|
 |
 |
|
|
 |
05 Jan 2006 07:19 | Dusty | Xbox 360 Xbox360News.com | Link to this article 
Just a month after the global launch of the new Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, Gates discussed the product's strong momentum in delivering high-definition hardware, games and digital entertainment experiences. Xbox 360 is on track to be the fastest-selling video game console ever, forecast to ship between 4.5 million and 5.5 million units worldwide by the end of June 2006.
Gates noted that Xbox 360 has also become a powerful application for high-definition television, adding that nine out of 10 Xbox 360 owners currently own or intend to purchase a high-definition television set.* He announced that more than 50 new high-definition Xbox 360 games will be available by June 2006. Building on Xbox 360 leadership in high-definition experiences, the company announced plans to deliver a new Xbox 360 external HD DVD drive in 2006. The new drive will offer millions of Xbox 360 owners the ability to easily enjoy HD DVD movies and will provide consumers with even more choices for experiencing high-definition content, in either physical or digital form. Using Xbox 360 and the Xbox Live service today, consumers are already able to access high-definition entertainment such as Xbox Live Arcade titles, game demos and high-definition movie trailers. Consumers can also use their Xbox 360 system to access high-definition television and movies from their Windows XP-based Media Center PC. Gates' keynote also showcased the momentum behind Xbox Live, announcing that more than half of all Xbox 360 owners are already connected to the online games and entertainment service, which boasts a worldwide community of more than 2 million members. He demonstrated Electronic Arts Inc.'s forthcoming EA SPORTSTM "Fight Night Round 3," scheduled to be available in February 2006, and announced that a free, playable high-definition demo of the game is now available at the Xbox Live Marketplace, a one-stop digital download center where consumers can access high-definition games, music and movie content from leading industry partners. Add Comment  1 -
Unregistered - rob 01.05.2006 07:31 i think this is a good move, (and no, i am not a retard). if blu ray kills hd dvd then ppl will not buy the drive if blu fails what will gs3 owners do? the blu ray drive is in the damn thing. now ppl who do not want hd dvd do not have to buy it. 2 -
Good move..Unregistered - Capt CHAOS 01.05.2006 07:38 my MS, those who don't want HDDVD don't have to buy it, keeping the cost of the console low. I can now wait and see and buy my HDDVD drive when and if I need it. 3 -
Unregistered - 01.05.2006 07:52 Only half?!?!? of 360 owners are members of Live? Man, people are lazy, considering most of the systems were sold with free silver memberships. 4 -
Unregistered - 01.05.2006 07:53 Not sure why one would opt for a connectable external HDDVD player rather than a standalone. 5 -
Unregistered - a tua mae 01.05.2006 08:05 for 3# lazy ???? only who got net can acess to live 6 -
JsonHenry 01.05.2006 08:16 Any word on how much this will cost? Because I would rather just get a seperate HD-DVD player if it costs more than $100. 7 -
its okUnregistered - me 01.05.2006 08:21 I've been thinking about the standalone vs. xbox external drive issue and I think I'd rather have the attachment for the 360 cause itll give me access to my friends list, one less thing to hook to my already overloaded HD and audio inputs, and one less remote. 8 -
Islandkiwi 01.05.2006 08:23 I would imagine an attached unit would be smaller and would match my 360, so I would be interested in it. 9 -
SameMotojass 01.05.2006 08:41 I think I would buy it to...You would also have the ability(if even needed) to have larger games on the 360. It's nice that it's an option so your not stuck with something you may not need or want. MS is playing cards now and with two aces in their hand. 10 -
Why Not BeforeUnregistered - Chronicalkilla 01.05.2006 08:46 i dont know why Microsoft didnt just include it in the first place. it would have made thing alot easier. im not a big fan of external drives and anyone who knows computers would say the same. for example an internal DVD burner would be alot better and faster then external going though USB. i dont think that was a good decision after 1 month or so of the consol being out. i was kinda hoping microsoft would include it in the Xbox but i guess not. looks like im getting my 360 alot sooner then i thought. 11 -
when r hd dvds coming outMonty187 01.05.2006 08:53 when are the hd dvds themselves gonna be out? also they obviously aint gonna bring games out on hd or only some could play em! 12 -
