[John McLean]

I have an xbox connected to my L300U with a 92" screen and play in 525P mode. The games look great and game play is also very good. I am building a HTPC and was wondering if it would be able to compete with the xbox. I bought the xbox because I like the controllers better than a key board and mouse. I have been told I can also get controllers for the HTPC. Is any one here that has tried both? Recommendations? Thanks

John

 

[PabloReiter]

I have and I tell you that HTPC gaming has some problems compared to xbox. First of all, every game has different resolutions. On a CRT system, you end up having to set up multiple memories and converging each one separately. this is a royal pain. Second, the support for controllers varies from game to game. Some only accept keyboard, some support certain buttons and not others, etc.


On the other hand, a good HTPC will blow away the xbox in terms of raw power for rendering. The new radeon cards are incredible. They are also upgradeable...


Good luck


Pablo

 

[Goi]

The processor within the XBOX is extremely dated by today's standards, its somewhere between 600MHz and 800MHz, definitely below 1GHz, and its either a modified intel P3 or a Celeron. As for the graphics hardware, its basically an NV25, i.e. a GeForce4 Ti series, and while that's pretty good even by today's standards, the newer Radeons beat it.


Resolution shouldn't be a problem as long as you set it to the native resolution of your projector. This will normally be 1024x768, which is a comfortable resolution to play games at from a performance standpoint.

 

[Shawn Pilichis]

I have my XBOX hooked into my network and am streaming movies, media files and MP3's to it from my big server. You can also store games directly on the XBOX to access them via a customized menu with thumbnails of the game if you like. At the moment since navigation is completely busted in the Lobby products I have been using the XBOX more and more as a media server client for it's easy navigation. Very soon, the developers of XBMP will "hopefully" fix the 1920x1080i High Def output so that all your DVD movies and DIVX movies will be scaled to High Def.


Along with just inserting your game and playing it without hours of headache and frustration trying to get it to work I would suggest looking to the XBOX to do so much more than you ever thought!


My XBOX just sat there for nearly a year until I upgraded it and now I love it and use it for almost everything. But one thing is certain, a HTPC built with ATI will best the basic 480p DVD image of the XBOX but with the High Def skin of XBMP, the XBOX will have one on the HTPC.

 

[Puwaha]

Quote:

Originally posted by Shawn Pilichis My XBOX just sat there for nearly a year until I upgraded it and now I love it and use it for almost everything. But one thing is certain, a HTPC built with ATI will best the basic 480p DVD image of the XBOX but with the High Def skin of XBMP, the XBOX will have one on the HTPC.

I don't understand... HTPC's can scale DVDs to practically any resolution... including 1080i and beyond... so how would the XBox be better in this regard?

 

[rygy]

The xbox uses USB interface to connect its controllers. All you gotta do is cut the XBOX connector end off the controller and attach a regular USB end. Ta-da, you can run your XBOX controller on your PC. All you need is the drivers from Codeunderground .

 

[Simon Honeybone]

It is a pita getting most the computer games to run in 1920x1080i but man when they do it is nice.


The best side by side comparison I can do is with Morrowind in 480p on the X-Box and in 1080i on my HTPC. Man it is like night and day and I can safely say I'll never play the X-Box version again.

 

[thiruvil]

Gaming with a HTPC is superior to the XBOX if you have a good video card.

I can create custom resolutions for 90% of my games. Playing with all effects on at 640x480, 856x480, or even better at 1776x1000 blows the XBOX away. The best part is that you get rid of all anti-aliasing, High res, 60+ fps. At worst you can play all games at 640x480, and with all effects on, it no longer looks low res. I use a PS2 to USB converter to play some games and will even accept rumble and analog support.

 

[SteelWill]

Two big problems I've run into on HTPC gaming:

1. The games. A lot can't be properly configured to work well with a gamepad. Part of this is due just to the nature of most PC games, RTS & RPG's really need a mouse & keyboard. Other games (The Thing for a suprising example since it is a console port) just lacks the ability to use a gamepad at all.

2. The gamepads. I have had a really hard time finding PC gamepads that are up to par with console gamepads. The Hammerhead FX, which is extremely hard to find now, is the only one I've been happy with. The rest either weren't just ergonomically friendly (Logitech Rumblepad for example)or didn't have enough buttons for most PC games' higher control complexity (so using a console gamepad w/ an adapter won't always solve this).


But with that being said, when you can get a game to work well on the HTPC platform, it does kick ass.


Edit: And let me add, Duke Nukem: Manhatten Project is a decent console-style game that lends itself very well to this and at around $10 at most places should be on anyone's HTPC game shelf.