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262 Comments
- peestandingup, on 10/10/2008, -10/+92Microsoft is counting on streaming movies via Netflix & other sources. I think its the right choice, personally.
- Chrino, on 10/10/2008, -0/+71"A blogger going by the name of 'Major Nelson'..."
I guess James Sherwood doesn't report on Xbox news very much. - Smokeydabear, on 10/10/2008, -1/+34I'm still waiting for VHS support for the regular Xbox.
- inactive, on 10/10/2008, -2/+31I can't wait for my compressed "HD" content.
- eSentrik, on 10/10/2008, -7/+36I always thought the external, USB connected HD-DVD drive was a great idea. Why not a Blu-Ray verison? They will eventually need to come up with something as the masses slowly make the transition to High Definition content.
In the mean time, I am pretty content with connecting my external hard drive (loaded with HD Divx movies) to my xbox. - HappyScrappy, on 10/10/2008, -3/+24The truth is no match for the internet. Expect to see a slightly mutated version of this rumor in under a month.
- jvincent08, on 10/10/2008, -6/+23It will hurt MS's pride.
- IronTek, on 10/10/2008, -1/+17There's still the matter of a Blu-Ray PLAYER that would be needed for the Xbox 360 for it to be able to play movies, even if it would recognize the drive as a device.
- asskey, on 10/10/2008, -1/+17You think the ISPs will let us use that much bandwidth once it becomes widespread?
- enochthewalker, on 10/10/2008, -8/+24This guy is exactly right. With HDDVD gone, why invest in a new media that will be dead in 2 years, if not sooner. Digital HD downloads are the future and will continue to grow with expansion of hd sets and broadband.
- jvincent08, on 10/10/2008, -4/+19It's Microsoft. They don't *need* to do anything. And they won't, simply to make a point.
- Nezacant, on 10/10/2008, -1/+14The last paragraph says a lot.
"Blu-ray also took a beating from Blockbuster Video last month, when the firm's CFO, Thomas Casey, hinted that wholesale and retail prices of Blu-ray films has slowed consumer adoption."
So true. If blu-ray wants more people to make the move from DVDs they need to drop the price. - PatoLucas, on 10/10/2008, -3/+16[Citation needed]
- nickels, on 10/10/2008, -7/+18It least that rumor didn't take long to die... I just read about that yesterday!
I have a PS3 and all I use it for is watching Blu-ray movies. Not saying the PS3 isn't great for gaming, just they should really rethink their stance. - Schu, on 10/10/2008, -0/+11That i can agree with. The price is still too high.
- xsecretfiles, on 10/10/2008, -0/+10So are you stuck with VHS or Beta?
- fanclerks, on 10/10/2008, -1/+10Although streaming movies is nice feature and good to have, it still doesn't even remotely compare to the quality available with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD discs. You're talking about a >5Mbps stream used for the streaming movie. Compare that to Blu-Ray which is somewhere in the range of ~20Mbps. You're losing a lot of quality and features with streamed content vs. disc content.
Also, you don't get 1080p streamed. Most streamed movies are 720p compressed to hell. - jer21, on 10/10/2008, -1/+10Because they don't want to push Sony's tech, and they want to push HD content downloads...just my opinion.
- staticneuron, on 10/10/2008, -3/+12Xbox 360 doesn't have the power to decode 40 Mbits/s H.264 stream in 100% software as confirmed by Microsoft insiders at avsforum, 29 Mbits/s H.264 stream for HD-DVD was tough enough.
The decoding and transfer rates were never similar between the two hardware. Do you even know what you are talking about? - specialK16, on 10/10/2008, -3/+11he is getting dug down because he doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about.
- GreatDrok, on 10/10/2008, -0/+8OK, let's consider it. SD-DVD is 720x480 pixels which is 345,600 pixels. HD-DVD and BD are both 1920x1080 which is 2,073,600 pixels (the much touted 6x resolution). However, what does that actually mean? Well, you get about 2.7x as many pixels across your screen and 2.25x vertically. DVD was always lacking in horizontal resolution since to have square pixels it should have been 853 across for a widescreen display. Anyway, basically a 1080p movie is going to look about 2.5x more detail than a DVD that has been scaled. An upscaler cannot create new detail, it can process the scaled image to make it look more detailed but it can't add information that isn't there. However, the quality of the scaler can make a big difference since you have to scale the image and smooth any edges.
I should say now, I have an HD projection system, upscaling HDMI DVD player and an HD DVD player (no BD yet, region coding is keeping me away) and there is no way that any upscaled DVD can compete with the HD DVD player if you compare them. However, for watching films on an HD screen, an upscaler doesn't do a bad job and the film can be enjoyed. But it isn't HD.
