Xbox 360

cabla

Well Game have a great deal at the minute.

Premium Xbox 360
Extra wireless controller
Pgr and two other games, (not sure what they are)

All for just €406

Ghost Train

sounds pretty good price

nicelives

cabla wrote:

Well Game have a great deal at the minute.

Premium Xbox 360
Extra wireless controller
Pgr and two other games, (not sure what they are)

All for just €406

Most likely Arcade Live Compilation and Viva Pinata (along with PGR3 and Extra Controller of course). Picked this up for 409 on Thursday and very happy with it.

mukki

is this the way to go, are we sure their won't be a massive price reduction before the ps3 comes out

nicelives

mukki wrote:

is this the way to go, are we sure their won't be a massive price reduction before the ps3 comes out

Not sure, but it is still a fair bit cheaper than the PS3.

If you want a HD-DVD player it only costs €199 extra with a free copy of King Kong HD as opposed to being obliged to buy the Blu-Ray with the PS3 whether you want it or not or whether it wins the format war.

If you buy the core system and the HD-DVD add on it's the cheapest High Def disc player on the market at the moment.

Microsoft have said that they're confident of the future of HD-DVD but that if Blu-Ray for some reason wins out they'll provide a Blu-ray add on for the 360.

It's going to be a while before you can get your hands on the PS3, there's a rumour that Ireland have been allocated only 26 units for launch day and it's going to take another while before there's a good amount of spefically PS3 games. The less PS3s Sony are able to manufacture due to the production problems, the less incentive dvelopers will have to publish titles for only a small consumer base.

jpfahy

I'll bet Microsoft will integrate the HD dvd player into the 360 just before the PS3 launches. I'm holding off for that !!

mickoneill30

mukki wrote:

is this the way to go, are we sure their won't be a massive price reduction before the ps3 comes out

Well you can wait forever, it'll always be cheaper next year and the year after that etc. etc.
It's not a bad price. I bought that pack in Game and Gears of War in Argos (59.99 in Argos, 69.99 in Game & 49.99 in Smyths (found out about that Smyths price later)).
Viva Pinata isn't brilliant and the Arcade pack is so so but there are plenty of cheap Xbox 360 games in the shops these days if you get bored with the games that come with the pack (in the classics range and the second hand sections), it'll be a long time before the PS3 has a classics or second hand range.

Fnz

I do reckon that Microsoft will either drop the price of the Xbox 360 or add extra functionality to it just before the PS3 is released. Microsoft didn't win the console war last generation so they're gonna do all they can to prevent Sony from establishing the its console, once again, as the dominant format.

The PS3 outperforms the 360 so there's gonna be a lot of excitement around the launch date... MS have to steal Sony's thunder somehow!

I was thinking about getting the Wii but now that I picked up one of those 32" HD-ready TV from Tesco for €399 (thank you bargain alerts ) I'm considering getting a high definition-capable console to take advantage of that.

mickoneill30

Fnz wrote:

I do reckon that Microsoft will either drop the price of the Xbox 360 or add extra functionality to it just before the PS3 is released. Microsoft didn't win the console war last generation so they're gonna do all they can to prevent Sony from establishing the its console, once again, as the dominant format.

I think Sony are doing enough themselves this time around to make sure they're not the dominant format (price, blu-ray, long delays, bad press from their other divisions etc. etc.).

I'd say that sometime in the first half of 2007 MS will release a bigger HDD for the Xbox360 for around the same price as the current 20Gb, that's a logical and needed upgrade (probably around the 100Gb mark so they could say it's bigger than the PS3s).
If I were them I'd upgrade the Media Centre and make it so that people can just play any format file from any type of PC without needing to mess around with hacks. I've an old modded Xbox with Media Centre and it kicks the ass of the Media Centre in the 360 and I know of a pile more Xboxes that were sold and modded after people saw what my modded one could do. It's still sitting there under my TV beside the 360 and won't be going anywhere, anytime soon.

I don't think they'll integrate a HD-DVD into the box. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray haven't taken off yet. Why lock themselves down? By the time those formats take off it'll be time for Xbox 3. And if Blu-Ray does take over then they can just release an add on drive like their current HD-DVD add on.

