Microsoft X-Box 360 HD DVD Player to be $199

[zippyjuan]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20060814235535.html

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive to Cost $199 – Web-Site.
External HD DVD Player for Xbox to Retail for $199

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 08/14/2006 | 11:56 PM ]


Unofficial industrial sources said that Microsoft Corp. will retail external HD DVD drive for Xbox 360 game console for approximately $199, which will make a set of Xbox 360 with premium bundle and the external drive as expensive as Sony’s premier PlayStation 3 offering.

According to a news-story filed by DigiTimes web-site, Microsoft will launch the add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 game console by Christmas for $200 (which is more than likely to transform into $199 when retailed). The drive will enable Xbox 360 owners to play high definition movies on HD DVDs, a standard that battles against Blu-ray for becoming the successor of DVD.

Even though for current Xbox 360 adopters $199 to play HD DVD movies is much less expensive compared to acquisition of Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console with Blu-ray disc playback capability, those customers, who do not own Microsoft’s latest game console, will have to think whether to get a premium version of Xbox 360 ($399) and the add-on HD DVD drive ($199) or the most powerful Sony PlayStation 3 ($599), as the price is going to be more or less equal.

Microsoft Corp., the world’s leading maker of software, showcased the Xbox 360 external HD DVD player at Entertainment Media Expo event. According to witnesses, the playback quality was similar to other HD DVD showcased during the day, meanwhile Microsoft promised that the add-on will be among “the least expensive” HD DVD player for Xbox 360 owners.

The drive will feature H.264 video decoder from ATI Technologies, who developed visual processing unit for the gaming machine. It is projected that the add-on drive will allow Xbox 360 to compete head-to-head with Sony’s PlayStation 3 which offers rival format Blu-ray playback.

[InfiniteNothing]

Hdmi/hdcp!

[Devhux]

No HDMI support from what I've read. Of course, HDCP won't be implemented until 2010 at the earliest -- if at all, so it's not a huge loss.

[redcolours]

wait.
you guys WANT High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection? or does HDCP mean something else? :confused:

cuz its almost the same as saying "i want my CDs to be un-copy-able!" (if thats even a word).

Is it really desirable to have HDCP? Its only good for the very scared MPAA, who doesnt want ANY content streamed uncompressed to be copied. So they can keep their precious copyrights, even after the movies have already grossed hundreds of millions of dollars already. And if it didnt, then that movie was a stinker, and so its not even worth copying.

Plus any HDTVs that were made prior to the formal launch of HDCP (and therefore NOT HDCP-compiant) wont be able to display picture at all if an HDCP-compliant player is hooked up to it. Its happening now with non-HDMI HDTVs with DVI inputs that are not HDCP compliant. Plug in any HD satellite receiver or HDTV cable boxes, and it gives you a prompt on-screen that its NOT HDMI-compliant. You then will have to use HDMI, and since its an older HDTV, it probably doesnt have it, so you revert to component inputs.

Granted, older generation HDTVs have older technology, but theyre still capable of displaying high definition the way high definition is streamed. Only in the past couple of years that bigger strides in picture enhancements ON THE HDTVs THEMSELVES have been developed. The stream is still the same, the way HD material is produced is essentially the same.What HDCP simply does is render older HDTVs rather useless for HD viewing.

HDCP was put in place to prevent copying. Period. It has nothing to do with picture enhancement whatsoever.

its HDCP COMPLIANCE that i would want on my HDTV, not HDCP itself, so i dont have to worry about the hassle of having to reconfigure which inputs to use. To me, HDCP itself is a hassle.

But im sure you all know that already since you guys know your stuff about HDTVs. i just want to be clear why HDCP is something that you would want your player to have. Other than working for the MPAA, i simply dont understand what else is good about it. :shrug:

[InfiniteNothing]

No HDMI support from what I've read. Of course, HDCP won't be implemented until 2010 at the earliest -- if at all, so it's not a huge loss.

Well, one of the biggest losses is watching regular DVDs. Without HDCP compliant output you can't watch your your old DVDs upscaled.

Second, component output sucks. You'll only be able to get up to 1080i and even then the quality degrades because of the high data rate (~65 MHz).

Lastly, where'd you hear 2010? I think it can be implemented by any studio at any time and I don't put it pass them to actually do it. Basically, without an HDCP compliant output, people who buy this drive are at the mercy of the studios.

[InfiniteNothing]

wait.
you guys WANT High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection? or does HDCP mean something else? :confused:
No, by "HDCP", I meant the player should have HDCP compliant outputs for the reasons mentioned in the above post.

It's really not fair to their customers to offer a high definition drive without hdcp outputs. While I'm at it, where's the 6 analogue audio outputs! They are going to be listening to DVD quality sound when they should be getting HDDVD quality sound.