Xbox One Won't Support SDTVs

[Rack]

A 40" LEDTV from a decent brand is going to cost about half as much as the Xbox1. If you aren't gaming on an HDTV at all it's going to be a way bigger improvement than any next gen console will be. Pick one of those up then buy a console when it gets cheaper. If you already aren't planning to buy the 360 or PS4 for a couple of years odds are HDTVs are going to get even cheaper.

You surely mean second hand. I recently bought a 32" 1366x768 TV (that's HD for you). It cost me 240 euros, and it's made by SANG (who don't even have an english website). Any decent 40" TV would've been about 3 times as much.

No, I picked up a Panasonic 42" 1080p 3D led tv for £300 brand new last Xmas and I imagine the US price would be substantially lower than that as result of the standard $500=£500 conversion. I suppose there will inevitably be some variances from country to country and you'd have to wait for a sale but I wouldn't imagine you'd have difficulty getting a similar deal in most places.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

If a person is truly interested and wants to get something, they will do what they have to do to get it.

Obviously, but there is a difference between someone who wants an Xbox and an HD TV, and someone who just wants an Xbox. It is foolish to cater to only one of these demographics, especially when you won't be profitting from the sale of HD TV's.

Really, it is the same as the exiting generation, yes people could play their 360s on an SDTV, but in doing so the games looked like shit in comparison to playing on an HDTV.

I used an SDTV for almost the first full year I had my 360. I could see a huge difference from when I played on my TV compared to when my friends played on their HDTVs.

Sometimes it really hindered my paying. Take Dead Rising for example, I could not read the text instructions, for the life of me, that the system tried having my 27 inch SDTV project.

Did I think it sucked that I had to save a large amount of money to get an HDTV so I could play my games in the proper manner they were designed for? Yes.

Did I get mad and Microsoft for moving forward with technology and making it hard for me to play games to where they looked right because I wasn't using the right TV? No, because I know that is what happens with technology. When technology reaches a certain level, the basic tech items that we use everyday will eventually incorporate it and move forward.

When Microsoft released the 360, HDTV was out of it's infancy/childhood, it was now in the middle, a teenager. That is why they made it an HD system, thought they still some SD comparability because HDTVs weren't quite the majority yet.

Now Microsoft knows that HDTV has entered it's adult stage, it actually reached that around four years ago. As the statistics have been pointed out in this thread, the US(Microsoft's main consumer base/demographic) has got with the times and 70%, so far over majority have moved on to HDTVs. It's also quite obvious that a large part of the 30% with SD TVs are elderly people that don't game. Basically at this point it is counter productive to take the time and spend the money to add pretty much ancient tech(during this day and age) compatibility, which would make the console more expensive at launch. From a successful business stand point, making the Xbox One SDTV compatible would have been a stupid move, because the work around and cost wouldn't be worth it with so few gamers that actually still are living in the past. The cost out ways the gain from SD user sales.

SD is gone, it is far far from mainstream. No normal retail store sells SDTVs anymore, you have to go to some kind of old world specialty store/antique mall, refurbisher(if you can find one that still does it, because at least in my area all the TV refurbishers stopped working on SDTVs around three years ago), or on E-Bay.

It doesn't matter that these people feel there is no reason to move on from SDTVs. There was no reason for Microsoft to consider them. The vast majority of society has moved on. People that have SDTVs literally are living in the past. Heck to even watch TV with SDTVs, you pretty much are running them on life support with HD to SD converters, and that happened years ago.

These people complaining need to just face facts, the rest of society has moved on, and the businesses that make products aimed at them have as well, and they are not going to look back at the stragglers, because they will be left behind and lose out to other companies if they do.

I see such complainers say, "Well I guess Microsoft doesn't want my money". Well, yeah, they don't want your money, it isn't enough to make the effort to stay occasionally dip their toes in the muddy waters of the past.

Face it SDTV users. You are basically people riding/driving horse drawn wagons, yelling at society and saying I don't need to buy one of your crazy horseless mechanical monstrosities.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

No, I picked up a Panasonic 42" 1080p 3D led tv for £300 brand new last Xmas and I imagine the US price would be substantially lower than that as result of the standard $500=£500 conversion. I suppose there will inevitably be some variances from country to country and you'd have to wait for a sale but I wouldn't imagine you'd have difficulty getting a similar deal in most places.

To confirm what you are saying. £300 in US dollars is $452.91

I searched Amazon, and the cheapest 42 inch 1080p TV I saw was a Vizio for $448. So pretty much, the price points are the same. The price for a 42 inch HDTV isn't outrageous if you just look for the cheapest one. Besides, it shows that prices are decreasing, because only three years ago, I paid just under that for only a 32 inch HDTV.

 

[Signa]

I liked Xbox Done, but far be it for me to fight the winds of change.

