Now that Blu-Ray has driven the nail in the coffin of HD DVD, Microsoft is about to release the ultimate console that will take over your living room for good. The Blu-Ray / HD DVD format war has held them back from releasing a true home media machine that compliments other products in the line up like Windows Home Server. Many may not know it but the format war put a wrinkle in Microsoft's plans to own your living room. This is why Microsoft chose to ship the Xbox 360 with a standard DVD player a few years ago. Not knowing what the standard would be has held them back from truly embracing the potential of the XBox and XBox Live's success. That wait is now over. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the XBox 1080.
XBox 1080 Specs
CPU
The specs of the 1080 are truly remarkable as it is a culmination of industry standards finally coming together in one solid machine. The good news for gamers is nothing has changed in the architecture to make your current games obsolete, they only get more powerful. The XBox 1080 has two quad core processors and 2GB's of memory to bring a great 3D experience to games and also provide enough horse power to run other tasks in the background while playing the most intensive of games. With all of these cores it is no wonder why the marketing reads "Have your cake and eat it too.". The XBox 1080 will truly rock your Guitar Hero / Halo 3 experience and provide developers more room to breathe allowing the XBox 1080 to devote processor cores to games while other ones are keeping an eye on your home (see home automation section).
Video
At the heart of the graphics engine of the XBox 1080 lies NVidia's latest acquisition, the PhysX Tech card by Ageia. This newly added addition to the NVidia family allows for physics to be more realistic within games. Ageia has already been apart of the Xbox, Wii and Playstation but more is to come. New things are now possible that never were before like sheets flying in the wind, fully destructible buildings in first person shooters and more.
Home Theater
The XBox 1080 ships complete with a Blu-Ray High Definition drive that supports standard CDs as well as standard DVDs. Finally home owners can place their separate DVD players and Blu-Ray players on Ebay and consolidate their entertainment centers into one device to rule them all. The XBox supports 1080P upscaling of traditional DVDs providing a stunning picture to home owners that waited out the Blu-Ray / HD DVD format wars by not supporting either side. The 1080 also supports high definition video at 1080P (where it gets its name) using the Blu-Ray disc drive. High definition without great sound would be show stopper for home theater enthusiasts but the XBox 1080 doesn't spoil the fun. It supports true 7.1 Dolby surround sound and can be auto configured to support a variety of options like THX for movies and 5.1 for games. To carry the high def data the XBox 1080 comes with an HDMI output. It also support component video and digital sound connectors. For those of you that don't have either option, sorry, the XBox 1080 can't help you. Microsoft wanted the machine to be completely cutting edge and that meant letting go of yesterday's technology. For some, it may be time to upgrade.
HD DVR and Media Center
Besides replacing your old DVD and Blu-Ray player, the XBox 1080 can replace your legacy DVR or digital cable box. There are two options the 1080 supports:
- Cable Card - Slide in a cable card from your cable provider into your XBox and turn your XBox 1080 into a 500GB HD DVR. With the Cable Card the XBox also supports features like OnDemand from Comcast.
- IPTV - If you are fortunate enough to live in an area where you can get IPTV from a provider, just plug into your fiber network and configure the XBox for IPTV. Within minutes you'll be watching TV in 720P streamed right from the Internet.
The 1080 takes advantage of years of work that have gone into Media Center to bring a full blown High Def DVR into the home.
Home Server Integration
Integrating with Windows Home Server has never been easier. Simply point to your home server and start streaming videos, photos, music and much more directly from Home Server. One of the best features about the home server integration is the ability to take advantage of your home server's storage capacity. While the XBox 1080 ships with a 500GB hard drive, it can quickly fill up, especially with high def movies and games either recorded in media center or ones rented/purchased from XBox Live.
For movies you've recorded or downloads you've purchased that you want to keep simply select it in the menu and press "Send to home server". In the background the data is then moved to your home server (with DRM rights still intact). The transfer and viewing of items from Home Server and the XBox 1080 is seamless. For users that have purchased games or downloads from XBox Live, this solves one of the problems of having to repurchase data if you want to upgrade to a larger hard drive or in case your hard drive fails. What better place to store data than on the server. For people that are at friends houses and have purchased items from XBox Live that configured and synced home server with their Live accounts, any purchases made from your friends house will be automatically added to your home server. This new upgrade to XBox Live allows friends to visit another friend who may not have the same add on or mod and still make it accessible as long as the person that owns the item is logged in. The added bonus of synchronizing these downloads or purchases made from other XBox with home server will be a big win.
Home Automation
One of the most anticipated features of the XBox 1080 has been home automation. By purchasing the $399 home automation kit you can now control your own home right from your XBox. Home automation features automatic timers, security integration and monitoring, and much more. See the website for more details about what is possible with the home automation feature.
With all of these features it is no wonder the XBox 1080 is one of the most anticipated console launches to date.