Xbox 360 Hard Drive and HD Questions

[SamIchi]

Just got one (premium) yesterday and I was wondering what's taking up 8 GB in the hard drive? It says 12 GB of space left. Installing an OS X doesn't even take up 8GB.

I was also wonderin' about HD. I don't have an HD TV, but it is a widescreen 55 in. What's the lowdown on the 720p 1020i dealy? I plugged in the component cables instead of the composite... does that up the quality of my picture?

Thanks guys!

[zero2dash]

Just got one (premium) yesterday and I was wondering what's taking up 8 GB in the hard drive? It says 12 GB of space left. Installing an OS X doesn't even take up 8GB.

It's "reserve space" or some clever term Microsoft came up with (maybe that's where the dashboard/OS files lie?). Yes, we get 12 out of 20 gigs of storage on the 360 right now...that's just how it is I'm afraid. :o

I was also wonderin' about HD. I don't have an HD TV, but it is a widescreen 55 in. What's the lowdown on the 720p 1020i dealy? I plugged in the component cables instead of the composite... does that up the quality of my picture?

If you don't have an HDTV, 720p/1080i don't really apply to you because a SDTV (standard definition tv) displays a regular picture which is 480i (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/480i) (i meaning "interlaced" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlace)).

If you had an EDTV (meaning enhanced definition tv), you could do 480p, which is the same resolution as a standard tv, but in progressive scan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_scan).

HDTVs start at 720p, practically all of them to 1080i, and newer (read: expensive) ones do 1080p.

All that being said - yes, the component cables will give you a better picture...the best you can get with your current tv. :)

[daze]

Component would give you better quality than composite. In my experience, VGA gives the best quality, however.

[zero2dash]

Component would give you better quality than composite. In my experience, VGA gives the best quality, however.

(To elaborate on what daze said)
I think it's something like this:

(left to right in order of worst -> best)

RF -> composite -> s-video -> component -> [this is where I get lost]

I think VGA and DVI/HDMI are similar in PQ, but I'm not sure. :confused:
Anyone? daze? :)

[MacRumorUser]

Just got one (premium) yesterday and I was wondering what's taking up 8 GB in the hard drive? It says 12 GB of space left. Installing an OS X doesn't even take up 8GB.

I was also wonderin' about HD. I don't have an HD TV, but it is a widescreen 55 in. What's the lowdown on the 720p 1020i dealy? I plugged in the component cables instead of the composite... does that up the quality of my picture?

Thanks guys!


nothing is technically taking up that 8gb.

Your 20gb will actually be around 18.5 - 19gb when formated.

7gb or thereabouts is actually reserved for things such as backwards compatability updates and more importantly as virtual disk space so that games when they choose to do so can offload some of the loading into the HDD to help reduce loading times.

So your drive is normal :)


As for HD - yes use component as even with SD res it is a better signal than composite.

You should be able to just make sure the switch on the cable (where you plug it into your 360) is on TV (not HDTV)





edit : oops everyone got there whilst I was typing :)

[SamIchi]

Thanks everyone! I'm just waitin for my copy of GOW to arrive so I can play. The system came with Burnout, but I'm not really big on those kind of games.

I just gotta say, my entertainment setup looks damn sweet with my Wii and 360 :D My GC is sitting all alone (it's setup near the couch), but it probably get's the most use (SMASH!).

[Suture]

Just got one (premium) yesterday and I was wondering what's taking up 8 GB in the hard drive? It says 12 GB of space left. Installing an OS X doesn't even take up 8GB.

I was also wonderin' about HD. I don't have an HD TV, but it is a widescreen 55 in. What's the lowdown on the 720p 1020i dealy? I plugged in the component cables instead of the composite... does that up the quality of my picture?

Thanks guys!

I have 11GB free at the moment, with a bunch of stuff installed. I remember a few weeks after getting my 360, I deleted a ton of videos and songs that came on the HD, and that freed up some space, but I don't recall what it left me at. I wound up tossing an old 80GB notebook drive into a USB enclosure to reserve for the 360, but I haven't used it at all yet.

[DarkNetworks]

I bought one of these, Advanced AAV Cable, are they generally good compared to component or whatever that comes with the 360 on a non HD TV? I had to get one of these because for some reason, i couldn't find the Composite / Component Video from my TV, the one I'm using in my room. I saw two of these at the back of my TV, one hooked up to my Cable TV.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/9756/b000ayyad402ss500sclzzzqz5.jpg