360 HD-DVD Rumours - $170 in JPN? 1080p and MCE compatability?

[mckmas8808]

Why did I hear that you can't watch 1080p movies via compontent?

 

[RobertR1]

Well... if true, it's good news nonetheless.

Typically a company will build "price fence" around regional products so that it's not worthwhile to parallel import (It will likely become more expensive than buying locally). The HD DVD player is USD 199 for US right ? Or is it unconfirmed ?

Until MS makes an official announcement, I woudln't take any of it into consideration. Reason being they'll have lots of economic models and scales they'll review before deciding on one. That could come down to the last minute.

 

[crystalcube]

About region coding of HD DVD, although its not present in current player but it is a future possibility. According to 34th Steering Committee Meeting (May 24, 2006) of DVD Forum

The Interim Chair proposed the following for voting "HD DVD RPC Ad Hoc Group to work with appropriate WGs to develop a specification and enforcement plan for RPC on HD DVD-Video including region map and requirements in consultation with the studios". The proposal was approved by vote of 12-0-8

The"Interim Chair" is Toshiba and usual suspects ( aka Blu-ray backing members ) abstained but other wise the proposal was approved. Next steering Committee meeting was on 12-13 September but its details are not yet available on dvd forum's website. So hopefully we will get a better picture in coming days.

There have been some hints that HD DVD may follow Blu-ray and use 3 region codes. Also most of HD DVD movies released ( at least the ones I checked ) carried a "Region 1" label.

 

[Rangers]

Nice to see this means the HD DVD likely to be $199 in USA, as last I heard a ugly 299 rumor.

btw, I just came from a IGN article of walkking around tokyo that pictured a sign listing 360 for 18,800 yen sale. Now I know from this thread that is less than $170! As IGN joked soon MS may have to give the console away with purchase of copies of Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.
________
Washington marijuana dispensaries

 

[Hardknock]

1080p HD-DVD through Component???

Sold!

 

[Tap In]

"In addition, Microsoft announced that its fall software update, scheduled for release later this year, will allow all Xbox 360 consoles around the world to output game and movie content in 1080p resolution."

 

[Hardknock]

That's definitely a megaton! So upscaling to 1080p aswell?

My new set happier than ever

 

[Deepblue]

MEGATON.

Oh wait, I don't have a 1080p Tv...

 

[Crayon]

I called it. Did I call it? I did.

I said they should start talking about 1080p. Wheth the machine can actually do it or just "kinda do it"* they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by meeting Sony on that bulletpoint.

*I don't know, how is it done?

 

[ZiFF]

a) You cannot output 1080p HD-DVD-content over component. So it will be just 1080i.
b) Native 1080p-games will be hard to get work on the 360 with the small EDRAM.
c) TV´s do not generally accept 1080p over component.

MEGATON

 

[Deepblue]

a) You cannot output 1080p HD-DVD-content over component. So it will be just 1080i.
b) Native 1080p-games will be hard to get work on the 360 with the small EDRAM.
c) TV´s do not generally accept 1080p over component.

MEGATON

a. Incorrect, with D5 cables you can.
b. XBLA.
C. Statistics?

 

[ZiFF]

a. Incorrect, with D5 cables you can.

Yeah, but AACS does not allow it. Max on HD-DVD and Blu-ray is 1080i.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=675595&page=1&pp=30

 

[Tap In]

a) You cannot output 1080p HD-DVD-content over component. So it will be just 1080i.
b) Native 1080p-games will be hard to get work on the 360 with the small EDRAM.
c) TV´s do not generally accept 1080p over component.

MEGATON

I would wait before I claim a) and at b)

they have already said you will get 1080p from the HD DVD player.


nice try though

 

[Tap In]

allegedly this is the chip that will be activated by the update


http://xboxyde.com/forum_8_14279_1_en.html

Munetatsu-san even commented that the Xbox 360 will include secret features, that won't be revealed until a year after launch when a download from Xbox Live will enable these 'secret powers'. More on all this as we get it.



A Hint from hardOCP

http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MjA2ODgsLCxo...
2. For you folks that are buying the new 1080P panels that are now on the market, have no fear, as the Xbox360 looks to already support 1080P resolutions. All that will need to be changed is the connecting cable. Little more information is known on this or if there will be a gaming performance impact.



Another Hint:
http://www.anandtech.com/systems/sho...spx?i=2611&p=3
Moving away from the ports and looking inwards, we take a look at some of the ICs and other devices present on the Xbox 360's motherboard.

