xbox compatibility

[heimdali]

Can you play all versions of halo on the latest model of the xbox?

 

How compatible is it with a 4k display?  Apparently it doesn´t have a display port, so I´d be limited to 4k@30Hz?

 

I always stayed away from consoles, so I know basically nothing.  But why not get one, I could finally play halo.

 

[tatte]

Yes, all versions of Halo can be played on any Xbox One. It currently doesn't support the original Xbox's discs of Halo 1 and Halo 2, but those games are included both with original and remastered graphics in the Master Chief Collection. Said collection comes with Halo 3 and Halo 4 as well, ODST is available as a separate DLC to the collection. All Halo games released for the 360 are supported.

 

One X does 4K @ 60Hz (2.0b) and supports AMD FreeSync. This depends on the game of course.

[heimdali]

Cool.

 

What would you suggest?  Buy the most recent model, which is expensive, or buy one used, or buy a previous model new?  And which one?

 

Does it make sense to buy the latest model?  I do like good graphics, and consoles not having that was the main reason to stay away from them, but that has changed some.  It might not make sense to buy an older model because when new games come out, they might not work, or not work as well.

 

Perhaps first I need to make a list of which games I might like to play and decide based on that?

 

 

PS:

Would I be looking for a 360 S?  If so, used starts at about 70 and new won´t make sense.  But I don´t have a display that does only 1080, so things might look ugly.  Is there anything special I should look out for?

 

[ono]

I have an Xbox One S. It does output non-game content, the UI and the 4K UHD BD player. I guess the game output might technically be 4K, but it'd be whatever the game's native res is upscaled. I think a lot of the big games natively are 900p, except for stuff like Forza that do native 1080p (and 4K on the X). I think Halo 5 does dynamic resolution. 

 

When I bought the S new, I got the Halo Collection + Halo 5 bundled in, but yeah, probably not worth it if you can get it and the games used.

 

I opted to buy a GTX 1080 over upgrading to an Xbox One X. I already have the BD player from the S and I figure I'll get better closer to 4K results that the X can provide. Don't have to rely on the devs to provide a patch at least since 4K is fairly typically supported already.

 

The aim is that the S, X, and original model to be fully compatible with each other. We'll see.

[heimdali]

Hmm.  I´m not sure what to make of this.

 

Are you saying I´d be better off buying something used for playing Halo?

 

It might not be a bad idea because I´d learn how playing on a console goes and could always upgrade later.  Chances are that it might be more compatible with these games, too.

 

[Kawaii Koneko]

4 hours ago, heimdali said:

Hmm.  I´m not sure what to make of this.

 

Are you saying I´d be better off buying something used for playing Halo?

 

It might not be a bad idea because I´d learn how playing on a console goes and could always upgrade later.  Chances are that it might be more compatible with these games, too.

 

I'm personally not fond of buying consoles used, at least not newer systems. I just don't trust people to take care of their systems. With older systems that are cost prohibitive to buy new due to marked up prices, I don't worry quite so much. They are generally pretty cheap at that point so it wouldn't sting as much if you got a bad deal.

 

But yeah, if you really aren't sure how much you'll enjoy playing on console, then buying used might not be a bad idea.

 

Is Halo the main reason you want a console?

 

[heimdali]

16 hours ago, Kawaii Koneko said:

I'm personally not fond of buying consoles used, at least not newer systems. I just don't trust people to take care of their systems. With older systems that are cost prohibitive to buy new due to marked up prices, I don't worry quite so much. They are generally pretty cheap at that point so it wouldn't sting as much if you got a bad deal.

 

But yeah, if you really aren't sure how much you'll enjoy playing on console, then buying used might not be a bad idea.

 

Is Halo the main reason you want a console?

 

Right, from what I´ve seen glancing at them on ebay, there´s a lot of crap for sale, and who knows if the ones that don´t seem crap are fine.  It´s perfectly ok because sellers advertise them accordingly, like foo is missing and bar and blah as well, so I´d know there´s no point in buying it because it´s useless to me.  What I haven´t figured out yet is which model I should buy if I buy a used one.

 

I´ve had a chance to play a bit of Halo on an xbox, and I liked that very much.  What I don´t like about consoles is the poor graphics --- on which they have improved a lot, so that is no longer a point --- and that they don´t have trackballs and keyboards which I much prefer over the controllers they force you to use.  However, the controller was ok for the bit of Halo I played, and trackball and keyboard aren´t ideal for everything, either.

