ThreeDee
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If Blue-Ray wins the "format wars" .. could Microsoft make a Blue-Ray add-on drive like their HD-DVD player?
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Blue-Ray add-on player for X360 ..is it possible?
- Thread starter ThreeDee
- Start date
Possible? Yes, of course it is. Likely? Not a chance in hell because in spite of those who say "Blu-ray is not Sony's technology and many companies are behind it" there won't be any Blu-ray license issued to one of the biggest HD-DVD supporters. MS may eventually have to bite the bullet and go Blu-ray but it won't be with this round of consoles..
I really don't see either side winning. Think about it. VHSs were still coming out constantly after DVDs came out. And, LG, and someone else just came out with a multiple format player. One player that can play HD-DVDs, BLU-RAYs, DVDs... etc. So, I think they'll both be around for some time. It does suck though that some movies I want on HD, aren't on BLU-RAY, but are on HD-DVD.
StorageJoe
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Except that the LG player you mentioned is not an HD-DVD player. It is a BlueRay player that can play HD-DVD movies, but none of the interactive menus or HD audio tracks. On top of that it doesn't play CDs. Pretty weak.
Microsoft made a big mistake with their shun of Blu-ray. They are pretty much getting nothing back from HD DVD, other than extending this format war to give them time to try and attempt downloadable HD (which will never take off). Their biggest perk is small royalties from VC1, which Blu-ray is also capable of. However, most Studios now are going with AVC on BD, so once BD puts HD DVD in its grave, MS is going to have some butt kissing to do if they want royalties on the nexgen video format. Warner and Universal will probably be the last ones using VC1, which is a perfectly capable codec, but I'll gladly take AVC at the moment.
4saken
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Notice your HD-DVD intellitext points to the blu-ray site for a hi-def experience.
Its already over.
back on topic though, sure its possible to have BD on the 360, but it wont ever happen /thread
Its already over.
back on topic though, sure its possible to have BD on the 360, but it wont ever happen /thread
PikachuMan
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I don't see why they would. The HD-DVD drive was released mainly for political reasons, not any real desire to get into the movie hardware market. They see little revenue, if any, from the add-on itself, but that's not why they are selling it.
It is in Microsoft's best interest to keep the format war going (in appearance only, if necessary). We could see BD outselling HD-DVD by a 10:1 ratio, but we will never see a microsoft blu-ray drive.
It is in Microsoft's best interest to keep the format war going (in appearance only, if necessary). We could see BD outselling HD-DVD by a 10:1 ratio, but we will never see a microsoft blu-ray drive.
theDreamer
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Seeing as the war will probably not end for another year or so, it won't matter that much for the 360. Yet this is the reason why MS probably made there HD player external and did not include it in the system. This allows for the manufacturer of either HD or BR.
/Waits for both sides to lose and a dual layer emerges to over take both.
(Which is also in a reasonable price.)
/Waits for both sides to lose and a dual layer emerges to over take both.
(Which is also in a reasonable price.)
MrGuvernment
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VHS and DVD are not format wars
BETA and VHS were
DVDr +- were
HD is vs blueray
DVD will still be sold while HD and blueray are being sold.
multi players will come out, and it is not likely for MS to run over to blueray with sony, not anytime soon at least.
Downloadable HD content will never take off?
That's very short-sighted of you. While it may take ten years or more, that's definitely the course the world is taking.
Then again, that downloadable music thing never took off, either. After all, Apple, Inc is now only the country's fourth largest music retailer.
4saken
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Downloading 4 mb in 1 minute vs 16gb in 2 hrs. Big difference.
It might catch on a bit, but before it catches on like a plague something needs to be done with our internet pipes.
I honestly think you don't understand nearly as much about this as you think you do. Microsoft is competing with sony and nintendo in the console wars. What is one of the
ps3s possible big draws? cheap high def player. Just looking at this from a console war this was a very smart move... high def for the same price as the ps3 core. Sony controls most if not all of the large production facilities for bluray discs, so if you were thinking of arguing that MS would have made a smart move to put an addon bluray player with the 360, no that just helps sony again. So, from that one move they take away from sony and get people who were on the line between the 360 and ps3 to possible get a 360 instead... vc1 is a way better format than avc, so MS is going to make huge money regardless of who wins the war... so tell me again how they messed up?
4saken
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VC1 is not a way better "format" than AVC. They are actually comparable. Its the tools that are available for VC1 that right now seem to make it a better choice. And some BD studios are starting to use VC1 now anyway, which we all know MS probably gets royalties for, but wouldnt that also give them a door into switch over to BD in the future if HDDVD really stays in losing mode?
PCMusicGuy
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Comparable in terms of picture quality, yes. But VC1 uses less space to achieve the same IQ as AVC so I can see why many would believe it's the better format. As far as the format war goes, if studios went completely neutral there wouldn't be a format war. HD DVD is cheaper for the studios and produces identical results.
Like I said, it will take time. You said "never".
Seven years ago, the standard connection you would get for a reasonable price was around 768kb. Now it's around 3mb. In five more years, it could be around 5-10mb. Still behind the curve of what it should be, but it's improving.
Remember that for movie downloading to work, all you need is for your connection to d/l faster than the movie plays. And some connections are already there, in a few years most will be.
ellover009
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I think you would need HDMI port on the 360 to obtain enough bandwich to handle the video and uncompressed high def audio, Another problem would be that Microsoft is not on the developer list for Blue Ray, they developed HD-DVD so they don't want it to fail, they are not going to sell for their competitors.
