Rumor: Microsoft to announce Blu-ray 360 tomorrow

1. You guys are really talking about blu ray lite on the 360 because your aren't going to get 1080p or HD audio over usb 2.0. Grats you get to settle for 1080i and like 5.1 channel DTS max as far as I know(over usb).


2. at > 4.5 gb range, that 'slow' 2x Blu ray CLV drive beats the pants off of the 360 dvd drive. Games are getting larger not smaller.

Installing data to the hd gives novice ps3 programmers more leg room to work with and should be generally considered beneficial to all concerned as each ps3 is guaranteed to have an hd, and therefore the option is at least there.

3. Yes cable is compressed that's why I get free uncompressed OTA broadcasts for free with some old ass rabbit ears I found in the garage. I'm about to upgrade my ota antenna but just haven't got around to it. The other HD sources besides that provided by blu ray disk I also aquire for free from the usual sources.

I find it interesting those that look down on others about HD appreciation buy compressed cable crap, have sub 50 inch tv's yet talk smack as if they know. Why buy crap when you can use smart choices to save by not purchasing things that will break or have built in I'm a fan tax, and buy a 56 inch 3d ready samsung tv and a nice reciever etc etc.

Not talking about anyone in this thread, just ranting in general (in regards to my 3rd-ish point).

Oh yes and speaking of, let me save you some money. Qore is an ad that you pay for (some of which un-skipable)and currently entirely lame for its pricepoint. I admit socom and afro looked kinda cool but still.

Anybody that can't tell the difference between real HD and upconverted DVD is either blind or drunk on fanboy kool aid.

Hoping us geeks will ignore it in the wake of our mecca to the apple store for the second coming of the iPhone?

Probably, actually.

guess what, ITS a RUMOR , are you suprised? Read engadget, Microsofts entertainment devices president has already denied this specific rumour, GOD how my times does microsoft have to deny 360 getting Bluray before 360 fans stop starting rumours for it. Rediculous.

guess what, ITS a RUMOR , are you suprised? Read engadget, Microsofts entertainment devices president has already denied this specific rumour, GOD how my times does microsoft have to deny 360 getting Bluray before 360 fans stop starting rumours for it. Rediculous.

USB comes to this because the old external HD-dvd addon connected to the xbox360 via usb, hence limited bandwith as hdmi doesn't even factor into the equation.

The xbox360 unit has hdmi out not the addon hd-dvd drives. What you're talking about would require an hdmi passthrough on the 360 which I feel is somewhat unlikely.

Oh yes thank for the correction, OTA is compressed, just no where to the degree (usually) of what cable companies do to their signals. The secret is to get large ears imo.

WHY would they announce this NOW when E3 is RIGHT around the corner??

I know the rumor's been debunked.. but if it's not, I could see why it wouldn't be an external device.

I think most blu-ray players manufactured to support Profile 2.0 (which MS should support unless they want to release it and already be obsolete) require a HDD (or at least a gig of storage). It'd be pretty funny for MS to launch a Blu-Ray player and have it only compatible with the Premium and Elite models.

blah blah flame flame argue argue. why? if it happens it happens. internal or external. this has gone from arguing about that to RRoD (AGAIN), to drive speeds. any of you involved in those arguements should rethink your purpose. and yes my purpose is just as lame, but at least you know someone notices you're a bunch of puds. blah blah flame flame argue argue on!

What was I thinking of course usb 2.0 has enough bandwidth. I have been on a fail spree today.

It's the hdcp(High-*bandwidth* Digital Content Protection) handshaking that's the problem as it requires a digital interface such as hdmi or dvi.

I wonder if that will be an issue in the future and will the next xbox ad-on have support for 1080p/24 and the other audio codecs such as Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio like the ps3 currently does.

To be frank this additional codec support seems unlikely but that is exactly what MS will HAVE to do.

It looks more and more likely that you can expect another sku from MS.