BD is too expensive (discs and players) at the moment but then so were LDs, and then DVDs. The price will come down and the choice will increase. All HD DVD and BD have really done is stop me buying DVDs. Now I rent more. - gabbagabbahey, on 10/10/2008, -2/+10Playing a Blu-Ray movie would probably cause it to overheat anyways.
- Stemnin, on 10/10/2008, -0/+8Cave paintings.
- MikeSobe, on 10/10/2008, -0/+8As good as streaming over XBL is it would be nice if it could do both.
- Pandalume, on 10/10/2008, -1/+9Given that my broadband tops out around 1 MBps (I live in a rural area far from the DSL hub) I don't think I will be making the switch to downloadable HD any time soon. That may change if I can get some decent broadband speed though...
- oldhick, on 10/10/2008, -2/+9The shame is that HD-DVD's were cheap!
- JohnnyDIGGme, on 10/10/2008, -2/+9They're mostly right. People were never buying Xbox 360's to use primarily as HD DVD players the way people are buying PS3's to play BluRay.
- protogenxl, on 10/10/2008, -1/+8You think he would at least run major nelson thru wikipedia.
- Dylson, on 10/10/2008, -2/+9Just one question: Why wouldn't they?
- psychoace, on 10/10/2008, -2/+9Wow unless they changed there encoder or algorithms the quality on XBL is crap compared to a blu ray disc or even a good h264 release
- Schu, on 10/10/2008, -5/+12I am sorry i think that Microsoft is making a big mistake. I am not going to wait for a HD movie to DL when i can go buy it. I think that yes the future might be digital downloads but there are still alot of things that need to change first
. The USA needs to get faster INTERNET for cheaper first, then i can see the DL of movies and games increase alot more. Not only that but i like having movies on disk. Its nice to have a collection and be able to pull one out and watch it.
Not only that but Microsoft making you have to buy there hard drives to use in the Xbox360. Thats just so dumb. I would DL a HD movie on my PS3 before my Xbox360 because i can upgrade the PS3 to what ever HD i want, when ever i want to.
This is coming from a person who has a PS3 , Xbox 360, Wii and a Server that I use to stream videos to both the PS3 and the Xbox360. So i mean i know about digital down loads, but i feel its not right yet, and people still like to have DVD's in there DVD cases. I mean i still do. - TehProphet, on 10/10/2008, -6/+12It seems kinda stupid not to, if they sold it at $150 then 360 arcade+blu ray would be cheaper than a PS3, pretty much taking away PS3s one big advantage. Just as long as they don't make blue ray exclusive games then it would be cool with me, give people an option as to whether they want it or not.
- da_bradler, on 10/10/2008, -0/+6they will never come out with a blu-ray drive because the second they do Sony will jump all over them "unlike some gaming consoles ours comes with a built in blu-ray player, and when you add the price of a 360 plus blu-ray addon it is substantially more expensive then our PS3 at $399, once again showing what an incredible value our PlayStation is"
Microsoft knows that's exactly what they will say and it would completely undermine there pricing advantage.
simple fact is, if people REALLY want a blu-ray player they will get a PS3, almost nobody will want to screw around with a add on drive that would most likely cost near 200 dollars. if they do release a drive the majority of people who would be buying it would be people who already own a 360, and since Microsoft gets no money from the sale of blu-ray disks I doubt selling a couple hundred thousand drives would really be worth the potential lose of sales due to being a worse bluray player then the other console.
Microsoft position simply is "we don't give a ***** about Blu-ray and neither should you" but if they start selling an add on drive then the message gets a lot more complicated - daridave, on 10/10/2008, -3/+9Same here. I have the PS3's BD capability, and this is not a rant against Blu-Ray, but all my movies I watch on my 360. How? wireless streaming of DivX movies which the machine upscales very, very well on my 42" . Seriously now, I could be watching movies in 1080p and I'm actually streaming DivX. NO, the quality is really NOT the same, but I honestly don't need that extra detail to enjoy my movie... oh and yeah, you know, there's that other thing... it's called... free (money and hassle-wise)
- blapierre, on 10/10/2008, -2/+8"As-is, anything over 4GB (like many HD movies) can't be stored on NTFS"
WTF kind of gimped implementation of NTFS are you using? NTFS supports files up to 16 tebibytes. - Elranzer, on 10/10/2008, -1/+7Sony doesn't own Blu-Ray and they're not the only ones who build the drives. Other companies (Pioneer, Samsung, etc) manufacture Blu-Ray BD-ROM drives and could manufacture the 360's drive without Sony making 1¢ off of it.
