Moore: HD-DVD add-on for movies, not games

Finally a smart move by the big dogs… it is clear to me, even if it may not be clear to bill and Moore that There is a big chance that HD-DVD my not fly…. And if you start making X360’s with HD-DVD’s and they don’t become the dominate player in the market (meaning Blu-Ray wins – which is what I expect will happen) then you will have not only more expense but also a bad image in the public eye. This would hurt the system in the long run as people would look at it as old tech.



So it’s a better move from Microsoft’s stand point to do it this way, so if you really need a HD-DVD player here is an option and if it does not catch on and fails well it is not attached to the image of the system so we lose nothing… Do no confuse Microsoft backing a technology and Microsoft actually supporting new tech, meaning they would like HD-DVD to win but if it does not we don’t want to be too dependent on it. Or support it to the point that if it goes down we go down with it.



Blu-Ray will indeed win the war, so it does not matter if you like it or not. It will be, and that’s just because one of the biggest companies in the world will make it so. SONY – So you can fight it if you want but in the end the Blu-Ray disc will be the dominate player in the market… I didn’t even know anything about Blu-Ray disc until SONY told me that the PS3 will be a Blu-Ray disc player, and at that moment I knew I would own a Blu-Ray disc player no matter what… and if I own one then yes, I’m going to need to buy movies to play on it. So I may not like it, who knows, but I already know one person who will be supporting it….



I can just see it now… with that much space on a disc for games… wow, how many boards would I be able to have on MGS4 or GTA4… it’s is going to be so sweet……. HDTV content will never look as sweet as it will coming out of my PS3 on dual screen monitors.

Does it really matter? I'm sure some Xbox hacker will mod the xbox to replace the internal drive with the HD-DVD drive

#1, People said the same thing about the VHS vs. Beta-max war. Beta max was the better technology, but it was more expensive. VHS was lower quality, but cheaper and we all know how that went. Most can agree that blueray is better technology, and if it were just geeks like us who would decide this war, then you would be right, just make sure you keep in mind that the public at large doesnt always think the same way.

Things Sony made that didn't win:



Betamax - VHS wins

MiniDisc - too freaky expensive, no 3rd party support

Memory Stick - not the only small memory format

ATRAC3 - Umm, MP3 still rules



So just cause Sony makes it doesn't mean it will win. Toshiba comes out with a $500 HD DVD; My first DVD player, non progressive, single disk, when I bought it was on sale, a year after release, for $450. So don't think Toshiba's going for the pocketbook. Blu-Ray may be the "best," but if you price at $1000, most people will balk big time. The DirecTV HD Tivo was $1000 when it came out, and I refused. But once they made the first price drop to $700, and the corresponding big drops on eBay, I pulled the trigger. Even if the PS3 subsidies Blu Ray and is $600, watch MS lower the price of 360 + HD DVD to $550, and push that they have more games available, and it's possible at the point there may be more HD DVDs as well!

Things Sony made that didn't win:



Betamax - VHS wins

MiniDisc - too freaky expensive, no 3rd party support

Memory Stick - not the only small memory format

ATRAC3 - Umm, MP3 still rules



So just cause Sony makes it doesn't mean it will win. Toshiba comes out with a $500 HD DVD; My first DVD player, non progressive, single disk, when I bought it was on sale, a year after release, for $450. So don't think Toshiba's going for the pocketbook. Blu-Ray may be the "best," but if you price at $1000, most people will balk big time. The DirecTV HD Tivo was $1000 when it came out, and I refused. But once they made the first price drop to $700, and the corresponding big drops on eBay, I pulled the trigger. Even if the PS3 subsidies Blu Ray and is $600, watch MS lower the price of 360 + HD DVD to $550, and push that they have more games available, and it's possible at the point there may be more HD DVDs as well!

Since both formats will have the same visual quality, I think it comes down to availability of Titles, Managed Copy and pricing. HD-DVD will be out in March...that's two months from now. It will have managed copy, I'm not sure if Blu-Ray added that feature. Managed copy allows for you to insert an HD-DVD disc and have it copied to your Hard Drive on your PC or whatever device you may have connected that has a hard drive. You can then stream the movie from that device over Windows Media Center to your Xbox 360 for example.



There will be a $499 HD-DVD player available in march. The 360s add on player I'm sure will be even cheaper, probably $200 or less I would guess.



