Microsoft Shows Off 360 HD-DVD Drive 124
C|Net is reporting on a demo Microsoft put on, showing off their HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360. The unit, which is expected out for the Christmas season, is an external add-on for the company's next-gen console. From the article: "The device--about the size of a hardback book--played "The Phantom of the Opera" as Collins pulled up a menu bar to display a few of its navigation and interactive features that can be called up on screen while a movie is playing. Collins said Microsoft's HD DVD drive will be among the least expensive of the HD DVD players, but he declined to disclose the drive's retail price."
*Applause* (Score:5, Insightful)
Kudos to MS I say, for giving consumers the choice. I for one can't care less about HD DVD, but I love my Xbox360, and I'm glad I didn't have to buy into some newfangled (and overrated) format that I would never use.
If I ever DO get an HDTV though, this might be a nice addon...
Re:*Applause* (Score:5, Informative)
However, maybe some devs will make alternative HD-DVD versions of some multi-DVD games. Switching discs mid-game is sooo Dreamcast. I don't think 360 owners will have to worry much about HD-DVD exclusive titles though. Sony is making a lower-tier PS3 as well and both companies have to be careful about alienating ground-level adopters.
There is no lower-tier PS3 (Score:1)
As a game or movie player, the base PS3 offers the same features as the $600 UHME. The only thing removed that anyone might care about is the HDMI port, but that is not needed to play games or watch movies in hi-def.
Thinking about it purley in terms of acpibilities, what is there that sony would do to take adv
Re:There is no lower-tier PS3 (Score:1, Insightful)
Everyone gets it. You can buy the low-end PS3 for 500$. You don't need to spend 600$ for the "full" version.
Guess what?
500$ IS STILL A FUCKTON OF MONEY!
Hell 400$ is still way too much for a game console!
Re:There is no lower-tier PS3 (Score:1)
Re:There is no lower-tier PS3 (Score:1)
Re:There is no lower-tier PS3 (Score:3, Insightful)
Only assume what Sony has ssaid (Score:2)
Re:*Applause* (Score:1, Informative)
The HD-DVD drive for the X360 will have ZERO effect on gaming on the system. It will be a video player only. There will be no fragmenting of the X360 audience beyond whether or not you have a hard drive. This has been mentioned by Microsoft several times including at a recent Publisher event (MS Vision) held up in Seattle a couple weeks ago.
That is all.
Re:*Applause* (Score:2)
I don't think it really rely's on how many movies there are but how long they are. Just 6 minutes for a 12 fighter game is 72 minutes worth of HD video, I tried converting a couple things into the true HD standard with one of the codecs, for about 10 minutes worth of video the outputted file was over 500mb so even though they are dual layer dvd's they
Re:*Applause* (Score:2, Interesting)
If you know what you're doing, using H.264 it's quite possible to get 25 minutes of 720p video down to around 250mb without it looking too bad at all. Certainly you need a reasonable machine to play that back,
Re:*Applause* (Score:2, Funny)
Re:*Applause* (Score:3, Informative)
This has already been done. You can buy a version of Terminator 2 that comes with an HD
Re:*Applause* (Score:3, Informative)
Re:*Applause* (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe Microsoft has already stated that the HD-DVD drive will be used for movies only, though that's as subject to change as anything else in this world.
I'd love to play Lord of the Rings or Madden with HD cut scenes.
I would hate that.
It's already jarring enough on a title like LotR for PS2 when the graphics cut from DVD-Video cinematic cutscene to realtime rendered polygons. Making the cutscenes look even better would only make the in-game graphics look worse in comparison.
Re:*Applause* (Score:1, Informative)
Re:*Applause* (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:*Applause* (Score:3, Informative)
I couldn't find any dual layer HD-DVD media for sale.
Re:*Applause* (Score:1)
Sidenote: Just picked up NCAA '07 (usually just get Madden), and after running the option I don't know if I can ever go back to Madden.
Re:*Applause* (Score:2, Funny)
It's nice to see an opinion from a non-gamer on slashdot!
Re:*Applause* (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:*Applause* (Score:2)
Re:*Applause* (Score:1)
Hrm (Score:1)
Second - i think i'm just going to hold off till the hd-dvd is built in before bothering with the 360.
