Lets assume, for a moment, that the new warranties have weakened my resolve and I'm going to be getting a 360 in the near future.
So I'm a little behind the curve with next gen media with the p's and the i' and the large numbers which aren't a power of 2. The television I have all of my gaming machines running to right now is a Zenith from the days when rabbit ears were in vogue. Can anyone point me towards some light reading so I can make an informed decision and end up with a TV that will work well with any consoles I have (nes, snes, ps2) and any that I may end up buying in the not too distant future?
720p.
You dont need anything more if you get a 360. The 360 can do 1080i, or is it p. Regardless, you wont care and the price difference is ludicrous for the marginal increase in quality.
Get a 26" widescreen TFT monitor and you have HD right there. For much less than a TV. I use a dual monitor setup and when I turn my 360 on the PC stops using both monitors and switches to 1 monitor mode, so its brilliant.
If you get a PS3 you might wanna go for 1080 TV.
Basically, its resolution much like a PC. The higher the number the better the image fidelity, the sharpness and the detail shown on screen. Anything above and including 720 is considered HD. The Wii for example does 480 max.
Really, just google it there are a thousand guides out there. Despite what manufacturers say, look for a TV with good contrast and colour depth, because those matter so much more than resolution. Resolution is a handy number where you can advertise yours as being higher when in fact it makes such a small difference.
The 360 can do 1080p over component/VGA/HDMI (for the elite).
Most games are made in 720p (some future ones may be made in native 1080p) so getting an uber expensive tv isnt the best course of action unless you REALLY have teh money to blow, in which case I want to come over and play some rockband on such a display ;-)
He wants to play his NES and SNES games on the TV. A regular CRT HDTV seems to suit him the most, to be honest.
I know for a fact that NES and SNES games will look awful on an LCD. If, however, you are going to be playing them as VC games on the Wii, you can get component cables for it and play at 480p. That'll look just fine on any type of HDTV.
It's not a link to an article or anything, but here's a quick rundown.
480i - 480 scan lines, interlaced. Break the 480 into two alternating sets. First 240 lines are refreshed, then the other 240 lines are refreshed. This is your standard definition television set. NES and SNES will feel right at home here.
480p - 480 scan lines, progressive. Instead of refreshing in two sets, each line is refreshed every time. This is as high as the Wii and PS2 (only some games) go. I can notice a difference on the Wii games when I flip from 480i to 480p.
720p - 720 scan lines. Like 480p but sharper. If I remember right then this is as high as 360 games are displayed. 360 works great here.
1080i - 1080 scan lines. Fairly common ceiling for current HDTVs. Like 480i but sharper. This is what I have and my 360 games look wonderful.
1080p - 1080 scan lines. Current maximum HD resolution (I think). PS3 supports it, but most devs are still aiming at 720p.
So its the usual 1 year for everything else that isn't covered under the 3 years? So do I have to shell out $140 if say the DVD drive crashed or something else failed after the 1 year? Will they increase coverage on that as well?
Probably not, since the DVD drive is nowhere near as chronic or common a problem. And according to BigRed, the DVD drive warranty repair is cheaper ($50 instead of $140).
Maybe BigRed should tell the people at xbox customer service this, as I was told it would be $140 to fix the DVD drive.
So in essence there could be (speculation) a massive failure of the DVD drives. Could there be an increase of warrenty on that? I am just looking to cover my bases.
You cant really create the error. Well you can but not without voiding your warranty (opening up box). Even if you run it in a closed box for a long time it will just overheat and do the 3 red lights.
Am I missing something here?
If you let it overheat up until the processor melts/fails, I'm pretty sure you get the three red lights. So how is that impossible to do without opening the box?
So its the usual 1 year for everything else that isn't covered under the 3 years? So do I have to shell out $140 if say the DVD drive crashed or something else failed after the 1 year? Will they increase coverage on that as well?
Probably not, since the DVD drive is nowhere near as chronic or common a problem. And according to BigRed, the DVD drive warranty repair is cheaper ($50 instead of $140).
