Today's crazy scoop or internet hoax: 360 on-board HDMI?

[hadareud]

What, you mean other than Microsoft denying such a product is being planned?

Perhaps that it would jack up the price significantly on a product that is already quite expensive, whilst at the same time adding zero value to its core purpose (namely playing games). There aren't very many HDDVD movies out to begin with, and there'll hardly be any either by the time such a theoretical 360 would go on sale.

sounds familiar

 

[Sis]

Maybe a pre-launch photo. Microsoft was intending to launch with the HD-DVD initially don't forget.

According to someone who's read Xbox 360 Uncloaked (Tap in?) and all indications I've read, an HD DVD drive was never considered.

 

[Blazkowicz]

I don't really care if this is true or not, but I think having an external drive is better : no need to remove your game disk and hunt for its case to play a movie

 

[Guden Oden]

I think having an external drive is better : no need to remove your game disk and hunt for its case to play a movie

You know, that is a good point...

On the other hand, it'll require another power cord and/or wall wart. The design of the unit also contrasts rather sharply (in a negative way) to the 360 main unit I might add. That's not so good, though it's probably far from any kind of a dealbreaker.

 

[Sis]

You know, that is a good point...

On the other hand, it'll require another power cord and/or wall wart. The design of the unit also contrasts rather sharply (in a negative way) to the 360 main unit I might add. That's not so good, though it's probably far from any kind of a dealbreaker.

Could the drive use the power from the USB port? I don't know if that's enough to power an HD DVD drive.

I agree with the design issue. Is it supposed to sit on top the 360? Because mine is lined with air vents that would likely be covered up by doing this.

 

[RobertR1]

What, you mean other than Microsoft denying such a product is being planned?

Perhaps that it would jack up the price significantly on a product that is already quite expensive, whilst at the same time adding zero value to its core purpose (namely playing games). There aren't very many HDDVD movies out to begin with, and there'll hardly be any either by the time such a theoretical 360 would go on sale.

Why would MS say yes and take the chance of potential buyers holding out for a new SKU? That's just bad business.

People on here are claiming up and down of the PS3's Blu Ray capabilitiy being a huge selling point (I personally disagree) but if HD DVD came out ahead this all of a sudden wouldn't apply to the 360?

 

[NavNucST3]

Could the drive use the power from the USB port? I don't know if that's enough to power an HD DVD drive.

I agree with the design issue. Is it supposed to sit on top the 360? Because mine is lined with air vents that would likely be covered up by doing this.

The real question for me, is how the Harmony 880 is going to control this thing. I'm thinking they will have to add another device: Xbox 360 with HD DVD player on the website. But then will the player be linked to a blade, to Media Center, to what...i'm just trying to envision the macros necessary to just hit the Watch HDDVD activity when trying to go through the 360, and have it work everytime.

 

[Guden Oden]

Could the drive use the power from the USB port?

No, an optical drive draws far more power than the ~2.5W a USB port provides. It'll need external power.

Why would MS say yes and take the chance of potential buyers holding out for a new SKU? That's just bad business.

They're flat-out denying they even have plans to release one. That's typically beyond the veiled coyness of a company not wanting to tip off customers too soon of upcoming and improved products.

People on here are claiming up and down of the PS3's Blu Ray capabilitiy being a huge selling point (I personally disagree) but if HD DVD came out ahead this all of a sudden wouldn't apply to the 360?

I don't see why you have to mix PS3 into this discussion, it's completely irrelevant (and please note that "console vs. console" posts are heavily frowned upon by the moderators), but to briefly touch upon the subject you bring up, one has to consider PS3 games will always come on BR media. 360 games will never come on HDDVD media. Wether one approves on a fundamental level of Sony's decision to include BR or not, one still has to agree that with this in mind, BR belongs more as standard in PS3 than HDDVD does in 360.

Besides, I find it a little bit amusing you're disagreeing with BR in PS3, yet get fairly agitated when people question the probability of HDDVD appearing in 360.

 

[RobertR1]

No, an optical drive draws far more power than the ~2.5W a USB port provides. It'll need external power.


They're flat-out denying they even have plans to release one. That's typically beyond the veiled coyness of a company not wanting to tip off customers too soon of upcoming and improved products.


I don't see why you have to mix PS3 into this discussion, it's completely irrelevant (and please note that "console vs. console" posts are heavily frowned upon by the moderators), but to briefly touch upon the subject you bring up, one has to consider PS3 games will always come on BR media. 360 games will never come on HDDVD media. Wether one approves on a fundamental level of Sony's decision to include BR or not, one still has to agree that with this in mind, BR belongs more as standard in PS3 than HDDVD does in 360.

