CES HD-DVD press conference canceled?
Category: Xbox 360, Posted: 01/04/2008 at 10:08PM CST by Brendon Lindsey, Editor-in-Chief
Alright, I know this isn't technically gaming-specific news, but I'm making it fit since there IS an HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, and frankly, I like movies and this kind of stuff interests me.
As you probably guessed from the title, a short while ago the HD-DVD Promotions Group sent out an email to all the media invited to the CES announcing that they're indefinitely postponing their press conference at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show due to the Warner Bros. Blu-ray announcement. The email stated:
"Based on the timing of the Warner Home Video announcement today, we have decided to postpone our CES 2008 press conference scheduled for Sunday, January 6th at 8:30 p.m. in the Wynn Hotel. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps. We believe the consumer continues to benefit from HD DVD's commitment to quality and affordability - a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format.
We'll continue to keep you updated on new developments around HD DVD."
Obviously the HD-DVD camp is reeling after Warner's earlier announcement, but is this really the right move? HD-DVD hopefuls would have liked to see some word at the CES about what they have to look forward to--not see the promotional group hide in their booth. Is there any doubt after this announcement that HD-DVD is as good as done for in the movie market? If so, I wonder how much of a fight Sony would put up if Microsoft happened to release an Xbox 360 Blu-ray add-on...
How many people here bought the HD-DVD add-on for their Xbox 360, and if you did are you regretting it?
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Well I didn't buy it simply because of the degredation that you get as a result of pumping movies through USB. I'm incredibly happy now that HD-DVD is pretty much dead and that Blu-Ray is the future. Damn shame too, it also brings about an end to Microsoft's unrealistic plans for digital dominion.
I'm really surprised by Blu-Ray's success. I always thought it would fail miserably, but the gamble appears to have paid off.
The keyword is "postpone." It seems understandable that they would react this way with Warner abandoning them so close to the start of CES 2008. The announcement likely had a ripple effect on other supporting studios as well. I know Universal was looking into BluRay replication.
Anyway, if this means the end of the format war, I'll be glad. Though I'm not surprised, I am a bit sad that HD DVD lost since I liked many of their unique features such as ethernet support and interactivity. Hopefully, they'll be integrated into BluRay technology.
I own the add-on HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360. It would of been nice to have it implemented from the start, but movies look stellar nonetheless. I think that Microsoft will eventually announce this hybrid product down the line, maybe in a year or so. Does that mean that games will solely be made on HD-DVD discs and the DVD-9 format abandoned? I am hoping yes. Todays games need more storage capacity and will of course benefit form true hi-def. Just imagine what Gears Of War will look like on HD-DVD!
This is a shame, as what the Playstation 3 did for Blu-Ray, the Xbox 360 could do even more for HD-DVD. With a higher number Xbox 360 adopters, i think that Hd-dvd would flourish, not to mention the existing Xbox 360 user base will possibly upgrade this newer model, especially when it is announced that it has the newer Falcon chip.
But, Microsoft should of made this model from the start, instead of releasing a sub-par 360 in the first place.
The problem is that in 2005 the format wasn't even really ready to go. MS felt they needed to get the jump on Sony to win the console market. Little did they know just how much that console market victory, by no means a monopoly, has cost them. They're not going to be able to sow the seeds of consumer confusion much longer, and the world stays with disc media.
Wonder if this has anything to do with it the delay?
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3165235
I doubt it. Companies are always looking at the next big thing.
maybe if the xbox 360 included the HD DVD player with the system for free it might make it...
Blu-Ray> HD DVD
Microsoft would have been stupid to include an HDDVD player in the 360. It would have meant a huge increase in the price of the 360. Not only would the HDDVD drive itself cost vastly more than the current DVD drive, but it probably would have necessitated making the HDD standard rather than optional because the first generation HDDVD drive would have been much slower than the DVD drives that are in there. And all that's not even considering what YukoAsho said about the format not being ready. Microsoft has invested in HDDVD, but not nearly to the same extent that it's invested in the 360. If HDDVD disappears, it won't be a huge loss for Microsoft.
I bought the 360 HDDVD addon. I'm disappointed by the news for sure, but none of this stops my current HDDVDs from looking amazing. As far as I understand, there's no 'degredation' in quality just because it transferrs the raw data over USB as YukoAsho states. All the rendering work is done on the main 360 box anyway, so I don't think there's any room for degredation. It's just raw bytes at that stage, right?
All this means is that there's a dual-format player in my future, so I can watch my existing HDDVD library and future Bluray releases as well.
"Well I didn't buy it simply because of the degredation that you get as a result of pumping movies through USB."
What degradation is that? USB 2.0 has a bandwidth of 60 megabytes per second, 480 mbps--48 standard movie DVDs streamed simultaneously, or 10 HD DVDs at maximum video+audio+subtitles bitrate.
The USB output on the HDDVD add-on isn't an issue at all. For one thing, USB 2.0 can handle streams over 48MB/s and, like Corvall said, all of the processing is done by the console itself.
I hope a dual format player will be announced and offered in the near future at a competitive price. After Warner and New Line Cinema made the switch, Sony raised the prices on their entry level BD player, the BDP-S300, from $299 to $399.
^There's a typo at the end of my first paragraph. I meant 480MB/s.