Maybe BigRed should tell the people at xbox customer service this, as I was told it would be $140 to fix the DVD drive.
So in essence there could be (speculation) a massive failure of the DVD drives. Could there be an increase of warrenty on that? I am just looking to cover my bases.
The boxes are fixed in renoysa, MX by people who make $20 a week (granted thats a lot in MX :P), they take their jobs seriously though. They just have a high turnover rate because they take shit seriously and fire employees for too many mistakes, then they gotta train someone new.
Ummm.... if you really work for Microsoft, you may not want to be saying stuff like this.
Just sayin'.
Its a standard wage in MX for people, and they for the most part do good work and I get along with most of them pretty well. Their newbie training leaves something to be desired though, we try to make the repair process as easy as possible though.
You cant really create the error. Well you can but not without voiding your warranty (opening up box). Even if you run it in a closed box for a long time it will just overheat and do the 3 red lights.
Am I missing something here?
If you let it overheat up until the processor melts/fails, I'm pretty sure you get the three red lights. So how is that impossible to do without opening the box?
The 360 will shut down due to thermal overload when it reaches a certain temp before it goes nuclear and causes damage to the box.
If you see 2 red lights on the left side of the ring, that means it did a thermal shutdown. When it does that, either increase airflow around the console for a few minutes and let it cool down or just turn it off for about 15min or so and power it back up.
So its the usual 1 year for everything else that isn't covered under the 3 years? So do I have to shell out $140 if say the DVD drive crashed or something else failed after the 1 year? Will they increase coverage on that as well?
Probably not, since the DVD drive is nowhere near as chronic or common a problem. And according to BigRed, the DVD drive warranty repair is cheaper ($50 instead of $140).
Maybe BigRed should tell the people at xbox customer service this, as I was told it would be $140 to fix the DVD drive.
So in essence there could be (speculation) a massive failure of the DVD drives. Could there be an increase of warrenty on that? I am just looking to cover my bases.
Oh come on, what kind of slippery slope is that.
No one would know.
I am just trying to get how much warrenties will increase for specific parts before I actually purchase one. Electronics of any kind are buggy, but it is a good thing to be safe.
The DVD drive failures are rare. The 3 red lights are not.
Karf on
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited July 2007
Yeah...I mean it's like with the PS2. The lens crapping out on you were the most common problem, sure there were other hardware problems but they were few and far inbetween and could simply be considered problems that come with console aging.
So its the usual 1 year for everything else that isn't covered under the 3 years? So do I have to shell out $140 if say the DVD drive crashed or something else failed after the 1 year? Will they increase coverage on that as well?
Probably not, since the DVD drive is nowhere near as chronic or common a problem. And according to BigRed, the DVD drive warranty repair is cheaper ($50 instead of $140).
Maybe BigRed should tell the people at xbox customer service this, as I was told it would be $140 to fix the DVD drive.
So in essence there could be (speculation) a massive failure of the DVD drives. Could there be an increase of warrenty on that? I am just looking to cover my bases.
just ... look...
how about you never buy one...
what will it take for you to stop being insane in 360 threads
do you honestly think some dude working at CS... or any of us... or even Peter Moore is going to answer that question with a yes or no... or that they even COULD answer the question?
man.... seriously...
how about this: NO
chances are you will buy a 360... insert a japanese game... and it will red light you.... then you'll get it back all fixed and the DVD drive will break...
So its the usual 1 year for everything else that isn't covered under the 3 years? So do I have to shell out $140 if say the DVD drive crashed or something else failed after the 1 year? Will they increase coverage on that as well?
Probably not, since the DVD drive is nowhere near as chronic or common a problem. And according to BigRed, the DVD drive warranty repair is cheaper ($50 instead of $140).
Maybe BigRed should tell the people at xbox customer service this, as I was told it would be $140 to fix the DVD drive.
