Xbox 360 issues cont’d

4. 20GB is too small

We called this, despite having many readers claim that we were simply “bashing” Microsoft. With the new HD movie rental service and TV show download service, the 20GB capacity is clearly an issue. Microsoft recognizes this and has talked about producing larger capacity hard drives although no products have formally been announced.

5. Microtransaction security

In the end, pre-paid Xbox Live Marketplace points make the most sense. Sometimes retailers will sell these below the normal price as part of promotions or special coupons.

6. No internet browser

We’re not sure what’s stopping Microsoft from putting a web browser on the Xbox 360. Both Sony and Nintendo have web browsers in their consoles... Internet Explorer 7 is also an exceptional browser. Maybe it’s an issue of porting IE7 to the PowerPC architecture that’s causing the delay. Politically, there’s no way the Xbox 360 can use any other web browser.

7. No WMV-HD

At the time, we were focused on WMV-HD as it was the only commercially available high-definition disc-based platform. Most of the movies were limited to IMAX, or documentaries like Step Into Liquid, but there was also Terminator 2. With the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray on the market now, it’s no longer an issue.

8. No MPEG4 (H.264)

Once again, we have to deal with the political scenario at Microsoft. The hardware is capable of H.264 decoding, and the HD-DVD add-on proves that. On the other hand, politically, Microsoft only wants to allow streaming from Windows Media Center Edition 2005 and Windows Vista -- both MPEG-2 based.

9. No System Wide Calibration

This is still a problem. Maybe there’s hope for the next generation of system consoles.