Microsoft is busy announcing a slew of upgrades to Xbox Live, and the biggest news so far is relaunch of the video service, now Zune-branded with 1080p instant-on streaming content in 18 countries. XBL is also now integrated with Facebook -- your Facebook account can be linked to your Gamertag, and games will support Facebook Connect for sharing content online. That's pretty huge -- but if that wasn't enough, you're also getting Twitter and Last.fm in the deal. Want more? Netflix users will now be able to browse the entire catalog instead of simply loading their queue, and Microsoft has also gotten its Party Watch system in order, so you'll be able to heckle videos with your online friends. Last but not least, there's now live TV streaming for UK and Ireland gamers, who'll get Premier League soccer live from Sky. All in all, a solid set of updates for XBL -- but we'll wait and see how that "1080p" video looks before we pronounce Blu-ray dead. PR blurb after the break.

No, it won't get you "true" HDMI, but older 360 owners looking to get rid of those clunky component cables might want to take note: that MadCatz HDMI Conversion Kit is now official. The $90 adapter comes with cables and supports HDMI 1.3, 1080p, Dolby Digital and DTS -- but there's no telling what the VGA-to-HDMI signal conversion will do to your image quality, so you're probably better off doing the eBay shuffle and getting a new 360 with HDMI built-in.

Just over a year after launching the Xbox Live Video Marketplace in the US, Microsoft is finally ready to bring the service to Europe, with Computer and Video Gaming reporting that it'll open for business on December 11. Sadly, it looks like it'll be rental-only, at least at first, with 720p flicks going for 320 MS points (about £3.23, or $6.64) and SD movies for 250 points (about £2.13, or $4.39). Rentals will stick around on your hard drive for 14 days after you download them, but once you hit play they'll delete themselves after 24 hours -- a system which seems needlessly complicated to us, but we'll take what we can get. Peep the full list of titles available at launch after the break.

This certainly isn't the first time we've heard this rumor, but SmartHouse is reporting that Microsoft and Toshiba are working on an updated Xbox 360 with a built-in HD DVD drive. If that were all, we wouldn't bat an eye -- it's gotta happen sometime -- but there are some other, crazier aspects to this version of the rumor that set off some red flags: SmartHouse also claims that the new box will be Toshiba-branded and have dual HDTV tuners, electronic program guide capabilities, built-in wireless networking, and sport an "MP3 player" dock, which we'd imagine would be for a Zune. That's a hell of a box, right there, and while we've seen similar devices like Sony's PSX, they didn't exactly take the world by storm. Our money is still on a simple bump of the existing 360 to HD DVD, but get ready to hear a lot of about this rumor in the weeks to come.

[Via Joystiq]

Not to have the thunder completely stolen by the Apple TV, Orb Networks has announced compatibility for streaming media service with Wii, PS3, and now Xbox 360 console owners. The newly-added 360 support can use the built-in media capabilities of its Windows Media Center Extender, with just the Orb software on the PC end. PS3 and Wii setups stream from a Flash-embedded MyCast site. The Orb streamer only plays well with Vista and XP, and needs a 2.4GHz Pentium 4, AMD 3200+, or higher CPU, as well as Windows Media, Real, or Quicktime Players for the streaming. Content also ends up as Flash video, so that probably nixes any support for high definition, but if you're itching to do some streaming to your console across the house -- or across the globe -- and don't want to wait for or use Apple's solution, then Orb could be the best thing for you.

[Thanks, gibber9583]

In a blow to Xbox 360 owners who aren't using using HDTVs, Capcom has denied requests to release a patch for the recent zombie-survival game, saying it would not be possible due to the scope of the changes required. Many players of the game are complaining that the game's subtitles are almost unreadable on standard definition TVs. While we always advise people upgrade to HD anyway, we're not really sure why Capcom is refusing. Having been around the game and high-def industries for some time, their reasoning really sounds more like a smoky cover-up than a true technical constraint, but what else can players do? 1Up tried to get owners of the game to complain to Capcom and get a resolution from the game's publisher, but to no avail.

[Via Slashdot]

That was quick. We just received word a few days ago that Lite-On was making HD DVD drives but wondered if they were going to receive any OEM orders from big players in the HD DVD camp. They received a order and it sure is from a big player -- Toshiba. The key HD DVD player ordered these units so it can concentrate on producing slim-line HD DVD drives which we assume are for their laptops. Lite-On is expecting the production lines to ramp up to full power by March of '07 so don't expect any of these drives for Christmas this year. Lite-On might also receive another big order from Microsoft to power their Xbox 360 drive but that is still in the speculation category right now.