So in essence there could be (speculation) a massive failure of the DVD drives. Could there be an increase of warrenty on that? I am just looking to cover my bases.
Oh come on, what kind of slippery slope is that.
No one would know.
I am just trying to get how much warrenties will increase for specific parts before I actually purchase one. Electronics of any kind are buggy, but it is a good thing to be safe.
One year is more than enough time to see any faults on the DVD drive. Don't worry so much about that.
So its the usual 1 year for everything else that isn't covered under the 3 years? So do I have to shell out $140 if say the DVD drive crashed or something else failed after the 1 year? Will they increase coverage on that as well?
Probably not, since the DVD drive is nowhere near as chronic or common a problem. And according to BigRed, the DVD drive warranty repair is cheaper ($50 instead of $140).
Maybe BigRed should tell the people at xbox customer service this, as I was told it would be $140 to fix the DVD drive.
So in essence there could be (speculation) a massive failure of the DVD drives. Could there be an increase of warrenty on that? I am just looking to cover my bases.
Oh come on, what kind of slippery slope is that.
No one would know.
I am just trying to get how much warrenties will increase for specific parts before I actually purchase one. Electronics of any kind are buggy, but it is a good thing to be safe.
One year is more than enough time to see any faults on the DVD drive. Don't worry so much about that.
Not to mention the fact that a kind of warranty increase of this magnitude is EXTREMELY rare, if not unheard of.
This only happened because the red rings of death were widespread. Problems with the drive were not, and thinking they'll increase for no apparent reason is paranoid talk.
I'm a lead SDET (Software Dev. Engineer in Test) for one of the games groups, specifically on the casual side of things.
So, you're a game tester for Microsoft Casual Games?
Developing unit tests, automating testing, that sort of thing?
Yes. Well, I'm not a game tester, but more on the platform side of things. (I used to do some game testing, it didn't interest me all that much, although it did teach me that I'm partially colorblind ... )
This is fantastic news, and pretty much assuages my worries over the failure rate. Price drop to $300 for the premium and they've got me. Good work, Microsoft.
I have a launch Xbox 360, and I've been using it for several hours a day since the day it was purchased.
Today it started to exhibit some bad behavior. IT DIDN'T RED RING today. It turned a bunch of graphics on the screen this really funky neon green.
Knowing that this is not, in fact, a good sign, I was wondering if bright green graphics is / was / has been a precursor to Red Ring of Death errors for any of you.
Hey Red do you have any information on "unreadable disc" errors that are sometimes seen? Is that just a dvd drive issue or something else? I get them at the most random times, it won't read any games for 20 minutes and then POOF it'll start right up and go for weeks or months without a problem.
So its the usual 1 year for everything else that isn't covered under the 3 years? So do I have to shell out $140 if say the DVD drive crashed or something else failed after the 1 year? Will they increase coverage on that as well?
Do most other companies give you 3 year warranties for free?
Seriously, you are looking for reasons to complain here.
Hey Red do you have any information on "unreadable disc" errors that are sometimes seen? Is that just a dvd drive issue or something else? I get them at the most random times, it won't read any games for 20 minutes and then POOF it'll start right up and go for weeks or months without a problem.
You mean the "Please put this disk in an xbox360 console" type error?
Ive gotten that a couple times on my home boxes.
Means one of 4 things:
Wrong game region disk
Dirty disk
Dirty lens
drive on its way out
Usually my disk/lens is just dirty. If you have one of those CD lens cleaner things, try that next time it happens.
It could also be your video cables, so try readjusting that.
My first 360 went from green, to purple, to pink. Then finally, it froze with a fruity checkerboard design.
But did you ever get the Red Rings? Specifically?
Because, see - that type of failure is covered.
Try another AV cable if you (or a friend) has one.
If you call in for a warranty repair and say you have those color issues and/or checkerboard and that its not the AV cable (and it can be replicated at the repair facility) then im sure you can talk them into qualifying that under the 3year.