 

 

I don´t know if I want a console.  I always wanted to play Halo since the first time I ever heared about it, and that´s why I´m looking at that particular model.  Back then, Halo was supposed to be for xbox only, no version for a computer, and I didn´t want to buy a console just for that.  Yesterday, I learned that you can play it on a computer now.

 

It´s a really good question, though, because it led me to give it some more thought, and I came to some conclusions:  I want an easy and hassle-free way to play games, and using my computer to do that won´t be exactly easy and not hassle-free.  Halo is just the game I´d start with if I buy a console.  It won´t make sense to buy a used one because I´d probably buy a One X later anyway and would end up spending as much, or more, as I would buying it now.  Should I, unexpectedly, find that I don´t like it, I can still play Halo and sell it, and it won´t cost much more than buying used.

 

 

That leaves one issue:  Will it work with my monitor?

 

I have a 4k monitor with a display port.  The xbox one x does not have a display port.  I need to find out if the HDMI port on the monitor will allow for 4k@60Hz (I doubt it does).  Or perhaps I can get an adapter?  But if I use the display port for the console, I´d have to switch back and forth between the computer and the console all the time, which the connector would probably take only so many times before it´s broken.

 

Hm, ok, I just looked, the monitor has two HDMI ports.  I can switch between them via the OSD.  But can I bundle them? Or how does 4k@60Hz work with HDMI?  I already had to go through four display port cables to find one that actually works.

 

[Kyle_N]

You need HDMI 2.0 for 4K@60Hz. It probably won't say on your monitor, you'll have to look up specs.

You also need a High Speed HDMI cable, but every Xbox comes with one in the box.

 

If you don't have HDMI 2.0 on your monitor, you could try an HDMI 2.0 to DP adapter. Make sure it supports 4K@60Hz before you buy.

 

You could try HDMI 1.4 for 4K@30Hz, although I'm not sure that the X supports that. According to the website it requires 60Hz: https://support.xbox.com/en-CA/xbox-one/console/4k-on-xbox-one-technical-requirements

 

 

Also just FYI, Halo 3 (for 360) and Halo Wars 2 (which is also crossbuy with PC) are currently the only Halo games playable in 4K on the Xbox One X. All others will be upscaled from 1080p.

Master Chief Collection (Halo 1-4 remaster) will be getting a 4K update sometime next year.

[tatte]

1 hour ago, heimdali said:

--

An Xbox 360 lets you play all but the newest Halo, so it's a solid option to consider. As long as you pick either an S or E model, technical issues are unlikely. Used base One's should be pretty cheap too, and they provide the largest library and somewhat better controller. I'd personally go with an used One and a copy of Master Chief Collection for the best value Halo experience. They're bulky, but very reliable and quiet.

 

We can help you with your monitor if you post the model. If you don't know it by heart and can't find the box, there should be a sticker on the back (PC monitors also tend to have the model printed on the border around the screen). All Xbox Ones come with a good HDMI cable, so it's all up to your monitor (if you buy used, make sure you get the original cable for hassle free setup).

 

As a friendly reminder, if you're planning on playing Halo online, you'll need to pay for the Live Gold.

[ono]

20 hours ago, heimdali said:

Right, from what I´ve seen glancing at them on ebay, there´s a lot of crap for sale, and who knows if the ones that don´t seem crap are fine.  It´s perfectly ok because sellers advertise them accordingly, like foo is missing and bar and blah as well, so I´d know there´s no point in buying it because it´s useless to me.  What I haven´t figured out yet is which model I should buy if I buy a used one.

 

I´ve had a chance to play a bit of Halo on an xbox, and I liked that very much.  What I don´t like about consoles is the poor graphics --- on which they have improved a lot, so that is no longer a point --- and that they don´t have trackballs and keyboards which I much prefer over the controllers they force you to use.  However, the controller was ok for the bit of Halo I played, and trackball and keyboard aren´t ideal for everything, either.

 

 

I don´t know if I want a console.  I always wanted to play Halo since the first time I ever heared about it, and that´s why I´m looking at that particular model.  Back then, Halo was supposed to be for xbox only, no version for a computer, and I didn´t want to buy a console just for that.  Yesterday, I learned that you can play it on a computer now.

 

It´s a really good question, though, because it led me to give it some more thought, and I came to some conclusions:  I want an easy and hassle-free way to play games, and using my computer to do that won´t be exactly easy and not hassle-free.  Halo is just the game I´d start with if I buy a console.  It won´t make sense to buy a used one because I´d probably buy a One X later anyway and would end up spending as much, or more, as I would buying it now.  Should I, unexpectedly, find that I don´t like it, I can still play Halo and sell it, and it won´t cost much more than buying used.

