Wikipedia announces hd-dvd in x360 ?
- Thread starter jvd
- Start date
Business is business. Companies will merrily trade with their worst enemies if it makes them more money. Unlike the 'human' world there are rarely vendettas and grudges held. Look at how MS mangled the IBM OS way back when, costing IBM loads of money. If grudges were held IBM wouldn't have anything to do with MS. BUt in business terms every decision is made on an equal footing.
If including a BRD meant some fees to Sony, but also more money for MS than including HD-DVD, simple as that.
If including a BRD meant some fees to Sony, but also more money for MS than including HD-DVD, simple as that.
You are aware Samsung will be making HD DVD drives at TSST right? Do you know what TSST stands for?
I could be wrong, but I don't think MS wants to release two more additional SKUs one for BR and one for HD DVD. That's just too many SKUs.
It's one of the codecs in the BR spec just like VC-1 is one of the codecs in HD DVD. Doesn't mean movies on BR will use it. OTOH TW is using VC-1 for HD DVD. None of the studios supporting BR has said anything about using VC-1 for their movies.
That's true, but I could see a dual format BR/HD DVD drive equiped SKU instead of two separate SKUs. It's just two many SKUs and will confuse the market. Besides consumers would rather have a console that can playback both formats.
PC-Engine said:
Yes. Samsung is a business, not a bunch of Sony/MS fans. Businesses cooperate with their competitors, or sell competing products without any hangups over whose gaming platform they prefer.
Look, a Samsung Bluray recorder:
http://www.blu-ray.com/images/recorders/samsung.jpg
Most hardware manufacturers will make both drives. Only Sony is commited to Bluray exclusively, and only Toshiba is commited to HD-DVD exclusively. Everyone else will make and sell both so they can maximize their sales.
Give it 6 months or so and I'll bet MS drops the Premium bundle they have now and only sell the core unit. MS offering the standard DVD core unit, or an option of one of two HD units is hardly too many SKU's. It's 3.
And after they've been on the shelves a few months, MS can guage their sales, and manufacture and ship future units based on expected demand. If one of the two or both fail to sell well they can stop production of that version without hurting their overall product or image.
There is a reason that particular codec was chosen as manditory inclusion on both formats.
But that would be uber-expensive, and it would require a 3rd party manufacturer to redesign both drives to fit and work together in a single unit. It will happen eventually, but no where near the launch of the HD-DVD and Bluray formats, and it's doubtful that you could get combo drives for cheap enough to make it cost effective.
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seismologist
Regular
If they're going to offer HD-DVD in the same box they'll also have to swap out the motherboard since HDMI appears to be a requirement for the copy protection in both formats.
Which leads one to believe that an HD-DVD "add-on" will be more along the lines of the Dreamcast DVD player pictured above.
Which leads one to believe that an HD-DVD "add-on" will be more along the lines of the Dreamcast DVD player pictured above.
seismologist said:
MS's WebTV devision designed the D/A video out chip which is separate from the GPU. This chip can be replaced with a different HDCP compliant chip very easily since it'll be pin compatible with the standard chip. My guess is that MS will have a HDCP compliant chip in ALL Xbox 360s even the DVD versions. There are 3 very good reasons for this.
1. They can allow regular upconversion of DVDs with HDMI/HDCP.
2. They can allow streaming of HD DVD/BR movies from a media server PC through Xbox 360.
3. They can release a HD DVD based Xbox 360 later on without having to replace/redesign the video out chip.
