News

'Jasper' Xbox 360s begin shipping?

You are here: blasteroids.com / news / 'jasper' xbox 360s begin shipping? /

Latest news | News archive | Search news

Not registered yet? Register here.

DVDBack23 @ Sep 30, 2008 16:21 | 44 comments

According to the Xbox 360 DVD Drive Database, the new 'Jasper' Xbox 360s have begun shipping as of August in the UK and in the US.

The 'Jasper' hardware revision is the shrinking of the GPU from a 90nm chip to a 65nm chip which the company hopes will keep the system cooler and significantly reduce the now infamous 'red ring of death', the sign that your 360 needs to be replaced.

Overall, Microsoft has spent $1 billion USD in replacing 360s that have failed (mainly from overheating) which has dipped into profits the software maker is making on the console.

The database says the Arcade model is shipping with the Jasper revisions in the UK, the US and other countries around Europe. A new update marked this week shows the Elite model shipping to the US with the Jasper revisions.

Previous Next

Comments

There are more user comments available, read them here

Comment by: SProdigy (Oct 02, 2008 20:13)

I also thought that the non-HDMI version of the 360 could to 1080p and that they had a software update for it; however, it only worked if you had a VGA cable.

Comment by: getbrian (Oct 02, 2008 23:26)

No news since May, BUT, another thing we're all still waiting for is the Xbox360 Blu-Ray Drive!!!

Check these links.....(NOTE: All my links are in RED):

Xbox 360 Blu-ray console shipping by September?

Sony "in talks" with Microsoft about a Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive

I was one of those that bought the 360's HD-Drive at $169 just months before the plug was pulled on HD format. Then the drive price tanked to $35. Probably my fault for not keeping up on the news but I was in the middle of moving...oh, well.

Maybe related though....Blu-Ray drive prices are dropping fast and broad. Sony AND Panasonic price drops were all over the news within the last couple days....but Sony is the important one I think. Sony's Blu-Ray drive price cuts could be in part related to an upcoming and unannounced Blu-Ray 360 Drive, PLUS Apple wants BD-R (NOT just Blu-ray / DVD±RW) in their Notebooks and likely Desktops as well.

THIS ARTICLE and THIS ARTICLE sum it up with links all over the place.

Comment by: DXR88 (Oct 03, 2008 01:36)

Originally posted by SProdigy:
I also thought that the non-HDMI version of the 360 could to 1080p and that they had a software update for it; however, it only worked if you had a VGA cable.

No, it can do 1080i, it only does 1080p if you have a hdmi port.

So its really a mute issue, for most people.

Comment by: rvinkebob (Oct 03, 2008 03:25)

Originally posted by DXR88:
No, it can do 1080i, it only does 1080p if you have a hdmi port.

So its really a mute issue, for most people.

I favor 720p over 1080i and 1080p in cases where the TV is too small or where 720p is sharper. 1080p is a little much for now but I think it'll fit in perfectly as a good medium when the next next-gen systems come around, a few years from now.

Do you think it'll take a year for the 360 60GB to drop?

Comment by: rvinkebob (Oct 03, 2008 03:26)

Originally posted by rvinkebob:

Originally posted by DXR88:
No, it can do 1080i, it only does 1080p if you have a hdmi port.

So its really a mute issue, for most people.
I favor 720p over 1080i and 1080p in cases where the TV is too small or where 720p is sharper. 1080p is a little much for now but I think it'll fit in perfectly as a good medium when the next next-gen systems come around, a few years from now.

Do you think it'll take a year for the 360 60GB to drop in price?

Comment by: rvinkebob (Oct 03, 2008 03:27)

Timeout. Sorry about the dup.

Comment by: DXR88 (Oct 03, 2008 04:46)

Originally posted by rvinkebob:

Originally posted by DXR88:
No, it can do 1080i, it only does 1080p if you have a hdmi port.

So its really a mute issue, for most people.
I favor 720p over 1080i and 1080p in cases where the TV is too small or where 720p is sharper. 1080p is a little much for now but I think it'll fit in perfectly as a good medium when the next next-gen systems come around, a few years from now.

Do you think it'll take a year for the 360 60GB to drop?