Remember Sega CD??????Unregistered - Lumpy 01.05.2006 09:00 Yea neither does anyone else. This is a weak move if they do this it needs to be an internal drive. The can recall mine and put the HD-DVD drive in if they wish but I am not buying another overprice external component. Bill Gates Sucks 13 -
Price?Unregistered - Jonga 01.05.2006 09:13 This thing will be a rip-off. I don't see it selling for under $200. Just look at the wireless adapter. $100 for a wireless card when you can go to any electronic store and get a wireless card for $30-$60. I probably won't get it because the games won't be taking advantage of it. 14 -
OMGUnregistered - OMG 01.05.2006 09:16 Have you seen the prices on BLUE RAY? 1,999-3,999 and they are huge, Funk that ill stick with what i got. 15 -
Unregistered - yay 01.05.2006 09:17 yes this is good news, that is a smart move to make it external instead of implimenting it, now i dont hafta buy a new 360 yes!!!!!!!!! 16 -
Microsoft should do a dual driveUnregistered - Bobby Brown 01.05.2006 09:57 I think it's a great idea the MS are making an HD-DVD drive. The only problem being that not as many film companies are with the HD camp as there are on the Blu-Ray side. I heard Samsung were going to make a dual drive that reads both formats. MS should try a get hold of that for the 360. Then that would really extinguish the flame on the PS3 17 -
opinionUnregistered - majinn buu 01.05.2006 10:03 thanks for the opton microsoft as i am not very interested in a new movie format as i have many dvd's which i find quite expensive and doubt that hd movies will be that much better.. plus if the few blue ray players available are anything to go by hd movies and players will be alot more expensive than the dvd format (i wonder how much ps3 will cost as why would you support sonys format when they are going to offer play of there format in a product alot cheaper than your standalone player ?) I HAVE NO PROBLEM CHANGING DISC EVERY 10 HRS OF PLAY OR HAVING A SEPERATE MULTIPLAYER DISC.. PLUS A 4 DVD 360 GAME WILL STILL BE CHEAPER THAN A BLUE RAY GAME. OH AND THERE WILL PROBABLY BE 3RD PARTY HD-DVD DRIVES FOR 360 WHICH WILL DRIVE OWN THE PRICE FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED. 18 -
Good option for movies and gamesUnregistered - Matt 01.05.2006 10:11 Some game makers have already stated they will be releasing games on multiple DVDs, the HD-DVD external allows them to release the game in two formats, DVD and HD-DVD. Similar to days of old when you had to choose software on floppy or CD. People should be able to deal... and the consumer wins. 19 -
Unregistered - Surprised 01.05.2006 10:18 The whole timing of the HD DVD vs. Blu Ray war couldn't have been worse. I'm sure MSFT would have been happy to release the 360 with HD DVD, but the decision to go forward with HD hadn't been made yet by the time of the announcment of the 360. And with their decision to release the 360 during the holiday season, there's no way they could have aligned the two times together. They had to beat Sony out of the starting gate, but didn't even market it right in Japan, so that's two huge mistakes. I must say, though, there may be some good with the optional external HD DVD drive as it gives the consumer more flexibility on how much they want to spend (unlike the premium vs. core bundle, which really didn't differentiate between two different markets, b/c there was only one market anyway). 20 -
Good move Microsoft.omegaheat 01.05.2006 10:43 Thank Microsoft for keeping the system flexible. No one wants to be forced to buy into a medium that the average consumer knows nothing about and at this time doesn't even care. Let Sony take that loss on their own. This gives the system high potential for a price drop in the near future. 21 -
squeamoz 01.05.2006 11:33 wow. i would rather have a bunch of disks and have to change them once in a while. but it would be nice to have an HD-DVD player. i dont want to go spending a bunche just to get better quality on my movies, but if it is for games to it might be worth it. i also think it would be smart for them to make sure its not over $100. it just wont sell at that price. 22 -
CoolUnregistered - hs 01.05.2006 12:19 One benefit of having two drives *could* mean that you could play music cd, dvd or hd dvd at the same time you are playing a game (for video, think Picture-In-Picture) 23 -
PicUnregistered - Max 01.05.2006 13:05 My idea of what they might do: http://img322.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xboxhddvd9xo.gif 24 -
