Well, judging by the vast number of articles on the subject out there, and the need to keep competing with Sony’s Playstation 3, it is a No-Brainer that the 360 needs to provide support for the Blu-Ray format, and they need to do it fast. There have been “rumors” circulating from “insiders” at Microsoft that a stand alone plug-in similar to their HD-DVD player has already been designed and is in the process of getting through Microsoft Certification. These rumors all point toward something coming to the shelves in May 2008. We can only hope that they stay on point and push something to the retail sector very fast.

Arnett Out!

Today we have 2 options for Hard Drives in the 360, either the 20 GB Drive that comes with the Premium or Console System or the 120 GB Drive that is packaged with the 360 Elite. If you have the 20 GB and are looking to purchase the larger Hard Drive offered by Microsoft you are going to shell out about $179.00 wherever you go. If you have limited space on your drive and are scratching your head about how to solve the problem, here’s your answer!

You can add a Hard Drive to your system through one of the available USB ports on the Console. This drive will add another dimension to your 360 setup. First of all, you can store tons of music, thousands of photos and even videos from your personal collections and view them on your High Definition Television. It is pretty straight forward and anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of buying a 120 GB Drive with the Microsoft logo on it. Better yet, you can take the drive with you anywhere you go and access those files on any PC in the World! You can’t do that with your 360 Drive!

First of all, Marketplace content can ONLY be stored on your Microsoft 20 GB or 120 GB Hard Drive that plugs into the top of your console. Therefore if you have music or videos on your drive that weren’t purchased from the Marketplace, you can clear them off your Microsoft Hard Drive to free up room for Marketplace Content, such as game downloads, and exclusive Live content.

I chose to go with a 2.5″ 160 GB Serial ATA Hard Drive. This is a laptop hard drive and I chose this size because the drive is small enough to run off the 5 volt power bus in any USB port, this eliminates the need for a power cord to your new Hard Drive. Thankfully, Microsoft made sure that their USB ports all have sufficient current at 5 volts so a single USB port will suffice.

You can purchase these drives at any electronics store or your local computer store. They can be purchased in a case or you can purchase the drive and the enclosure separately and put the whole thing together. I purchased the drive for a mere $50.00 because someone returned it to the store, and picked up a $20.00 case that featured USB 2.0 and eSATA ports for connecting. If you decide to do it this way make sure your HDD and your case have the same connections inside, for instance, the drive is a Serial ATA (or SATA) and the enclosure has to have the same Serial ATA (SATA) connection inside to mate up with the drive. Next, put everything together, usually a simple phillips screw driver does the trick.

You will have to format the drive with your PC if it doesn’t come with software or pre-formatted. If the drive comes with software, run it and plug the drive into the PC’s USB port and you should see the drive show up under the “My Computer” tab in the Windows Start Menu. Now, if you are running Windows Vista, XP or 2000 your native drive is formatted in the NTFS format, for the 360 you will need to format the new drive in FAT32 format or the 360 will not recognize the drive. Remember that FAT32 file systems are only recognized up to 32 GB, so when you partition your new hard drive, partition it into multiple 32 GB volumes. Partitioning can be done with Partition Magic or through Windows.

In Windows XP click Start, then click Run, in the box type “diskmgmt.msc” (minus the quotes) and it will bring up a list of drives, select the new hard drive and partition a new volume in FAT32, remember you can place multiple volumes on a single drive. If your new drive is 120 GB make four 30 GB volumes, once the formatting is done you are good to go, just start putting music, photos, and videos on the drive and you are ready to plug them into the XBox 360 and view them on your High Def System. For Windows Vista click Start, then in the Search Box type “diskmgmt.msc” (minus the quotes) and follow the same instructions for Windows XP.

Next to the 360 Elite and on Top

This will work for any Hard Drive of any size as long as the file system is formatted in FAT32 format, just remember most 2.5″ drives can run off the USB power inside the port, while 3.5″ or ancient 5.25″ drives need an AC power adapter to power the drive.

This setup allows me to have 80 GB of music, 10 GB of photos and , 8 GB of video stored with over 60 GB still available on the Portable Drive and my 120 GB Microsoft 360 drive has about 45 GB of Marketplace content on it with almost 75 GB free for future content downloads. All together, this setup provides me with 160 GB of personal storage and 120 GB of Marketplace storage for a total of 280 GB available for the 360. That is over 1/4 of a TeraByte, and if you have your expensive surround sound and high def system hooked to your 360, now you can view and listen to your music, photos and personal vids in High Def Surround Sound.

