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Now that the battle for HD media appears over with Blu-ray winning, I couldn’t help but wonder whether Microsoft would release a Blu-ray add-on similar to their HD-DVD player. Apparently, they will if users want it.
Arstechnica – January 9, 2008:
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Why do people keep asking this question, Microsoft said over a year ago that if HDDVD did not end up the format of choice that they would provide a Blu-ray addon if there was demand?
I’m surprised they don’t support VHS.
Once again, SN, in true Dvorak fashion, has posted a wholly inappropriate picture to go with this story.
Dammit, SN, you know the Xbox doesn’t use an old Atari joystick!
Jeez!
🙂
The 360 is a horrible DVD player anyways. Even the controls are backwards, requiring on-screen functions rather than the more streamlined, easy to use controller presses of the PS2.
But then again, it’s an improvement over the old Xbox, where you had to buy a $30 remote just to watch movies on it. While Sony had an optional $20 remote that was better.
looks like MS made a good call in not building HDDVD into the 360. well, they were due to get something right …
Where does dvorak find these crazy pictures?
#6 – True… But some third party Atari did…
Steel Cobra
The PS2 was an awful dvd player, $20 remote or not. Video quality stunk and it wouldn’t recognize a lot of disks.
The Xbox was better but only marginally so. It still had trouble with some disks.
Other than the noise (which i find to be overblown) what makes the 360 so horrible? They don’t require you to buy the remote, though there is the option. I’ve never put a disk in that it wouldn’t read, and the video quality is excellent. My only beef is that it wont upconvert except via VGA (or now HDMI). When my previous dvd player died, I never bothered getting another because the 360 did fine.
Who says Blu-ray is gonna win?
HD-DVD just created a combo disk where you flip the disk over and there is a 480p version on the other side that plays in you existing DVD player.
If they pull all the current HD-DVD’s & the DVD version from the shelfs and put out ONLY a “combo disk” for their titles & mixed them in with the rest of the DVD’s for $20..
Blue-ray well be left over in the corner all by themselves and we’ll soon forget about them.
No Sony controlled media format has ever won in the long term and I still doubt that BluRay will. It might beat HD-DVD but wither HDDVD gen 2 or another more open standard will eventually kill it. At this point it is very rare for either BR or HDDVD to be installed in a PC for data reasons (as opposed to media centers). This will be the driver for the true winner in the space as that is where the true volume is.
If you really want to bet on Sony let me say 4 words. Beta, Memory stick, AIT, Minidisc.
@4 – remind me again how well sony is doing again?
The pic is by Joe Pekar, that is one of his signature characters.
And why would you use the 360 for DVD playback at all? The fan is too freaking loud, I have to crank my volume to hear some movies above the fans from my 360 and the attached HD-DVD drive. I am not sure I would buy a blu-Ray attachment even if they offered one. Especially since by the time they get around to making one they should have stand-alones for sub $200.
#11. I am as keen to bash Sony’s ‘my way or the highway’ philosophy towards media formats as anyone, but lets not forget to add one to that list of formats Sony invented – the CD.
they may have bucked history with the BRD.
#4 The issue is about the HD playback, not DVD playback. HD is good, DVD sucks.
#15 – HD is good, DVD sucks.
What?
Why does DVD suck? DVD surely didn’t suck when it was new and all the videophile nerds were creaming their corduroys. It isn’t any different today than it was then, and it still looks and works better than any tape format could have dreamed of.
So HD and Blu-Ray come along, with their absurd format war, DRM, and the unfriendly need for firmware updates. (Firmware updates? To watch discs? Are you freaking kidding me?) Now, suddenly, DVD sucks?
DVD works and is a standard. That’s more than I can say for the new formats.
Also, and for some reason it gets very little coverage(I guess it would mean the blogging community would have to admit microsoft got something right…), BD drives take like 5 minutes to load and play a film.
#17. Actually, circa one minute on my PS3. much quicker BRD player than my Toshiba A2 loads HDDVDs.
#14.
Not surprising that the CD was the only Sony technology to date that was open and anyone could use it. It also contained no technology to limit its use to Sony licensed product only or DRM.
#14.
The CD was only allowed to successful as it was not developed solely by Sony, but was co-developed with Phillips. As Sony did not solely own the technology they could not limit its production and use the way they have every other technology they develop.
Compare this to LTO vs SuperDLT. SDLT won initially because Quantum had such a large install base to carry over from DLT (which itself killed the Sony developed AIT) and support from producers of tape libraries who could retool much easier. But because LTO was an open standard it had more developement support and eventually took over so that even Quantum now sells more LTO in its own tape libraries than SDLT.