Unregistered - kinglion 01.05.2006 13:37 There r three main reseasons the hddvd may not be usefull for all 360 owners 1) If you do happen to own a hdtv it probably can't display content in 1080p unless you own a new hdtv that has true 1920x 1080 resolution (1080p)and most people don't because a cheap 1080p tv cost around $3500 2)If you happen to own a regular hdtv only (half of 360 ownners do)there r no connections availible for real hi-def resolution like DVI or HDMI. 3)last (if u plan on using it to watch movies ) there is evidence that film transferred to video using current technology may not be capable of producing ture 1920 x 1080 resolution I myself will be getting the HD_DVD drive and sony's new SXRD which is the best 1080p tv on the market as of now ($5000 for 60-in &4000 for 50-in) I hope you all feel like burning a hole in your pocket for games, I do. 25 -
Unregistered - PAUL CERULA 01.05.2006 14:19 Great move....but has it's small consiquences of course. PROS 1. If HD-DVD wins format war quess who has the option to watch HD movies and ps3 consumers have to buy their own. 2. MS isn't directly relying on HD-DVD drive to come through in the format war so it's an additional option. DVD-9 games will be used most likely until the next Xbox comes out. Than MS chooses which format won and runs with it. 3. Could you use HD-DVD format for games a couple years later. 4. IF HD-DVD gets beat by blu-ray than excluding the drive and sticking with DVD was a good idea. CONS 1. Confuse consumers...those who really don't understand it 2. HD-DVD games in the future if implemented would probably have to use a USB 2.0. This would slow some things like load time. 3. If HD-DVD wins against blu-ray than the drive should of been put in the xbox 360 in the first place. 26 -
GamesUnregistered - Tha L 01.05.2006 15:15 Will u beable to play hd-dvd games ???? cuss if u cant this doesnt seem to be that much of great news. 27 -
Unregistered - Evan 01.05.2006 15:27 Great move for microsoft.. but is it really I mean come on... who here is really going to buy a external rom drive just to play hd movies.. unless u got the money to waste. 28 -
USB wont be the bottleneckUnregistered - Sidherich 01.05.2006 15:41 those USB ports on the XBOX 360 are USB 2.0 standard which can transfer 480mb per second. If you put an uncompressed 1080p movie clip thru USB (which is insane) you would have the following math (i assume that you use 24 bit color depth and 60hz) 1920 x 1080 x 3 (24 bit / 8) x 60 = 373248000 B/s which is about 355 MB/s. As i said thats completely insane because no Storage Device can read that amount of data. Fastest HD is about 100MB/s AFAIK. Long Story short: USB wont slow the device down in any way. I actually think that its a smart move to keep optional features ... well, "optional". And personally i would think it would be very frightening to see a game that would actually fill more than 2 DVD's with usefull data. The only things that could fill those HD-DVD's are spoken dialog and prerendered FMV cutscenes. 29 -
Unregistered - Sidherich 01.05.2006 15:45 Ok i have to correct myself. Used a faulty source for the USB 2.0 Speed... its 480MBits (60MBytes) not 480MBytes. But i still think that its faster than the actual HD-DVD Drive speed 30 -
Haha, nice move, NOTUnregistered - Jakk 01.05.2006 16:12 Well, lets take it again. This is not a good move. First, you buy this console whit the best online system ever for 4000$, but it cant play next generation movies. Youll need an extra accessori, an external HD-DVD player which goes through the Usb. Nice...NOT..but thats not all. To be able to playing next-generation movies, the next-generation movies will be added whit HDCP ( High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection ), HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is a specification (http://www.digital-cp.com/data/HDCPSpecificationRev1_1.pdf) developed by Intel Corporation to "protect" digital audio and video content as it travels across Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connections. The HDCP specification is proprietary and implementation of HDCP requires a license. It is a form of Digital rights management. So, you need now DVI and HDMI....but wait....the Xbox 360 dosent support ether HDMI or the DVI... so what did MS said? HD-ERA?? yeah right 31 -
Unregistered - Alex 01.05.2006 16:23 One thing about a lot of these posts saying MS can choose later which format to support and get the Samsung drive that supports Blu-Ray and HD-DVD... etc... I doubt they can do that because Blu-Ray belongs to Sony and it has exclusive rigths and thatll be the last thing theyll let MS use. 32 -
Don't know about that #31Unregistered - Jonga 01.05.2006 16:53 I don't think it works like that #31. I think Sony just licenses it out to other companies who pay Sony a royalty or something for everyone they sell? I don't know how it really works, but by your logic there would only be one company that makes cd players because they came up with it. 33 -
Unregistered - bub 01.05.2006 17:57 HOW WILL THE HD-DVD GAMES WORK WITH AN USB 2.0 Hold backs or not 34 -