 

 

That leaves one issue:  Will it work with my monitor?

 

I have a 4k monitor with a display port.  The xbox one x does not have a display port.  I need to find out if the HDMI port on the monitor will allow for 4k@60Hz (I doubt it does).  Or perhaps I can get an adapter?  But if I use the display port for the console, I´d have to switch back and forth between the computer and the console all the time, which the connector would probably take only so many times before it´s broken.

 

Hm, ok, I just looked, the monitor has two HDMI ports.  I can switch between them via the OSD.  But can I bundle them? Or how does 4k@60Hz work with HDMI?  I already had to go through four display port cables to find one that actually works.

 

Buying used or not is mostly a budget thing. Sounds like you should get a new One X.

 

I think people may be able to help you more if you reveal your monitor make and model. I use a 4K TV so that gets me 4K@60Hz with HDMI. I don't have a 4K monitor, rather a 1440p ultrawide and at that resolution I get 50Hz max. I use DP there so I can't comment on or suggest suitable DP to HDMI adapters.

[heimdali]

19 hours ago, DOGC_Kyle said:

You need HDMI 2.0 for 4K@60Hz. It probably won't say on your monitor, you'll have to look up specs.

You also need a High Speed HDMI cable, but every Xbox comes with one in the box.

 

If you don't have HDMI 2.0 on your monitor, you could try an HDMI 2.0 to DP adapter. Make sure it supports 4K@60Hz before you buy.

 

You could try HDMI 1.4 for 4K@30Hz, although I'm not sure that the X supports that. According to the website it requires 60Hz: https://support.xbox.com/en-CA/xbox-one/console/4k-on-xbox-one-technical-requirements

 

 

Also just FYI, Halo 3 (for 360) and Halo Wars 2 (which is also crossbuy with PC) are currently the only Halo games playable in 4K on the Xbox One X. All others will be upscaled from 1080p.

Master Chief Collection (Halo 1-4 remaster) will be getting a 4K update sometime next year.

The specs in the manual don´t exactly say what it is   They only say HDMI.  As far as I guess from a listing in the manual, it´ll do max. 30Hz@4k when using either an HDMI or a DVI port.  I think HDMI 2.0 wasn´t invented yet when I bought it.

 

I would need an adapter, but I need the display port for the computer, so that won´t work.  So much to hassle-free.  Does it even work at all with a monitor?  They may behave differently than a TV.

 

30Hz is slowish, and yes, apparently the xbox doesn´t support that.  What were they thinking?  Why didn´t they put a display port on it?  I´d say you can expect both 30Hz support and a display port for the price.  I´d also expect it to support all resolutions just like a computer does.  Which resolutions does it even support?

 

I guess I´d be fine with upscaled, and I´d probably get the collection.

 

But I can´t connect it to my monitor, so there isn´t much point in buying one.

 

[heimdali]

20 hours ago, tatte said:

An Xbox 360 lets you play all but the newest Halo, so it's a solid option to consider. As long as you pick either an S or E model, technical issues are unlikely. Used base One's should be pretty cheap too, and they provide the largest library and somewhat better controller. I'd personally go with an used One and a copy of Master Chief Collection for the best value Halo experience. They're bulky, but very reliable and quiet.

 

[...]

 

As a friendly reminder, if you're planning on playing Halo online, you'll need to pay for the Live Gold.

Looking at ebay: I could get a new One for 205, used for about 150.  Prices for S are about the same, E is a bit higher, and new Es are 450 (who´s gona buy that?).

 

So I´d be paying 200 or a bit more to get something decent, which brings me close enough to the price of a new One X that I would rather go for that.

 

Having to buy an HDMI to DP adapter and the collection sets me back by about 560.  Things are gona suck when the DP connector on the monitor fails from plugging and unplugging the DP cable all the time.  I´d have to buy a new monitor.

 

Now look at it the other way:  I buy one or two 1 or 2 TB disks, new or used, plus a windoze 10 license.  That would cost me between 210 and 260.  I´m not sure if I could play the same Halo as I could with an xbox, but it would cost me only about half.

 

Oh, and I just remembered, I have a spare 2TB disk!  There´s no reason not to use it, so it would cost me 160 plus games.  I could maybe bring that down to 70 plus games by buying a used computer for 50 plus 20 for a windoze 10 licence that comes with it as an upgrade (but that might not work with my computer).  But then, there´d be another disk in that $50 computer which I could just use in my computer.

 

So how well can you play Halo on a computer?

 

[Kyle_N]

DP connectors have a clip, as long as you're actually pressing that it should never wear out.

You could try to find a DP switch if you're really concerned (or want convenience) but that's adding to your cost.

