360 HDMI

[Sylvus]

Quick question: do the 360s with HDMI accept a standard HDMI cable, or is there some proprietary connector that I wouldn't be surprised for MS require?

I just mounted my LCD TV above my fireplace yesterday and fished a 25' HDMI cable through the wall, down into the basement, and up over to the side where I'm going to keep my components. I'd like to buy a new 360, but until I get a new receiver that has multiple HDMI ins, I'd have to swap out the HDMI cable between the cable box out and the 360 out. Hoping that's possible.

[Funkmasterr]

Quick question: do the 360s with HDMI accept a standard HDMI cable, or is there some proprietary connector that I wouldn't be surprised for MS require?

I just mounted my LCD TV above my fireplace yesterday and fished a 25' HDMI cable through the wall, down into the basement, and up over to the side where I'm going to keep my components. I'd like to buy a new 360, but until I get a new receiver that has multiple HDMI ins, I'd have to swap out the HDMI cable between the cable box out and the 360 out. Hoping that's possible.

Just a standard HDMI cable. I just got a LCD last week and have been using the same cable to switch between the 360 and the PS3.

[Sylvus]

Are any of the newer systems more reliable than others? Immune to RRoD, "unable to read disc" errors, etc?

I was thinking of going Elite, but I don't know if I really even need that big a hard drive, I never even filled up the 20 gigs on my original 360. Mostly just to play games or play stuff off of my PC.

[Fash]

It's normal HDMI, but the one thing I don't like is that you can't have HDMI AND FIBER at the same time, because the HDMI cable blocks the normal adapter port.

Because of this, I use component cables to my HD TV and Fiber to my audio system. I don't see any reason to go HDMI.

[Kilmoll the Sexy]

Couple of quick things. One, you can get HDMI splitters that were made for Xbox and are MUCH cheaper than buying from some of the big name component companies. I have one on mine and it works fabulously. Second, the newer systems do have newer hardware and are less prone to the RRoD. They are also immensely quiter than the older boxes. Third, get as big a drive as you can, as you can now load the disc onto the drive to play games and reduce the loading times and it will also be much less prone to disc errors (and also wearing out the DVD drive). It also gives you the room for the downloadable content that seems to be very prevalent for the better games.

[miir]

If you're going to be buying cables/splitters/adapters, don't buy from big retailers.
http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp

[cadalano]

look for a "Jasper" Xbox:

http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3472

[Aslanna]

Pretty much any Xbox 360 Arcade is the Jasper these days so the general theory goes. Unless you buy it from someplace that doesn't move much merchandise. I haven't heard many reports of the Pro equipped with it. But yeah if buying from an actual store where you can examine the box you should be able to check without opening as shown in the Anandtech article. 12,1A is what you want to see! Can always pull the hard drive from your other 360 or buy a new one to add to it. Might cost a bit more than buying it with the Pro but at least then you know you have the newest hardware revision.