360 and HD

So I have been reading up a little and I hear some ps3 owners claiming the 360 does not play games in true HD? how could that be since when does a game require blu-ray or hd-dvd to play at high res? i mean look at pc games...also the fact that the 360 does not use HDMI, does that effect it at all in playing back HD movies that say you buy online or play through the hd-dvd player?

Well its simple , PS3 owners have to give there system an edge because they just spent $600+ for a basic paperwieght.
both the PS3 and the 360 play games in high def be it in 720p or 1080i However the ps3 does have like 2 games that are 1080p, but the 360 has most of its games at 1080i and ps3 has most of its at 720p. So what looks better i tend to go with 720p. As far as movies If you have the add on hd-dvd player and vga cable you get 1080p from the 360 . The problem is in the tv's "most" tv's with vga input dont accept 1080p , more like 1024x768 or slightly higher. And actually the only tv that i can think of that supports it is the older pioneer elites. Westinghouse supports it but there not tv's they are monitors that can be used as tvs. the ps3 needs hdmi to view 1080p.

So its simple the ps3 is junk as a gaming system, good as a hd video player, crappy as a sd video player
the 360 is a good gaming system, ok as a hd video player, and decent as sd video player, great player if you can use the vga to upconvert.
Oh just as a side note for a great upconverting dvd player get an orignal x-box modded, and use the hd-conponent cables

Also to let you know where i am coming from i have both systems and a 50" 1080p TV (over hdmi) and been comparing both systems with all different cables and setups and games. I have about 10 blue ray and 7 hd-dvd's.

On the 1080p over component I am not 100% sure but i think if the tv supports it, the 360 can display it. I kind of remember setting up component to rca for my 24" sony crt and being able to get 1080p, I may be mistaken though

no but i was looking some stuff up and found from a good source on avs forum. he is a well known soucre from MSFt

"current Xbox 360 units will have a spring (console) update which adds support for different video levels for VGA output ("7.5 IRE vs 0" ). And as someone mentioned, using this setting you should be able to use computer monitors in addition to TVs with resolutions all the way up to 1080p with high fidelity and no issues with HDCP handshaking. So for current users, I highly recommend trying this update with your VGA connection to see if it does the job for you. Note that this is a console update and will work for both games and of course, HD DVD. The HD DVD software update is separate from this (and will be available on both Xbox Live and xbox.com)".

Yea but the guy making these statements is usually right on the money, And actually i think he works for them so it can be hype but doubt it. If you look at mjrnelson's blog he says sort of the same thing.