Microsoft to announce HD DVD at E3?
By Ryan Block 
posted April 20th 2006 4:30PM
posted April 20th 2006 4:30PM
So word on the street is Microsoft's
all set to announce the Xbox 360's external HD DVD drive at E3 -- which makes perfect sense, in all reality. They did,
after all, claim it
would be released "this year" when Gates unveiled their plans at CES, and since they launched the 360 at E3 last year,
they've got to have something to show off this year while Sony and Nintendo get closer to their respective
impending PlayStation 3 and Revolution launches. Chris Lewis, Microsoft Regional Vice
President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa sat down with Spiegel Online and let them know that we'll more than
likely be seeing an HD DVD announcement at E3 (in addition to that Xbox camera we heard
would launch next month), and alluded to the inclusion of HDCP compliance for the Xbox, which could only imply they'll
finally release that freaking DVI
cable. On the PS3 and Blu-ray, Lewis even volunteered that "Blu-ray right now reminds us of another technology
from Sony: Betamax." without even being directly asked. Oh, this war is on, friends, make no mistake about it, and
we'll see you at the battlegrounds of E3.[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Nice job Mr. Lewis, compare Blu-ray to betamax. Try not to forget that betamax beget betacam, which is still the STANDARD for the broadcast industry and has been since 1982.
new joystiq article, microsoft processor upgrade in 2007
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/21/xbox-360-to-get-cpu-upgrade-in-2007/
Although i don't favor one console over the other, i'm just in it for the love of a good time playing a few good games, i would rather have a Blu-Ray Disc XBOX 360 with HDMI 1.3 output rather than HD-DVD and component. But if MicroSoft won't do it, it's OK with me, if they feel that's the best they can produce, a console that's using D4/Component and displays at 720p resolution it's their lost against the upcoming heavy competition, not ours.
One thing i don't like is when manufacturers rush a product out with serious quality issues just to make a killing in the upcoming Holiday season Shop-a-Thon {2005}. Then claim nothing is wrong with their product when a lot of their consumers have stated otherwise, but will rapidly acknowledge there might be a "small problem" with the product's configuration software when the media is aware of it.
...And for everyone looking for that Oblivion game check out your local Costco Warehouses and http://www.costco.com for it. I saw that title on both 3-days ago.
Why all the hate lately?
Everyone just sit back, take a deep breath and relax.
America has got your back.
It is really easy to compare an electronics item that has been out for MONTHS to one that won't be out for MONTHS.
That's right Sonyfanbois, this kind of comparison is irrelevant.
Meanwhile, I applaud M$ for not jumping in to the fray- I like that HDDVD would be an addon because I don't want it! They chose instead to way beat Sony to the market. I want 3d realistic graphics! Not Dragon's Lair!! FMV huh????
Meanwhile, 360 is getting way ahead in terms of content available and ability for programmers to tweak the hardware.
The worst part of the 360 is the noise of the internal DVD- I would get an external if I could (quietly) play games on it. If you want to be fair, and few of you do, you won't compare items when one is not available any time soon.
The PS3 is going to be sicko- but at first they will be hard to get, have limited games released, cost more than 360, in short it will still be playing catch-up for a looong time.
With the amount of filler, I don't think games really need the extra gigs from blueray, not worth waiting an extra year for.
Final Fantasy is a game that require a lot of pre-rendered graphics for development of a story line. In order to render such scenes in HD and keep game contents in one disk, X360 version may inevitably suffer 480p resolution instead of 720p. The other consequence of X360's limit would be multiple discs. Other games of same genre will suffer the same predicament in X360 where PS3 will know of no such bounds.
Why are we arguing about two formats that aren't even out yet? Now, I have a 360, and let me tell you, it's going to be hard for Sony to beat. Not impossible, but hard. They act like Blu-Ray is going to save them, but really, it's going to come down to the system. I think they should pull a MS and make a regular version with a regualr DVD player and then have a Blu-Ray version for more that plays Blu-Ray movies.
On the debate between the formats, I don't really like either one more then the other. But from what I see, HD-DVD players are half the price and HD-DVDs are around $5 cheaper. I like the catalog a little better as well. It's really too early to tell which will win though.
As for the PS3/Blu-Ray vs. 360/HD-DVD thing, I honestly don't think this'll decide the war. I mean, the HD-DVD adapter is going to be an ugly external box, but if you want to save money, it'll probably be a good choice. And about the PS3 with Blu-Ray.. Sorry Sony, but all I see that doing is playing movies and raising the price of the PS3. At least MS made it optional by releasing it seperately, even if it is an ugly external box and is only for movies. As many people before have said: The DVD capacity isn't a problem for Microsoft. The PS3 might have an edge though, because if they want to make a bigger game, they'll be able to. But as another person said, it'll probably only be Sony-exclusive companies that use the extra space.
I hope both Microsoft and Sony's consoles succeed, it's going to be a close war though. Now, how about we wait and see what happens?
I can't believe people can't grasp this very simple concept. The reason blu-ray helps developers with its storage space is that a large amount of data can be put on the disc uncompressed and processor cycles retained from being devoted to deompression of that data.
Jon -
The attach rate for the original Xbox was not that high comparatively. The attach rate for the 360 was oddly very high.
I wonder if it had anything to do with people being forced to buy bundles to actually get their hands on one?
Jon -
The attach rate for the original Xbox was not that high comparatively. The attach rate for the 360 was oddly very high.
I wonder if it had anything to do with people being forced to buy bundles to actually get their hands on one?