NIBBS

of course the price will drop, console prices always drop - but as was said by the time the PS3 is out and whatever format has won the HD war it will be time for a new Xbox.......

just back from the States yesterday and the 360 Premium packs there are $299 crazy the difference over here....

mukki

any bargains on core systems, i only want one for the media center extender features

getoffthepot

argos are doing xbox + 4 games for €109.99


Forza / Halo 2 / PGR2 / Fable 4 Game Pack- Xbox

mukki

getoffthepot wrote:

argos are doing xbox + 4 games for €109.99


Forza / Halo 2 / PGR2 / Fable 4 Game Pack- Xbox

thats a good bargain, did you see any commodore 64s there??

getoffthepot

Don't know about commodores - saw the xbox deal on a uk forum for £49.99 in argos uk so checked argos.ie and saw it there for €109.99 - much better deal in the UK branch.

cabla

mukki wrote:

thats a good bargain, did you see any commodore 64s there??

I think he is joking mate. ^^

Doodlebug

mukki wrote:

thats a good bargain, did you see any commodore 64s there??

^^
Sarcasm... sensors... overloaded... Must.... re... calibrate!! :rolleyes:

Seriously, that Xbox deal in Argos ain't half bad if it doesn't cost too much to get it modded and tricked out as a media centre - especially being able to network it!

getoffthepot

Doodlebug wrote:

^^
Seriously, that Xbox deal in Argos ain't half bad if it doesn't cost too much to get it modded and tricked out as a media centre - especially being able to network it!

Well thats what I'm doing - just nabbed one for £50 modded on a UK forum to use as a XBMC.

degsie

getoffthepot wrote:

Well thats what I'm doing - just nabbed one for £50 modded on a UK forum to use as a XBMC.

You have a link for this?

getoffthepot

degsie wrote:

You have a link for this?

There were only 3 and thye are gone now.

http://www.bst-secure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2054992759

sweetie

Doodlebug wrote:

^^
Sarcasm... sensors... overloaded... Must.... re... calibrate!! :rolleyes:

Seriously, that Xbox deal in Argos ain't half bad if it doesn't cost too much to get it modded and tricked out as a media centre - especially being able to network it!

What can one do with the media centre?

getoffthepot

sweetie wrote:

What can one do with the media centre?

see here or google it for more info

http://www.productwiki.com/microsoft_xbox/article/how_to_go_from_xbox_to_xbox_media_center_in_30_minutes.html

zAbbo

I know someone who's modded xbox is gathering dust, 250gb and all the usuals PM if anyone's interested.

Great Media Centre box.

hawker27

thats a good one.

mukki wrote:

thats a good bargain, did you see any commodore 64s there??

Fergob

On the 360 topic, i got one before christmas in a work promo, that is unopened ( as i have one already ) its the highend bundled with Pro evolution soccer, xtravision are doing it for €439, so i would be willing to let go for €330 if anyone's interested..

RobertFoster

Fergob wrote:

On the 360 topic, i got one before christmas in a work promo, that is unopened ( as i have one already ) its the highend bundled with Pro evolution soccer, xtravision are doing it for €439, so i would be willing to let go for €330 if anyone's interested..

http://www.adverts.ie/

Smithers

Fergob wrote:

On the 360 topic, i got one before christmas in a work promo, that is unopened ( as i have one already ) its the highend bundled with Pro evolution soccer, xtravision are doing it for €439, so i would be willing to let go for €330 if anyone's interested..

that the hard drive one? what else does it come with? any receit for warrenty?

Alkers

Is the xtravision bundle not the best? €409 for the premium, extra wireless controller and 4 games? PGR, Perfect dark and I can't remember the other two.

Fergob

comes with Pro evolution soccer and one controller, invoice /delivery docket dated 11/12/06

Alkers

I got the premium 360, PGR, Gears of War, the Arcade game, Perfect Dark collectors edition and an extra controller last night for €409.99 in extra vision.

RuggieBear

Simona1986 wrote:

I got the premium 360, PGR, Gears of War, the Arcade game, Perfect Dark collectors edition and an extra controller last night for €409.99 in extra vision.

that sounds good to me

RuggieBear

Simona1986 wrote:

I got the premium 360, PGR, Gears of War, the Arcade game, Perfect Dark collectors edition and an extra controller last night for €409.99 in extra vision.

which xtravision? my local (Baggott street) said the only deals they had were 439 for premium with either COD or GOW!!!!!:eek:

mickoneill30

You have to ring around apparently. I rang my one in my home town last week and two near my work here. They all had the more expensive packs. I ended up buying the Game pack for €410 but I would have really preferred the XV pack. Still a good deal though and Viva Pinata is growing on me.