This is astounding. Microsoft actually biting the bullet and fessing up? A 3 year warranty is unprecedented. I myself do not own a 360. Not because I have anything against the console or games (I enjoy playing them enough), but because I don't take my business to Microsoft if I can avoid it. That they've actually, finally, acknowledged the problem and are committed to doing something about it just says to me that the problem was probably even worse than what we've heard through internet gossip. For all the people reporting the RROD on the internet there are probably just as many who didn't. This new development is not so much about customer service as it is about saving face. It's a sickeningly brilliant bit of PR too. 360s will probably start flying off the shelves now. Everyone who has held back because of the hardware issue will relax their purse strings. Now that this has come to pass I'm thinking Sony probably wishes they had thought of buildnig the PS3 with a catastrophic hardware problem first, so that they coulda pulled this kinda stunt and get the gaming community talking about how "Classy" they are.
Hey Red do you have any information on "unreadable disc" errors that are sometimes seen? Is that just a dvd drive issue or something else? I get them at the most random times, it won't read any games for 20 minutes and then POOF it'll start right up and go for weeks or months without a problem.
You mean the "Please put this disk in an xbox360 console" type error?
Ive gotten that a couple times on my home boxes.
Means one of 4 things:
Wrong game region disk
Dirty disk
Dirty lens
drive on its way out
Usually my disk/lens is just dirty. If you have one of those CD lens cleaner things, try that next time it happens.
So I have to buy that in addition to trying to play the 360? Marvellious. Should I invest in other things as well to make it work?
Ash, you'll also have to pay for electricity bills. The 360 requires electricity you see.
Ranced on
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited July 2007
...Wow...complaining about having to buy a 2 dollar lens cleaner that works for any console...man, I mean I remember trolling meant you had to at least say something semi-valid.
@ Ranced: Can't forget those confounded televisions, can't see anything without them.
Hey Red do you have any information on "unreadable disc" errors that are sometimes seen? Is that just a dvd drive issue or something else? I get them at the most random times, it won't read any games for 20 minutes and then POOF it'll start right up and go for weeks or months without a problem.
You mean the "Please put this disk in an xbox360 console" type error?
Ive gotten that a couple times on my home boxes.
Means one of 4 things:
Wrong game region disk
Dirty disk
Dirty lens
drive on its way out
Usually my disk/lens is just dirty. If you have one of those CD lens cleaner things, try that next time it happens.
No mine is the phrase "Unreadable Disc" where the name of the game usually is on the little drive tray on the dashboard. Don't know if that's any different.
Hey Red do you have any information on "unreadable disc" errors that are sometimes seen? Is that just a dvd drive issue or something else? I get them at the most random times, it won't read any games for 20 minutes and then POOF it'll start right up and go for weeks or months without a problem.
You mean the "Please put this disk in an xbox360 console" type error?
Ive gotten that a couple times on my home boxes.
Means one of 4 things:
Wrong game region disk
Dirty disk
Dirty lens
drive on its way out
Usually my disk/lens is just dirty. If you have one of those CD lens cleaner things, try that next time it happens.
No mine is the phrase "Unreadable Disc" where the name of the game usually is on the little drive tray on the dashboard. Don't know if that's any different.
This is astounding. Microsoft actually biting the bullet and fessing up? A 3 year warranty is unprecedented. I myself do not own a 360. Not because I have anything against the console or games (I enjoy playing them enough), but because I don't take my business to Microsoft if I can avoid it. That they've actually, finally, acknowledged the problem and are committed to doing something about it just says to me that the problem was probably even worse than what we've heard through internet gossip. For all the people reporting the RROD on the internet there are probably just as many who didn't. This new development is not so much about customer service as it is about saving face. It's a sickeningly brilliant bit of PR too. 360s will probably start flying off the shelves now. Everyone who has held back because of the hardware issue will relax their purse strings. Now that this has come to pass I'm thinking Sony probably wishes they had thought of buildnig the PS3 with a catastrophic hardware problem first, so that they coulda pulled this kinda stunt and get the gaming community talking about how "Classy" they are.