Unregistered - Mike 01.05.2006 18:05 *** EXCELLENT MOVE ON MICROSOFTS PART *** WHY?? Simple, because if it was build into the 360 the price would have been higher. And people like myself who have "NO DESIRE" for it, would have payed more for something they didn't want. But now if someone wants it, then they have the option to spend the cash and buy it as a add-on. VERY SMART M$ ........ very smart indeed. 35 -
HVD Rules!Unregistered - moe MICE ter 01.05.2006 19:02 They should have chose HVD (Holographic Versatile Disc) wich is coming out in June 2006 by Optware & Fuji. It is much better than HD DVD and Blue Ray. It can hold up to 3.9TBs in the future, but for now, up to 200 GB. Check this out for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc 36 -
TO #35 HVDUnregistered - HVD, ya right maybe in 5-8 years 01.05.2006 19:54 You got 15,000 bucks to to blow on a Player? The disks alone cost 120 bucks. did you even read the whole artical? 37 -
Whats the point?Unregistered - Zipperdog 01.05.2006 20:14 Why get an external drive. Just to watch movies? how many of you use your xbox or ps2 to watch movies now. How many games curent games actully use more then one DVD disk? Don't you think MS is going to incorporate an internal HD-DVD with in the next year or year and a half. It would certanly be cheaper then an external one. Doing this now seems like a half assed after thought on MS's part. but, what the hay, i could be wrong. 38 -
Great moveUnregistered - Daniel 01.05.2006 21:03 This was a great move by Microsoft because you might not need a HD DVD so you would't want to spend extra cash on your System. But if you need it, it will probably cost under 100$. 39 -
HD DVD rocksUnregistered - Daniel 01.05.2006 21:14 HD DVD is alot cheaper and better than Blue ray. 40 -
Unregistered - Sage 01.05.2006 21:20 PS3 devkits come w/ DVD players, not blu-ray ones .. the blu-ray presses are so few .. and they they will be so busy w/ movies (if blu-ray catches) .. that no game softhouse will even bother to work w/ blu-ray .. maibe in 4 or 5 years .. but as far as that? ... who knows? internet distribuition will own our asses .. that a fact. 41 -
question.Unregistered - majinn buu 01.06.2006 02:12 1. has sony said that ps3 supports blue-ray as a rom format to store games ? 2. 360 has i think an 8x dvd drive... how much data can it send per second... and how do hd-dvd and blue-ray compare ? (as having loads of data is poo if it takes longer to send the data !) ? 3. if a new dvd is $20.00 how much will hd movies be ? (as i think dvd is too expensive !) 4. my dvd's look great on my hd tv through my scaling, progressive scan dvd player ! will hd movies really look that much better ?( it scales dvds to 720p !) 42 -
#41Unregistered - Sidherich 01.06.2006 04:15 360 has a 12x DVD drive which seems to have a theoretical read speed of 16.62MByte/s (132.96 MBit/s). HD-DVD has a few benefits over DVD. Interactive Layer and such. Graphically it depends on your TV Set if you can see a huge difference between upscaled DVD and HD-DVD. Scaling an image will almost always make it blurry. With downscaling you can help yourself with a Sharpening-Filter but for upscaling it wont help adding a Sharpening-Filter. If your TV Set is blurry on its own then you wouldnt see that much of a difference. If you compare a upscaled 480p picture with a true 1080p picture you will definetely notice a difference. 43 -
#33Unregistered - Sidherich 01.06.2006 04:27 Its not planned to execute games at this point. but theoretically its very possible to do so. internally it would be accessed just like a normal DVD drive. The fact that its plugged in via USB is transparent to the OS. The only thing that would maybe prevent running games over this USB connection could be the copy protection. who prevents the user from adding a small device between XBOX USB port and the DVD drive that will fake the media description? like telling the xbox that all DVD-R's are in fact real XBOX DVD's. But to back this statement up we dont know enough about the copy protection of the actual console ATM. 44 -
#41...Unregistered - 01.06.2006 07:58 A new DVD is $20? Where do you shop? Try this. http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=13 My collection of 400 DVDs has an average DVD price of $7.50 or so, shipped, new, factory sealed. 45 -