 

I don't think any of the main Halo games are on PC right now. There's Halo Wars 1 & 2 (RTS game), Spartan Assault (mobile top-down game), and Halo 5 Forge (Halo 5 without the single player campaign, only multiplayer). 

 

Master Chief Collection MAY get a PC release (Xbox Play Anywhere) when they release the major update (4K update for Xbox One X, and other major improvements) next year. But that's just speculation.

[heimdali]

I´ve thought about using a switch, but after I had to go through 4 DP cables to find one that works, I have my doubts ...

 

I just found out that I can get a windoze 10 licence for EUR 4.99.  I could get Starcraft for EUR 15 from a local store and play it until they might release Halo   Or I could play any other game that requires windoze 10.

 

Should I spend over 500 just to play Halo?  It would be an exercise in wasting money on an unprecedented scale for me.

 

Buying a windoze licence would be a first, too. Wow ...

 

[ono]

1 hour ago, heimdali said:

The specs in the manual don´t exactly say what it is   They only say HDMI.  As far as I guess from a listing in the manual, it´ll do max. 30Hz@4k when using either an HDMI or a DVI port.  I think HDMI 2.0 wasn´t invented yet when I bought it.

 

I would need an adapter, but I need the display port for the computer, so that won´t work.  So much to hassle-free.  Does it even work at all with a monitor?  They may behave differently than a TV.

 

30Hz is slowish, and yes, apparently the xbox doesn´t support that.  What were they thinking?  Why didn´t they put a display port on it?  I´d say you can expect both 30Hz support and a display port for the price.  I´d also expect it to support all resolutions just like a computer does.  Which resolutions does it even support?

 

I guess I´d be fine with upscaled, and I´d probably get the collection.

 

But I can´t connect it to my monitor, so there isn´t much point in buying one.

 

Halo 1 & 2 got PC releases awhile back. I'm not sure if they run well on modern OS.

 

I'm guessing Xbox One X only supports TV resolutions: 720p, 1080p, 4K, and probably even 480p. But I could be wrong. The Xbox 360 actually had a VGA (or DVI?) option and that offered various computer resolutions.

 

There are no consoles that use DP. I don't think any TVs have them, which is what the main audience for consoles are using. TVs need to start including DP first. Or the fancier USB ports if the one port that does everything trend makes it to TVs. Monitors and TVs aren't on the same page when it comes to standards.

[heimdali]

It´s weird because why would anyone buy a TV when all you need is a monitor.  Maybe the ppl who want to see commercials?  I saw gigantic TVs in a store yesterday, and apparently they do 4k.  I thought it´s nice because if they were a bit larger, they would be nice to use as a display wall (when integraded into the actual wall) and could serve as a monitor.  But I´d want them to do at least 8k for that --- which I´d expect of them anyway for a price of over 2500.  Who buys that?  Most ppl probably can´t even fit them into their living rooms, and if they could, they´d need to wear glasses with wide angle lenses --- and then would probably return the TVs because the picture is distorted.

 

1080 is meh on a 4k display.  M$ is stupid to make a 4k console and not to consider that ppl will want to connect it to their monitors because they do not have gigantic display walls and glasses with wide angle lenses in their living rooms.

 

Seriously, this problem keeps me from buying one.  It´s the same old problem consoles always had and why I never bought one: The graphics suck badly, and they still haven´t fixed that.

 

[Kyle_N]

DP has no usage outside of enthusiast and commercial hardware. It also has most of the same issues as HDMI, specifically, the lack of forwards compatibility. 

I'm waiting for the day where there's a display interface that actually has backwards and forwards compatibility. It's really awful to need all new hardware (every single device connected must use the same version) just to get 4K and HDR.

 

Anyways, as far as I can tell, Xbox One X games output at 4K@60Hz (or 1440@60, 1080@60). For everything else, it depends on the content (24/30/50/60Hz). 

 

So you'll get 1440p, but if you want 4K you'll need a display that meets new standards, thanks to the lovely lack of the HDMI spec having forwards compatibility. 

[heimdali]

DP is the standard thing to use.  That doesn´t make it any good, let alone any better than other connectors --- it´s simply awful because they come up with a new incompatible connector all the time, and the only thing that this does best is to make sure that nothing fits and works together.

 

It´s amazing though how long the VGA connector has been around.  Even my 4k display has one.  You can get 10, 15 or, I think, even 20m long VGA cables, but you can´t get over 3m of DP cable.  That´s ridiculous.  I can only assume that the ppl designing such things nowadays are by far not half as capable as their predecessors were.