Microsoft Shows off Standalone XBOX 360 HD DVD Player

[malware]

Microsoft has showed off its standalone HD DVD player for the XBOX 360, which will come as an optional feature. The drive has the internal codename "Sapphire" and is designed by Microsoft while Toshiba is the one responsible for the optical drive. The HD DVD Player will feature two USB 2.0 ports: one for the device itself and one free. It also features the same cut-out on the back as the XBOX 360 to hold Microsoft's XBOX 360 Wireless Networking Adapter if you chose to mount it there. The drive will also be software updatable via XBOX Live so as new features are introduced, they can be automatically downloaded and applied. For those that choose to order the optional HD DVD Player it will cost around $200, which is fairly cheap because other HD DVD players on the market are retailing for $430 to $500.

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[jocksteeluk]

its a good price i guess but i certainly hope they dont make games for it as it would be unfair to everyone who has bought the console, id suggest sell your xbox360 and wait for the combined ones to be released.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Oi~

I dont care if they consider $200 cheap just because standalones are around 500 to 600 bucks. PS3 is including its Blu ray for 600. If you add this in with the price of the platinum, you get 600 bucks. Maybe it wasnt so dumb for ps3 to bring theirs out at 600? While I may go and get one (if they get cheaper that is) Im also upset that it wasnt included originally. I wouldnt have had a problem paying a little bit more for my 360, but thats just me. I at least happy they are bringing it out. And I agree, it would suck if they made games exclusively for that.

 

[overcast]

Unfortunately Bluray has proven itself to be an inferior format, with lackluster releases and failed promises. $200 for HDDVD is a great deal for xbox owners.

I dont care if they consider $200 cheap just because standalones are around 500 to 600 bucks. PS3 is including its Blu ray for 600. If you add this in with the price of the platinum, you get 600 bucks. Maybe it wasnt so dumb for ps3 to bring theirs out at 600? While I may go and get one (if they get cheaper that is) Im also upset that it wasnt included originally. I wouldnt have had a problem paying a little bit more for my 360, but thats just me. I at least happy they are bringing it out. And I agree, it would suck if they made games exclusively for that.

 

[DaJMasta]

Anyone else bugged that it dosen't quite match the 360?


The grey is close, but I would have expected a more simmilar color scheme...




Maybe if I get a 360, and when HD-DVD movies are plentiful, this will be a good buy

 

[newtekie1]

Unfortunately Bluray has proven itself to be an inferior format, with lackluster releases and failed promises. $200 for HDDVD is a great deal for xbox owners.

We will have to see, I don't see many HD-DVD movies doing that well either, and it isn't like HD-DVD is perfect either it has had is fair share of problems. So I am going to wait to make a judgement on which one will be the better format until it is clear. I am not buying these consoles for the movies they play anyway, I want the games and I am going to wait at least a year after all three are out to see which ones have the games I want.

I just hope they don't start making the HD-DVD player a requirement to play games(like rumors suggest). I also hope they don't start including it internally with their consoles and just adding the $200 to the price tag(also like rumors suggest). Though personally I would like it to be internal eventually because I hate having external crap connected to my console. I don't know I am kind of on the fence about that. I would like it to be internal, but at the same time I would like it to be only an option if I don't want HD-DVD or can't afford it at the time. Personally I think it might have been a better option to make the original internal drive removeable. So all you would have to do is pop off the front face plate, slide the old drive out and slide the new one in, sort of like how hot swappable hard drives work.

 

[Bob The Fish]

Unfortunately Bluray has proven itself to be an inferior format, with lackluster releases and failed promises. $200 for HDDVD is a great deal for xbox owners.

But atleast sony waited for there blue ray to be ready rather then forceing xbox 360 owners to upgrade because they wount be able to play the new games that are comeing out on HD DVD.

 

[Bull Dog]

Will it work on the PC?

 

[overcast]

I honestly doubt many games will make it to HDDVD. There is no need for 30GB of data in ANY current or near future games.

But atleast sony waited for there blue ray to be ready rather then forceing xbox 360 owners to upgrade because they wount be able to play the new games that are comeing out on HD DVD.

