Microsoft announces external HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

[Sis]

Err! Don't let Laa Yosh read that....:smile:

You know what, I knew Laa Yosh did CG work and I'm an idiot for not thinking that meant CG for movies. I meant no offense (but damn if it wasn't funny all the same ).

(And I stand by it: a touch of CG here and there, side by side with standard special effects is great. Watching an animated Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing fly around fighting some animated creature is just not compelling. And also, this has more to do with directing than anything else.)

Anyway, my shoe tastes good.

.Sis

 

[expletive]

I would say anything over $30. I mean lets be honest people brought UMDs even though they had less content and you couldn't play them on more than one kind of device for $30.

No cheaper and comparable alternative to UMDs though, tough to make that analogy. Regardless, $30 sounds good to me assuming DVDs are $20 or below.

 

[scooby_dooby]

I dunno, I don't think the majority of consumers are willling to swallow any cost increase at this point in time. You're talking about a fairly minor upgrade, DVD's look great as is, you're only gaining 'crispness'

It's not lilke TV vs HDTV where the original source is complete garbage, DVD's already look great, the players are very expensive, no way a $10 price increase is going to fly AT ALL if they want to hit mainstream sales.

It's all about value for the money, HD is asking for more money, and providing much less value than previous format upgrades, so it's already pushing it's luck, any overly aggressive pricing on discs would stop it in it's tracks

 

[AlphaWolf]

No cheaper and comparable alternative to UMDs though, tough to make that analogy. Regardless, $30 sounds good to me assuming DVDs are $20 or below.

An extra $10 might fly with AAA titles, but I'd expect the B grade titles to gather a lot of dust at that kind of premium.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I tend to spend less than £10 on DVDs (buy from Play usually). I'd go to probably £15 for an HD movie. Having seen the quality of 1080 for myself I think the improvement is pronounced and well worth it, especially for larger screens.

 

[mckmas8808]

I dunno, I don't think the majority of consumers are willling to swallow any cost increase at this point in time. You're talking about a fairly minor upgrade, DVD's look great as is, you're only gaining 'crispness'

False you are gaining more than crispness. You will be gaining....

1. An advanced interactivity through an internet connection

2. More bonus material due to extra space

3. Sophisticated interactive features by using the Java layer

4. Pop-Up menus withouts having to leave the movie

5. Included Video games

6. Download streaming media

7. Distributing movies through out the home

8. You will be able to pull up movies on-demand by browsing menus consisting of their lead actor's faces.

9. And give the ability for consumers to simply press their own movies and pay for them automatically over an internet connection.


See guys now that you know the possibilites can we please stop say HD movies are just about resolution?

 

[fulcizombie]

False you are gaining more than crispness. You will be gaining....

1. An advanced interactivity through an internet connection

2. More bonus material due to extra space

3. Sophisticated interactive features by using the Java layer

4. Pop-Up menus withouts having to leave the movie

5. Included Video games

6. Download streaming media

7. Distributing movies through out the home

8. You will be able to pull up movies on-demand by browsing menus consisting of their lead actor's faces.

9. And give the ability for consumers to simply press their own movies and pay for them automatically over an internet connection.


See guys now that you know the possibilites can we please stop say HD movies are just about resolution?

Most of these are really stretching it:
More bonus material...big movies released as double(at least) DVDs with tons of bonus material that covers EVERYTHING.It's not like the LOTR or the Star Wars movies on DVD are "bare bones" you know.

Pop up menus.....who cares????

The rest require fast internet connections and are also worthless.I'd rather go to a shop and choose my DVDs,Blue Rays,HD-DVDs or whatever else than do it from home and via my computer connection.

The only advantage of the new formats is resolution and honestly we don't even need a new format.The VHS that gave us crippled movies(due to their 4:3 format) lasted for almost 20 years.I don't see why we need a replacement for the DVD since the DVD format gives an excellent picture(with the right TV,DVD player) and everything you could ever need in terms of bonus features.

 

[cthellis42]

Most of these are really stretching it:

I don't think any of them are stretching it.

I DO, however, think they won't be emerging for a while. Not in any kind of volume or with any appreciable quality.

As I said earlier, I think consumer adoption will be much affected by just how different the interaction/networking/etc. functions with HD DVD as compared to DVD.

And, as always, how well-placed and heavily they're marketed.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I don't think any of them are stretching it.

I DO, however, think they won't be emerging for a while. Not in any kind of volume or with any appreciable quality.

As I said earlier, I think consumer adoption will be much affected by just how different the interaction/networking/etc. functions with HD DVD as compared to DVD.

And, as always, how well-placed and heavily they're marketed.

Most of the suggestions have little to do with HD media. Many of those features are already available either via media pc or DVD.

The only major tangible benefit to HD media is quality. It will sell on that, or it will become a niche market. DVD already has plenty of support for features which never get utilized or used.

 

[ihamoitc2005]

Content

Most of the suggestions have little to do with HD media. Many of those features are already available either via media pc or DVD.

The only major tangible benefit to HD media is quality. It will sell on that, or it will become a niche market. DVD already has plenty of support for features which never get utilized or used.

Movie studios have said DVD has not enough space for content so it is not surprising they all have heavy support for next-gen format despite extra "changeover" cost. All big studios want to do this because more content = more consumer interest = more consumer purchase of more content and merchandise. They want each disc to have maximum consumer "involvement" and much "replay value". They know home theatre and games are future not movie theatre.

 

[aaronspink]

Not drive, but it's the whole package that counts. As others pointed out, there are various feature that add to the advantage of a next-generation medium (i.e. interactivity, better image-quality). Resolution, as I pointed out, is just one of them.