Re:Hrm (Score:2)
Re:Hrm (Score:1)
*shrug*
Re:Hrm (Score:2)
Re:Hrm (Score:2)
Re:Hrm (Score:1)
Re:Hrm (Score:1)
Layne
Re:Hrm (Score:1)
Re:Hrm (Score:2)
OK, that's you, maybe a few of your friends... but really, how many people are actually that interested in HD movies? Sony seems to believe they'll fly off the shelves ("Just like UMDs!"), but the only possibility for Microsoft to do what you suggest is if there's palpable demand for something like that, and I'm just not seeing it.
By definition, (people who will buy HD movies) = (people who own HDTVs), a
Cheapest HD-DVD player (Score:2)
* Xbox 360 not included.
Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player (Score:2)
Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously though, unless the addon is less than $200, (which it almost cirtainly won't be), Microsoft is going to loose their ability to knock the PS3 as being overpriced. I understand its nice to give gamers the choice, but if you actaully want an Hi Def DVD player (I do, and I don't think I'm alone), the PS3 will actaully look like a really good deal in comparison to the 360+HD-DVD.
Who knew I'd ever use the words "PS3" and "good deal" in the same sentence?
And that's not to mention all the other superi
Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player (Score:2)
This still leaves a big window seeing as they haven't said WHICH version of the 360 ($300 or $400) or WHICH version of the PS3 ($500 or $600) so it prices the drive anywhere between $100 and $300... If you want to tack on the "cheapest HD-DVD player on the market" comment (current cheapest is $500) and consider you'd have to buy an Xbox 360
Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player (Score:3, Insightful)
HD isn't the "high end" market; HD is the "dumbass sheep who don't realize they're being screwed by DRM" market.
Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player (Score:2)
Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player (Score:2)
So making a direct comparison is not entirely accurate. For instance, I bought a new computer last January for about $800. I would expect that in January 2007, my $800 will buy me a computer with better specs. That's the way technology goes.
HD-DVD wasn't available last November. Personally, I'm glad that Microsoft didn't wait- I've already gotten quite
Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player (Score:2)
Well, unlike with the VHS to DVD transition, you can (and almost certainly will) have one player that can handle both DVDs and either HD-DVDs or Blu-Ray discs (or both, at least in some consumer players). Your DVD collection will continue to work just fine for the forseeable future, and you can still buy new movies in a hi-def format. Maybe you don't care - however, I do, and the PS3 does pique my interest. Thus far, I've not
Re:Cheapest HD-DVD player (Score:2)
It means that I have the choice between buying
Price point (Score:5, Interesting)
Being that all the movie processing is done thru the Xbox, the manufacturing has to be fairly cheap with a lot less hardware. And since HD-DVD players can be had at $500 today, I'm guessing a $200 price point. Take in mind MS would NOT want to sell their console and an aftermarket HD player that would cost MORE than a PS3 that has similar capabilities.
Props to MS if they sell the player under $200. Otherwise they're inviting the HD addicts who haven't bought next gen to purcahse the PS3 to get a "better" deal.
Re:Price point (Score:3, Insightful)
With the limited number of titles out there in *either* format, I'm not picking up either an HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray player until the dust settles and someone "wins" the format.
Re:Price point (Score:2, Insightful)
That's still millions of Blu-ray players out there, vs. how many HD-DVD players?
I'm not saying by a long shot that the format war is essentially over and Blu-ray won, but at this point I have
Re:Price point (Score:1)
Re:Price point (Score:2, Interesting)
If I own an Xbox and a PS3 and I have an HD TV and I want to test out the "next-gen" video format, do you really think there's a greater than zero percent chance that I'll end up renting/buying an HD DVD video instead of using the Blu-ray player I
Re:Price point (Score:1)
I like your point, and I agree with your conclusion that Sony went about this the best way that it can. That said, I think the numbers you are using are not enough to guarantee even tepid success for Blu-ray. My reasoning? The PSP. Sony has sold in the high-single-digit-mill
Re:Price point (Score:1)
Re:Price point (Score:1)
The difference in my mind is whether or not studios are licking their chops for the next video format so we can re-purchase our movie collections (Blu-ray or HD DVD, I'm sure they don't care), vs. supporting a video format with a limited market. I'm not sure that HD video is ready to take over the world, personally, but I would be surprised to see it fail completely in either flavor. In other words, it seems t
Re:Price point (Score:2)
UMDs are *only* playable on the PSP. And as a bonus - you can't watch the video from your PSP on a TV.
