why the xbox720 should be using HD-DVD

[Dargakis]

Toshiba said that producing HD-DVD has little cost over the production of dvds.
As Microsoft is the only company to press/produce the authorised xbox-discs, they could easily upgrade to HD-DVD.
The technology is dead now, so it should be very cheap to license.

It will be more piracy proof than the xbox360; seeing as the format is dead, there are no new burners being made, as a matter of fact, there never were any commercially available burners for i know. Let alone dual layer HD-DVDR-discs.

They can rebrand the technology to XBD.
"XBD (XBOX DISC), with up to 30 gigabyte of next generation gaming pleasure! only on xbox720"

No one can pirate the discs, so if microsoft keeps the hdd security as tight as this generation of xbox360, they could have a piracy-free platform for many years, at almost no added cost (over dvd)
So HD-DVD dying could actualy be good for the next microsoft console.

What do you think?
(And don't give me "nah! microsoft told me that physical media is dead! in 2011 all homes in united states of america will be able to stream 30GB games in realtime!)"

 

[jonabbey]

It's plausible enough, I suppose. There'd be absolutely no point touting it as being HD-DVD, as you suggest, but if Microsoft wanted a lower capacity disk format, they could do it.

They'd be responsible for the costs of maintaining the only drives that used the format, though, and for paying disk replicators to support their format. The odds of costs going down on the replication equipment seem fairly low, given the reduced market for the discs, but that might be doable for Microsoft.

I don't think anti-piracy is a compelling reason to do this, however. Blu-Ray already has ROM-MARK support to be able to distinguish between stamped and non-stamped discs, and the economics are on Blu-Ray's side in terms of scale of production.

And I don't imagine Microsoft would care for the marketing message of 'lower capacity, unable to play on-disc high res movies' for a second generation running.

 

[corduroygt]

Not likely, since Blu-ray drives would be cheaper than a proprietary drive by then...and as we've seen in this gen, people like using their consoles for more than just gaming.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Not likely, since Blu-ray drives would be cheaper than a proprietary drive by then...and as we've seen in this gen, people like using their consoles for more than just gaming.

I'm not so certain about the last part of your statement, it seems a fairly small number of people seem to care about the other things considering the runaway success of the wii.

 

[homerdog]

I use my Xbox for: playing Halo, watching DVDs, streaming Netflix, playing videos from a USB stick, and occasionally stream something from my PC if it's too big for a memory stick. It makes a quite nice little media center. MS wouldn't trade the ability to play movies to cut down on already low (and would be lower with Blu-ray) piracy rates. FFS you have to have a modded system to play pirated games.

 

[RudeCurve]

I'd rather see MS use multilayer red laser DVD technology such as VMD which could also be adapted to use blue laser for even higher capacity. On the other hand there are still replicators out there with HD DVD equipment that MS could contract to stamp out games on. The main cost in HD DVD drives is the blue laser so the actual drive itself shouldn't cost more than a BR drive. I believe Toshiba still has HD DVD drive manufacturing capability at it's TSST factory. It could be used in the next Xbox without much issue.

 

[kyetech]

huh, thats actually a pretty damn smart suggestion.

 

[Skrying]

I'm not so certain about the last part of your statement, it seems a fairly small number of people seem to care about the other things considering the runaway success of the wii.

You suggest people aren't doing other things with their Wii? I would suggest that the Wii is "another thing" than playing games. Half the games sold are non-games!

 

[SG79]

Toshiba gave up on HD-DVD, and I don't think MS is willing to foot the bill to get back production on it as cheap as the HD-DVD promotion group touted. Especially that it will be proprietary and won't be used for anything but games.

Despite the current PR statements about BD, they'll be using it for the next console for sure.

 

[archie4oz]

Yay, an optical drive slower than BD-ROM... -__-

 

[eastmen]

Does it have to be slower than Bluray ?

As far as i'm aware both transfer at 4.5Mb/s its just that the minimum read speed for playback of video on hd dvd is 1x while its 1.5x on bluray

Now hd dvd is lower capacity, but apparently 17 gig discs were possible . So you could have 17 gig SL discs and 34 gb DL discs. DVD is 8.4 gigs. So you'd get 2 times increase in space up to a 4 times increase.

Realisticly Toshiba could create a new standard for MS based on HD DVD . They could perhaps increase the transfer rate at lower disc rotational speeds and who knows they might be able to bring discs up to 20 gigs.

I'm not so sure how bluray would affect things. Bluray drives are already at $200 and under. In another 2 years you shoudl be able to find players easily for $100 bucks.

I don't know how possible it is for them to use HD DVD at this point but who knows. They could get it very cheap and if it can't read bluray discs pirates are basicly SOL in copying games.

 

[I.S.T.]

You suggest people aren't doing other things with their Wii? I would suggest that the Wii is "another thing" than playing games. Half the games sold are non-games!

...

Let's not forget that many Wii owners own other consoles, and there is a minority of Wii owners who have hacked their Wiis and put media players on them.

 

[makattack]

I've long stopped buying DVDs... and won't ever go into the BD format. I'd much rather see an optical media-less option for next-gen with large HDDs in place.

 

[grandmaster]

It's an interesting idea with a lot of advantages but it's just not going to happen. Drive costs come down owing to volume. BD drives will be sold in volume so will be cheaper to make, HD DVD drives won't be.

There's also the small fact that 720 and PS4 will doubtless enter the market at the same time and at the same price. If one can play BD movies and the other can't, that will be a major marketing faux pas.

And by the way, the only reason pirate games are available on 360 is because the drive firmware was not encrypted. It is on PS3, and thus that particular line of hacking won't work.

 

[Arwin]

Also, there's the small matter that BD drives for future consoles could have significantly higher specs, both in terms of capacity (400GB for instance, which is a nice 8x fitting for a next-gen ) and speed. Especially the capacity bit probably isn't possible at all technically with HD-DVD, and even if it is the development costs will be far too expensive compared to BD where several companies have already passed the first prototype phase, some already more than a year ago.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

This is a good idea in theory, but why on earth shouldn't the X720 just use bluray? It will be cheaper, better and actually useful (since most likely most movies will be bluray releases in the future)

 

[Betanumerical]

I've long stopped buying DVDs... and won't ever go into the BD format. I'd much rather see an optical media-less option for next-gen with large HDDs in place.

You wont see this for atleast another generation, maybe even two. its just not feasible at the moment.

 

[assen]

400GB for instance, which is a nice 8x fitting for a next-gen

Nice 8x increase in art creation budgets? Good luck filling 400MB up... Maybe for GT6 in 2020

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Nice 8x increase in art creation budgets? Good luck filling 400MB up... Maybe for GT6 in 2020

Meh, just make a game with 2160p video cutscenes and 400GB should empty quickly enough

 

[geeQ]

Would be incredibly brave of Microsoft to release there next console with an HD-DVD drive, or indeed derivative of. I can see the internet headlines already: "Microsoft releases next gen console with dead disc format". Though the idea has a few advantages I'm afraid Microsoft would be handed their hat and shown to the nearest exit before their new console has even been allowed to show it's worth.