HP is no longer soleley in Sony's camp and if Dell were to follow sweet, HD-DVD players might be the only thing available on Dell and HP machines for a while.



On top of that, manufacturing cost are much cheaper for HD-DVD than Blu-Ray technology.



PS3 won't be out for a year and no one knows how much it will cost yet ??? $400...$500???



So If you put that all together, Blu-Ray only has hype working on it's side strongly and not much else.



You'll notice that Sony's recent tactic is to say that High Def in 720p and 1080i are not really High Def. They coined it "HD Plus" Well that's news to the world, I guess their claiming that their own HD TV's aren't High Def and that the international standards board is also wrong. With this push they are trying to redefine HD as being 1080p which I beleive is not an official HD standard yet. But more importantly, there are only a few HDTV's that support 1080p on the market. So just allot of hot air, I bet very few of their games will support 1080p for the PS3 as it is a complete waste of time for a developer to optomize a game for all the dozen people out there that have HDTV's that support 1080p.



Don't believe the hype. The truth is, with backing from Microsoft, Toshiba, HP and many more who are on both sides of the camp, HD-DVD has a more than reasonable chance at becoming the High Def standard format. Especially if Sony Slips the PS3 beyond Christmas 2006 into 2007 which everyday seems more and more likely.

I'm so frustrated with Microsoft right now, but I'm reminded that they have a marketing executive in Peter Moore who is running the Xbox platform's everyday business now. And he is going to run it like a marketing exec.



The HD-DVD add on is is going to fail, and I'm not at all surprised that it's going to come Q4 06 where Microsoft can probably cancel it before it even takes off.



There has NEVER EVER been a successful upgrade of this type on a game console. NEVER. The HD-DVD should have been standard. Gamers would just have to buck up and realize that the next console wasn't going to be cheap. All that was needed was the drive, the Xbox 360 could handle everything else. The price might have been an extra $100 -$150 dollars, but it would have paid for itself in the long run.



Rioch announced that they can use their patened technology to bring 200GB discs to HD-DVD. The 360 could have benefitted greatly from this added storage.



This was a HUGE opportunity and it was blown big time. HD-DVD's install base would have been 1.2 million users right now had the HD-DVD been standard in the 360. Developers wouldn't have to utilize HD-DVDs from the start. They could have still utilized red laser DVDs until HD-DVD media became available. But now it will be the 360's 7GB DVDs (M$ won't allow use of all of disc space for some reason) and for some reason Peter Moore says developers are happy with the 12X DVD drive that is both slow loading and already being maxed out by at least one developer.



A slow loading 12X DVD with only 7GB media discs is going to last 4-5 years? Do any of you honestly believe this?



People this is the Sega CD all over again. Gamers didn't buy that either. Gezz Microsoft! What were you thinking? Didn't anyone tell you that both traditionally and historically that add ons and upgrades fail in the console industry? What makes you think that an HD-DVD upgrade that does nothing to enhance your GAME CONSOLE is going to sell well?



But then again, you have a marketing exec running your game platform, and he's treating it like a PC. It's not. It's an everything is supposed to come in one box game console. Not a lets wait and see box.



1080p- Let's wait and see

HDMI- Let's wait and see

HD Media Drive- Let's wait and see

Media Storage Solution- last gen DVD drive



With this kind of strategy, the Xbox 360 didn't need to be the 1st console out of the gate. They needed to be 2nd or 3rd because Peter Moore and marketing team clearly just don't get it.



This is so crazy and frustrating. I love the Xbox 360 and I'm a true fan of the Xbox game platform. Let me tell you how I view this mis-step with the HD-DVD.



Microsoft builds a Lamborgini (Xbox 360)



But instead of performance tires they give you bicycle wheels (12X DVD Drive)



Then Microsoft provides you with performance tires that you have to purchase seperately (HD-DVD)



I can hear some of you objecting talking about compression, but procedural synthesis is not the magic bullet it has been preached to be by M$.



Bad move Microsoft. Bad move.

You can't really say an add-on like this has failed before. This is not an add-on like the Sega CD or 32X. This add-on doesn't play games. If Nintendo released an add-on that let the N64 play music cds than that would be a similar product you could compare this to. There is a media center extender for the old Xbox, did you know that? That's the closest current add-on this could be compared to.