The Elite Xbox 360: HDMI support and 120 GB Hard Drive

Writing by walking leaf on Thursday, 29 of March , 2007 at 9:46 am

It’s official. The special edition Xbox 360 is for real. For the past few months, there have been rumours that Microsoft were planning to launch a new model of the popular Xbox 360 console with HDMI support and a bigger capacity Hard Drive. Well, it seems that this particular advance model, named Elite, will be available in the US at the end of April. The price? Yours for only $479.99 or €479.99/£349.99.

The Xbox 360 Elite will feature a 120-gigabyte Hard Drive, an HDMI port, cables for HDMI, component and composite, an audio adapter for HDMI (offering crystal clear digital sound) and a new black finish. Unfortunately, it doesn’t use the smaller 65 nanometer chips, the built IPTV support (for watching videos via the Xbox Live Marketplace) or the built-in HD-DVD drive. Worse of all, the Elite does not include an integrate Wi-Fi, unlike the Nintendo Wii.

For those people worried about a limited run of available Elite machines, this model is here to stay, as are the Core and Premium versions of the Xbox 360.

As for when the Elite will be arriving in Europe, Tim Ellis, head of games at retailer HMV, says:

“All we understand is that it’s at some point perhaps around the late summer…I feel sure that there’ll be demand for this product, and Microsoft now enjoys the level of brand penetration and player loyalty for it to be successful… There should be quite a few core gamers out there that may want to upgrade or who will at least want the extra capacity now on offer.”

Even though Microsoft is positioning the Elite as a niche product designed for a small group of gamers interested in the increased storage demands of the Xbox Live Video Marketplace (and possibly the IPTV service) and the HDMI output. It will be fascinating how well receive this particular model compare to existing owners and its main rival Sony’s new HDMI and 60GB PlayStation 3.

In other related news, Microsoft has announced deals with distribution deals with five new video Marketplace partners.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment: They will be releasing its direct to video movies exclusively in high definition on Xbox LIVE simultaneous with their availability on DVD, starting with “Sublime” and later offering “Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.”

A&E Network: “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” “King of Cars,” “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” “Driving Force” and “Criss Angel Mindfreak”

ADV Films: Top offerings from the #1 producer-distributor of Japanese animation (”anime”) outside of Japan

National Geographic: The television series “Is It Real?” and “Taboo” as well as programs such as “21 Days to Baghdad” and “Air Force One”

New Line Cinema: “Snakes on a Plane,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning” and “Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny,” plus top titles including “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” and “Magnolia”

TotalVid: A broad action-sports offering including extreme skiing and snowboarding, skateboarding, motocross, surfing and mountain biking.

Will we see these outside the American market? It would be nice to download and watch these range of TV shows and films on offer from Microsoft, but just like the situation regarding videos on Apple’s iTunes Online Store, its all down to agreeing licenses from the distributors.

Spread the word!

No tag for this post.

Category: Videogames

Add this post to

Del.icio.us -

Meneame -

Digg

5 Comments

Comment by Yink

Made Friday, 30 of March , 2007 at 4:57 pm

A bit pricey just for a colour change.

Comment by Snige66

Made Saturday, 31 of March , 2007 at 2:21 am

the only thing good for me is the HDMI and even then it aint all that. HD DVD is still via USB and then via the 360. The HDD at 120gigs is good…….if you live in the US where you can download TV episodes and films. So this, until we get the same downloads ( yeah right’o I won’t be holding my breath ) this is really not too big of a deal.

Comment by NeoBlade

Made Sunday, 1 of April , 2007 at 11:53 am

HDMI is pretty sweet mind… Don’t forget the PS3 supports the latest HDMI 1.3 specification but there’s no word if the XBOX360 Elite does or not (probably doesn’t).

The HD-DVD is via USB because generally speaking its just a player but with dedicated software built in. All the processing is done on the XBOX360 itself hence you only need a USB connection to transfer the data.

I’m sure once Microsoft ties up some European deals between TV companies things will ramp up, but it is expensive just for the upgrades for now. I’m sure it’ll come down in price.

Comment by Snige66

Made Monday, 2 of April , 2007 at 4:54 am

Without doubt once MS sort out licensis then this will be quite nice. But I still don’t like the HD DVD link up. I have to power both 360 and the HD DVD drive and as you mentioned Neo it still might not even be HDMI 1.3. And I dont know ( if it is 1.3 ) if I could still get TRUE Dolby HD sound. At the mo, I dount think I can even get Dolby+, but anyway, I digress.

This just doesn’t go far enough for me. But if MS did go all out then it would be just as much, if not more the a PS3 and that would be a PR disaster, so I can kinda see why that will never happen for a good while yet.

Comment by walking leaf

Made Monday, 2 of April , 2007 at 5:58 am

Even though I got myself the Xbox 360 Premium with the current 20 GB HD without the HDMI port, I am happy with my new games console.

Interestingly, the Elite model doesn’t use the latest HDMI connection. According to an article on Engadget, the new Xbox 360 only support the 1.2 HDMI standard, and not the 1.3 spec which would have enabled TrueHD or Dolby Digital+.

So not only the increase cost with a bigger Hard Drive and new colour, it doesn’t even offer the best resolution for the true HD age. What a shame…