That's why i said its a mute issue, in a sense its vga im sure your not going to hook up your 40+ inch plasma tv to a vga.

No, i think it may drop, right before Christmas. What better way to get the old units out, course it will be advertised as a store discount. i think the 60 gig units will remain at the current price tag for a good 1 year or longer. anyway the 65nm Graphic Processing Unit, should cut down on production cost. the 90nm tech is for the AIW 9600's

Comment by: Jemborg (Oct 05, 2008 14:23)

Oh god, true native 1080p looks great- but we will have to wait till the next gen of consoles for that. meanwhile the 360's scalar chip does a fair job of upscaling so there is no taxing the GPU or CPU when outputting in 1080p.

Not everyone has a small screen, I sure as hell don't.

Also to those expecting any major change in noise from the new units... the noisiness comes from the optical drive not the fans unfortunately. Shame because it sounds like a bloody jet aircraft.

Comment by: Jemborg (Oct 05, 2008 14:36)

Probably the best solution for noise is an extra long HDMI cable (expensive) and sticking the unit in the next room...door closed :).

Comment by: lxhotboy (Oct 06, 2008 11:07)

Originally posted by Jemborg:
Oh god, true native 1080p looks great- but we will have to wait till the next gen of consoles for that. meanwhile the 360's scalar chip does a fair job of upscaling so there is no taxing the GPU or CPU when outputting in 1080p.

Not everyone has a small screen, I sure as hell don't.

Also to those expecting any major change in noise from the new units... the noisiness comes from the optical drive not the fans unfortunately. Shame because it sounds like a bloody jet aircraft.

Probably the best solution for noise is an extra long HDMI cable (expensive) and sticking the unit in the next room...door closed :).

LMAO... I have always had a problem with the loudness of the xbox360. I am a nightowl. When my wife goes to sleep i would generally move xbox360 into another room to keep from disturbing her with the light from the tv. Then she complained about missing me in bed and said the light doesnot bother her so i started playing in the bedroom at night instead with the TV on mute. But the damn Xbox is so loud it wakes her up. Guess i just got to get my butt in bed and go to sleep at a decent hour....:( They should make a muffler for that thing.

Lately really being looking at getting another HD tv and noticed that 1080p doesnot neccesarily mean better picture than 720p. I have seen a Vizio 1080p be outshined by a Samsung 720p, but the price was about the same with identical sizes. It took me a while to figure out why but as a kept looking at other tv's I noticed a much talked about sony bravio 1080p and to my suprise it looked better than the vizio but not the samsung, nor the pioneer, nor the sharp aquous. Most of them running at 720p. Then i noticed the contrast ratio. Samsungs was very high compared to some of the others and i did notice generally the higher the contrast ratio the clear and sharper the images appeared. A sales guy told me that there is not much diff in 1080p and 720p to the naked eye and he would choose a 720p tv with contrast ratio(30,000:1) over a 1080p tv with a contrast ratio of 5000:1) I could sure see the difference. Just depend on how much money you are willing to pay.

Comment by: Jemborg (Oct 06, 2008 17:39)

Quote:
LMAO... I have always had a problem with the loudness of the xbox360. I am a nightowl. When my wife goes to sleep i would generally move xbox360 into another room to keep from disturbing her with the light from the tv. Then she complained about missing me in bed and said the light does not bother her so i started playing in the bedroom at night instead with the TV on mute. But the damn Xbox is so loud it wakes her up. Guess i just got to get my butt in bed and go to sleep at a decent hour....:( They should make a muffler for that thing.

Lately really being looking at getting another HD tv and noticed that 1080p does not necessarily mean better picture than 720p. I have seen a Vizio 1080p be outshined by a Samsung 720p, but the price was about the same with identical sizes. It took me a while to figure out why but as a kept looking at other tv's I noticed a much talked about sony bravio 1080p and to my surprise it looked better than the vizio but not the samsung, nor the pioneer, nor the sharp aquous. Most of them running at 720p. Then i noticed the contrast ratio. Samsungs was very high compared to some of the others and i did notice generally the higher the contrast ratio the clear and sharper the images appeared. A sales guy told me that there is not much diff in 1080p and 720p to the naked eye and he would choose a 720p tv with contrast ratio(30,000:1) over a 1080p tv with a contrast ratio of 5000:1) I could sure see the difference. Just depend on how much money you are willing to pay.

