The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Blu-Ray X360 actually real probably.
Daedalus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/xbox-blu-ray-360,5272.html
Long-ass article in spoiler tags:
The source seems to be pretty legit, although I can't really tell if they mean that it's getting built-in or if it'll be an add-on like the HD-DVD drive. AFAIK, Microsoft hasn't made an official announcement yet, so who knows.
Long-ass article in spoiler tags:
The article wrote:After months of rumors and denials, the XBOX 360 with a Blu-ray disc drive is due to be manufactured soon and shipped in Q3 of 2008. Pegatron Technology, an OEM subsidiary of Asustek Computer, is reported to have received the winning order from Microsoft for a Blu-ray equipped XBOX 360.
Earlier reports cited Lite-On as the company with the privilege of building the new console for Microsoft. Lite-On is also currently one of the suppliers of the internal DVD drive fro the XBOX 360.
One of the strong points for Sony’s Playstation 3 has been the integrated Blu-ray player. The PS3 had the ability to draw both gamers and audio/video enthusiast, and this was proving to be a major advantage over its XBOX rival. It is estimated that 85% of Blu-ray players in use are PS3s. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer had admitted that Microsoft had been working on support for Blu-ray under Windows during this year’s Mix08 conference. Rumors began to swirl and many began to expect Microsoft to announce a Blu-ray peripheral for the XBOX 360.
However, Microsoft came out and denied all rumors, stating that they were not exploring any kind of Blu-ray add-on or in talks with Sony about integrating Blu-ray into the XBOX experience. The software giant stated they would continue to invest in its XBOX Live online service as the means of high-definition content delivery. Toshiba received a crushing blow earlier this year at CES that Warner Brothers would be Blu-ray exclusive. This eventually led to Toshiba withdrawing from the HD format war and the demise of the XBOX 360’s HD-DVD add-on. It is interesting to note that sales of the XBOX 360 lagged behind Sony’s PS3 in the month of February, the same month Toshiba withdrew.
Many expected the death of HD-DVD would trigger a growth in Blu-ray hardware sales. However, to the dismay of the industry, acceptance and adoption of Blu-ray has been dismal.
The PS3 is one of the cheapest (relatively speaking) Blu-ray players available — and you get the console thrown in for good measure.
The source seems to be pretty legit, although I can't really tell if they mean that it's getting built-in or if it'll be an add-on like the HD-DVD drive. AFAIK, Microsoft hasn't made an official announcement yet, so who knows.
Daedalus on
0
Posts
I also like the dig against blu-ray in the same article though. As far as i know, its been doing ok?
Check out my band, click the banner.
It'll be quite the bitter pill for MS to swallow, if they do have integrated bluray drives with the 360 I also wonder how the price will compare to the PS3. No way will MS want it to be the same or higher.
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
They'd probably be willing to take a loss again in order to give Sony that last suckerpunch.
And yeah, articles are all hinting that it'll be built in but it's all coming from some source in Chinese so who really knows?
I always take Chinese stuff with a pinch of salt
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
The source is evidently Asustek's financial report or something, so I don't think we're being taken for a total ride.
You are doing it wrong:
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Fixed.
Refixed.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Eh... Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, what are these?
I find it hard to swallow that microsoft would do a built in player. The compatibility would be blown with all current 360 titles. However if they do an add-on drive that would not surprise me the least bit. The blu-ray consortium and microsoft could use it as a win/win situation on both sides. Politics not withstanding, this may be possible.
oooh. I could of sworn at one time Blu-ray had issues with dvds but that might of been a whole nother deal. My bad. If it doesn't then I would still see it as possible. I would honestly like to see it as an add-on myself.
*Edit*
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN0851332620080108
people also forgot about this executive when he said they might do this if HD-DVD fails. Well, guess what...
Yeah, that's just ridiculous. Whoever told you that was messing with you.
I don't see how it's a bitter pill. Hell, if they can build a 360 with Blue-ray for cheaper then the PS3, they'll have dealt a nasty blow to Sony.
Hmm, is there much difference between different Blue-Ray players? Is one significantly better then another?
In any case, I get the feeling that MS won't make or allow an official Blu-Ray player any time soon because it's not really necessary just yet - the format may have beaten HD-DVD, but it has yet to convince any significant number of people to throw out their DVD collections and start over again.
A while back Sony was sort of implying it in their UK marketing:
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I love how they've got a picture of a portable MP3 player on there.
I'm imagining jogging with a PS3 in my pants pocket.
Man, that's a quick way to get in shape.
"Is that...? Or are you just happy to see me?"
They could of just used the silhouette of a component deck player with the same MP3 player tag under it.
I'm thinking its more of either a blatant lie that the diode on the Blu-ray player would have issues with DVD's or I mistook information when the whole war heated up. There was a lot of mis-information during this blu-ray/hd-dvd war.
Personally, I would prefer it to be an add-on. Just to reduce the amount of wear and tear on the primary drive. I could easily see someone sell a Blu-ray add-on for the 360 and make a killing off of it. I think sony would be the biggest hurdle since it is one of the driving forces on blu-ray player market.
It's not that simple, bluray is more than just a optical disc. It's also a complex standard. You've got to have a java runtime, ability to decode VC1, h264, mpeg2, ac3 and lots of other stuff. It's not easy to implement all of that. You'd have to license a lot of it, plus you can't rely on a hardware decoder chip because the 360 doesn't have any for those. So you'd have to pay lots of money for the licensing for them (or make them yourself).
There isn't going to be such a thing as a cheap blu-ray addon for the 360.