The Xbox 360's OS and other necessary software is loaded in the 128Mb (16MB) NAND Flash device that's on the motherboard:



Originally we assumed the chip below was a TV encoder, but we've since found out that the TV encoder on ATI's Xenos GPU is identical to what is on the ATI Radeon X1000 series of PC graphics cards - meaning the Xbox 360's TV encoder is located on the Xenos GPU itself and makes use of ATI's Xilleon display engine.



If it isn't the TV encoder, then what is this mystery chip? We haven't been able to find the physical interface for the Ethernet port, so it is possible that the 100Mbit PHY is located within this chip, as well as the audio codec, both of which would make sense given its location on the motherboard (within close proximity to the AV cable connector). In addition to those two options, it is possible that this chip may house whatever DRM technology is used in the Xbox 360.

 

[Mythos]

I would wait before I claim a) and at b)

they have already said you will get 1080p from the HD DVD player.


nice try though

What a 180 if the 360 does a 1080P!

 

[Deepblue]

Like I said. It's ****** fodder because I have a 720p set.

 

[Rangers]

Agreed this is mostly a useless bullet point, but still a nice bullet point to have.

The key issue is that if faced with a choice between great graphics at 720p or lesser graphics at 1080p most devs will wisely chose 720p, and no amount of capability will change that. From what we've seen so far the Ps3 and 360 are fairly even in capability so I think this applies to Ps3 just as well as 360.


EDRAM hinders the 360 here too. I think the overhead will be much higher than a non-edram machine as the tiles required, especially if you further include AA, would probably start too become ridiculous.

But yeah, Arcade might be a nice way to do it.

This can/cant 1080p over component issue just goes back and forth forever. We will have ten comments of people not paying attention about it in this thread alone. It gets annoying.

As I understand it:

1080p over component=just fine.

Movies with ICT flag=no 1080p over component.

ICT flag wont be set till 2011 at earliest so this is irrelevent anyway.

But then:

Very few TV's can accept 1080p over component anyways, making all the above moot, and this number should not rise (as HDMI is the future).

These issues effect BOTH the 360 and the Ps3 tard pack, so it's hard for funboys to spin, but nonetheless they still try unabated.

As someone who just invested in a 720P TV this is all irrelevant to me anyway.

I guess the real interesting question is if MS managed to finagle some sort of HDMI out of the 360/ and or HD DVD add on?
________
DeliciousTS live

 

[Tap In]

Like I said. It's ****** fodder because I have a 720p set.

true... a few more years until 1080p is more widespread.

of course there is always the much hyped downscaling AA for us losers with 720p/1080i.

of course I doubt either system will have more than a handful of games rendered at 1080p.

 

[Sankari]

Even if Xbox360 supported 1080p I doubt we will be seeing anything else in 1080p than arcade games.

 

[Tap In]

Even if Xbox360 supported 1080p I doubt we will be seeing anything else in 1080p than arcade games.

Well, it does (as of November 06) and why would the number of games at 1080p be any fewer than Ps3?

from NeoGaf

I had a chance to talk to Shane Kim, who recently named the corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, about the day's announcements over in Tokyo.

If you missed the news check out the full press release on the jump, but in a nutshell Microsoft announced the Japan price and date for the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360. More importantly, they announced that the fall software update for the console will allow the console to output game and movie content in 1080p resolution. That's right I said movies and games.

The interview was exactly 10 minutes long, so naturally I spent nine minutes trying to figure out just how a console with no HDMI out would gain 1080p output with a software update.

Kim was clear that the console could support true 1080p out.

"If it is running at 720p we will up-res it to 1080p, (interesting... everything if you set it for 1080p?) if it it's already 1080p then we can display it in 1080p," he said. " This is a great example of our console's ability and the great advantage of being a software company."

Kim said that while the console will soon support 1080p out, it will not have an HDMI out.

"We have the ability to output either through VGA or component. We have no HDMI announcement now," he said. "We do have the capability to deliver the software and, if needed, the hardware."

I pointed out that some movie studios have said they will use HDMI output as a form of copy protection and Kim acknowledged that if a studio uses that scheme then HDMI will indeed be required.

While Kim expects that some third-party game developers will create 1080p games, he said that 720p will likely remain the norm.

"We believe 720p is the sweet-spot for high definition," he said, adding that Microsoft Game Studio titles will, for now, continue to be created at 720p.

While the release of a low-cost HD-DVD player for the 360 could help make the console more competitive against Sony's upcoming PS3, Kim things the main development that could help jumpstart 360 sales in Japan are game titles.

Kim said that Microsoft plans to have 110 titles available for the 360 by the end of the year in Japan and 160 in North America.

"It's all going to be about the content and how customers value the content," he said.

Hit the jump for the official press release with details on new Live games, the Pac-Man World Championships, Xbox 360's HD-DVD player, some new titles and XNA support in Japan.