1080p - Coming soon to an XBOX360 near you

[Parm]

According to sources around the web, namely Kotaku and Engadget it is being reported that the external HD-DVD drive will hit the market first in Japan at a retail price of approximately $180.
That sounds cheap as chips but I wouldn't expect a direct conversion for the UK retail.

The more interesting news is that of the fall update. 360 users may be aware that Microsoft issue two big dashboard updates each year, one in the spring and one in the autumn.
The upcoming autumn update is said to be bringing full 1080p support to the XBOX360.

Users can expect 1080p upscaling immediately on current games and DVDs and native 1080p on compatible HD DVD titles, but Microsoft hasn't yet announced future games that will rock 1080p natively

Further still, reports are indicating that the HD-DVD drive will also be compatible with Windows MCE and presumably Windows Vista.

If this turns out to be true it might be a slight blow for Sony who have been touting that the PS3 is the only 'true HD' console.

[Skinleech]

If this turns out to be true it might be a slight blow for Sony who have been touting that the PS3 is the only 'true HD' console.

That's fine for video, but the 360 upconverts the 720p signal to 1080i. That suggests it would also be upconverting the 720p signal to 1080p, which to me means it's not true HD.

[Bluecube]

From what Engadget says the only reason there is no 1080p support for games is cause they games themselves don't support it. If the 360 will support native 1080p video playback as Engadget suggests then there's no reason why games shouldn't support it either apart from the performance hit.