Breaking news: External HD DVD drive for Xbox 360 just announced!

[Ilya]

At CES-2006 Microsoft has just announced plans to deliver a new Xbox 360 external HD DVD drive in 2006. The new drive will offer millions of Xbox 360 owners the ability to easily enjoy HD DVD movies and will provide consumers with even more choices for experiencing high-definition content, in either physical or digital form.

See Microsoft's Press Release for details.

 

[Ilya]

Moving this to the HDTV Equipment Forum

 

[T2k]

Well, for me it's the same like no PS3 on CES: nothing surprising...

 

[BobMurdoch]

It all comes down to cost. Does this mean that they will make games in an HD DVD format or is it only good for playing back HiDef movies? (The DVD player in the 360 is just OK, a few have noted excessive jaggies and other issues on DVD playback).

 

[vurbano]

It means they will charge you 300 dollars for a 100 dollar 250 gig HD probably. Or maybe charge you 200 for an 80 gig drive. LOL

 

[BobMurdoch]

Maybe not, they charged me $399 for an XBox360 that it took them $740 to produce (+ don't forget the freight and the vig to the retailer). Don't underestimate Bill's desire to spank Sony down hard (and helping to weaken PS3 and BluRay which will generate huge profits for Sony if adopted in levels similar to DVD).

 

[T2k]

It all comes down to cost. Does this mean that they will make games in an HD DVD format or is it only good for playing back HiDef movies? (The DVD player in the 360 is just OK, a few have noted excessive jaggies and other issues on DVD playback).

HD-DVD, unlike Blu-Ray, was always backward compatible with current DVDs, CDs.

 

[T2k]

It means they will charge you 300 dollars for a 100 dollar 250 gig HD probably. Or maybe charge you 200 for an 80 gig drive. LOL

WTH are you talking about? This topic is about HD-DVD drive which is an optical disk drive... your comment doesn't make any sense.

 

[jbcheshire]

I think Vurbano has been reading toooo many posts lately and was thinking of the external hard disk drive that Dish is talking about releasing for their hardware....

 

[T2k]

Yeah, that's possible...

 

[Stargazer]

I saw that on Attack of the Show tonight where they were going to launch this. Did anyone see where Bill Gates was showing off a few things that will happen by the end of this decade? He had this cell phone and when you put it on this table it lit up the table (like a projector would show up on a screen) and he had this business card that when he layed it down it lit the table up then he moved the card screen into the phone screen with the card. It had a desktop on the table where you could access the internet. Seems pretty high tech.

Could we be using cell phones as computers and televisions in the future and be carrying a wireless keyboard to type information into the screen displayed upon things in front of us?

 

[pez419]

What MS is really doing is that they expect us to pay for the 360 and the external HD-DVD. To me its a rip off I rather wait for ps3 (with built in blu-ray) and besides ps3 is gonna be so much better than 360 (maybe, exept for playing online.)

 

[T2k]

Oh, pleahhhse. Let's not get into this "ps3 is gonna be so much better"-styled crap.

PS3 won't be out for another 6 months - until then PS3 is vaporware.

 

[pez419]

It really is still just vaporware but to be honest I hate MS and rather stick with sony. But in 6 months it really is gonna be better then 360.

 

[BobMurdoch]

I saw that on Attack of the Show tonight where they were going to launch this. Did anyone see where Bill Gates was showing off a few things that will happen by the end of this decade? He had this cell phone and when you put it on this table it lit up the table (like a projector would show up on a screen) and he had this business card that when he layed it down it lit the table up then he moved the card screen into the phone screen with the card. It had a desktop on the table where you could access the internet. Seems pretty high tech.
Could we be using cell phones as computers and televisions in the future and be carrying a wireless keyboard to type information into the screen displayed upon things in front of us?

It looked like the phone projected a keyboard on the table and you typed it like real keys as it sensed the finger movement. Then again, maybe it was one of those "electronic paper" type boards that had sensors in it that sensed where you tapped the keys and synced up with the phone to overlay the key locations. Who knows? Heady stuff though......

 

[BobMurdoch]

Oh, pleahhhse. Let's not get into this "ps3 is gonna be so much better"-styled crap.

PS3 won't be out for another 6 months - until then PS3 is vaporware.

And if they ship that thing at $499-$599 like people are predicting it could seriously damage the adoption of the new platform. Sony doesn't like to give things away below cost, but we'll see..... At the very least they will have to make up a 3-5 million user deficit when they do launch (I expect them to launch in Japan first for several months - I'm guessing it wil be an XMas 2006 item)

 

[T2k]

It really is still just vaporware but to be honest I hate MS and rather stick with sony. But in 6 months it really is gonna be better then 360.

SOny is MUCH WORST than MS.
I'm the last one to defend MS, believe me but Sony is MUCH WORST, I'm telling you. This last rootkit case was only the tip of the iceberg - Sony should DIE.

 

[T2k]

And if they ship that thing at $499-$599 like people are predicting it could seriously damage the adoption of the new platform. Sony doesn't like to give things away below cost, but we'll see..... At the very least they will have to make up a 3-5 million user deficit when they do launch (I expect them to launch in Japan first for several months - I'm guessing it wil be an XMas 2006 item)

Sony is already bleeding heavily, due to their lack of invention for more than a decade and their very arrogant loser @sshole market attitude.
I doubt they could afford to sell PS3 under $499 when standalone players will be selling for $799-899 as it rumoured they will be selling at, unless BDE can pull some serious trick to lower the enouormous manufacturing costs of Blu-Ray drives. Even in that case that trick most likely will be helping HD-DVD as well, so I expect HD-DVD to be always cheaper than Blu-Ray.

BTW I think first reaction will from MS when they will put HD-DVD into X360 the very next week.

 

[jonesbruce91361]

Forgive me if I'm being obstuse here, but my understanding when I bought my son the XBox360 for Christmas, was that an HD DVD drive was ALREADY built in-- i.e. XBox elected to go HD DVD whereas Playstation 3 is going Blu-Ray. The announcement of the new "external drive" was supposed--by some at least--to perhaps be a Blu-Ray add, which would cover XBox in both formats should won format win out over the other in the coming format war. Did I get hosed here with more Best Buy misinformation?

 

[korsjs]

let's try to stay away from ps3 vs 360. start a new thread if you guys want to discuss.