapter: We highlighted how to build a Wi-Fi adapter for your 360 on the cheap using an inexpensive router or bridge, but Gina's more recent guide to wiring your living room over Wi-Fi with a wireless bridge goes into the specifics. Alternately, if you've got an extra Wi-Fi router sitting around the house capable of running the open-source DD-WRT firmware, you can just use DD-WRT to build a wireless bridge.

Use Your Laptop as a Wi-Fi Adapter: Perhaps even better, if you don't have the goods on hand to build your own cheap Xbox 360 Wi-Fi adapter but you do have a laptop, you can use your laptop as a free Xbox Wi-Fi adapter by enabling Internet Sharing and connecting it to your Xbox (works on both Windows and Mac laptops).


Play Back Any Media Over Your Network


Even if you haven't set up your 360 as a Media Center extender, you can still use it to play back media over your home network through the Xbox Dashboard. Media support used to be fairly limited (and still could use expanded support), but after a much anticipated update to the 360 at the end of last year with support for DivX and Xvid videos, setting up media sharing for your 360 is a must.

The Windows Solution: If you're running Windows, all you need to do is enable sharing through one of a number of avenues—either using Windows Media Player 11, the Zune software, or Windows Media Connect. Microsoft offers detailed instructions for setting up media sharing with your Windows PC.

But I've Got a Mac: If you're not running Windows, sharing media over your home network isn't so easy. In fact, unless you want to run one of the Windows solutions in a virtual machine like VMware Fusion or Parallels and you've already bought those programs, there's no free solution. However, if you're willing to lay down $20, applications like Connect360 and Rivet provide arguably better functionality than the default Windows solutions, including on-the-fly transcoding of several unsupported file formats so you can play back even unsupported media on your 360. Both apps have demo versions that limit the amount you can stream but work if you only need to stream a video or song every now and then.

But I've Got Linux: If you've got an Xbox despite your commitment to free and open source software, you're still not completely out of luck. One fellow Ubuntu user has detailed how to stream music from Ubuntu to your Xbox 360 by spending a bit of time in Terminal. Unfortunately these methods won't get you video streaming, but a little music is better than nothing. (Original post)
UPDATE: As several readers pointed out below, Linux users can set up access to video, audio, and photos for their Xbox 360 with the free, open-source uShare.


Silence Your 360 with a New Fan


Like I said above, a 360 in your living room is much quieter than just any PC under your TV, but that doesn't mean that it's silent. On the contrary, the Xbox 360 can be quite noisy. I've never noticed significant noise issues, especially when the DVD drive isn't spinning (for example, when I'm using the 360 as a Media Center extender), but if your Xbox is a touch too noisy for your tastes, you can silence your Xbox 360 with a new fan. Keep in mind that cracking open your Xbox will void its warranty, and this hack could get you kicked off Xbox Live, so if either matter to you, you may want to skip this one. (Original post)


A Couple of Xbox 360 Loose Ends

There's still plenty more you can do with your Xbox.

• DIY VGA Output: If you'd prefer to send a higher quality signal to your TV but don't want to pay $40 for a VGA adapter, weblog Engadget details how to roll your own VGA cable mod for around $7. (Original post)
• Transcode 360: If you prefer watching video on your Xbox as a Media Center extender rather than through the Xbox 360 dashboard, there's a catch: Windows doesn't support Xvid and DivX playback on the 360 as an extender—despite the fact that the Xbox 360 itself can play back those formats just fine. The freeware application Transcode 360 automatically transcodes those videos for your 360 extender so you can get the same video support in the interface you prefer. (Original post)

So I'm looking on Ebay for an XBOX 360. One seller has an auction and states that he bought the 360 with "Dell Dollars" and is selling it in a Dell box. Does anyone know of the legitimacy of buying XBOX products from Dell? So far the bid is low but the whole Dell thing sounded weird to me.

^i know that you can buy xbox accesories and games off of dell, but as far as the console...not too sure. might want to check dells site first.

Why not just buy it at a store? Ebay is too risky for me.

Originally Posted by JailHouse

Why not just buy it at a store? Ebay is too risky for me.

For a good deal. I've seen them go as cheap as 100 bucks and I'm thinking as long as the member's feedback is good, it's a safe bet. The Dell thing kinda threw me off though.

Just an update. I bought an XBOX 360 Arcade off eBay for $199 including free shipping. Manufactured in November 2007, has HDMI output and 8 months of XBOX Live. Comes with all the usual accessories plus intercooler and headset, Madden 08 & Condemned: Criminal Origins. Pretty much best deal I could find. Hoping it arrives as described. User has 100% feedback and sells mostly video game electronics.

Originally Posted by Goodfella9783

Just an update. I bought an XBOX 360 Arcade off eBay for $199 including free shipping. Manufactured in November 2007, has HDMI output and 8 months of XBOX Live. Comes with all the usual accessories plus intercooler and headset, Madden 08 & Condemned: Criminal Origins. Pretty much best deal I could find. Hoping it arrives as described. User has 100% feedback and sells mostly video game electronics.

Nice! Sounds like you got the whole shebang.

What year does the red ring of death end at?
I would have stayed away from that batch.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

What year does the red ring of death end at?
I would have stayed away from that batch.

That's why I made sure it was fairly new. The one I bought was manufactured less than a year ago and still has over 2 years left on the warranty against the "Red Ring."

Good move.