Besides, I find it a little bit amusing you're disagreeing with BR in PS3, yet get fairly agitated when people question the probability of HDDVD appearing in 360.

Didn't I point out already that it the games won't come out for HD DVD and it's simply a convenience feature to include HD DVD within the console? There is no "standard" for HD DVD in the 360. If it's popular and they can make money off a new sku later on down the road, they could do it. WiFi is an add on. If they later incorporated WiFi within the console, would it be breaking standards? No. It'd simply be incorporating an add on within the console that you have the option of using. It doesn't make any of the earlier models obselete.

If expressing that one supposed strong selling point could work for one console and be disregarded for another is silly, demonstrates agitation, then common sense must be directly equated to agitation levels.

 

[rabidrabbit]

People on here are claiming up and down of the PS3's Blu Ray capabilitiy being a huge selling point (I personally disagree) but if HD DVD came out ahead this all of a sudden wouldn't apply to the 360?

Well, maybe it's because Microsoft themselves have said so, among other things, like "giving the consumers real choice and not "forcing" a feature they might not want", and "the core version being fully upgradeable to premium".

Would they release a new xbox360 with HDMI and a built in HD-DVD, or even just the HDMI, then at least the other of their much boasted statements would become just what they're critisizing Sony for; "forcing" a feature or offering a SKU that is not fully upgradeable to the top model.

It goes either way. People here are claiming up and down of the xbox360 rumoured new model with HDMI and HD-DVD being a good thing (might be, if they keep it cheap), but as PS3 comes with a (expensive) SKU including BR and HDMI and are being critisized for "splitting up the market" and "crippling the cheaper SKU" this all of a sudden wouldn't apply to the xbox360.

They're flat-out denying they even have plans to release one. That's typically beyond the veiled coyness of a company not wanting to tip off customers too soon of upcoming and improved products.

They denied the external HD-DVD afer the leaks came in the net, only to officially announce it a week or two later. Denials from companies mean absolutely nothing.

 

[RobertR1]

Well, maybe it's because Microsoft themselves have said so, among other things, like "giving the consumers real choice and not "forcing" a feature they might not want", and "the core version being fully upgradeable to premium".

Would they release a new xbox360 with HDMI and a built in HD-DVD, or even just the HDMI, then at least the other of their much boasted statements would become just what they're critisizing Sony for; "forcing" a feature or offering a SKU that is not fully upgradeable to the top model.

It goes either way. People here are claiming up and down of the xbox360 rumoured new model with HDMI and HD-DVD being a good thing (might be, if they keep it cheap), but as PS3 comes with a (expensive) SKU including BR and HDMI and are being critisized for "splitting up the market" and "crippling the cheaper SKU" this all of a sudden wouldn't apply to the xbox360.

I agree. It's not any more "right" if MS does it, by any means but it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Likely instead of rasing the price on the existing premium SKU, they could wait till they're ready for a price cut and introduce a new SKU at $399 that could possibly include an internal HD DVD.

Going back on their word is why PR and marketing departments exist

 

[Shogmaster]

Well, I'll be... he flipped the image instead of rotating it. Can't believe I didn't see that. Good eye.

No, I merely rotated the image in my composite pic. The second guy flipped it to match the case.

The original picture above is flipped for whatever reason. Don't ask me why. Perhaps the leaker accidently flipped it while resizing the pic. Perhaps he did it on purpose. Whatever the reason, it makes for wacky times at the forums.

 

[expletive]

Well, maybe it's because Microsoft themselves have said so, among other things, like "giving the consumers real choice and not "forcing" a feature they might not want", and "the core version being fully upgradeable to premium".

Would they release a new xbox360 with HDMI and a built in HD-DVD, or even just the HDMI, then at least the other of their much boasted statements would become just what they're critisizing Sony for; "forcing" a feature or offering a SKU that is not fully upgradeable to the top model.

If MS still offers a SKU with a DVD drive they would hold true to their original statement. The difference with Sony is that they appear to be ONLY offering SKUs with BR drives, thats the 'forcing' part.

Did MS ever criticize Sony for making the $499 model not HDMI-upgradeble to the $599 model? I think i recall a few jabs on how Sony said HDMI was imperative then offered a model without it, but i dont remember a specific criticism on how you couldnt upgrade the 499 to the 599...

 

[Dave Baumann]

I don't see why the possible (or not) existence of a future XBOX 360 revision with HDMI output need, necessarily, be tied with anything else - the addition of an HDMI port can stand on its own purely as a method of getting high definition (gaming) images to a display.