Good MoveUnregistered - Josh 01.06.2006 14:37 The USB 2.0 port will not bottle neck the transfer speeds of the HD-DVD player, as it cannot transfer data faster than 480Mbps (Mbps = Megabits per second, MBps MegaBytes per second). Just because there are no DVI or HDMI interface outputs for the Xbox 360 now doesn't mean they can't make another cord with a different end on it for the future. It would be entirely possible to upgrade a cord for fifty dollars to get 1080p support with true resolution. The fact that they are releasing an HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360 also does not mean you have an inferior product. The only real advantage to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray over DVD is larger storage space, thus allowing larger, more complex HD media files. You can achieve the same thing by splitting those same files over more than one disk, however, American laziness makes us want one disc, and one disc only. The HVD will eventually wipe out both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, possibly before the format war is over. It just needs to cost less to produce, and as more technology develops and if they can release the 3.9TB disks for under 100 each, then they could control the media market for a long time considering it would cost well over one thousand dollars to get 3.9TB of hard drives. Microsoft made the best move, allowing a cheaper than stand alone player alternative for Xbox 360 owners when HD-DVD medium becomes available, and to allow HD-DVD edition games to be released along with multi-dvd editions of the same game. This is the same as the current gen on PC games. Games are now realeased on a single DVD or mulitiple CDs, the same fashion as it would be for the Xbox 360 and games needing more than 9.4GB of space available on a dual layer DVD. 46 -
PAUL CERULA 01.06.2006 23:00 #45, is quite right. The external HD-DVD drive could easily handle the mass information on HD-dvd games with the USB 2.0. The only reason why the games may not work would be because of how the xbox 360 is formated to accept that information. So far I'm pretty sure on my 360 the USB only goes to the dashboard and not the actual 360 board. So perhaps in the future the drive would be shipped with a CD-rom to download to the hard drive that would re-route that process. No one can really tell you either way but I'm sure this issue will quickly be leaked from Xbox 360 developers and engineers working with the 360. 47 -
AhUnregistered - Zak 01.07.2006 05:17 It's such a breath of fresh air to see people discussing things like people, not juvenile teenagers. I love seeing people congregate peacefully, actually voicing opinions and taking other opinions into consideration, without needlessly blasting others. 48 -
to #46Unregistered - Capt CHAOS 01.08.2006 08:45 Aye to that, Shame the PS3 is going to trample all over the sh1tey nightly Xfrock 360, And to ell with all the HDDVD, cos it sucks, My nan told me that the next format was going to be paper tape and even that's better than HDDVD. But, I just jest. :-} A happy 360 owner, looking forward to HDDVD and a 65" Plasma (2007?) 49 -
PAUL CERULA 01.08.2006 22:47 Yeahhhh, your nan??? We can trust your word. Unfortunately the problem with ps3 fanboys like #48 is that they don't accept facts and truth that downplay the hype they believe about their system. I'm not anybody's fanboy...I'm exposing the truth about the ps3. Yes the ps3 will probably be slightly better and we'll see that extra performance in the last couple of years before the ps4 and xbox whatever. LISTEN TO THE DEVELOPERS AND NOT THE HYPE AND STATS 50 -
yeah manUnregistered - thatgey 01.08.2006 22:49 first component cables and HDMI cables display exactly the same thing. I have watched HD tv in 1080i on both and theres not a noticable difference. second, if you have a TV that can display 1080p then your not getting much use of it right now. there isnt any available programming that is broadcasted in that ratio. besides the difference between 1080i and 1080p will not be as big of a jump as 720p to 1080i. HD-DVD will more than likely use 1080p, 1080i and 720p to display HD, because they wont abandon all those people who have 1080i and 720p and not 1080p. 1080i HD television is great there is a noticable difference from regular which is often 480i or 480p. To tell all you have to do is change the channel. Most cable providers only have about a dozen real HD channels. your box usually has the option of converting the image. Since I use the HDMI connection the only aspect ratio's i can output are 720p and 1080i. meaning those crappy channels that are in 480p are going to be upscaled, and they arent going to look anywhere near as good.HDMI wont display anything less than 720p &1080i so you have no choice.Some people do not no what they are talking about so be carefull what you read. do research before you buy. or you will waste money 51 -
Unregistered - chris 01.09.2006 05:01 well said 52 -
Unregistered - I 01.20.2006 17:02 Hey # 50 What? Add Comment |
|
 |
|
Privacy
Statement
|
Advertise With Us
|
Xbox
360 News is in no way affiliated with Microsoft Corp. All content/trademarks
are owned by their respective owners. ©Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved Xbox360News.com |