So realistically the only party who could make a bluray addon for the 360 is Microsoft, a third party could do it but it'd cost. I could see somebody like cyberlink make a piece of 360 software that you can buy from the marketplace or that comes on a dvd with the bluray drive but I don't think it'd be cheap.
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Yes, vastly. If you are to buy a Bluray player right now, you only have one choice if you are not a retard: the PS3.
The earliest bluray players can only play Bluray 1.0 movies; ie. movies that are just high definition video and sound. Later bluray players with certain hardware features could play bluray 1.1 discs, which have picture-in-picture features (e.g. you can watch video commentary at the same time as the feature film; two hi-def video/audio streams going at once). Bluray 1.1 compatible players require a second video decoder and at least 256MB of local storage. Last I checked, only the PS3 can handle bluray 2.0, which includes online capabilities. Bluray 2.0 requires 2.0 compatible players (also known as Bluray Live) to have 1gb of local storage and an ethernet adapter.
To put it simply, the PS3 is the only future proof bluray player.
Note that disc types are backwards compatible; the earlier bluray players simply cannot utilize the extra features of the newer features but they play the featured movie just fine. So a bluray 2.0 disc can play your movie on a bluray 1.0 player, it just won't be able to do PiP or any online stuff.
A 360 adapter or built-in drive should be capable of all bluray 2.0 functions, however if it's anything like the HD-DVD addon, it'll be considerably inferior to the PS3 in playing movies still (no hi-def sound and poor DVD upscaling on the now defunct HD-DVD addon).
A built in Bluray drive would be very costly as MS specifically chose not to do HD-DVD internally because of the current economically feasibility having a hi-def drive that has at least the same seek and load time as a normal DVD player. Both Bluray and HD-DVD manufacturers weren't even planning to release a drive with the specs that MS wanted until this Fall, and even then its cost would probably be tough for even MS to swallow. Add on to the fact that by this Fall Sony may well do another price drop and the chance that you'll see an internal Bluray 360 system being cheaper than the PS3 seems about as likely MS letting Xbox Live and PSN have cross-compatibility on multiplayer games.
In short: for 360 games to work on an internal Bluray drive it would need a drive much more powerful than the one the PS3 uses, which isn't even out yet (due this Fall), and would cost a boatload. The reason being PS3 developers have the HD to compensate for lower drive performance, while 360 developers do not have that luxury because MS demands that all games be developed for its lowest common denominator, the hd-less, DVD-only Arcade POS.
I don't doubt this for a second. I think the question here will be if they will try. As for the decoding, I didn't think of that and I do see how that could be an issue. Just a thought (kinda throwing this out there) it is possible that this could be for the next generation of consoles because they had to start planning that after the 360 shipped.
I kid, I kid. If they price this at $150 or lower I'll consider it. The only HDTV in my house is in my room, a 19" samsung. But, I certainly wouldn't mind picking up a BR title here or there to start my collection.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
It's not "Sony's" by a long shot. Blue-Ray is owned by a huge consortium of companies.
Providing the Blu-Ray drive can run DVD's at 12x speed (8x speed for dual layer discs), there should be no problems. I'm pretty sure there's already a few drives out that can do it, though they're pretty expensive.
Anyway, I predicted this'd happen back when Warner ditched HD-DVD. Regardless of the XB Marketplace, I highly doubt Microsoft would be willing to concede a feature like that.
Well they'd be licensing it from the entire Blu-Ray Association. But since Sony was one of the founders, I'm pretty sure they'll get a bigger share than some of the other members.
What's the big deal about it anyway? Just because Microsoft and Sony are competing with each other in one market, doesn't suddenly mean they've got a massive grudge against each other. If companies were that petty then the Blu-Ray consortium wouldn't exist at all, seeing as pretty much all the members compete with each other in various markets (especially Sony, who have their hands in the film/electronics/music/game markets).
Besides, Microsoft already licenses technology from Sony, the DVD (Sony was a founding member of the DVD Forum too). Meanwhile, Sony licenses Windows from Microsoft for use in their Vaio's.
What would make it so bitter?
MSoft isn't exactly anti-BD. I mean, Windows supports it, and all...
Nor arethey, as a corporation, exactly anti-Sony, what with them allowing Sony to build Windows PCs...
Edit: Because it needs to be made explicit in each one of these threads:
Microsoft was NEVER highlyinvested in HD-DVDs. Before you start quoting me ammounts of money, consider just how much money MSoft has, and how small a fraction of it they were really putting in there. MSoft has been, and always will be about Direct Downloads, because that is where they stand to profit the most, being a software company. HD-DVDs were just a stopgap for them.
I assure you all that the 360's CPU is more than beefy enough to handle all the video decoding. Yes, it doesn't have dedicated ASICs to do all the heavy lifting like standalone players do, but it's got a big fucking triple-core general purpose CPU in there that can handle quite a bit of math. Besides, the same codecs were used on HD-DVDs, remember?
This is the biggest problem I see with getting average people to buy into blu-ray and it's a self-made problem! How much confidence do people have in a $500 product that's rendered obsolete every 6 months? Seriously, the way you're supposed to develop this sort of thing is:
1. Design the specifications.
2. Build the product.
3. Sell the product.
4. Do nothing.
5. Profit.
They're making it more complicated than it needs to be.
I don't doubt the triple core cpu could handle their decoding, what I think is the problem is the licensing. MS probably paid the licensing fees for hd-dvd. But they haven't paid the licensing fees to decode for the same codecs on bluray. You can bet your arse there will be some contractual thing covering this, where if MS wants to decode the same video codecs on bluray they have to pay all the fees again.
Plus there is the point that they'll need to create a JAVA runtime interpreter. So, for practicalities sake they'll problably license one from Sun.
It all adds to the cost.
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.