I might also like to add to your argument that xbox live marketplace movies have done VERY well in sales. Also on demand movies doing well too.
DragonMasterAlex
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Nonsense, MS's support of HD-DVD was a brilliant tactical maneuver. See, it makes no difference to MS which format wins--their codecs are part of the spec for BOTH formats, so no matter which side sells a movie, they make a profit. However, such is not the case for Sony. If a Bluray movie sells, Sony turns a profit, if an HD-DVD movie sells, Sony gets dick.
More importantly, having this format war on the minds of consumers creates doubt, and people are well aware that Sony's never done well backing any major proprietary format. By backing HD-DVD MS has helped give that format serious leverage in the marketplace and the consumer mindspace. Consumers are leary of *both* formats right now, which is automatically a weak point for PS3 and for Sony as a whole, whereas for Microsoft HD-DVD is nothing but strength. If their customers don't want it, they don't have to risk the $200, if they do, they're free to do so at their choosing.
Let's face it, if Bluray tanks, PS3 will be the laughing stock of the game industry. It's still way too early to tell what the outcome is going to be (looks like HD and Bluray are pretty well tied at the moment, which is pretty impressive as comebacks go for Bluray's side), but both formats are still a tiny fraction of the movie market.
Whatever else one can think about the formats, the war and the various positions staked, you can't argue that MS's position wasn't well thought-out. they know EXACTLY what they're doing.
MS's release of a HD-DVD drive was essentially a FUD move. As has been stated, they wanted to created uncertainty in the marketplace of who the winner was going to be so that Sony couldnt sell tons more PS3s based on the Blu-ray value premise.
Persoanlly I think it was a good move on MS part as it make them look cheaper and lets them focus on the videogame market instead of making forays into areas where they dont make as much.
Going forward, before you get Blu-ray/HD-DVD adoption on a mass scale, you first need peopl to jump into HDTV which is still rather expensive. Neither format has won or come close to even winning a major battle as the marketplace is still tiny for HD content.
As the owner of a 1080i/720p PLasma 42", believe me when I say, there isnt JACK in HD content atm.
If the battle takes too long then either a dual format solution, either via disc or via player (both ahve been proposed) will win or we will simply skip to the next gen.
VHS vs BEtamax, Betamax was superior and sitll lost. Betamax had an early lead as I recall.
DVDs, the +/- R was a trivial concern as most all players played DVDs for playback. Mind you, DVDs took off b/c a DVD is light years beyond a VHS or BEtamax. Neither BR nor HD-DVD is as far beyond a standard DVD as DVD was to VHS/Betamax. DVDs are now cheap, look damn good on upconverting systems (most HD tvs are at this point), and there is no price justification for the premiums HD-DVD/BR demand givne their nominal improvement. And yes I ahve watched content side by side from both DVD and HD discs, on the same TV with same settings (this is key as I dsicovered when shopping for a HDTV that many salespeople intentionally crap out the input signal and settings on the DVD side to exaggerate the improvement).
In short, HD-DVD/BR vs DVD is not a good value atm and adding in the format war, neither side is likely to make any substantial progress for the next 3 years. By then we may have compeltely different solutions coming out so...
Persoanlly I think it was a good move on MS part as it make them look cheaper and lets them focus on the videogame market instead of making forays into areas where they dont make as much.
Going forward, before you get Blu-ray/HD-DVD adoption on a mass scale, you first need peopl to jump into HDTV which is still rather expensive. Neither format has won or come close to even winning a major battle as the marketplace is still tiny for HD content.
As the owner of a 1080i/720p PLasma 42", believe me when I say, there isnt JACK in HD content atm.
If the battle takes too long then either a dual format solution, either via disc or via player (both ahve been proposed) will win or we will simply skip to the next gen.
VHS vs BEtamax, Betamax was superior and sitll lost. Betamax had an early lead as I recall.
DVDs, the +/- R was a trivial concern as most all players played DVDs for playback. Mind you, DVDs took off b/c a DVD is light years beyond a VHS or BEtamax. Neither BR nor HD-DVD is as far beyond a standard DVD as DVD was to VHS/Betamax. DVDs are now cheap, look damn good on upconverting systems (most HD tvs are at this point), and there is no price justification for the premiums HD-DVD/BR demand givne their nominal improvement. And yes I ahve watched content side by side from both DVD and HD discs, on the same TV with same settings (this is key as I dsicovered when shopping for a HDTV that many salespeople intentionally crap out the input signal and settings on the DVD side to exaggerate the improvement).
In short, HD-DVD/BR vs DVD is not a good value atm and adding in the format war, neither side is likely to make any substantial progress for the next 3 years. By then we may have compeltely different solutions coming out so...
Archaea
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Huh?
HDMI is just a type of connector that outputs video and audio together...it has nothing to do with bandwidth compression.
PikachuMan
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He specially said uncompressed audio, which means using either HDMI or some analog connections. Optical audio output just does not have enough bandwidth for multichannel LPCM, so it just isn't possible with the current Xbox360.
MrGuvernment
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Considering in Europe you can get 100mb fiber lines to your front door for about $50US equiv.
Soon north america will be like that and an 11G HD DVD movie or larger wll take nothing.