That said, it doesn't really matter. It's not like Sony doesn't sell Vaios with Microsoft Windows on them... - Krusty, on 10/10/2008, -0/+6It would also be good if they could work out the licensing issues around the world. Being all streaming digital is great if you live in the USA, but here in Canada we can't get to all the content yet, and who knows if we ever will.
For that reason alone I wish I could get a Blu-Ray drive for my 360 - inactive, on 10/10/2008, -0/+6Black and white cave paintings.
- ASSASSYN360, on 10/10/2008, -1/+7The next blu-ray Xbox 360 rumour is due in 39 days 13h:08m:05s.
- UselessTrivia, on 10/10/2008, -3/+8First: It comes with the remote.
Second: It was cheaper than every other HD-DVD player on the market. It had all the functionality of any other HD DVD player, with the exception of output ports...you were limited to whatever your xbox could do...which now consists of Component HD, HDMI, and VGA, plus optical out. (yes, it is possible to do HDMI and optical audio simultaneously...you just have to break the plastic off the standard video plug so both cables can be plugged in at once).
Third: It eliminated the primary problem of using a videogame system as a movie player, which is wearing out the optical drive. Tons of PS2s were ruined by having the drives burnt out from playing movies all the time. Separating the two functions means you can't ruin your console for games by watching movies. - BuckCynnie, on 10/10/2008, -6/+11I love Blu-ray, but I am half deaf and have a 50" plasma...so visuals are important. SD and even upscaled DVD's drive me batty.
- CrimsonBlur, on 10/10/2008, -1/+6VC-1 is not a ***** codec. Hating everything Microsoft just because you like to hate on them is silly, they have good products and good technologies.
- primaldefense, on 10/10/2008, -0/+5Oh yeah, I will have to agree with that, its the whole reason I am avoiding blue ray still.
- inactive, on 10/10/2008, -1/+6Get a better set-up. A proper up-scaler and good display does wonders for SD content. I've watched some DVD's recently that I honestly couldn't tell weren't high-def.
Sorry about your hearing though man, that would suck. If it makes you feel any better, most of the music coming out blows. And all the really cool advancements in the next few years are going to be in the visual department anyways (3D displays, wrap-around, etc..) - Flagg3, on 10/10/2008, -1/+6While I agree that digital distribution is the future of move RENTALS, it's silly to think that digital downloads will supplant discs for movie purchases anytime in the near future.
A good example is music. Even now that DRM is finally starting to be done away with, music CDs still far outsell music downloads, and music is far more portable and the infrastructure is in place to play mp3s anywhere. Contrast that to movies, where the bandwidth limitations make it much more limited, and even when that isn't an issue the quality is always far lower due to lower bitrates and resolution when compared to a 40+GB blu-ray disc. Combine that with awful DRM for movies and poor value for movie downloads and you wind up with very little advantage to downloading over buying a physical disc. Plus, people always seem to forget that physical media will always have a place for the simple reason that people love to actually own something physical, and wrapping a shiny blu-ray disc up makes a much better gift than a download credit of some sort.
The fact is that the biggest competitor to blu-ray is DVD - not digital distribution. There will be a huge market for physcial media for years to come - whether it's blu-ray or not I can't say - but it certainly isn't going to be supplanted by digital unless the entire digital infrastructure changes completely to an ultra fast, non restrictive cloud where your movies can be played anywhere and transferred anywhere. Until then digital will have it's place with people like the 'Digg' crowd, but not the mainstream in any large numbers. - oldhick, on 10/10/2008, -5/+10Site a source. Decoding a bluray movie is no more difficult than HD DVD.
- Recidivus, on 10/10/2008, -0/+5So some blogger thinks it won't have br it MUST be true! Maybe he got some inside knowledge while blogging about the Flowbee...
Care to link to anything remotely close to official? - iritegood, on 10/10/2008, -0/+5He's thinking FAT32.
- jiggawatt, on 10/10/2008, -0/+5Now that i'm out of school with money and wanting to invest in the latest gen consoles, I'm also looking at migrating to HD quality movies as well. One player does both, one does not. I honestly prefer the 360 for games for many reasons, but I am not willing to buy seperate systems. This is why I'll end up buying a PS3 and I had hoped Microsoft would wake up. They're essentially ignoring a lot of potential customers because of this. I am a perfect example. I just wont buy a seperate blu-ray player and gaming console at this time, not when one does both for nearly the same price. Streaming content might be great when broadband quality increases.
- ArisSlatr, on 10/10/2008, -3/+8Most tech people can tell you HD-DVD was superior as far as cost and scalability were concerned. The problem is that when a movie distribution company like Sony owns the format their pushing(and a popular video game system), they instantly have one movie company that will obviously give in to blu-ray right away(themselves). It really is a shame since the real victim of all of this is the consumer.
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