Alkers

I got it in Ranelagh. It took me almost 30minutes to get out of the store with it. I was told about the package about a friend who works in another branch. No-one else seems to know about it but it is definately for real. The code for the extra-vision till is XB3ENT - give that to the employee and they will then find out about the bundle for you.

RuggieBear

Simona1986 wrote:

I got it in Ranelagh. It took me almost 30minutes to get out of the store with it. I was told about the package about a friend who works in another branch. No-one else seems to know about it but it is definately for real. The code for the extra-vision till is XB3ENT - give that to the employee and they will then find out about the bundle for you.

sweet. thanks for that.

tvnutz

Simona1986 wrote:

I got the premium 360, PGR, Gears of War, the Arcade game, Perfect Dark collectors edition and an extra controller last night for €409.99 in extra vision.

not sure why you got gears of war with it. Its not in the bundle. Might have been a mistake by a staff member. The bundle is actually Premium Console,PGR,Arcade,Perfect Dark Zero,Ninty Nine Nights and the extra controller.

Id say anyone looking to get the bundle would be very lucky if they got gears in the bundle.

RuggieBear

tvnutz wrote:

not sure why you got gears of war with it. Its not in the bundle. Might have been a mistake by a staff member. The bundle is actually Premium Console,PGR,Arcade,Perfect Dark Zero,Ninty Nine Nights and the extra controller.

Id say anyone looking to get the bundle would be very lucky if they got gears in the bundle.

yep. that's more or less what all the xtravisions told me when i rang up

Alkers

Yes, you're right sorry. That is what I had intended on buying but they didn't have any stand alone 360's, only those boxed with gears of war so the guy said to take gears of war and get rid of either 99 nights or perfect dark. It's still probably the best bundle out there.

Easy Rider

Fnz wrote:

The PS3 outperforms the 360 so there's gonna be a lot of excitement around the launch date... MS have to steal Sony's thunder somehow!

No it does not.....all you have to do is go over to gamespot and see the comparison of all the same games, the 360 out performs in all but one of the games.....so I am not sure where you got that from....alot of people believe the PS3 out performs for some reason, they are basically the same....not sure why people are waiting for the PS3 when they can have next gen now....plus the 360 will have the new Grand Theft Auto the same day, plus downloadable levels, which the PS3 Won't have...

RobertFoster

I think GTAIV on the PS3 will have unique content also, Easy Rider.

Sir Oxman

Simona1986 wrote:

I got it in Ranelagh. It took me almost 30minutes to get out of the store with it. I was told about the package about a friend who works in another branch. No-one else seems to know about it but it is definately for real. The code for the extra-vision till is XB3ENT - give that to the employee and they will then find out about the bundle for you.

Thanks for the code Simona.
I went to Xtravision Finglas and yer man said the only bundle they had was for 439.99 GOW or COD
I asked him to check his system with the code you quoted and the look on his face (v surprised to say the least!)
Got N3, Arcade, PDZ and PGR3 plus extra wirless controller for 409.99 plus 50 quid vouchers.

It looks brilliant on me Tesco bargain Technosonic TV and I can now stream all my videos/music etc from my desktop.

Delighted with it - this is MY LAST purchase till next Xmas/New Year - I'm smashed!

sweetie

delah wrote:

It looks brilliant on me Tesco bargain Technosonic TV and I can now stream all my videos/music etc from my desktop.

Eh, how? Please?

colmranger

sweetie wrote:

Eh, how? Please?

Read your xbox 360 manual!:eek:

Sir Oxman

sweetie wrote:

Eh, how? Please?

Page 21 of the manual.:)

XP systems need Windows Media Connect AFAIK, XP MCE systems are a walk in the park as is Vista.

WMV only for videos, I believe but I'm looking into TVersity to get around that one.
http://www.tversity.com/

RuggieBear

delah wrote:

WMV only for videos, I believe but I'm looking into TVersity to get around that one.
http://www.tversity.com/

tell us how you get on with tversity

Sir Oxman

RuggieBear wrote:

tell us how you get on with tversity

Quick msg - tversity works fine.
Transcoding of non-wmv files from PC to xbox on the fly will gobble up your cpu cycles.
Mine was between 70-90% cpu usage on an AMD64 3500+ 2.2ghz with 1gb ram
I could do other things on the PC but not loads- websurfing etc

Playback was as good as the files - no stuttering etc (wired connection between this PC and the router) It can take up to a minute before the transcoded video starts playing on the xbox. Also, no ffwd/rwd or skipping available until you've watched the whole video through once. I think this is being looked at...

