GameFly Rental Service Dispatches Xbox 360 Disc Scratch Dilemma
According to information obtained by Gamasutra, a number of subscribers to the North American GameFly video game rental service have received messages regarding an Xbox 360 hardware fault that potentially scratches game discs, making them unplayable.
The issue has previously been discussed at length on a number of fan websites, with the problem being particularly pronounced if users move the Xbox 360 while it is in use. However, some consumers are reporting that their Xbox 360 hardware will scratch discs without being moved.
The disc scratching problem is evidently widespread enough that GameFly has prepared a ‘form letter’ to send to all consumers who return Xbox 360 discs with defects on them, commenting:
"We have received information that certain XBOX 360 consoles have caused damage to GameFly videogames. Unfortunately, we have been notified that you recently returned a damaged XBOX 360 game.
As a precaution, we have removed all XBOX 360 games from your GameQ. Please contact Microsoft at 1-800-4MY-XBOX. Please do not rent XBOX 360 games until you have resolved this issue.
In the future, should GameFly receive XBOX 360 games from you that have been damaged, you will be charged a replacement fee."
Reps from GameFly had not returned calls inquiring about the extent of the problem by press time. Microsoft itself has previously commented to VNUNet regarding post-launch Xbox 360 technical issues: "We have received a few isolated reports of consoles not working as expected. The call rate is well below what you’d expect for a consumer electronics product of this complexity."
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June 16th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
Can the new Xbox 360 replace my HTPC?
I was just reading another similar thread dated back in May but since we’re days away from the launch of the Xbox 360 I have to ask myself : “Can the Xbox 360 completely replace my HTPC?”.
Here’s my setup:
I have one media server that contains all of my DVD movie content and it also runs MCE 2005. This server feeds, via a gigabit lan, all movie content to another MCE 2005 machine setup in my HT. That machine in turns is used purely for outputting video to my Sanyo projector AND recording/playback HDTV.
Here’s my theoretical setup with an Xbox 360:
Same media server but now it’s connected directly to the Xbox 360. I take the HDTV tuner card out of the “main” MCE machine and put it in my media server. Now the media server is a video server AND video recorder. Movies AND recorded TV is now playable on the Xbox 360. Therefore, my main MCE machine that I have poured countless hours of blood, sweat and money into is now completely defunct. I don’t use the main machine for surfing the web, I use it just for video and Tv recording/playback. The bonus addition with this route is I can now play games too. The only thing I’m missing is “My Movies” (maybe possible if using the Xbox as an extender?) and Live Tv (possibly streamed from the media server?)
Possible?
August 18th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Hello Heather,
I can really answer your first question due to the fact that I dont have any information on starhub.
Second question- There is a massive difference between Xbox and PC games. I dont really have the time to go into detail, but console games are able to run consistantly without lag, freezing, or glitches. All games and consoles are generally bug free.
You will experience a number of bugs and fixes for pc games. You also must have an updated gamer video card in order to run most pc games at an optimal rate.
Frame rates between console games and PCs differ as well. Frame rates tend to run a bit smoother for Xbox than any other PC game I have played.