Oh, come on.
Microsoft may be known for some questionable business practices at times, but how often do they go about actively screwing over the consumers?
If you react to this by claiming thatthe problem must have been more widespread than we were led to believe, then I'd LOVE to see the spin you would put on the Live Search Club give-aways.
Hey Red do you have any information on "unreadable disc" errors that are sometimes seen? Is that just a dvd drive issue or something else? I get them at the most random times, it won't read any games for 20 minutes and then POOF it'll start right up and go for weeks or months without a problem.
You mean the "Please put this disk in an xbox360 console" type error?
Ive gotten that a couple times on my home boxes.
Means one of 4 things:
Wrong game region disk
Dirty disk
Dirty lens
drive on its way out
Usually my disk/lens is just dirty. If you have one of those CD lens cleaner things, try that next time it happens.
No mine is the phrase "Unreadable Disc" where the name of the game usually is on the little drive tray on the dashboard. Don't know if that's any different.
I had a console with that error come across my desk the other day. In that case it turned out that the game disk itself was bad (kameo to be exact). Does it only happen with one game? If so it was probably just a bad disk press. Is it scratched?
Before trying anything, get a lens cleaner for it.
If you bought it recently, take it back and get it exchaged for another one. Faulty presses/burns are actually pretty common for games but the stores make it easy to exchange.
If its a microsoft game studios game, MS will replace it for free, even if its an older game.
Hey Red do you have any information on "unreadable disc" errors that are sometimes seen? Is that just a dvd drive issue or something else? I get them at the most random times, it won't read any games for 20 minutes and then POOF it'll start right up and go for weeks or months without a problem.
You mean the "Please put this disk in an xbox360 console" type error?
Ive gotten that a couple times on my home boxes.
Means one of 4 things:
Wrong game region disk
Dirty disk
Dirty lens
drive on its way out
Usually my disk/lens is just dirty. If you have one of those CD lens cleaner things, try that next time it happens.
So I have to buy that in addition to trying to play the 360? Marvellious. Should I invest in other things as well to make it work?
Posts
The 360 can do 1080p over component/VGA/HDMI (for the elite).
Most games are made in 720p (some future ones may be made in native 1080p) so getting an uber expensive tv isnt the best course of action unless you REALLY have teh money to blow, in which case I want to come over and play some rockband on such a display ;-)
I know for a fact that NES and SNES games will look awful on an LCD. If, however, you are going to be playing them as VC games on the Wii, you can get component cables for it and play at 480p. That'll look just fine on any type of HDTV.
480i - 480 scan lines, interlaced. Break the 480 into two alternating sets. First 240 lines are refreshed, then the other 240 lines are refreshed. This is your standard definition television set. NES and SNES will feel right at home here.
480p - 480 scan lines, progressive. Instead of refreshing in two sets, each line is refreshed every time. This is as high as the Wii and PS2 (only some games) go. I can notice a difference on the Wii games when I flip from 480i to 480p.
720p - 720 scan lines. Like 480p but sharper. If I remember right then this is as high as 360 games are displayed. 360 works great here.
1080i - 1080 scan lines. Fairly common ceiling for current HDTVs. Like 480i but sharper. This is what I have and my 360 games look wonderful.
1080p - 1080 scan lines. Current maximum HD resolution (I think). PS3 supports it, but most devs are still aiming at 720p.
So in essence there could be (speculation) a massive failure of the DVD drives. Could there be an increase of warrenty on that? I am just looking to cover my bases.
Am I missing something here?
If you let it overheat up until the processor melts/fails, I'm pretty sure you get the three red lights. So how is that impossible to do without opening the box?
Oh come on, what kind of slippery slope is that.
No one would know.
Its a standard wage in MX for people, and they for the most part do good work and I get along with most of them pretty well. Their newbie training leaves something to be desired though, we try to make the repair process as easy as possible though.
