what now for xbox with hd dvd?

[Driver Rider]

hi guys

toshiba have pulled the plug on hd dvd to making the way for blu ray. though toshiba say they will still offer support for anyone with hd dvd players. what i want to know is does this mean that microsoft will stick to hd dvd even though theres no new material going to be realised on this format (irc) as all the hollywood studios have all pretty much backed blu ray. will microsoft revert to blu ray or will it be forever hd dvd with xbox 360.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252172.stm

[mrmr96]

Interesting question. I reckon that new consoles will be out around 2010. SO in the mean time I'm not sure if a new blu ray player would be released for the 360, probly not imo. I reckon Xbox430 will have blu ray tho.

[Steve Evil]

What made you come out with the 430? Or are you thinking Microsoft will go the same way as Ferrari?

[Mr E]

I see a USB BR drive for the 360 in the not too distant future.

[Civpilot]

Mr E said:

I see a USB BR drive for the 360 in the not too distant future.

Would not be that surprising really

[paul99]

I wonder it would have been a different story if MS had bundled the HD Drive in with the 360 Elite, would have probably saved the format..

[Maxf]

paul99 said:

I wonder it would have been a different story if MS had bundled the HD Drive in with the 360 Elite, would have probably saved the format..

I dont know. The other forums I go on which are mainly US based were all well behind Bluray. I dont know why and all I can think is that it had a more catchy name

[plfrench]

Maxf said:

I dont know why and all I can think is that it had a more catchy name

What about the 25GB vs 15GB per layer advantage that Blu Ray has over HD-dvd... When dealing with High Definition video and audio, you need all the space you can get!

[Nat_H]

or perhaps MS wanted neither format to win, as downloads are where MS see the money being made....

[Polarbert]

Yeah I think they'll bring out a Bluray player as well. I was tempted by the HD drive, so so glad I held off though.

[mrmr96]

Steve Evil said:

What made you come out with the 430? Or are you thinking Microsoft will go the same way as Ferrari?

Yeah, I've got no idea what MS will name the next xbox. We all know that they called it "Three-Sixty" so that it wouldn't sound like it was a generation behind. (I.e. PS3 vs Xbox2.)

However, "360" is pretty meaningless, isn't it? Just starts with a "three". So yeah, I based my pi55 take on Fezza's.

I'm not entirely convinced we'll see a Blu Ray player for the 360 tho, as it would be a slightly embarrasing back track for them. I reckon they're more likely to continue to push the downloadable movie "rentals" as there's a bigger margin in it for MS.

[Luca1973]

mrmr96 said:

Steve Evil said:

What made you come out with the 430? Or are you thinking Microsoft will go the same way as Ferrari?

Yeah, I've got no idea what MS will name the next xbox. We all know that they called it "Three-Sixty" so that it wouldn't sound like it was a generation behind. (I.e. PS3 vs Xbox2.)

However, "360" is pretty meaningless, isn't it? Just starts with a "three". So yeah, I based my pi55 take on Fezza's.

I'm not entirely convinced we'll see a Blu Ray player for the 360 tho, as it would be a slightly embarrasing back track for them. I reckon they're more likely to continue to push the downloadable movie "rentals" as there's a bigger margin in it for MS.

I dont entirely agree that name 360 is pretty meaningless. Trust me they would have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to come up with that little nomenclature. But off the top of my head - it could mean the Xbox has gone full circle, its turned gaming on its head, its a revolution... you get the gyst...

[JustinP1]

Maxf said:

paul99 said:

I wonder it would have been a different story if MS had bundled the HD Drive in with the 360 Elite, would have probably saved the format..

I dont know. The other forums I go on which are mainly US based were all well behind Bluray. I dont know why and all I can think is that it had a more catchy name

Three letters/numerals.

P S 3.

[Digby]

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Console/J7L7H2...

[Thudd]

Problem with an add-on bluray for the 360 is that the PS3 is actually very good at bluray playback. The DVD upscaling is good too.

I've got an x360 based media centre with an external drive and a blu-ray player would be great, but the HD-DVD player was crap and I can't see a bluray addon being any better.

[sjj84]

I got the HD drive for the 360 at christmas, all this talk of the format failing and everybody pulling out of it is great, getting loads of cheap discs at the moment.

[Polarbert]

Thudd said:

Problem with an add-on bluray for the 360 is that the PS3 is actually very good at bluray playback. The DVD upscaling is good too.

What makes it a problem? If the bluray in the 360 is as good or better then theres nothing to worry about at all?

[Mr E]

I was under the impression that the 360 has hardware upscaling, and it's pretty damn good. The PS3 is somewhat less than perfect. I've not had much to do with the PS3, so this may be garbage...

[Mr_Yogi]

Mr E said:

I was under the impression that the 360 has hardware upscaling, and it's pretty damn good. The PS3 is somewhat less than perfect. I've not had much to do with the PS3, so this may be garbage...

From what i've read the 360s HDDVD playback is very good but the audio is not that great due to the lack of any HD audio outputs. The DVD playback and upscalling are supposed to be average.

Where as the PS3 is about the most featured Bluray player available, with support for all but one HD codec (DTS Master Audio) which may come in a future upgrade. And although it can't support bitstream out for the HD codecs it can decode them and pass them out losslessly via HDMI. It also has very good bluray picture. For DVD it has excellent playback (on par with virtually *any* stand alone DVD player) and the upscalling is also very good and on par with upscalling DVD players the same price as the PS3.

[Thudd]

Polarbert said:

Thudd said:

Problem with an add-on bluray for the 360 is that the PS3 is actually very good at bluray playback. The DVD upscaling is good too.

What makes it a problem? If the bluray in the 360 is as good or better then theres nothing to worry about at all?

The 360 is the problem. It's the weak link. It can't cut it.

The audio output isn't as good, and the scalers aren't great. If I watch HD content though the 360 I get shocking artefacts which I don't see on games or using my DVD player (and so the scalers in the TV instead).