Many options in tversity to adjust for PC and network setup, good library options too so you can adjust how the files are listed on the xbox library - best to ensure the files have folder heading first as it would be a pig to navigate through tons of title only files on the xbox.
Tversity of course doesn't need to do anything to wmv files.

Have about 10 internet tv stations set up - obviously quality depends on their bandwidth/your bandwidth but ABC News is good as is HBO Comedy and NASA TV.

Can stream Youtube videos (!) too along with grabbing rss video feeds - again quality depends on source and bandwidth.
Also, you can grab and stream online photo libraries like Flickr etc through RSS. And radio stations. And podcasts.
All in all, it's pretty cool.
You must turn off WMP sharing though otherwise the xbox will default to it and you won't get tversity recognised by the 360.
I guess you could have a second pc/laptop connected with WMP sharing on as well and the 360 will give you a choice of both..

If using Vista and it's firewall you would have to go into the advanced options for vista firewall (in admin tools) and specify the exe and the port explicitly - not even doing this in the basic firewall interface will allow tversity through - that took me ages to figure out.
Turning off Windows Firewall allowed tversity to function naturally.

I'm very happy with it and have replaced WMP Sharing with it.
And it's free!

HTH. (I guess this is off-topic for this forum so mods feel free to move)

RuggieBear

delah wrote:

Quick msg - tversity works fine.
Transcoding of non-wmv files from PC to xbox on the fly will gobble up your cpu cycles.
Mine was between 70-90% cpu usage on an AMD64 3500+ 2.2ghz with 1gb ram
I could do other things on the PC but not loads- websurfing etc

Playback was as good as the files - no stuttering etc (wired connection between this PC and the router) It can take up to a minute before the transcoded video starts playing on the xbox. Also, no ffwd/rwd or skipping available until you've watched the whole video through once. I think this is being looked at...

Many options in tversity to adjust for PC and network setup, good library options too so you can adjust how the files are listed on the xbox library - best to ensure the files have folder heading first as it would be a pig to navigate through tons of title only files on the xbox.
Tversity of course doesn't need to do anything to wmv files.

Have about 10 internet tv stations set up - obviously quality depends on their bandwidth/your bandwidth but ABC News is good as is HBO Comedy and NASA TV.

Can stream Youtube videos (!) too along with grabbing rss video feeds - again quality depends on source and bandwidth.
Also, you can grab and stream online photo libraries like Flickr etc through RSS. And radio stations. And podcasts.
All in all, it's pretty cool.
You must turn off WMP sharing though otherwise the xbox will default to it and you won't get tversity recognised by the 360.
I guess you could have a second pc/laptop connected with WMP sharing on as well and the 360 will give you a choice of both..

If using Vista and it's firewall you would have to go into the advanced options for vista firewall (in admin tools) and specify the exe and the port explicitly - not even doing this in the basic firewall interface will allow tversity through - that took me ages to figure out.
Turning off Windows Firewall allowed tversity to function naturally.

I'm very happy with it and have replaced WMP Sharing with it.
And it's free!

HTH. (I guess this is off-topic for this forum so mods feel free to move)

Cheers mate. That's brilliant.

shortys94

If I have my computer (windows xp OS). Can I put a ethernet cable from the 360 into the second LAN port on my wireless router and play music from the computer on the 360 if the computer is in LAN 1

Sir Oxman

shortys94 wrote:

If I have my computer (windows xp OS). Can I put a ethernet cable from the 360 into the second LAN port on my wireless router and play music from the computer on the 360 if the computer is in LAN 1

Page 21 of the manual should explain all.
On XP you must have Windows Media Connect installed unless you have MCE2005
After ensuring you have Windows Media Connect installed on your PC, go to System and Computer on the 360 blade and detect.
Your PC should appear.
Back to Media on the 360 blade down to music or Video and let it search.
You should have the contents of your WMP library displayed.
Music and video at through your xbox (only wmv video files)

Alkers

Anyone know of anything you can use to change videos to WMV format?

far2gud

If your using xp pro use tversity in conjunction with fddshow codecs to encode to wmv on the fly. Make sure you remove any other codec packs you have installed to avoid problems.

I have set transcoding to 640/480 in tversity which works fine for all my xvid/divx movies on my 32" lcd. You need a pentium 2.8 or equivalent to run these sort of resolutions.

For higher higher quality video such as hd you need a dual core proc.