I may be Getting an Xbox
 

Yes, indeed i might!

But Have some questions:

1. I know about the £99 price drop, but will there be anymore special edtions?

2. I know that there are diffreant bios versions with the xbox, is there any diffrence is speed of loading or anything with the newer bios? Should I make sure i get a newly bulit one instead of a old one that has been in stock for ages? What code are the newer ones?

3. Recommend good games

4. I cannot attach my xbox to the phone line due to the make up of my house. I allready have a wireless network, so can i attach a wireless bridge to the xbox? is that all i would need to do? Do i need to set it up? any possible problems? etc etc

5. on a 500k broadband connection, will LIVE be fast? Would a 1mmb help things?

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

To question 4, there a wireless card u can stick onto the x box and route the games through the router.

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

I saw some stuff about a proce drop this morning....

I have a gamecube (Which I love even if just for zelda metroid and sonic)

I can't decide weather to get a ps2 or an xbox.

I've got no interest in on-line playing (I can use my pc/laptop for that)

Apart from the odd game which I'm interested in (galactica for one) What I'd like to know is which to get for my son to use as well (I'm looking for really kiddy games - teletubbies - tweenies kind of thing)

Which would be best for that :)

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

Xbox and ps2 got some grotesquely violent games but I'd lean to X Box.

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

What do the newer XBox's have that the first ones didn't? e.g. built in IR reciver?(just a guess)

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

I WISH THEY HAD A bulit in receiver! WHy do i have to use that crappy little add on?

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

Don't forget that there should be a on/off button on the remote control as well and more buttons on the remote so you don't have to keep using display button!

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

Have a look at your router mfr, Linksys make this specific product.

http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=558

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

Quite possibly, although Microsoft have not announced anything.

There's really no difference-the machines all do the same thing(s)

What sort of genre of games do you like?

All you need is a wireless ethernet bridge.

1MB would be better as the upload is increased-that would be better suited for Live, just make sure that you get a router that is Live compatible.

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

Its the first i have heard about a price drop as the cheapest xbox new atm is from Amazon £119.98 post free

Guess i will hold onto my cash till the price drops even further.

1.4 or 1.5 board revision, i think (nodoubt someone will correct me if im wrong) :)

The date is usually stamped on the bottom of the xbox when it was made.

DrA was really waiting to see if there was going to be a doom pack bundle release

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

xbox is good but get it chipped and get ur self xbmc on it

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

if itss chipped i get kicked off live dont i?

Doom Pack release would be cool, is DOOM 3 gonna be live enabled?

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

I believe you can switch it off for going onto live

(again if this info is incorrect someone will correct it)

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

screw it, thats not any real benfits to gain from chipping to be worth the warrantry damage and the possibelity of not being able to use live

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

the only real differences bewteen the newer boxes and the old are the DVD drives, the OLD philips drives are dodgy and Slower than there Newer Samsung counterparts.

you can Purchase the Samsung drives (off of EBAY)and install them into your Xbox without any hassle.;)

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

It's quite hard to see the date on the bottom when its in its packaging.
Is there anything on the serial number labels that are on the boxes too?

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

playstations for example have some big diffrences between versions, the first bbatch are very good and being crap then the ones over 50000 have all the extra dvd stuff

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

Just get whatever you can-you won't be able to dictate what 'version' you get anyway.

You will almost certainly get the v1.5 or 1.6 XBOX anyway.

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

i would still prefere to get a new version of the software on it, even if it doesnt affect anything

I mean does the LIVE update come pre-installed on new xboxs?

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

As soon as you connect to XBL if your live needs to be updated you should get a request box asking you if you want to install the upgrade or it will just auto update anything that needs updating, i forget which as it has been awhile since my XBL did the updating.

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

LIVE is already on the Xbox and fully installed, just you need to "activate" it by using a LIVE enabled game, because at the launch of the Xbox, Microsoft were keeping there Online plans secret.

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

Having both PS2 and Xbox I reccomend the Xbox as it is so much better.

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

Can you play dvd-r / dvd+r backed up movies with it?

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

Like those 5.1 home movies in Richard's thread? ;)



It depends on the DVD drive.

M$ have used different makes/models of DVD drive since the XBox was released.

The 1st ones used a Thomson drive, which didn't like CDR (& I think DVD+/-R??) & was prone to die an early death (hence many people with launch XBoxes had to get repairs/replacements from M$ due to the DVD drive going kaput).

They've since changed to Philips drives, & then to Samsung drives.

AFAIK...

The Philips drives are more likely to read CDR/DVD+/-R than the Thomson drives.

And the Samsung drives should read pretty much everything.


Although I think it does also depend on the media used. It seems to tolerate some more than others.

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

Just for those ones yup :)

I am looking to replace my old dvd player and upgrade my gaming machine at the same time....

I can't really decide between a ps2 and an Xbox...

I'm assuming that if I go out and buy an xbox now it will have one of the newest drives?

Maybe I should get it from argos (with their 16 day money back thing) so I can take it back if it's the wrong type.

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

I think the prices are pretty similar for each console. So I guess it depends on what games you like, etc.

But having had both, I'd say XBox ;)

And the XBox is definitely a better quality DVD player than the PS2.

I think so. Although apparently some newer ones have Thomsons again, instead of Samsungs. But hopefully they'll be better quality than the original Thomsons.

Yeah, could try that I guess. Also gives you a chance to see if it will play the discs anyway (even if it's an older type of drive...never know, might be OK).


One thing though:

Although the XBox should play "backups" of DVDs perfectly fine (well, depending on the drive, & maybe the media), you can't play non-Region2 DVDs (e.g. US Region 1 DVDs) unless the XBox has been "chipped"/"modded".

That's one plus point the PS2 has over the XBox for DVD playback (as you can get a region unlocking disc for the PS2, so don't need to chip it just to play R1s).

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

Thanks for all that - I'll have to decide when I get paid I gess (5th:))

As for the type of game - racing - and space games. (I'm looking forward to playing battlestar galactica).... Oh and I quite fancy playing 'The Thing'

Cheers for your help.:D

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

Cool. No problem :)

Re: I may be Getting a Xbox
 

Yea Doom3 is live enabled with co-operative onine play for the single player game, i dont think there is multiplayer on live, but that could happen, not too sure. :)

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

You can also get a CD for unlocking the region capability of the Xbox it's called Region X, which makes the Xbox perfect and the good thing about Xbox is that you don't get green screen problem with the advanced RGB scart unlike PS2 which also mucks up the postion of the screen on some TV's.

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

AFAIK, Datel never actually released the "DVD Region X" disc for the XBox, despite it being listed on various websites for ages (with the release date always changing & getting later & later...)

M$ would not provide Datel with the "key" to sign it, as M$ didn't want anything released which would enable the XBox to be "de-regionalised". Consequently, the only way to run Datel's DVD Region X would have been to use it on a modded XBox (as un-modded XBoxes will not run unsigned code)...but that would be pointless, as modded XBoxes are region free anyway, hence Datel never released it.

There is a "DVDX" (?) for the XBox, but it's simply a region free DVD player for running only on modded boxes.

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

I have a large number of region 1/3 discs so this would be a factor.

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

Wouldn't chipped Xbox's run other region DVD's anyway!

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

The problem I have with this is that I don't want to void my warranty by chipping the machine immidiately aftery buying it.

Re: I may be Getting an Xbox
 

There are some places which sell pre-modded XBoxes, with their own 90 day warranty (in place of the M$ 1year warranty).

OK, not a full year, but not too bad. I got one last year, & haven't had any problems.