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

[jonesbruce91361]

I thought HD DVD and HD Blue-Ray were pertinet concerns on this site. I think a lot of people would like to know what XBox 360's new external drive is especially if it concerns Blu-Ray as the quality of both of the HD DVD formats are going to have a big impact on the comparison quality of all satellite systems.

 

[T2k]

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?

Yes, you did.

Your X360 has an everyday DVD drive only. HD-DVD is only an upcoming exteernal add-on for X360.

 

[jonesbruce91361]

You're SURE about this? I was also told all or most of the xBox 360 games were made in HD and would play as HD on an HD set! The demo I saw at Best Buy certainly looked HD. Man this is a bummer...

 

[charper1]

http://news.com.com/Xbox+specs+revealed/2100-1043_3-5705372.html

1/2 way down:

Digital Media Support
• Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD
• Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PCs
• Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive • Custom playlists in every game
• Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
• Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers

High-Definition Game Support
• All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing
• Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported

Audio
• Multichannel surround sound output
• Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio
• 320 independent decompression channels
• 32-bit audio processing
• Over 256 audio channels

 

[Ilya]

You're SURE about this? I was also told all or most of the xBox 360 games were made in HD and would play as HD on an HD set! The demo I saw at Best Buy certainly looked HD. Man this is a bummer...

The games themselves are HD, but they are downloaded (as programs) from a regular DVD drive. Current xBox 360 does not have an HD DVD drive.

 

[T2k]

The games themselves are HD, but they are downloaded (as programs) from a regular DVD drive. Current xBox 360 does not have an HD DVD drive.

Exactly.

It's essentially the same as I play HD off regular DVDs with my Snazio SZ-1350 HD DVD player.

 

[BobMurdoch]

At the time they released the final specs on the 360, the HD DVD spec was still not set. There was no way they could release the 360 unless they went to a standard drive.

The HD DVD upgrade will only be for playback of movies..... They have stated they will not sell HD DVD only games as too much of the original base would not be able to play them.....

 

[T2k]

At the time they released the final specs on the 360, the HD DVD spec was still not set. There was no way they could release the 360 unless they went to a standard drive.
[quotq]

Wrong. HD-DVD uses regular internal interface, no need for any special preparedness. Also HD-DVD had its interconnection standards set long time ago.

The HD DVD upgrade will only be for playback of movies..... They have stated they will not sell HD DVD only games as too much of the original base would not be able to play them.....

Not only that but it's completely unnecessary: a dual layer DVD9 for few bucks is more than enough for a game.

 

[toto]

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

This is what the entire battle was all about. It had nothing to do with more capacity vs. backward compatability. It had nothing to do with the future vs. cost. IT had and has to do with control of the gaming market. We've all been duped.

 

[DrWho]

XBox 360 games will not be made ON HD DVD media. There is no point.

Some of you are confusing the Video Out of XBox 360 for games and HDef content. That does not equate to an HDDVD reader/player. XBox games last gen were also in HIDef, at least some of them. But that's purely resolution, not HD Content in the form of a Movie.

2 seperate things.