Anre Vrignaud of Microsoft is the next person to step up and state that 1080p does not make that much of a difference and therefore doesn't matter. He might have a little more bias against 1080p then us or Home Theater Mag when you consider he is the Director of Technical Strategy for Xbox Live. 'Cause you know the Xbox doesn't do 1080p where the PS3 of course will. He does bring up the point that a lot of developers are targeting the 720p range due to the fact that both the Xbox 360 and PS3 have nearly the "same pixel-pushing capabilities." So, he is basically saying that if a developer is looking to release a game on both platforms, they are going to develop it at 720p. He is going as far to say something we already had reported that the PS3 games released this year will not be 1080i/p. Doesn't this kind of sound similar to how Andy Parsons indicated that Blu-ray is built for the future and will take sometime to get the ball rolling.

Microsoft's Xbox.com just added a HD DVD product page on the site. The price? Nope, still not listed. The site is void of any super secret insight, but it does have a few nice images of the drive and the standard marketing information. It is interesting to note that one of the points that this site is trying to make is that people prefer the HD DVD format two to one over Blu-ray. It does seem that way to us and is echoed with the amount of posts created and viewed at AVS Forum. The page also provides 'helpful" links to everyone's favorite Xbox/HD DVD podcast: Major Nelson's. With this site launching, does that mean that we might see the price sometime soon? Oh, we sure hope so.

Nothing real exciting here; at least to most of you. ATI was selected to supply the decoder for the upcoming (hopefully soon) HD DVD drive add-on. The process does involve using the massive video processing power of the XBOX 360 but the decoder is there for H.264 and MPEG-4 AVC media. We wonder if this decision to utilize ATI for the decoder had anything to do with the fact that the Xbox's graphics are powered by ATI hardware.

Well this answers some questions but leaves us wanting more. Lik-Sang has a product page up for a Microsoft branded XBOX 360 HDMI cable. While there isn't any pics of the cable they do have a product description up that matches what a HDMI cable is all about. This makes tons of since now that the XBOX 360 HD DVD player is a reality. What's funny is that we would have thought that the HDMI cable would have been announced before the HD DVD player but there wasn't even any mention of this last week at E3. We still don't know if this is real or not but it looks good.

This is a question that we are visiting a bit these days, well with E3 and all. High definition is great for video and television but is it a necessity for games? IGN has laid out 4 pages outlining their take on the matter. They follow the same line of thought that we have had for sometime and is a great read. Even Nintendo's CEO thinks high-def is good and all, but there are more important things then pretty graphics. (yes, we know the Wii doesn't do high-def so he would say something like that.) If you are even a causal gamer you might want to check this out.

Well, we finally have some details about the Xbox 360 HD DVD player. Joystiq/Engadget has great coverage of the Microsoft press conference and snapped a pic of the PowerPoint slide. First, it looks like it is just an external optical drive that connects via USB. Second, it will be out this year just in time for the holidays. The big thing though that everyone wants to know is still missing; the price. We are hoping that it is around the $150 - $200 range but no one knows for sure yet. We will let you know as soon as the price becomes available.

Check this out: high definition content right from E3! A few gaming sites have this type of content out but it is part of their premium services. It would have been sweet to see these live but that's what we have HD for, right? These are all torrents so you will need a torrent manager like uTorrent in order to download them. Judging by the size of 'em they don't seem like they would be to long but any high-def is better then no high-def.

Let us know what you think. Are these PS3 game clips dramatically better then the 360s?

[via Digg]

That's what a few French websites are reporting, apparently stated by Sony Europe boss George Fornay in a radio interview. That would convert to roughly $613 American dollars and make the PS3 the most expensive videogame console out by quite a bit. He apparently confirmed that the Playstation was delayed to work out Blu-ray copy protection issues (that we still haven't seen a final design for the controller, system or a finished game does not appear to have been a contributing factor), and that it should launch in the range of 499 to 599 euros. He justified the high price by saying it was cheap for a platform capable of reading Blu-ray discs.

With no confirmation or official announcement from Sony U.S. or Japan this is still in rumor territory, but its a little late for an April Fools. Their main competitor, the Xbox 360 Premium system, launched at 399 euros. Well, I guess we'll ask you again, is around $600 your price for PS3 Blu-ray? Personally, I'm not buying one until they announce a Bob Ross videogame.

Previous Playstation 3 price news:

• Playstation 3: Coming to North America (and the world) in 2006
• Playstation 3 price rumors: $599 for Blu-ray movies?