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Word on the street is that it will retail for around $200

Microsoft has again showed off its standalone HD DVD player for the XBOX 360. Whereas Sony decided to include its Blu-ray drive as standard equipment on the PlayStation 3, Microsoft decided not to force HD DVD on customers and instead provides it as an option. For those that choose to pursue that option, word on the street is that it will come in at around $200.

While some consumers may scoff at a $200 add-on for the XBOX 360, one must consider that set top HD DVD players are retailing for $430 to $500 while Blu-ray players cost anywhere from $840 to $1,000. For those that have an XBOX 360 and want to add high-definition movies to their library, it's a relatively cheap (all things considered) and simple upgrade. "Here's what I can tell you for sure; it's going to be the cheapest HD-DVD player you can buy without a doubt, when it comes out. I think it's going to be a great value... Everybody is very enthusiastic with the direction we're going. There are still a few surprises left. And I don't want to spill the beans yet, but I think people are going to think it's a great value," said Microsoft Larry Hyrb (aka Major Nelson). The low price tag can be attributed to the heavy lifting being performed by the XBOX 360 rather than the HD DVD drive. "All the audio and video processing is done inside the XBOX," said Microsoft senior program manager Kevin Collins.

As for the hardback book-sized drive itself, Microsoft showcased the device running "The Phantom of the Opera." The design of the drive, which has the internal codename of Sapphire, was all done in-house by Microsoft while Toshiba was selected to manufacture the drive. It will feature two USB 2.0 ports on the back to make up for the one USB port that the device itself uses. It also features the same cut-out on the back as the XBOX 360 to hold Microsoft’s XBOX 360 Wireless Networking Adapter if you chose to mount it there. The HD DVD interface, while not yet finished, was also on display. Gamerscore Blog has images posted of how it will look including an animated gif of it in action. The new interface basically replaces the "old" Open Tray button on the dashboard with a hybrid button that can toggle between DVD and HD DVD options with the up/down arrow keys. The drive will also be software updatable via XBOX Live so as new features are introduced, they can be automatically downloaded and applied.

Microsoft has revealed that it has some surprises in store for gamers during the fourth quarter. We know that one of them is the aforementioned HD DVD player and Gears of War. Hopefully, this isn’t all that Microsoft is planning and we’ll have even more to look forward to as the holiday season fast approaches.

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MS Wins!
By L33tMasta on 8/9/2006 1:43:45 AM , Rating: 2
MS wins. This will surly give the 360 another boost to it's already large userbase.




RE: MS Wins!
By tuteja1986 on 8/9/2006 2:24:08 AM , Rating: 2
Most of scratch were caused by stupid owner moving the xbox 360 while a disk was inside it to see if XBOX 360 looked better standing up or on sitting down.

Anyways it should have very good playback as Microsoft got the ATI's AVIVO team to devlop the H264, Mepg 2 & VC1 playback.


RE: MS Wins!
By tuteja1986 on 8/9/2006 5:20:28 AM , Rating: 2
Alot of you forget that HD-DVD will work on PC with a simple hack or Maybe Microsoft will just release a driver for it.


RE: MS Wins!
By Epyon on 8/9/2006 3:07:50 AM , Rating: 4
I find this add-on a little useless.

Its funny how you don't have 37 people whining that this combined with the xbox 360 comes to around $600(500 if you shop around). I know there's a difference being that you can choose to buy it or not, but with that choice comes the fact that there will be no development using the extra capacity that these new discs carry. You can say today, what do we need 25 GB of space for? You have to remember that there will be no upgrading of these machines for the next 5 years and alot of things can happen in that time. There's alot of sony bashing going around, but really they just approached this generation in a different way. Only time will tell which company chose the best path.

I dont really think the average guy is gonna want a xbox 360 as a part of his home theater setup. People who already have one(360) and are interested in hdvd may pick it up, but how many people is this? Shoot, I think most readers here overestimate the knowlege(tech-wise) of the average joe. There's gonna be alot of disappointed people that drop $500 on hdvd/blue ray tech and use a standard tv(non hd crt, older projection, etc).

I know im all over the place, but I think its a little funny to read someone say that ms wins and that this will boost their userbase. You have to be naive to think this would have been released at all if ps3 didnt have a blue ray drive.


RE: MS Wins!
By Fenixgoon on 8/9/2006 9:50:33 AM , Rating: 2
you don't HAVE to buy this though. that's the nice part.


RE: MS Wins!
By creathir on 8/9/06, Rating: -1
RE: MS Wins!
By christovski on 8/9/2006 5:20:00 PM , Rating: 5
Why do people follow up with their names when we can clearly see who posted the comment even before actually reading it. Looks like blowing your own horn to me.

MS has their console strategy straight right now, console first (no HD, no supercapacity optical, splurging on devkits and if necessary, developers), entertainment second (WMCE broadcast point, HDDVD addon), and no possibility of being a PC pivot.

Sony seems like they want a convergence, they're not pushing anything really more than the other right now. It might have it's own flavour of Linux for general computing with a decent HD, it has what might seem like a midrange BRDVD player for entertainment, and you can always count on Sony for some of that good old Nipponese support as a gaming console.

The 'retard' PS3's will sell hot for that two reasons: Sony would never enforce HDMI, not for another generation until it's absolutely standard, and you are getting a set top box media centre that will play your existing collection along with the new stuff. Developers only need at the most 1gig for swap space, and that's guaranteed w/ a 20gig HD, so the retard version doesn't hurt you like it did w/ the x360.