@ lxhotboy, haha I am a nightowl too, or should I say hoot hoot. My dear wifey is a sweetheart but an absolute bear when it comes to all matters concerning sleep. Noise, light and the fact I'm not there to cuddle her to sleep- I mean that's part of my husbandly job description!

Salesmen will say anything to get a sale- I can only tell you my experience. At the time I am typing this on a 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma... and it looks awesome. Large plasmas seem symbolic of modern decadence nowadays, but I'm not into fancy cars whatever...we like our teev.

Plasmas aren't as power hungry as they used to be, and don't suffer from burn in like they used to. Any lasting after image will (and has) disappeared in a little time, the thing has suffered thru extended all night gaming on heaps of occasions, it's almost a year old, and it's still going fine. Even though there has been a number of times I've said, "ZOMG, I've done it now", it's always come good.

Still, there is some perceived "wisdom" that suggests that games for LCD and movies for plasma. Presumably burn-in is the reason... a good salesman will tell you that this is just not so anymore. Anyway, I wanted movie-like looking games, can you blame me? I don't dig the specular highlights on LCD it looks unnatural too me, plus they can have poor contrast (like you said).

It looked much, much smaller in the shop so when we got it home it was like, "Almighty Zeus, it's Fahrenheit 451 here !!!" We were actually intimidated at first... but gob-smacked. We got over that. :D

At sizes at, or close to, this you will notice the difference believe me, it really is a different experience. Like a wall devoted to changing art. Try Milkdrop visualization on WinAmp to get my drift. Games look fantastic and you will feel no longer compromised by letterboxing in movies. Why did'nt we go for a smaller size at the time... well we wanted something that would just last us years, we didn't want to say, "oh jeez, wish we'd got the next size up".

Panasonic has a great reputation for upscaling ect., and even my old XBox and PS2 look great as long as the sharpness is turned down. Can you tell the difference between 1080p and 720p? Hell yeah! It's over 2 and a half times the res. Both standards are broadcast in Australia (I can hardly tell the difference between 1080p and 1080i at 100hz btw). Not to suggest that 720p looks bad.

I was so disappointed that the PS3 was only native res of 720p (if actually that, try 640p for GTA IV, so much for superior graphics :/ ), I was expecting full 1080p after all the hype. One git salesman in EB arrogantly informed me that "there ain't no difference between 1080 and 720 anyway"... he was talking out of his backside, and deserved a good kick in said klacka.

(I can't help it, I have to bite into the above arguments posted... why ever think the the X360 has less potential for game development than the PS3? Why because the PS3 is more radical? Whoever designed the thing shut game programmers out the door! The X360's GPU is superior to the PS3s with super fast cashes involved, it's memory architecture isn't split between the GPU and the CPU, so less bottlenecks. And talking of the CPUs, they are both modified Xeons, the difference being that the PS3 has only one general purpose instruction core, where the 360 has three! The other six cores are for floating point calcs only, and game programmers don't give a stuff about greater FP calcs over general instruction capacity. Given that the CPU of the X360 has a GI set specifically designed around game programming (eg branch predictors, gofetch commands etc.) how does that above argument hold water? You can't build a mansion on a shaky foundation.. Put it another way, say my PC has a better CPU but only a nVidia 8600gt compared to my mates 9600gt gfx. Which machine do you think is going to have the better graphics...? Do you think he would swap his PC for mine...? Like hell he would... it's a no-brainer! In the final analysis it comes down to the actual games you want to play! Go retro for all I care, but don't tell me an over-blown BluRay software decoding player has more potential as a games platform over one that was designed for the job. Ahem.)

Of course this facilitated the building of a little media PC in the lounge, with a blu-ray drive in it. And I can tell you "authoring" of the HD disc is important, some don't look any different to upscaled DVD, disappointingly, but most do. I expect they will get better at it.

I took my X360 to my nephew's to try on his LG 720p plasma, the results were bad to say the least, for some reason the image looked pixilated on his screen. (I was using the repetitive but gorgeous Assassins Creed as a test.) Whereas on the Panasonic 1080p it looked... spectacular.

