I am now the owner of an Xbox 360. I can hear you going “WTF?” just about…now. Rest assured that I, too, share your sentiments.
Actually, I won it at an IT competition for schools along with a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium and Adobe Creative Suite 2. Ergo, It’s free! And it’s a Premium bundle!
Now I was actually intending on selling it away to add to my DRNANC (DM Really Needs A New Camera) fund but after since I already own a Dell 24″ LCD monitor that accepts component video input, I thought what the heck and gave this a try. As you may or may not know, I am not entirely fond of Microsoft’s console, but there’s no harm in free stuff.
Behold the Power Brick!
The first thing I noticed after plugging in the power was the sound…or rather the lack of. I’ve been hearing everywhere about how the 360 sounds like the spawn of a vacuum machine and a jackhammer, so it’s pretty surprising how little sound it makes even when the disc is spinning. Or maybe I’m just used to being aurally raped by the 4 hard disks and 2 graphics cards running at full speed less than half a metre to my left. Either way, I have nothing to complain about the 360 with regards to noise.
Back of my LCD monitor
Sadly, another reason why it was so soothingly silent was because there was no audio output. At all. Since the console is meant to be used with a TV and not a LCD monitor, there isn’t a regular audio jack that can be used with PC speakers. It would suck a ton to play without sound but luckily I dug out a previously-useless purchase I made off Ebay some time ago: the Adaptec GameBridge AVC-1440. Impulse buying is a useful skill to have sometimes.
Basically GameBridge is a little USB device that has composite video and audio connectors which allow you to play console games on your PC using the included software. Since the Xbox AV cable contains both composite and component jacks, I plugged the component ones into the LCD and the composite ones into the GameBridge.
Thus, the video signal is sent via the higher quality component cables, while the audio signal is sent through the composite cables into the GameBridge which then passes it to a program running on my desktop which finally outputs the audio through the PC speakers… Overly complicated, but it works. Better than having to buy a new stereo system. LOL.
Dashboard
And now everything works! Although the LCD monitor appears to support component input up to 1080i, the refresh timing is a little off and it can be a huge distraction for your eyes. I guess the LCD monitor wasn’t designed to handle interlaced signals. 720p gives uniform picture quality and is much more suitable. Don’t even try 1080p.
And of course with the Dell 2407WFP monitor, you get to play around with the Picture-By-Picture and Picture-In-Picture options. They look pretty cool.
Picture-In-Picture
Picture-By-Picture
But I have to admit that they are generally useless. Picture-By-Picture mode is useless for web-surfing so the only use would be if I wanted to play a 360 game while watching anime. Then again, I have my secondary LCD screen for that… Picture-In-Picture mode is even more useless since the box is too small to play games with. It would probably work better with CNN or something.
Kameo
All in all I’m pretty happy with the Xbox. Sadly, the only included game was a budget copy of Kameo (one of the original launch titles for the 360). Well, it’s not a bad game, but I’m getting a little tired of 3rd person platformers. I need to get my hands on Gears of War and IDOLM@STER. It’s a good thing that Singapore shares the same Xbox region code as Japan. That said, I think I’ll still be selling away the 360 because I really need money for my DRNANC fund. Well, maybe after I’m done with GoW. :P
On another note, I will probably be returning to the world of Azeroth to fight the Burning Crusade this weekend…
Goodbye school grades? LOL. Possibly. ＿|ï¿£|O But at least I’ll have fun.
P.S. Since implementing the image verification script almost a week ago, only about 300 spam comments have been caught by Akismet. Much more manageable than 1000 a day, but I’ll continue to keep an eye out to see if any further changes are necessary.
I would highly recommend getting æ—‹å…‰ã®è¼ªèˆž (Senkou no Ronde) – it’s an excellent versus shooter and one of the reasons I’d want an XBOX 360. Also check out Trusty Bell if you enjoyed any of Tri Ace’s RPGs
so u planning to install vista? cos so far, i see 1 benefit from it:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/vista-does-dirty-japanese-game-display-232329.php
I recommend Armoured Core 6.
WTF. damn good prizes
That’s a pretty awesome prize. Personally I’d keep it as I’d have trouble selling it to anyone here.
Ooohz great stuff u haf there! I heard Vista does not yet support certain games, bcos of the lack of stable 64-bit graphic drivers for those games. I would prefer to wait till at least SP1 of Vista is out first. ^^
Wtf…you should really keep the xbox but if you dun want it or have no where to keep it pls feel free to leave it with me i can charge you for free =P
WTF.
For now, play GoW till you get sick of it then sell your whatbox360.
LOL,i play GoW everyday after work at the shop next door. Sometimes,the business is so bad that i can even play during workhours.