Regardless if you want or you can handle the HD offered by both, it's being forced onto you with both systems, just MS prefers to do this as needed instead of in one lump sum. The difference in power between the systems is a wash, the gaming capability of either systems is pretty much the same, now the future purchases depend on what else you might want to do with it.

Not that I expect Sony to follow through on their So'nix and P-Station Live...


RE: MS Wins!
By creathir on 8/10/06, Rating: 0
RE: MS Wins!
By christovski on 8/10/2006 8:46:22 PM , Rating: 1
You sign your letter when Dailytech forces you to post your username. A second showing of your name, identical to your username, is just shoving it down our throats much like another company.

Maybe English class can teach you the proper use of commas, too.


By hstewarth on 8/9/2006 9:57:47 AM , Rating: 2
For the Record I personally own a 360 system and also planning to get a PS3 system.

This doesn't mean that MS Wins the consoles.. One disadvantage of the Microsoft approach is that ever thing is seperate and it is pain to deal. It is already a problem with a big seperate power supply, not we have yet another device hook up to the monster.

If it is truely $200, then it will have a good use if movies are not on Blu-Ray that are on HDDVD - its not much money.

I predict nobody is going to win these wars - boths consoles and Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD. That is why I am purchasing both the XBox 360 and the Sony PS3.



RE: MS Wins!
By otispunkmeyer on 8/9/2006 2:43:48 PM , Rating: 2
well you probably really cant go wrong with either console really, despite all the bad press the PS3 has been getting (ie the backwards compat thingy, delays, hardware not being able to fit in the boxes, games being dropped/cancelled)

PS3 is still going to be an impressive, quality machine. its just that this time MS have gotten there first with a similar quality product.

MS has definately got its head on straight, and certainly they will be getting £270 odd of my hard earned british pounds for a 360 at the end of this month. if you just want a console then you cant look any further than the 360.

if you want an all-round entertainment machine... PS3 will definately float your boat.


RE: MS Wins!
By mushi799 on 9/5/2006 4:19:39 PM , Rating: 2
lol@large userbase


IMHO - This is stupid.
By rushfan2006 on 8/9/2006 12:33:14 PM , Rating: 2
HD-DVD for Xbox 360....only watch movies no use for games.

Stupid. 'nuff said.




RE: IMHO - This is stupid.
By clairvoyant129 on 8/9/2006 12:58:21 PM , Rating: 3
That's what HD-DVDs are for... to play movies. What did you expect?

You're the "stupid" one.


RE: IMHO - This is stupid.
By robber98 on 8/9/2006 2:31:45 PM , Rating: 2
Orly? HD-DVD is designed for play movie only? WOW


RE: IMHO - This is stupid.
By rushfan2006 on 8/10/2006 9:43:06 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Orly? HD-DVD is designed for play movie only? WOW


LOL...know the real WOW here is the consistency with which everything has to be spelled out on this boards or people just don't get it.....

In relation to the HD-DVD player for Xbox 360 and in relation to Xbox 360 games, yes the players only purpose is for movies. Microsoft has stated this time and again, have they not?

HD-DVD is general, of course they are for more than movies...pay attention to the topic of the article though...its talking about Xbox 360.

And before you go yammering about how the drive can work with a PC....that's fine...where are the HD-DVD games for the PC...and don't tell me about anything unless you can prove there is MASS quanity from MANY game publishers who are producing such titles at LEAST within the next year.

1-6 games won't make me go ga-ga over HD-DVD for PC.

Finally its a READER not a writer....if it was a WRITER than you'd have a MAJOR point over me.

But that's not the case, now is it?



RE: IMHO - This is stupid.
By epsilonparadox on 8/10/2006 10:43:28 AM , Rating: 2
Why are you harping about PC games w/ HDDVD. By the time the game publishers adopt HDDVD/BRDVD for games we'll have moved to digital distribution. If you could connect the drive to the pc, you can attach it to a TV and watch HD movies.


RE: IMHO - This is stupid.
By rushfan2006 on 8/10/2006 2:50:23 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Why are you harping about PC games w/ HDDVD. By the time the game publishers adopt HDDVD/BRDVD for games we'll have moved to digital distribution. If you could connect the drive to the pc, you can attach it to a TV and watch HD movies.


You didn't understand my post apparently. I wasn't "harping about PC games w/HDDVD". I was only bringing it up because someone else made the comment the HD-DVD drive (XBox one) can be used with a PC...so I was being pro-active in defending myself from folks bringing up a rant about how you can use it for games that's all. I happen to agree with you -- as bandwidth increases I tend to thing digital distribution will gain more and more popularlity with the publishers than any other single form of media - HD, Bluray or otherwise. From the publishers standpoint it just makes too much sense for it NOT to go that way.

As far as the connect it to a TV to watch Movies -- you are more wrong than you obviously know.

How exactly is JUST the Xbox360's HD-DVD drive, as a stand alone unit, suppose to play movies when directly attached to a tv (ie. no xbox360 at all in the equation). That is afterall, exactly what you just implied. You do realize that the all the decoding and processing is handled by the Xbox 360 unit, the drive is media the input device to get the HD-DVD information to the xbox 360 for processing. In other words...the Xbox 360 HD-DVD is a "dumb" unit. Its not meant as stand-alone. Why do you think if you can hook it up to a pc you can hook up to a tv.....um....don't think the PC think just might work because the idea is the PC is doing the video processing work/decoding (with the appropriate software of course).



RE: IMHO - This is stupid.
By rushfan2006 on 8/10/2006 2:52:41 PM , Rating: 2
EDIT: Unless you mean connect the drive to the pc and then the pc to a TV....;)