The 360 will shut down due to thermal overload when it reaches a certain temp before it goes nuclear and causes damage to the box.
If you see 2 red lights on the left side of the ring, that means it did a thermal shutdown. When it does that, either increase airflow around the console for a few minutes and let it cool down or just turn it off for about 15min or so and power it back up.
I am just trying to get how much warrenties will increase for specific parts before I actually purchase one. Electronics of any kind are buggy, but it is a good thing to be safe.
how about you never buy one...
what will it take for you to stop being insane in 360 threads
do you honestly think some dude working at CS... or any of us... or even Peter Moore is going to answer that question with a yes or no... or that they even COULD answer the question?
man.... seriously...
how about this: NO
chances are you will buy a 360... insert a japanese game... and it will red light you.... then you'll get it back all fixed and the DVD drive will break...
so please don't buy a 360
One year is more than enough time to see any faults on the DVD drive. Don't worry so much about that.
Not to mention the fact that a kind of warranty increase of this magnitude is EXTREMELY rare, if not unheard of.
This only happened because the red rings of death were widespread. Problems with the drive were not, and thinking they'll increase for no apparent reason is paranoid talk.
Yes. Well, I'm not a game tester, but more on the platform side of things. (I used to do some game testing, it didn't interest me all that much, although it did teach me that I'm partially colorblind ... )
Do I know you? O_o
- Don't add me, I'm at/near the friend limit
Steam: JC_Rooks
Twitter: http://twitter.com/JiunweiC
I work on this: http://www.xbox.com
I have a launch Xbox 360, and I've been using it for several hours a day since the day it was purchased.
Today it started to exhibit some bad behavior. IT DIDN'T RED RING today. It turned a bunch of graphics on the screen this really funky neon green.
Knowing that this is not, in fact, a good sign, I was wondering if bright green graphics is / was / has been a precursor to Red Ring of Death errors for any of you.
Shit.
My first 360 went from green, to purple, to pink. Then finally, it froze with a fruity checkerboard design.
Do most other companies give you 3 year warranties for free?
Seriously, you are looking for reasons to complain here.
You mean the "Please put this disk in an xbox360 console" type error?
Ive gotten that a couple times on my home boxes.
Means one of 4 things:
Wrong game region disk
Dirty disk
Dirty lens
drive on its way out
Usually my disk/lens is just dirty. If you have one of those CD lens cleaner things, try that next time it happens.
But did you ever get the Red Rings? Specifically?
Because, see - that type of failure is covered.
Yea, after the checkerboard freeze, my 360 wouldn't last 20 minutes without freezing into the 3 red lights.
Try another AV cable if you (or a friend) has one.
If you call in for a warranty repair and say you have those color issues and/or checkerboard and that its not the AV cable (and it can be replicated at the repair facility) then im sure you can talk them into qualifying that under the 3year.
So I have to buy that in addition to trying to play the 360? Marvellious. Should I invest in other things as well to make it work?
@ Ranced: Can't forget those confounded televisions, can't see anything without them.
No mine is the phrase "Unreadable Disc" where the name of the game usually is on the little drive tray on the dashboard. Don't know if that's any different.
It's the same thing. Lens needs cleaning.
To help you pack your broken xbox and bring it to the post office to send off.
Oh, come on.
Microsoft may be known for some questionable business practices at times, but how often do they go about actively screwing over the consumers?
If you react to this by claiming thatthe problem must have been more widespread than we were led to believe, then I'd LOVE to see the spin you would put on the Live Search Club give-aways.
I had a console with that error come across my desk the other day. In that case it turned out that the game disk itself was bad (kameo to be exact). Does it only happen with one game? If so it was probably just a bad disk press. Is it scratched?
Before trying anything, get a lens cleaner for it.
If you bought it recently, take it back and get it exchaged for another one. Faulty presses/burns are actually pretty common for games but the stores make it easy to exchange.
If its a microsoft game studios game, MS will replace it for free, even if its an older game.
For you, I'd recommend a full frontal lobotomy.