 

[overcast]

Well coming from a Toshiba HD-A1 owner from the very beginning. I own or have rented every single HDDVD title available to date. And while there are a sporadic few, from Warner initial batch that were from poor masters, the MAJORITY are absolutely fantastic in picture quality. The biggest difference to me honestly, is the incredible sound quality from Dolby Digital Plus, and soon to updated in firmware Dolby's Lossless TrueHD format(titles already exist). I've had absolutely ZERO problems, with skipping, playability etc. The biggest complaint, is the load times, that in all honesty, are blown way out of proportion.

Your point on buying consoles for games , and not movies is valid though. Sony is putting way to much stake in the PS3 being the Bluray savior.

I sincerely doubt MS is going to start making games on HDDVD anytime soon. They are doing this to get HDDVD players in as many homes as possible. To put the final nail in Sony's coffin regarding the new HD Video formats.

We will have to see, I don't see many HD-DVD movies doing that well either, and it isn't like HD-DVD is perfect either it has had is fair share of problems. So I am going to wait to make a judgement on which one will be the better format until it is clear. I am not buying these consoles for the movies they play anyway, I want the games and I am going to wait at least a year after all three are out to see which ones have the games I want.

I just hope they don't start making the HD-DVD player a requirement to play games(like rumors suggest). I also hope they don't start including it internally with their consoles and just adding the $200 to the price tag(also like rumors suggest). Though personally I would like it to be internal eventually because I hate having external crap connected to my console. I don't know I am kind of on the fence about that. I would like it to be internal, but at the same time I would like it to be only an option if I don't want HD-DVD or can't afford it at the time. Personally I think it might have been a better option to make the original internal drive removeable. So all you would have to do is pop off the front face plate, slide the old drive out and slide the new one in, sort of like how hot swappable hard drives work.

 

[newtekie1]

I don't know, from what I have been seeing the current 360 games are already maxing out dual layer DVDs, so the need for a bigger format is there if they want to keep improving the games and adding to them. They will either have to move to games with multiple DVDs or games on HD-DVD. My guess would probably be HD-DVD.

I am sure people were saying the same thing about moving to DVDs. There were games that came on 8 or more CDs on the PS1! There are already games coming on 2 DVDs on the PS2, so I know blue-ray will be used in Sony's case and it isn't just a "if we put it in our console it will catch on" sort of things. I believe they are putting it in because the developers want more space.

 

[overcast]

Don't get me wrong, I see the definite need for increased storage media. However, looking at the current PC market. How many games do you see being released on multiple DVDs? 9GB is a significant amount of data on DL-DVD, I mean the largest install I've seen on my comp was MAYBE 5-6gb. I just don't see them using HDDVDs anytime soon, especially since the manufacturing costs are much higher than current media.

 

[newtekie1]

Yes, but console games and PC games are different. A PC is powerful enough to be able to store a lot of the data compressed, in fact most of the textures in games are compressed and then uncompressed when you load the level or as needed. Doom3 for instance is something like a 4-6GB install and fits on one CD. However, all the textures are compressed, once you de-compress them the game install is over 9GB and the levels load a hell of a lot faster. Consoles are not powerful enough to pull this de-compression on demand and optical drives are not fast enough to allow it.

 

[v-zero]

I'd bet my life that MS never release games on HD-DVD for the 360. It is no more technologically viable than DVD, since current 360 games are all roughly 2 to 6gb of real data... A lot of dummy data is put in there right now to fill parts of the disk, as is a requirement for the copy protection. Which is another factor; an external drive would be easier to hack than the console itself, since a raw connection is made via the USB...

As far as films go, this is a very god deal! I'd much rather be able to wait for when there are enough decent films, safe in the knowledge that I need only upgrade when the time comes... Until then the 360 is still much cheaper, better looking and more powerful than the bloated piece of crap that Sony is currently aiming at its customers...

