You'll never believe this, I have now joined the Dark Side!

[Windfire]

I'm hooking it up to my 32" TV. I hope the Xbox can hook up via SVideo cable. I don't have component in on this TV.

It can, but you have to buy the S-Video Xbox cable separately. Also, always use S-video or Component cables for Xbox. You'll see a significant difference in gfx and visual quality going from Composite to S-Video or Component.

Thanks for the good news! I was wondering about that. I know that S-Video and Component are a nice step up from standard Composite.

Steve

 

[Windfire]

I know one thing... The XBox can't do hi-res like my P4 2GHz + TI4400.

True, but who cares if the Xbox still looks and plays good on a 60" windscreen TV.

Tommy McClain

I have a 50" Toshiba widescreen HDTV but everything I've read says not to hook game consoles to it due to the danger of burn-in. That is a bummer.

Does anyone have any info on this topic??? How much of a risk is burn-in on a projection HDTV?

Thanks,

 

[BenSkywalker]

Does anyone have any info on this topic??? How much of a risk is burn-in on a projection HDTV?

Not much as long as you don't leave the game paused for a few hours with the TV on(and even then the newer TVs likely won't have any burn in effects). One of my friends recently picked up a Panasonic rear projection HDTV and the TV itself has gaming specific options. If you are going to hook your Box up to your HDTV, make sure to enable progressive scan mode when you play on it.

I know one thing... The XBox can't do hi-res like my P4 2GHz + TI4400.

While it can't do 1600x1200, it is capable of 1920x1080 interlaced, unfortunately no games support it as of now.

 

[Mr_Wormwood]

I still find the Xbox controllers unweildy, the new one is far too small, and the old one is fairly awkward to hold (and a little bit too small as well). Still waiting for an even remotely ergonomic controller design for controllers before I invest too much time in them.

I like the Xbox's controller having never become too familiar with anything else, but I know I'm in the minority.

I wonder why more people, who act as though they would like the Xbox, were not for the controllers, wouldn't just pay a little more and get an adapter to use the PSX or PSII controllers that they're already used to.

I found prices anywhere from $10 (cheap) to $17.95 (not too expensive) for the adapter alone.
The people who offer this argument usually have one of the other controllers already, so the added expense is not that much.

I guess all I'm trying to say is , if the only thing standing between you, and the Xbox, is The Beast® MS controller, there are options.

 

[BenSkywalker]

I guess all I'm trying to say is , if the only thing standing between you, and the Xbox, is The Beast® MS controller, there are options.

'The Beast' is dead, MS discontinued it. Controller S is the only one(which is a very good thing IMO) left now. As far as hooking up a PS2 controller, certain games rely on useable analog buttons(ones with a decent amount of travel). The only option would be GC or XB because of this.

 

[DeathKnight]

AFAIK, the "Duke" controller will still be available, but rather separately. All new Xbox consoles will ship with the Controller S.

Personally, I prefer the original controller.

 

[marconelly!]

Sony only slashed the price of the PS2 to try to one-up Microsoft.

Well, to say that would be to think they would never slash the price otherwise, which just doesn't sound plausible. They've been regularly slashing the price of PSX althought they were clearly the winner in the last gen. If they really were that desperate of one-upping the Microsoft, they would be offering some deals to counter Microsoft's two game bundle, I think.

As far as hooking up a PS2 controller, certain games rely on useable analog buttons(ones with a decent amount of travel)

I know a guy who can't stomach the Xbox controllers and is using that adapter with his PS2 controller for every game he has. No problems whatsoever - not even with racing games (btw, I think it's very easy to controll the pressure of those analog shoulder buttons)

I've heard, however, that Xbox live headset does NOT work with some of those adapters

 

[covermye]

I have a 50" Toshiba widescreen HDTV but everything I've read says not to hook game consoles to it due to the danger of burn-in. That is a bummer.

Does anyone have any info on this topic??? How much of a risk is burn-in on a projection HDTV?

Thanks,

I posted this yesterday, but it won't hurt to post again: CALIBRATE YOUR TV with an easy and readily available DVD (i.e. AVIA or equivalent). You can buy these at Best Buy even, for $40 +/-. This is the single biggest precaution you can take in the battle against burn-in when it comes to playing video games on a CRT television. Burn in most often occurs because the brightness/contrast settings are set by "eye" and set way too high. You'll be amazed at not only how much better the picture looks and how much more accurate skin tones are on movies, but how low you end up setting sharpness (useless setting IMO) and especially contrast.

This is a small investment to make for a nice television. Properly calibrated, you'd have to try pretty hard (1000's of hours of playing time or pausing your game for hours upon hours with the TV on) to experience any burn-in.

-Chris

 

[BoddoZerg]

Console gaming will never replace PC gaming.

Show me a good competitive RTS on Console, then show me a thriving mod community that can last for >4 years and continue putting out excellent work for an old game engine on Console, and then I will eat my words.

However, the same can be said for Console - console will never die out to PC gaming, because of multiple controllers on one screen, party games (Super Smash Bros!) and fighting games, and the much more user friendly console attitude.

 

[Windfire]

I posted this yesterday, but it won't hurt to post again: CALIBRATE YOUR TV with an easy and readily available DVD (i.e. AVIA or equivalent). You can buy these at Best Buy even, for $40 +/-. This is the single biggest precaution you can take in the battle against burn-in

I have AVIA and have calibrated. It just so happend that I had minimal changes to make. The picture is great!

However, burn-in can occur even if the brightness is not too high. It has to do with the fact that some areas of the game screen may be completely static. If you play a game like this for hours on end it can/will burn in over time.

 

[AzBat]

Teasy,

I haven't been trying to ignore you. I just haven't been able to get on here this past week. Busy, busy, busy.

I'm not being difficult, I'm just making my point. If I mis-understood you then look back at the earlier posts to find out why. I'm not a mind reader

I understand, but if you were a mind reader it would made it a whole lot easier!

BTW, yeah I do edit some of my posts allot. But I don't change my actually point, just the wording. I tend to write something very quickly, post it, and then think "hmm I could have said that better/more clearly" so I go back and edit. Sometimes I edit a post 3-4 times. Sorry, I realise it may be annoying, but I just like to try to get my point accross as clearly as possible.

No wonder we clash. That bugs the hell out of me. When I post I make sure I do it right the first time. Sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, etc. That way everybody don't have to keep checking to see my latest edits. I guess that comes from doing my website and articles for JPA. To each his own!

Well if you'd said that in the first place, or even the second time round I wouldn't have argued anymore.

Unfortunately I made simple comment under the assumption people would understand my point. I guess I was wrong. Next time I'll make sure to be more specific so you or anybody else doesn't misconstrue my comments. And hopefully you learned to not automatically make assumptions either way. Cause if comments could be read either way, then you need to ask people to clarify before blasting them.

Wierd, I thought all games were rated something. I wasn't actually questioning the numbers for this argument BTW, I was just mentioning it.

I'm always happy to help people learn something new. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Anyway, as for the games I knew that Xbox had less kids games, but in order to show that it did I had to show numbers. So I used both Xbox and GameCube's web sites for my research on their games. That's how I do most of my arguments with respect to numbers, research it till I get the numbers I needed. So if you see me quote numbers, then you can be pretty sure I'm not pulling them out of my ass.

Anyway no problem, just a mis-understanding and I agree with what your actually saying.

Awwwww. I feel like hugging. LOL!

Tommy McClain