DVD didn't just offer the convinience of having better image-quality over VHS, it had multiple advantages (disc medium, space for lots of content like i.e. trailers, special features, making-ofs, more convinient, longlivety etc). Blu-Ray boosts a few added consumer benefits as well - something that adds to the overall value to the consumer.

The primary advantage of DVD, and the reason it sold, was disc format and actual image quality. Things like trailers, fbi warnings, "special features" (which are never used. The number one "special feature" is commentary tracks), etc are just junk to fill up a disc because the studio skimped on the encoding bit rates.

Aaron Spink
speaking for myself inc.

 

[aaronspink]

I would say anything over $30. I mean lets be honest people brought UMDs even though they had less content and you couldn't play them on more than one kind of device for $30.

Yes they did. We in the industry call those people fools and idiots with two much money which is easily parted.

Anyone buying a UMD movie is an idiot, plain and simple. Christ, haven't these people heard of DVD shrink?

Aaron Spink
speaking for myself inc.

 

[patsu]

The primary advantage of DVD, and the reason it sold, was disc format and actual image quality. Things like trailers, fbi warnings, "special features" (which are never used. The number one "special feature" is commentary tracks), etc are just junk to fill up a disc because the studio skimped on the encoding bit rates.

Aaron Spink
speaking for myself inc.

Aaron, I like the fact that I don't have to swap DVDs anymore in the middle of a movie... or to see extra content. That's a trait of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray

Also in reference to your earlier post, while it's true that people tend to like it better when you get more physical goods (disks) for the same money, it really depends on how you "pitch" it. In my case and I'm sure many others... the actual benefit of enjoying something uninterrupted leaning back on my couch is greater than the warm fuzzy feeling of getting more physical disks...

I'm running out of space to store them too !
Small can be beauitiful (Another benefit).

While I agree that the HD quality sales pitch is definitely the draw, but what closes a sale is the total package just because different people like different things.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Well to be fair, there are many 20-something males that do not have a PC at all. Many of my friends do not own PC's. They might still want to watch movies on the PSP when they go on vacations, or are riding the bus.

It's a convenience thing really. Alot of people don't have the means, or knowledge to create their own discs, and would just prefer to purchase some portable movies.

Personally I would just buy a nice 7" or 8" portable DVD player, but hey, some people value convenience over money.

 

[BigGamer X]

What's the point? Why not just buy a separate HD-DVD player? This doesn't make any sense to me.

That's what I thought. You are going to have another component taking up the space of what a standalone would take up anyways, so what are we gaining? I could have done that without MS's "help".

 

[seismologist]

how many gigs of flash memory would you need to store a decent size DVD collection?

 

[patsu]

Well to be fair, there are many 20-something males that do not have a PC at all. Many of my friends do not own PC's. They might still want to watch movies on the PSP when they go on vacations, or are riding the bus.

It's a convenience thing really. Alot of people don't have the means, or knowledge to create their own discs, and would just prefer to purchase some portable movies.

Personally I would just buy a nice 7" or 8" portable DVD player, but hey, some people value convenience over money.

Yes I agree with scooby wholeheartedly. We should not apply our preferences and judgement on others. Easy money is always good for everyone: Clear benefits, no support issues. Only geeks like us tend to mess around with things

 

[aaronspink]

False you are gaining more than crispness. You will be gaining....

1. An advanced interactivity through an internet connection

*yawn* who cares. If I wanted interactivity I would of gone through the hell that is the movies website which doesn't actually say anything about the movie but does take 25 years to get past the first page.

2. More bonus material due to extra space

bonus content is VERY VERY overrated. The vast majority of people don't use it, and the bonus feature most used is audio commentary. And if anyone else ships a DVD with some crappy outdated cast and crew section, I'm going to yell. Friggin waste of disk space, haven't they heard of IMDB by now?

3. Sophisticated interactive features by using the Java layer

great more crappy junk menus with animated nonsense that take 59 seconds to get from the main menu to the audio/video menu. I'll pass.

4. Pop-Up menus withouts having to leave the movie

I already block pop-ups from my web browser, why the hell do I want them on my movie

5. Included Video games

Oooh, grade E video games. Things so crappy they couldn't possibly make any money off of them by selling them seperately, so they'll bundle in with the movie and sell it as a "feature".

6. Download streaming media

If I can download the damn thing, why do I need the disk in the first place.

7. Distributing movies through out the home

Only if the studios decide to play nice. I can already do this with no restrictions using DVDs today. And I'm not hopefull that things will get anything but more useless and annoying with both HD-DVD and BRD compared to DVD.

8. You will be able to pull up movies on-demand by browsing menus consisting of their lead actor's faces.

Doubtfull, what are they going to do, add an uber disc format with 100TB?

9. And give the ability for consumers to simply press their own movies and pay for them automatically over an internet connection.

And you too can overpay for a crappy home DVD that you could already make using you existing DVD writer.

See guys now that you know the possibilites can we please stop say HD movies are just about resolution?

Now that you break it down for me, I realize that BRD and HD-DVD aren't just new content delivery formats, they are the first evidence of hell on earth.

 

[AlphaWolf]

how many gigs of flash memory would you need to store a decent size DVD collection?

Id think 1 HDD would hold a pretty good sized collection shrunk to PSP size.

 

[aaronspink]

how many gigs of flash memory would you need to store a decent size DVD collection?

At the rez that you can reasonable display on a PSP? Maybe 300-400 megs per movie using mpeg4 codecs.

Aaron Spink
speaking for myself inc.