New Xbox 360

My faithful Xbox 360 has crapped out on me. More accurately, its DVD-ROM drive failed.

There are various sites on the internet that mention how to fix the DVD-ROM drive, as well as replace an old one. The problem is that most of the replacements require a windows PC (which I don't have), and re-flashing of the drive's firmware. While not hard to do, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

So, I got a new Xbox 360 (arcade), and then moved the hard drive from my old one to the new one. I'm worried that some of my purchased content won't work due to DRM; I haven't had a chance to check that out yet... I'll be most upset should I find my purchased content stops working on the new xbox.

One thing really struck me about the new Xbox 360: It is much quieter. The difference is easily 20 dB, possibly more. The new one is unbelievably quiet. It's amazing what a die shrink can do.

I'm still deciding if I want to use HDMI or component out - HDMI wasn't an option with the old one, but the newer Xbox 360's have HDMI. I honestly don't see much difference either way; given I have a LCD screen, it's no real difference between 1080p and 1080i.