 

[Dave Baumann]

The chip (or logic if they integrated it) done by the WebTV group for display only supports analog so that, too, would have to be redone which would increase cost. And supporting analog and digital ports and cables begins to creep up costs.

If it is the case that the current output doesn't cope with it then I'd still doubt any changes need to be made to current silicon to faciliate it. Its likely that the digital output can just be fed to a Silicon Image (or equivelent) TMDS / HDMI chip.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

I don't see why the possible (or not) existence of a future XBOX 360 revision with HDMI output need, necessarily, be tied with anything else - the addition of an HDMI port can stand on its own purely as a method of getting high definition (gaming) images to a display.

Actually, what I don't see, is why people in a tech forum still have this overwhelming belief that the "benefit" of HDMI is DRM.

And because the studios supposedly agreed to not enforce DRM and 'allow' HD playback over component, that HDMI is suddenly non-important or isn't a value added addition.

 

[expletive]

I don't see why the possible (or not) existence of a future XBOX 360 revision with HDMI output need, necessarily, be tied with anything else - the addition of an HDMI port can stand on its own purely as a method of getting high definition (gaming) images to a display.

Theres very little "mainstream" value add for HDMI if youre talking purely about gaming. I dont think MS would incur the cost unless it was tied to something else more tangible.

I suppose you could make the argument that filling a checklist item against Sony is tangible though...

Actually, what I don't see, is why people in a tech forum still have this overwhelming belief that the "benefit" of HDMI is DRM.

And because the studios supposedly agreed to not enforce DRM and 'allow' HD playback over component, that HDMI is suddenly non-important or isn't a value added addition.

You would agree though that for gaming only, it adds very little right?

 

[DemoCoder]

I don't see why the possible (or not) existence of a future XBOX 360 revision with HDMI output need, necessarily, be tied with anything else - the addition of an HDMI port can stand on its own purely as a method of getting high definition (gaming) images to a display.

I think the whole reason it has been made an issue is that not having a launch SKU with HDMI has pissed off a few people with HDMI displays, because of a) the false belief that there would be a future HDMI "cable/dongle" and b) the MS "HD era" marketing. I mean, claiming you have the first console designed for the HD era, but not having any way to provide a future HDMI-add on I think bothers some people.

There were so many early adopter people who falsely held out hope for an HDMI dongle, I think those people now feel betrayed because they have to buy a whole new XB360 to get HDMI.

 

[Shogmaster]

I think the whole reason it has been made an issue is that not having a launch SKU with HDMI has pissed off a few people with HDMI displays, because of a) the false belief that there would be a future HDMI "cable/dongle" and b) the MS "HD era" marketing. I mean, claiming you have the first console designed for the HD era, but not having any way to provide a future HDMI-add on I think bothers some people.

There were so many early adopter people who falsely held out hope for an HDMI dongle, I think those people now feel betrayed because they have to buy a whole new XB360 to get HDMI.

The whole point of HDMI for this new gen of gaming consoles is lost on me when 99% of the games will not output 1080p. For PS3, sure, I can see the point since it's also a BR player, but for the X360? Why even bother? For the sake of convience? And the chances are, your new HDTV does something other than even 720p since the most popular kind, the direct view LCDs, have that weird 1366x768 native resolution. And seeing how scaling is gonna be the norm, who cares that you don't get to see exactly what's spat out of the frame buffer digitally? Scaled images are far worse than 99% of any analog interferance.

 

[quest55720]

I think the whole reason it has been made an issue is that not having a launch SKU with HDMI has pissed off a few people with HDMI displays, because of a) the false belief that there would be a future HDMI "cable/dongle" and b) the MS "HD era" marketing. I mean, claiming you have the first console designed for the HD era, but not having any way to provide a future HDMI-add on I think bothers some people.

There were so many early adopter people who falsely held out hope for an HDMI dongle, I think those people now feel betrayed because they have to buy a whole new XB360 to get HDMI.

I think early adopters have been shafted enough over the years where this won't matter. Being burned is part of being an early adopter. You think I was happy when I had to rebuy genesis controllers when the 6 button ones game out. You think I was happy when I had to buy a modem for my PS2 but that was standard on the slim unit. You think me and millions of gameboy advanced owners were happy when they had to rebuy the gameboy SP just for backlighting or DSlight for brighter screens. How about all those of that got burned on defective first generation launch hardware like the 360, PS1 or NES breaking because of a known defect that was later fixed in later models.

If the worst that happens to me is a new model 360 comes out with HDMI I will consider my self lucky.