Wow get off your conspiracy theories. Lol. Maybe he wants to spend the extra $80 to get the bigger hard drive. And actually a main feature of hdmi is the sound quality that you can get from it given the proper receiver. Although the 360 doesn't support these new formats such Dolby True HD or DTS HD at this time it will in the future.

Also it doesn't matter what quality hdmi cable you have as they are all pretty much the same just with different shielding properties, so unless you plan on playing your 360 right next to a microwave or something else that provides strong interference you don't need the most expensive cables you can buy. I also have yet to see any "A/V Guys" as you like to call them actually prefer component over hdmi.

In the end though i would definitely buy the Elite 360 given that it is only $80 dollars more and would be the best 360 you can buy currently. Given the bigger hard drive and hdmi compatibility it is well worth it.

So I guess some are willing to buy the 120gb hard drive for an extra $180, a wi fi adaptor for $100, and an hd dvd player for another $200. Adding $480 to the cost of a premium 360, bringing the total to $880 instead of just buying a "ultimate 360" for between $550 and $600.

Oh wait if I just bought all those separately I guess I could just buy another 360. My point is microsoft is just price gouging and should have just offered a complete fully featured xbox 360 from the beginning as an option for those that want the best they could buy.

***A note to people having issues with their 360's freezing. I found that it was a problem with the power supply overheating and not getting enough air. Proping the power supply up at around a 45 to 90 degree angle so the base of it doesn't touch the ground helped it dissipate air more effectively and stopped my freezing problems.

My point pretty much is that the core console is absolutely useless. It causes game developers to bottleneck games and optimize them for a console without a hard drive. Microsoft was weak in that decision of making a console without a hard drive at all just in order to save people 100 dollars.

The fact is they should have just made the Premium 360 and people would not have known any difference. Sure the market isn't ready for any sort of next gen format yet, but what about in a year or two when hd tv's can be bought for dirt cheap and many consumers will have purchased them. Will they want thehd dvd or blu ray over the far insuperior dvd standard? I think so. Maybe microsoft is just capitalizing on this fact of purchasable, overpriced upgrades.

I mean who wouldn't have purchased a full fledged hd dvd, wi fi driven, 120gb, hdmi toutingXbox 360 at launch for around $550 meanwhile keeping the current premium 360 at the $400 price point and not even having the core as an option. Not only would we save money in the future, but we would have a far superior console at this point.

On that note I love gray slabs that supply power, but my main problem with it is that it seemed like microsoft rushed the 360 onto store shelves.

An example is how early adopters got screwed over when they announced the Elite, a premium console over the premium 360. Also a wi-fi adaptor for 100usd is an outrage.

They should have just released an ultimate 360 with all the features of the elite plus an internal hd dvd player and wi fi. Then called that the premium and then rebrand the current premium xbox asthe core system.

I would say vga is going to be much better. Before the recent spring update I would have said no because the blacks were being output more as gray due to the vga signal not giving a correct signal. After the spring update though there is an option to set black levels from standard level, intermediate and extended. Extended is what vga black levels should be at. All of this was found here: http://www.dailytech.com/Xbox+360+Spring+Update+Improves+VGA+Image+Quality/article7216.htm

A direct port of E.T. for the Atari 2600 would be great.