This is a whole different ballgame from Blu-Ray - where PS3 is a major upcoming player, but far from the only one. And you can watch Blu-Ray discs on any TV. It's not locked to a handheld only device. Keep in mind, I own - and like - the PSP (I even have a 4 GB Memory Stick Duo for it
Re:Price point (Score:2)
An extra external drive will probably be seen negatively by most people. MS is really only selling this external drive to keep their current installed base from yelling too much when they put the drive in to t
Re:Price point (Score:2)
I'm not too familiar with the internals of the XBox 360 hardware, but I do know that the A/V port on it is incompatible with that on the original XBox, and I assume there's a good reason for this.
It's possible (though entirely speculative) that the 360's GPU may be capable of outputting a digital signal which could interface with HDMI equipment.
Re:Price point (Score:1)
Re:Price point (Score:1)
Anything over $200 and the PS3 looks like a good deal.
$200 is a fair deal.
$150 is a great deal.
If they manage to squeeze HDDVD into the 360 for $399 USD, there is really no reason for Sony to make video game systems anymore.
I Wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
I've read that the drive only does the reading, all the processing takes place in the 360. That's kind of interesting. However, I read a comment some where that I'd like to reprint (paraphrased or so):
I wonder if they will let you play games with it?
Now they've said "no games on HD-DVD" (which frankly I expect them to change in a few years). But what about normal XBox games in there? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to put one game in the 360 (like Dead Rising) and another in the HD-DVD drive (like PGR3)? Then you could choose either one when the console starts up. I'd love to be able to do that with my PS2 and Guitar Hero. It would save me quite a bit of disc swapping.
And there is no technical reason they couldn't.
Re:I Wonder (Score:2, Insightful)
But yes that's how a drive typically works. Its usually done by software or the CPU. Compared to a player where its dedicated hardware doing the work (which is much more efficient).
Re:I Wonder (Score:1)
Re:I Wonder (Score:1)
I think the only issue with that is HD-DVD is blue laser and not backwards compatible with DVD without adding a red laser to the drive. My guess is that one of the ways they will cut costs to undercut other HD-DVD players is to leave out the red laser.
Of course, I know nothing, but that's my guess...
Re:I Wonder (Score:1)
Will Microsoft tell them no?
they will say "use more disks" Just like sony did (Score:1)
Integrate the drive already! (Score:2)
Re:Integrate the drive already! (Score:1)
Really? (Score:3, Insightful)
Funny, when Sony does that exact thing people say no-one will want to buy it.
Guess they were wrong.
Re:Really? (Score:2)
If you want a 360 to play games, it's $300 - every 360 game works on the $300 core system. If you want to play PS3 games, even if you don't care about playing movies or anything else, it's a minimum of $500.
Most people didn't even buy a PS2 for $300 - they waited for the $200 unit. Expecting gamers to pay $500 is a bit excessive.
Fakery (Score:2)
Oh right, I'm sure there's a single 360 owner on the planet without a HD - which you need to play a pretty large library of XBox titles. Your estimate leaves off a crucial component needed to play many games on the system, whereas my dropping HDMI has no impact on a GAMER.
Did I mention the $500 PS3 plays PS2 and PS1 titles? So for a fair comparison you need to add the missing component that allows you to play older
Re:Fakery (Score:2)
I'm sure there's a single 360 owner on the planet without a HD - which you need to play a pretty large library of XBox titles
That would be all of two games, Football Manager 06 and Final Fantasy 11. Or, roughly the same number of games that required an HDD on a PS2. The other games can use an HDD if it's there, but don't require it. Oh, and it's an option - you only have to buy it if you feel a need for it, and when you do, it's identical to the premium model.
Compare this to the Sony approach: "If you
Re:Fakery (Score:2)
Then you're not a fan, you're just afraid to make the wrong choice. Since it is obvious which choice will succeeed in the end, I don't quite understand the fear myself but cannot fault you for it.
Your PS3 promotion and Zonk rebuttals have been looking a bit strained lately. Even your spelling is suffering, I've noticed - is it all getting a bit on y
"Every game works on the core system" --- Nope (Score:2)
Given 1 is the best selling game in the UK every year since anyone can remember, that's quite important.
Re:Really? (Score:2)
Sony has a $299 model that doesn't come with Blu-Ray?
Re:Really? (Score:2)
Xbox 360 Ultimate at $499 is an HD-DVD player (yea, I own a $4000 HDTV) and a great video game system. The only thing missing is the simple controller to play the XBLA games.
