Microsoft: Xbox 360 with Built In HD-DVD Drive On The Way?

[-tkf-]

Oh, one of the BD supporters that actually can run BD+ protected media? Guess what BD has to die, FAST. Next time another copy protection is applied to bd's it renders another load of bd players to useless junk, well not entirely but beein unable to see the HiDef movie i bought is kinda shitty.

Anyway why would someone think that our beloved BD group has the knowledge to comfort all the cineastic needs as the dvd-forum already has since the DVD and is going to with HD-DVD???

Xbox 360 Elite HD rings a bell?

I´m not sure what Copy Protection that should be, maybe you know something we don´t? BD++ ?

And i´m sure you are aware that all manufactors of Blu-Ray players that had problems with the Fox titles issued firmware updates, i guess you didn´t find a need to mention it here.

You know as well as i do that BOTH Bluray and hddvd players have had lots of issues with playback and those have been fixed by constant Firmware on both sides. And you also know that Blu-Ray has been outselling it´s competitors for a long time forcing HD-DVD to buy Paramounts "love".

 

[CEO]

I´m not sure what Copy Protection that should be, maybe you know something we don´t? BD++ ?

And i´m sure you are aware that all manufactors of Blu-Ray players that had problems with the Fox titles issued firmware updates, i guess you didn´t find a need to mention it here.

You know as well as i do that BOTH Bluray and hddvd players have had lots of issues with playback and those have been fixed by constant Firmware on both sides. And you also know that Blu-Ray has been outselling it´s competitors for a long time forcing HD-DVD to buy Paramounts "love".

of course there were playback problems @first. but thats settled, @least for HD-DVD afaik.

but some new BD movies came with a new Copy Protection called BD+ which didnt play @all (BDP-1200 from Samsung and BH100 from LG) or had @least playback problems on a shitload of BD-Players like the PS3(firmware 1.93 made settled that problem). i read it on HighDefDigest

movies were X-Men and some other title(s) i forgot, fox entertainment published.

as far as outselling goes, its not the enthuasiast thats decide wars, its the average joes. And if the average joes has a 179$ hd-dvd player @home than HD-DVD already won. who cares about some format war which makes a total of 0.1% of the market? i dont even care about someone buying or forcing through high amount of money (you implied) as long as i get to see my movie either on HD-DVD or BluRay.

 

[Crossbar]

I thought some major video rental chain in the US were going blu-ray only for HD content. Are they still doing that?

 

[-tkf-]

i read it on HighDefDigest

If you read HighDef digest you would know of the updates to the mentioned players. So why bring it up here? Your welcome to PM me, this is to much derailing already.

 

[-tkf-]

I thought some major video rental chain in the US were going blu-ray only for HD content. Are they still doing that?

Target was mentioned i think. Walmart is supposedly gonna support HD-DVD heavily. Blockbuster is actively supporting Blu-Ray (HD-DVD not in all stores), and i actually saw a poster promoting Blu-Ray in Blockbuster here in Denmark. With a buy price of $50 (in .dk) many will want to rent the movies until they drop in price.

 

[AzBat]

Target was mentioned i think. Walmart is supposedly gonna support HD-DVD heavily. Blockbuster is actively supporting Blu-Ray (HD-DVD not in all stores), and i actually saw a poster promoting Blu-Ray in Blockbuster here in Denmark. With a buy price of $50 (in .dk) many will want to rent the movies until they drop in price.

Yeah, he's thinking Blockbuster. That news of Bluray only was kind of bad deal since it was only for new stores. All existing Blockbuster stores that had HD-DVD were still going to offer them. Plus, I think franchise stores get to make their own choice on the matter since I think the deal was for corporate stores only.

Tommy McClain

 

[cthellis42]

I thought some major video rental chain in the US were going blu-ray only for HD content. Are they still doing that?

Blockbuster said they would be only restock HD content on Blu-Ray for their box stores, but would continue to rent what they have of HD DVD for now. I haven't been to a Blockbuster for a while to see how the sections compare at this point, though. There is no change to their online store.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Another related article that appears to confirm Toshiba and MS are actually working on it:

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Console/P4G5C3U2

Seems that MS may be going the licensing route. This will be a media hub, branded by Toshiba but with software by MS.

 

[Carl B]

Another related article that appears to confirm Toshiba and MS are actually working on it:

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Console/P4G5C3U2

Seems that MS may be going the licensing route. This will be a media hub, branded by Toshiba but with software by MS.

How is that another article...? That's the article that started this thread!

 

[Dave Baumann]

How is that another article...? That's the article that started this thread!

Unless I'm missing it, the OP links to articles on Thursday, this is another article by the same publication from Friday. This article actually goes into some details about what the hardware will do (i.e. its not just a 360 with an internal HD DVD drive).

 

[Carl B]

You're right, my bad - I guess in my mind I've just merged both articles into one; Smarthouse is really giving the one-two punch here it seems in terms of reporting the story. Anyway it'll be interesting to see what ultimately happens. Toshiba's been pushing MS for HD DVD inclusion since before the launch - it didn't come with the Elite, but maybe they'll see fit to do an Elite II or something; I imagine the cost at which Toshiba is able to provide the drives has been coming down steadily. I'm not betting either way on a new SKU or not, but I'd believe either outcome.