Arnett Out!

Well this is one accessory I’m really looking forward to, a totally wireless headset.

This thing should be available by the holidays this year. Too bad it can’t be sooner, I’ve really been looking forward to a totally wireless Live experience.

The unit has internal rechargeable batts, and comes with an AC adapter for recharging. Volume and mute are on the side.

No adapter on the controller is needed, it communicates directly to your 360 wirelessly. I like the concept, but I’m not sure I want the controls on my ear. I have grown accustomed to having mute and volume at my fingertips on the controller, which doesn’t hinder gameplay. If I have to release the controller to change volume or mute, this might be a bit inconvenient.

Still, this is a good move in the right direction.

Turtle Beach has announced the Ear Force X2, that will sell for 100 bucks US. Word is the unit will be released later this month, but I haven’t seen an official announcement yet.

Some may think 100 clams is a bit strong, but it really could be worth a purchase, for this Maniac. Turtle Beach may come through with a quality set worthy of just music listening, as well as a good quality (read comfortable) Live gaming headset. Add a solid battery and charging system and this could be a winner.

Source - Gaming 360

If you are a serious DOA4 player, you need this arcade stick to really get the arcade feel.

This limited edition controller is officially licensed by Tecmo and endorsed by Team Ninja.

Get your game on in arcade style and pummel your buds:

Here’s a cool rig for all us PGR3, Need for Speed and Ridge Racer fans, a fixed seat with steering wheel and pedal mounts - Awesome!

Any manic should love to have one of these babies. To make one, you’ll need some handiwork skills and ability to design. It shouldn’t take much though, and quite the result.

If you create one of these, let me know…

Read article/page.

Now that is some serious BLING for your 360. A solid gold faceplate weighing about 2.25 pounds. That’s over $20,000 in gold!

This thing is up for auction at ebay.

Let’s see, who do I know that might want this thing…

Via Joystiq

TeamXbox give us the details and review on the 360 VGA cable.

Different from the HD cable set, this cable has a vga output for using with a computer monitor or other display that accepts VGA.

The resolutions available through this cable are:
640×480 (4:3) VGA

848×480 (16:9) Widescreen 480

1024×768 (4:3) XGA

1280×720 (16:9) 720p

1280×768 (16:10) WXGA

1280×1024 (5:4) SXGA

1360×768 (16:9) WXGA

Notice there is no 1080i listed - to get that res, you’ll need to HD cable.

Overall Rating: 9.1/10

The Bottom Line
“If you have a PC monitor, the Xbox 360 VGA HD AV cable is a must have accessory. For the first time Microsoft is offering a first-party VGA cable that directly takes the raw AV data from the AV port and outputs to VGA. In the past we had to rely on third-party transcoders that would transform the component video into VGA, which implied an additional transformation of the original signal.

This time, the VGA signal comes directly from the console just as the rest of the video signals provided by the composite, S-Video and component cables.

The quality of the cable is good, the length is long enough for the majority of the setups, and the fact that the cable includes both surround sound and stereo outputs, makes this AV cable a great peripheral that is suitable for many users.

We welcome Microsoft’s decision to offer a VGA first-party cable and we hope this is the first of the many cables that the company makes in response to the consumers’ petition. Now the only thing we need is a DVI-HDMI cable and you won’t hear our cries anymore, Bill.”

TeamXbox Review - Via 360 Insider

Gamersreports have shown us how to wire up the 360 headset adapter to use any headset we want.

You basically unscrew the adapter housing, unsolder the wires from the 360 live headset, and resolder the wires from any other headset.

I recommend that you pick up a female headset (mini) plug and wire it to the adapter so you can plug in any type of headset, or easily replace one later.

Great mod, easy to do if you know how to solder. If you don’t, get some help from someone who does.

All headsets have four wires, two for the mic and 2 for the speaker. The bare and the white wire are for the mic usually, and the blue and the red are for the speaker. Now, any headset you want to use should show these wires when you strip off the jack at the end. Once you figure out which is which, unscrew the Xbox360 Live headset adapter using the 2 screws on the back. You should see something similar to the diagram.

GamersReports - Via Gaming-360

Well, it looks like the free media remote deal offered with the Premium console purchase is about over.

According to this document we just talked about here, the next shipment to Best Buy will not include the remote offer.

Bummer.

Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to snag one that has the included remote offer. Premium kits that include the remote offer have a sticker saying so on the outside of the box. Look for it.

Noticed at Joystiq