And... (Score:2)
Xbox 360 Ultimate at $499 is an HD-DVD player (yea, I own a $4000 HDTV) and a great video game system. The only thing missing is the simple controller to play the XBLA games.
You do realize what you just said right?
"I'll not buy a PS3 because for $500 I don't get an HDMI!"
"I will pay $600 for a 360, which will get me HDMI and lacks only a simple XBLA controller -
Re:Integrate the drive already! (Score:2)
That'd be a complete change in philosophy for the 360, where nothing is integrated, at least not as much as you seem to want. If you want everything soldered into place, wait for the PS3, but we gamers who have no desire to either own HD movies or want the specter of a two-tiered game library on the horizon are happy with this arrangement.
"I'll buy one now no questions asked."
The million dollar question is if
Anyone remember the Commodore 1541 floppy drive? (Score:1)
Distant cousin?
Props to MS for giving consumers a choice, definitely would like to see an all-in-one unit too though.
Btw, this announcement slide is decidedly non-xtreme: http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2006/xbox0217_550x413.jp g [com.com]
Meh (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Meh (Score:1)
Re:Meh (Score:1)
Re:Meh (Score:2)
Yes it does. However, I don't see Sony letting me skip the $200 on their newfangled drive. At least MS has the sense to realize that not everyone is going to want an HD-DVD or BluRay drive right now. It's a sad sad day when Microsoft of all people is more in touch with what the consumers actually want and it seems to me that is the case here.
Re:Meh (Score:3, Insightful)
So for the millions of people who already have
Re:Meh (Score:1)
Re:Meh (Score:2)
All we have is unsubstatiated rumors at best that Microsoft will be releasing a new generation of 360s to offer HDMI output. Aside from the fact that it is a 180 from their current philosophy of making everything an add-on (including the HDD) instead of hardwiring things, these rumors can be either confirmed or denied very easily...
Somebody has the pin-outs of the 360's multi-out port, or else nobody would be making a/v cables for it, right? Are there or are the
I love options (Score:3, Interesting)
Therefore, I LOVE the option of deciding if I _want_ the fancy movie player or _just_ the game console.
Sony doesn't give me that option. I'm FORCED to purchase the integrated drive to play HD movies, although the games themselves don't require them.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:I love options (Score:1)
Re:I love options (Score:1)
Re:I love options (Score:1, Insightful)
Will there be multiple DVD games?
Yes, b
Re:I love options (Score:1)
http://greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2005-08-17. htm [greggman.com]
Analysis:
NES, SMS - carts
SNES, Genesis - carts
N64, Saturn, Playstation - carts, CD's
Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, Ga
right and wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, it does come to the same price as a PS3. Only one difference - most people could care less about HDDVD or BR and would rather just play games.
The Blu-Ray drive does not fit a market. Gamers are usually younger and do not have the HD capabilities for the movies. Home theater enthusiasts with the proper setups will be buying a professional high definition player from a different vender. How many home theater enthusiasts out there use the crappy DVD player from an xbox or a ps2??
Bad analysis (Score:2)
And will, over time, appreciate the extras in games that the greater amount of storage brings them. Market 1.
Home theater enthusiasts with the proper setups will be buying a professional high definition player from a different vender.
For $1k? Only the very upper crust. Many, many technically oriented people that are doing HD systems more mix and match "gehtto style" will be happy to use
Re: (Score:2)
Ohhh they're clever... (Score:4, Funny)
Vastly underrated (Score:2)
WORLD RECORD HERE! (Score:1)
Reasonable Price (Score:2)
I would expect the price on this would have to be farely reasonable, if not downright cheap, compared to the other HD DVD players.
SEGA (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:SEGA (Score:3)
If MS wants to take over the living room, they will need either an HD-DVD or Blu Ray player.
And some people do allocate extra space for future purchases. My entertainment system holds my PS2, my Gamecube, my DVD player, my Famicon knock-off, and has room left ove
Re:SEGA (Score:1)
Re:SEGA (Score:2)
There was. You might know it better as the Sony Playstation. Made a fortune, as all-in-one devices *always* win out in the console world.
I think Sony may be trying to prove that idiom wrong this time around, however...
Not the same thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Wouldn't you say...? (Score:2)
seem to forget.. (Score:1, Insightful)