All I would say though is that for it to have a tangible benefit, it would have to release very soon, as standalone HD DVD players are already approaching a point in their pricing where even the 360 add-on's savings only come to ~$30. Although I'm sure that there will be some folk that upgrade their existing 360's to the new SKU, at the same time I think these people are most likely the ones that own a 360 add-on already, thus having a transparent effect on userbase increase. Of course it could become a popular SKU among new owners as well, prices of standalones no withstanding.

 

[Dave Baumann]

I'm not betting either way on a new SKU or not, but I'd believe either outcome.

Well, by the looks of it we are looking at an entire media centric device, with dual-tuners, EPG, large swappable harddrives and even the potential for a configuration that will slot directly into a TV.

 

[aselto]

I would love to see a Toshiba manufactured Xbox 360! There would be finally a quiet Xbox. Plus Toshiba Xbox would probably have some other nice features (other than HDDVD).

 

[Carl B]

Well, by the looks of it we are looking at an entire media centric device, with dual-tuners, EPG, large swappable harddrives and even the potential for a configuration that will slot directly into a TV.

In terms of that configuration, I just don't foresee it really happening. The US is the 360's strongest market, and here of all places dual HD tuners is something that just doesn't factor in (though I'd love for that to change). Yet as it stands everything is cable or satellite (or Fios) driven - it just wouldn't make sense, for the same reasons that Sony's external tuner peripheral is targeting Europe and not the US.

As for the slot'ing into the TV set, that just starts to get too bizarre... nothing would surprise me, but at this time I would have to think it more of a 'blue sky' project than an actual product plan.

 

[AlphaWolf]

In terms of that configuration, I just don't foresee it really happening. The US is the 360's strongest market, and here of all places dual HD tuners is something that just doesn't factor in (though I'd love for that to change). Yet as it stands everything is cable or satellite (or Fios) driven - it just wouldn't make sense, for the same reasons that Sony's external tuner peripheral is targeting Europe and not the US.

Keep in mind the article's target audience. There's no doubt a NA model of a media center device would differ from a european one. If they can bring something like this out in the next year at near (current) elite pricing I think it would move quite a few units.

As for the slot'ing into the TV set, that just starts to get too bizarre... nothing would surprise me, but at this time I would have to think it more of a 'blue sky' project than an actual product plan.

I really don't see how it would be that different from TV's that ship with PVRs (other than the issues they'd have to overcome to make it work), I personally don't favor integrated devices but some people like the low profile integration offers. I wouldn't be surprised if Toshiba has been working on some sort of modular integration with their sets and is just conceptualizing adding the 360 to the program. The timeframe of it happening is very limited tho so I doubt we'll actually see any result this generation.

 

[Dave Baumann]

The US is the 360's strongest market, and here of all places dual HD tuners is something that just doesn't factor in (though I'd love for that to change). Yet as it stands everything is cable or satellite (or Fios) driven - it just wouldn't make sense, for the same reasons that Sony's external tuner peripheral is targeting Europe and not the US.

Depends on how the dual tuners are employed. My cable set-top box is "dual-tuner", just meaing that I can record two channels simultaneously. With CableCard systems there's no reason why more off-the-shelf media devices can't integrate with current cable operators - we are selling CableCard devices to ship into pre-built systems that just operate on Media Center.

 

[-tkf-]

Well, by the looks of it we are looking at an entire media centric device, with dual-tuners, EPG, large swappable harddrives and even the potential for a configuration that will slot directly into a TV.

So a "topset" box with an included 360? Not a bad move considering the 360 could provide the basis for the GUI and already has the software development package.

It reminds me of another console with the same vision

 

[D3B]

Sounds like a PS3 except Blu-ray works with games and movies.

 

[Carl B]

Depends on how the dual tuners are employed. My cable set-top box is "dual-tuner", just meaing that I can record two channels simultaneously. With CableCard systems there's no reason why more off-the-shelf media devices can't integrate with current cable operators - we are selling CableCard devices to ship into pre-built systems that just operate on Media Center.

I know what "dual-tuner" is, c'mon now. But the point remains that it's not a very viable business model in the US at this time. CableCard is a solution I looked into for myself a year ago, and what I concluded is that the ecosystem surrounding CableCard is weak, and the public awareness even weaker. Not to mention the cable companies are completely hostile to it. You guys shipping solutions into the Media Center market makes perfect sense, since that's a core area of ATI/AMD participation, but for the 360 and the US... I think the cable companies will make it a tough egg.

If it happens though hey, so much the better. I'm certainly for anything that advances the role of consoles in the home.

Sounds like a PS3 except Blu-ray works with games and movies.

Let's try to refrain from 'gotcha' statements like this, yeah?

 

[Dave Baumann]

Not to mention the cable companies are completely hostile to it. You guys shipping solutions into the Media Center market makes perfect sense, since that's a core area of ATI/AMD participation, but for the 360 and the US... I think the cable companies will make it a tough egg.

Cable companies have opened to it on media center, and thats what we are talking about here - another vehicle for Media Center.