One last thing, my mate bought a new Panasonic 46" 1080p the other day, That baby has a contrast ratio of a million to one 0_0 !!! And cost roughly half what I paid for mine :(. I suggest you go have a gander at it.

It's a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: Jemborg (Oct 10, 2010 14:22)

Good god, I was so verbose in the above post... what was I on?

Anyway, to the point ~ why do notifications for these old threads keep appearing in my inbox???

AD you need to check your site software... there's a bug in there.

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: DXR88 (Oct 10, 2010 19:50)

yeah there is.

Comment by: Jemborg (Oct 10, 2010 21:15)

Probably explains why I'm not a senior member after all this time.

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: ddp (Oct 11, 2010 01:30)

i told admin about this problem on sept 22.

Comment by: Ketola (Oct 12, 2010 14:35)

Sorry about the problem. The seemingly random emails about non-existing posts were caused by an error in the spam checking algorithms. Some weird script managed to post non-spam comments to the news which caused the emails to be sent. The user id associated with the messages was, however, flagged as spammer, and therefore the messages weren't actually shown in the threads.

This issue has hopefully now been solved.

Jari Ketola
Administrator
http://www.AfterDawn.com

Comment by: Jemborg (Oct 12, 2010 14:44)

Originally posted by Ketola:
Sorry about the problem. The seemingly random emails about non-existing posts were caused by an error in the spam checking algorithms. Some weird script managed to post non-spam comments to the news which caused the emails to be sent. The user id associated with the messages was, however, flagged as spammer, and therefore the messages weren't actually shown in the threads.

This issue has hopefully now been solved.

So you mean I NOT a senior member yet?

Awwwwww.... tsk.

:(

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: ddp (Oct 12, 2010 16:25)

nope!!! do you deserve it?

Comment by: Ketola (Oct 12, 2010 16:57)

Originally posted by Jemborg:
So you mean I NOT a senior member yet?

Awwwwww.... tsk.

:(

Must be another bug altogether.. =)

Please do let mw know if you should be a senior member based on your post count.

Jari Ketola
Administrator
http://www.AfterDawn.com

Comment by: ddp (Oct 12, 2010 17:17)

the bug might be in the poster not in the program.

Comment by: Jemborg (Oct 12, 2010 17:44)

Originally posted by Ketola:

Originally posted by Jemborg:
So you mean I NOT a senior member yet?

Awwwwww.... tsk.

:(
Must be another bug altogether.. =)

Please do let mw know if you should be a senior member based on your post count.

440 towards I think it says. 551 in total. Thought it would be more. Look, I'm only kidding... it's not important. :)

Originally posted by ddp:
nope!!! do you deserve it?

Hell yes! :P

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: Ketola (Oct 12, 2010 17:50)

Originally posted by Jemborg:
440 towards I think it says. 551 in total. Thought it would be more. Look, I'm only kidding... it's not important. :)

Yup, I figured as much. Thought I might as well make sure, while we're on the topic of bug hunting, that the post counts are updating correctly. =)

Jari Ketola
Administrator
http://www.AfterDawn.com

Comment by: DXR88 (Oct 12, 2010 18:25)

Originally posted by ddp:
the bug might be in the poster not in the program.

BICNIC

Comment by: ps355528 (Oct 12, 2010 19:36)

people have been whining about the post counts not seeming to work for ages.. I haven't looked at mine because I don't care.. ar too busy running 3 sites to be mithered with post count here..

You have posted 120 messages to our discussion forums since you created your account on Tuesday 17 August 2010.
The total number of all messages you have posted is 122. This includes posts that do not count towards member level updates.

that seems wrong.. I'm sure there are a lot move s/v posts than that.

anyway.. the spambot wasn't one of mine.. they are set up to look for current live topics not 2 year old ones ;)

irc://irc.villageirc.net/afterdawn

Comment by: Jemborg (Oct 12, 2010 19:42)

Originally posted by ps355528:
people have been whining about the post counts not seeming to work for ages.. I haven't looked at mine because I don't care.. ar too busy running 3 sites to be mithered with post count here..{/quote]"Mithered"?

Nice to see you're still about P.

:)

PS: I'm a dad now. Almost six months now.
Its a lot easier being righteous than right.