 

[jocksteeluk]

micro$haft are going to force people wanting to use DX10 and even an old cruddy game like halo2 to upgrade to windows vista when it is released so i can deffinately see micro$haft forcing people to upgrade their xbox360's by releasing games solo for the hd dvd drive. i have to say this has been a great strategy by micro$haft, make people think they are getting the cheaper option then lampoon them with soon to be essential extra's i have to say id rather buy the 1 console with eveything combined than some 2 part johnson tackle

 

[v-zero]

Releasing games on HD DVD would not make any financial sense guys. Don't compare Vista to an HD DVD drive. Hardware is sold at cost (in the case of consoles from MS and Sony - at a loss...), or at a very small profit...
Now software, on the other hand, is sold at a huge profit. Therefore, MS wouldn't shoot themselves in the foot. They will keep manufacturing costs down and profits up...

Hence, no games for HD DVD!

 

[jocksteeluk]

trust me when elmer fudd software company makes a game using a whole Blu-ray disc for sony and its too big for a single dvd MicroFreaken$haft are going to start moving games to HDdvd just like sega tried with the mega Cd its going to be an addon to play some new games especially as it is exspected newer x360's will have the drive built in. i exspect when it becomes blatantly obvious MicroFreaken$haft will offer some mediocre discount of free games to those who have originally purchassed the original set up in a similar way to what they did when they lowered the price for the original xbox after 2-3 months

 

[v-zero]

trust me when elmer fudd software company makes a game using a whole Blu-ray disc for sony and its too big for a single dvd MicroFreaken$haft are going to start moving games to HDdvd just like sega tried with the mega Cd its going to be an addon to play some new games especially as it is exspected newer x360's will have the drive built in. i exspect when it becomes blatantly obvious MicroFreaken$haft will offer some mediocre discount of free games to those who have originally purchassed the original set up in a similar way to what they did when they lowered the price for the original xbox after 2-3 months

There's no reason for this to happen. Just because the PS3 won't be able to deal with the compression doesn't mean the 360 wont be able to either. It's a faster machine, and DVD is a media that should not be dying out in Video or Games...

The reason for its downfall in the video area is because companies are too stubborn to agree on using MPEG-4 technologies like those from Ahead and the like. These technologies allow high-bitrate (in MPEG4 terms), High Definition films to fit on a double-sided DVD. In fact, 720p films, encoded correctly, look beautiful and can fit on a single sisded DVD...

The blue-laser products are a hateful and unneeded evolution of CD technology... They will be the last, and probably worst-selling of all CD based media before holographics and solid-state become the norm...

 

[jocksteeluk]

i hate sony but micro$haft has messed up this time and the poeple that are going to suffer are the people that purchassed the 360 from the release date. the fact is one blu-ray disk can hold 50GIG of data and when a game for ps3 is made to use that capacity it doesnt matter how much compression you use on a standard dvd that just isnt going to fit and devlopers are not going to want to spend the extra cost on multiple disks and packaging they will just put it onto the hd disk and give the punters the option of buying it or not

 

[v-zero]

You obviously don't understand the economics which drive the industry, and so I will not bother to argue any longer. Suffice to say one BD or HD disk costs about as much as 15-50 DVD's to manufacture, and no game will ever fill 30gb in the next 5 to 8 years...

 

[cdawall]

unless they start to include game and a ovie man that would be cool kinda well it would let all the cheapo's at the movie studios cut down on coast 1 hd movie and 1 movie based game all on the same disk

 

[WarEagleAU]

What would be cool is that if Microsoft offered 2, 3 or 4 360 games on one HD DVD for like 100 bucks or so. That would be a sweet deal and really get the HD DVD add on in alot of home. (Hell, I for one would buy it just for that). Heck, even if they charged like 120 to 140 bucks for 3 games on that one HD DVD, it would be cheaper than buy those three games separately (tax and all) Thats one use I could see for the HD DVD game.

 

[v-zero]

Microsoft are not trying to sell as many HD DVD players as they can, because they don't stand to lose out if the format fails (which it wont) - those HD DVD players are just filling a demand from consumers looking at the PS3, and saying: "hey, how come we don't get a blu thingy - I want HD films too!"