BCossette Writes:

As this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) draws closer, more and more details regarding Microsoft’s Xbox successor come to light.

It seems that Microsoft is making a serious push for the “HD Era” that J Allard boasted of at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Several of our sources have told us that Microsoft has outlined very strict technical requirements when showcasing Xbox 360 titles at this year’s E3.

In order to fully demonstrate the visual prowess of the new console, Xbox 360 games will not be displayed on regular TVs, which means no SDTV or EDTV sets (although the console can utilize such technology), and it is mandatory that the displays used in the E3 demonstrations are HDTV-ready and not just HDTV compatible.

You should know that many of the flat panel screens that are sold as HD capable are only “HDTV Compatible”, which means they can display HDTV signals but they resize the image to the panel’s native resolution, which sometimes is lower than the minimum HDTV spec, 720p. Full HDTV Ready displays are those TVs that have a built-in HDTV tuner (ex: ATSC tuners for over-the-air HD reception, CableCARD™ slots for cable HDTV), DVI and HDMI inputs, and a panel with a 1920x1080 native resolution, which allows the TV to display any HDTV signal without having to compress the image.

Several sources have informed us that Microsoft is demanding that companies display Xbox 360 games at E3 on equipment with a minimum resolution of 720 physical lines. We have yet to learn if Microsoft is requiring any type of specific audio capabilities during demos, such as a Dolby Digital 5.1 system.

It looks like as far as Microsoft is concerned, the “HD Era” truly has begun.

News-Source: teamxbox.com