XBOX 360 Question

[jourdo]

Originally Posted by sikkbones

this is why i bought a 4 gig, my son wanted the kinect and we have never needed to use more the four gig in space.

This is what I bought at first. However, I had a bunch of old laptop drives (including my original PS3 drive) and decided to throw a hard drive into that system.

Again, something so simple on the PS3 was so maddeningly difficult on the XBOX. Yes they sell "official hard drives", and I had to hack the other drive to make it work. Why? Sony it was as simple as sticking in the new drive and voila! My 60 GB system is upgraded to 320 GB.

Originally Posted by Team Jetfire

Yeah, I had the same issue with XBOX at X-mas. I specifically bought the 300gig to store media and the stupid thing doesn't allow for it.

Seems like a simple thing in this day and age doesn't it?

Originally Posted by lars573

Because live is a superior service. And what Sony gives you for free is a bribe to put up with their inferior piece of technology.

Maybe, but their inferior piece of technology is the hub of my home entertainment. Bluray, DVD, an juke box of kid's movies, and game system.

I just gave up and bought my third PS3 because I know it will do what I want it to.

XBOX will be relegated back to it's original Kinect functionality.

[Commandoclone87]

Cost is insignificant (only $5CDN/mth of service) and a lot of people started this console generation on the Xbox. It's where most of their friends are and let's face it. While PSN is a great service, most of Sony's first party games are either single-player or shooter (with a few exceptions).

Microsoft's first part games used to include a much greater variety (though they are sticking too much to shooters nowadays) and they do generally offer much better support than Sony does.

Patches usually only require a minute or two to download and install, voice chat across games with private parties or just 1 on 1, video chat via Kinnect, and a policy enforcement team that is constantly on the lookout for hackers and cheats.

Also to those that think the Xbox still requires hundreds of dollars in accessories, $250 gets you a 8.0.11N wireless capable console with 2 controllers, 5 award winning games (Gears 3, Halo: Reach, Fable 3, Arkham Asylum GOTY, and Assassin's Creed 2), a 250GB hdd and 3 months of Live! service. With a Windows computer, it also functions as a Media Centre Extender and can stream files from almost anwhere on your network and also from many video streaming sites such as youtube and Crackle.

Not yet included, but coming this Fall is also Internet browser capability and Voice search features.

[Commandoclone87]

Originally Posted by sikkbones

I had live for a year... no freebies.... i've had playstation plus for almost 2... same 50$ but i have tons of free actual games......

Both have their strong points... but XBLA is not one of xbox's.

plus anytime i went looking for matches on XBLA it took forever unike PSN

Doesn't it state in the PSN toa, that if you were to discontinue the PSN Plus service for any reason (or if Sony decided to no longer support it), wouldn't you loose access to all those supposedly free games?

[Team Jetfire]

Originally Posted by lars573

Because live is a superior service. And what Sony gives you for free is a bribe to put up with their inferior piece of technology.

Originally Posted by jourdo

Maybe, but their inferior piece of technology is the hub of my home entertainment. Bluray, DVD, an juke box of kid's movies, and game system.

I just gave up and bought my third PS3 because I know it will do what I want it to.

XBOX will be relegated back to it's original Kinect functionality.

This.

I have also used the PSN for literally years of online gaming and never had an issue. While there maybe truth in the statement that Xbox is superior in design I certainly have no reason to care. I suppose if I had to pay $60 a year to get the same online access I'd tell everyone that it's a better machine too, if only to make me feel better about it.

[sikkbones]

Xbox also has the dreaded red rings folks.

[Commandoclone87]

Funny how quickly people bring up the RROD. Issue was mostly solved by 2nd gen versions and the Slims have been on par with PS3 for reliability since they were released two years ago.

Since someone brought that up, I don't remember Microsoft having to take down their network for over a month because the personal information of a majority of their user base was hacked into.

Honestly, this can go back and forth until the world ends. Some people like Xbox, others PS3. Don't see these kinds of flame wars pop up between Coca Cola and Pepsi lovers.

Now to answer the question at hand. To use and external hard disk with the Xbox 360, it needs to be formatted to have a FAT32 partition with a max size of 32GB.

You will have the restriction that you won't be able to use and video files larger than 4GB.

If you need more space or are using larger files, your best option is to stream the video over your home network using the shared folders feature built into Windows.

[CobraCommander]

LL, I love it when folks get offended and have a need to defend their favorite consoles. I personally have all three of the current gen and each have their pros and cons. My consoles have learned to live together, now why can't people?

As far as watching videos goes I never bothered using a console, it just seems like a lot of trouble to store media on a proprietary formatted HD. What I do, is store my media on a external USB HD or USBkey and use either a PC, WDLive media box or the built-in media player in my TV (LG) to watch the stored media.

By the way there are cheaper alternatives to officially licensed XBOX HD, I picked up a 250GB drive from dealextreme for about $50 inc/shipping a few years back. They also have newer 320GB drives too for $12 more.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/designe...k-250gb-139666

[silent4life]

Originally Posted by CobraCommander

LL, I love it when folks get offended and have a need to defend their favorite consoles. I personally have all three of the current gen and each have their pros and cons. My consoles have learned to live together, now why can't people?

^This...it's true, I had all three, got rid of the Wii because I wasn't using it. But the 360 and PS3 are both great systems, it all comes down to personal preference.

And also, the best way to watch movies from a hard drive would be through a media player like the WD Live device. You don't have to worry about the size of the file, or type of files as it plays pretty much everything.

[Team Jetfire]

Sadly I have all three too, it's just interesting to see the differences.

[Tech Spec]

Originally Posted by sikkbones

I had live for a year... no freebies.... i've had playstation plus for almost 2... same 50$ but i have tons of free actual games......

Both have their strong points... but XBLA is not one of xbox's.

plus anytime i went looking for matches on XBLA it took forever unike PSN

Thats weird, mine was the opposite. The PS3 took forever to find a match whereas the 360 I was in a game on the first try all the time. Only have a 360 now, wish I still had a PS3 still just to play their exclusive titles.