XBone is pretty good because it is actually its name abbreviated by the same standards we've been abbreviating the Xbox for over 10 years now. The only difference is that the One is spelled out, when most people would reduce it to a 1. MS didn't bother, so why should we? It's funnier when we don't.

OT: This really isn't much of news, because I think it kinda would be stupid if it DID support SDTV. However, as many have said, they haven't upgraded, and this move puts them out. Really, if this was the only thing wrong with the system, it would be completely trivial. Since it's not, it's more of just icing on the cake.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Sorry that some of us dont own HD TV's Microsoft. That being said I had the thought just yesterday that maybe the next gen consoles wouldn't support SD TV's, way to support my suspicions Microsoft. Its a real shame that the Xbox One is turning out so dissapointing, I had high hopes for the system, hoping that Microsoft would learn somethings that weren't great about the 360 and look to improve.

Thankfully the PS4's looking really good, so as long as it supports SD then my console choice is all but confirmed

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Not everyone has an HDTV yet. Sure, most of 'US' probably own one but think about the people from say, Latin America, or any of the other poorer nations that like to play on consoles.

Add to that the requirement for an internet connection (and yes, even a considerable number of people in the more developed parts of the world have no internet. Or at the very least, a very unreliable internet) then it's a death sentence for Xbone.

I can see the PS4 and even Wii U becoming very popular. (Wii U's sales spiked 900% so don't just take my word for it)

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I find it amazing people can afford new consoles or PC parts but still cling to their old ass SDTV's. There are plenty budget priced HDTV's out there. I found, for example, the Sony 3dtv that they came out with for the PS3 for $99 on clearance. I currently use it as my PC monitor and play Deus Ex HR, Sleeping Dogs and quite a few other games in 3d from time to time but mostly use it for standard HD.
So its not unreasonable for things to be switching over to HD, hell Cable was supposed to drop support for analog TV a while back. Now you need a digital converter if your TV don't have the capability (in the US).
Stop complaining about having to spend money if you folks can afford to buy new consoles and games for them or build a PC rig. Also learn to save up for things if you can't afford them.

 

[Alfador_VII]

I had no idea the USA was so stuck in the stone age when it came to TV technology.

Here in the UK I don't know any of my friends, or family who don't have an HD ready TV as their main TV. It's also been several years since you could buy an SDTV even if you wanted to.

You can also pick up a small HDTV for under £200, which is only a bit more than a current gen console.

Basically if you can't budget that much for a new TV if you still need one, how do you expect to pay for an expensive new Xbone, and buy games for it, as well as pay for Xbox live?

 

[Evil Smurf]

I like gaming on a PC, partly because the screen is built in and I don't need to deal with this

 

[Artlover]

Here in the UK I don't know any of my friends, or family who don't have an HD ready TV as their main TV.

I've seen this annoying point brought up many times. Main TV. For a lot of people, their "main TV" is for TV, NOT gaming, and the rest of the family isn't going to take kindly to being kicked out of the living room when they want to watch TV just because it's the only TV in the house this console will work with, maybe, if it's new enough.

We've got a 32" Samsung HDTV as the "Main TV" in our house. My x360 gets played either on my 19" HDTV PC monitor via VGA (since the monitor don't have a HDMI port despite being made in 2011) or the 13" SDTV from the mid 90's in my bedroom. And no, I honestly don't give a crap about not being able to read some of the smaller text because I'm not a moron and can still figure out what is being said and what needs to be done in any game I'm playing.

Basically if you can't budget that much for a new TV if you still need one, how do you expect to pay for an expensive new Xbone, and buy games for it, as well as pay for Xbox live?

So do you budget for buying a new house with a garage when buying a new car? Besides this console, name me ONE device that is designed to attach to a TV that does not work with SD. Be it VCR's, DVD Players, DVD Recorders, Cable & DSS boxes (including HDTV and DVR variants), Tivo, Roku, Minix, EVERY gaming console before this, smartphones, or any other device that can attach to a TV, they ALL support connection to SDTV in one form or another.

You can't even find a BluRay player that doesn't have at the very least standard composite or S-Video outputs in addition to HDMI, and BluRay was designed for HDTV! The point being, having to buy a new TV has NEVER been a prerequisite for using any device that attaches to a TV. EVER. Because devices designed for use with TV's are supposed to work with the TV, not the other way around. Xbox One is currently the only device that violates this premiss, and likely will be the only one in the near future too. And 5 years from now, I can guarantee you that Direct TV and Comcast will still be renting out 1080p HDTV DVR boxes with RF and composite out. Because they know that even in houses with an HDTV that not every TV in that household will be one.

 

[suitepee7]

wasn't getting one anyway, and wouldn't affect me if i was because i only have 1 TV which happens to be HD.

that being said, regardless of which side you're on, it still has the potential to lose some customers, as the people here have demonstrated.