Microsoft Outright Denies Integrated HD DVD in 360

[Eluder]

Originally Posted by U

Why not... there are other uses for Blu-Ray than just movies; for games it means much more storage and also high speed data transfer without having to spin the disc at a million RPM (that's partly why the 360 is sooo loud).

There's no way in hell they'd do that because they'd alienate their current customer base if they put their games on BD.

[Lou Sytsma]

There's no way in hell they'd do that because they'd alienate their current customer base if they put their games on BD.

They won't release games on BluRay. It would make a lot of sense to release a BluRay add-on for playing movies though at some point.

The XBox720 will include a BluRay drive!

[james99]

The 360 add-on has been a failure, about a 3% attach rate. Even though the price was good people don't like add-ons. Personally, I don't care.

[lawman]

MSFT is trying to spin this and say that a Hidef drive is not needed and that a huge HDD for their DVR media box will increase their dominance in the home media. Without a built-in HD tuner, I don't think this will work. For the simple fact that not everybody is able to download HD media without checking that they don't exceed their download thresholds from their ISP. To assume that regular consumers want to download over their high-speed broadband GIGs of HD media is idiotic.

All ISPs have a DL/UL threshold. Once you exceed your broadband quota, they start charging you by the MB.

[JohnnyCanuck]

How is MS trying to spin this?

Their position from Day 1 has been no HDM integrated into the 360. No spin at all. Are they right? Time will tell, but they certainly had to be paying attention to all the modded original Xbox units running XBMC.

As far as download thresholds, that's a real issue, but remember that the format used by Xbox Live creates a significantly smaller package than an HDM disc. Also, there's no reason why ISP's wouldn't be willing to partner with MS to create special subscription packages or the like.

[Eluder]

Well the bandwidth limitation I can see disappearing because providers like Rogers and Bell are supposed to be certified for Xbox Live. I see MS sitting down and discussing this with the providers to try and have them lift this limits.

[lawman]

Yeah sure. I'd like to see that on paper from Rogers and Bell before I believe that the DL/UL thresholds are removed.

[calvin940]

Originally Posted by Eluder

There's no way in hell they'd do that because they'd alienate their current customer base if they put their games on BD.

They'd no more put a game on BD than they would HD DVD. It creates 2 different media versions for every game out there, changes the complexity on game releases etc.

[Eluder]

Originally Posted by calvin940

They'd no more put a game on BD than they would HD DVD. It creates 2 different media versions for every game out there, changes the complexity on game releases etc.

Exactly... it's going to stay on DVD for this generation which is fine...

[calvin940]

Originally Posted by Eluder

Exactly... it's going to stay on DVD for this generation which is fine...

/agree

I never really thought that the games on this generation of console would get sophisticated and/or graphically complex to truly utilize anything more than a dual layer DVD anyhow. Guess we'll see, but I doubt it. I mean even high end PC games like Crysis didn't install anymore than 6ish gigs to my PC if I recall.

[Eluder]

Plus they've got some crazy compression these days anyway so again, dual layer is fine IMHO.

[Romo828]

Well the bandwidth limitation I can see disappearing because providers like Rogers and Bell are supposed to be certified for Xbox Live. I see MS sitting down and discussing this with the providers to try and have them lift this limits

As much as I agree with the above statement, MSFT new IPTV (Microsoft Mediaroom) service is not being supported by Rogers, only Bell has been approved to be working with MSFT. Rogers has claimed awhile back that they had no intentions of providing IPTV to its subscribers for the 360.

Aliant in my area have been upgrading their whole network infrastructure to deliver higher bandwidth to be able to provide this service.

Bell is the only authorized ISP involved as per microsoftmediaroom.com website.

[Eluder]

They are listed on the Live website though here. So that means they are Live certified, meaning they may have to lift these caps to stay certified, but who knows.

[Romo828]

Eluder...I should have noted differently that I agreed that Rogers is Live certified because currently, they are, as you pointed out. I was with Rogers when living in TO and nothing but praise for Rogers while I was a customer of theirs but when I heard they were not going to support MSFT IPTV service for the 360, I went with Bell for that reason alone when I moved back to NB. I remember reading the press release about this somewheres, but cant locate it anywheres on the net at this point. Did not mean to try and overturn your comment, but more to add that they will not be fully Live certified when the new IPTV service comes out for the 360.

[Eluder]

I got ya Romo, but I dunno, I would think with Bell being certified, Rogers would maybe change their mind when IPTV launches otherwise, they'd lose a lot of 360 owners that are customers.