IDOLM@STER seems pretty interesting. The graphics looks pretty good.
BTW X-fi sux on Vista. The beta drivers are pure trash. (assuming you’re using X-fi)
Awwww… ;_;
I only won the core system. Lucky bastard. :P
But seriously, have fun with it. I was kinda at a lot figuring out what to do with my system initially as well. I have games now, but I’m still wondering what to do with it. :3
Who much will you sell it for? I Won’t mind getting it… But I still have my eyes fixed on the PS3!… Oh well Dam… you’ve got a really nice pack that you won!…
Lucky. Mind if I borrow some of your luck for my midterm in two hours?
the Xbox 360’s GUI looks really cool..!
Uh… sure. If it helps. Although I wish my luck helped me in other things instead…
wow you have many games
Give it to deserving people…. *cough* me *cough*
And go fig. The advertisement at the end of the comments happens to be a “Get your very one Xbox 360 free”. :D
Actually I remeber reading about how newer versions of the Xbox 360 had change something so that it doesn’t sound so loud. So maybe you got the newer version of the console.
U shld borrow and tryout DOAX and DOA4
not waiting for halo 3? At least try the beta version….
by the way, gears of war totally pwns…have a sawing good time playing it…
Congrats!
Hey DM, don’t you think it’s high time you wrote a comprehensive tutorial for winny and share?
This tells us that the best people get the best things in life for free…
Which IT competition is that?
National Infocomm Competition.
There are only a few 360 games that I would actually consider “must have” right now, so I don’t have any intention of owning one until at least 2008 (or if the library improves). I still would rather own a Wii than a 360, but I’d take the 360 over the waste-of-money PS3, based on current game libraries alone. I have this rule…. I don’t purchase any new console until there are at least 5-6 must own titles available for it; and that usually doesn’t occur until at least 1 1/2 or 2 after launch. Plus, consoles and games are ridiculously overpriced these days. So far other than the The Legend of Zelda, all the current generation consoles have been utterly boring…. thank goodness my Gamecube and Dreamcast keep me entertained.
D: I went too. I didn’t even make it through the prelims.
Man, aren’t you lucky.
Get wasted on DoA Extreme Beach Volleyball 2. Trust me, somebody like you’ll want/need to play games like that.
Eh, I’m still seeing Vista as a downgrade from WinXP.
looks so sexy… I want to get a 360 now. And that LCD monitor is so nice. MUST BUY…must be…compulsive and buy everything. Anyways hope you enjoy your 360 before you get bored and sell it off (which I hope you don’t because the system is pretty powerful). Really nice that all this is free…too bad it wasn’t a camera xD
YarOnix: really? ya…actualli i kinda agree with you…recently, i went to a IT Show..and i went to try vista for the first time..other than the Sidebar, the rest seems like normal…and maybe the “Wow”ing only starts after SP2…gg..
I recommand u 2 games:
-æ—‹å…‰ã®è¼ªèˆž (Senkou no Ronde)
-idolm@ster
I got a free Xbox360 too (raffle prize from a company event).
Unfortunately, I can’t play GoW because I suffer from montion-sickness when playing FPS games. So aside from Table Tennis, I’m not really playing anything on the machine lately. :-\
So I currently have 2 thoughts for my X360:
1.) Flash the drive and sell the stuff for a higher price >:D
2.) Keep it and hope that Castlevania and the other games for XBLA will be worth it.
Some suggestions for you. ;-)
offtopic:
you havent updated http://www.code-geass.com in a while
Shite!!! I wanted that, but instead I got the prize to go to Microsoft in Seattle instead. Bummer. I’m part of Ngee Ann Poly btw.
I rather visit Microsoft. They probably have 360s as door gifts at MS HQ anyway.
@Tiny Red Man , for sure. My brother had a friend over for a lan and he was the only one who had vista. I ROFLed at the bear thought of it. Then watched him play Oblivion on literally 12 fps. I know what 12 fps looks like, and its not good. He also plays wow at about 20 fps. We all make fun of the kid for it. I asked him, so do you think that microsoft ripped its ideas from Mac OS X and he said no, that microsoft got THEIR ideas stolen from THEM. Hahahaha… anyway, I used the voice recognition while he was gone and it was the funniest thing I have ever seen. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=UI8oQZgGWlY) That is exactly how it works.
omg go to hell right now :(
Hey where did u buy the GameBrige ? ( um I mean in Singapore ) Thanks
I don’t write many comments, but this time (at least) I agree completely.
Well. someone is trading his (or her) Xbox to my wonderfully resonant Yamaha FG 301 guitar .. i am having second thoughts about it but now i have made up my mind to say NO !
Grace loves <wonder wheeler