In any case thanks for keeping me straight. I will endeavor to be more diligent in the future.

Here's more info from AVS forums for those that may be interested. I basicaly lifted a few posts from here (http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=761371)

Is High Def Audio possible? (on xbox360)
I think I must be going mad! I am convinced I read not long ago that an update had allowed the 360 to output some of the Hi-Def audio formats (DD+ & DTS HD I think). Not only that but one of my friends mentioned it soon after and asked why I was still outputting basic DD5.1.

Having heard how uncompressed audio sounds on Blu-Ray from my PS3, the only thing stopping me picking up HD-DVD bargains is the fact that the sound coming from my 360 HD-DVD is really very poor. And believe me once you have experienced Hi-def audio through a decent sound system, you won't want to go back to basic DD5.1 sound!

I do have an Elite but it is currently connected via optical (so I know I would not be able to use Dolby True HD, DTS Master or uncompressed via that) but I would have expected to used the compressed formats, i.e. DD+ & DTS HD.

I will probably be buying a new AV amp soon that has enough HDMI inputs to connect everything I have in this way but if the 360 can't and never will output any of the Hi-Def audio formats then I'll be concentrating on Blu-ray from now on and I may be able to get round having to buy a new amp for the time being.

I just can't seem to find any up-to-date information on this so I'd be grateful for comments.



Re: Is High Def Audio possible?
No.

http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archi...gence-day.aspx

The 360 player software decodes all the above codecs [Dolby Digital+, DTS, TrueHD, LPCM, MPEG] in software, mixes anything that needs to go together, re-encodes it into Dolby Digital and then sends that to your receiver. So, don't be alarmed when your receiver still says "Dolby Digital" even if you've selected DTS in the menus.

http://blogs.msdn.com/andypennell/ar...dvd-audio.aspx

Now lets move on to the Xbox 360 with HD DVD add-on. The Elite's HDMI port cannot handle 5.1 channels due to hardware limitations, so multi-channel audio can only be sent via S/PDIF. At least you get a choice of which encoder is used to re-encode the audio: WMA Pro, DTS or Dolby Digital. Opinions vary on which is the best choice, but in theory at least the preference is the order I described, assuming your receiver can handle it...

All the Xbox allows you to select is what you wish the decoded audio to be re-encoded to for Optical / HDMI Output; Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 or WMA Pro 5.1.

Conversely I purchased a PS3 2 months back; it decodes all HD Audio formats & output them as PCM to my Receiver over HDMI (If you want Bit-streaming of HD Audio formats you'd want to look into a stand-alone Blu-Ray player)

Or of course you could seek out a stand-alone HD DVD player.

Well that will definitely keep me from buying another PS3 as a Blu-Ray player.....woohoo!! (note: I already have 3 XBOX 360s w/ HD-DVD and 2 PS3s)

Wanted to a get Blu-Ray player for beach place but preferred a 360 for there over a PS3.....this solves everything.

I think they should make an system with it internal and offer an external solution as well. I just bought an Elite, and I'll be PISSSSSSED if I could have waited a few months and got a blu-ray one instead.

That being said, I feel that this is no longer a rumor, seeing as how every MS rumor becomes fact at some point or another. However, they'll wait to drop this bomb at E3. MGS4 will sell some PS3's, but based on what I know from working retail, MGS4 won't be breaking many sales records. The game will be good, but I barely have more pre-orders for it than I did NG2 at my store. Like NG2, MGS4 is a game that mostly only really hardcore gamers get into.

I will stick to my $299 360. $449 for a gaming machine is a rip off in my opinion. It wouldn't be worth it for me because I won't be getting an HDTV until my 12 year old 32 inch analog Panasonic TV kicks the bucket.
Ben

If MS scrapped the core/arcade, and released an xbox that reads a higher capacity disc, i wouldn't have had much issues with it. (not necessarily Bluray or HDDVD but something at least like dreamcast did)

Its ok that games seem to be doing fine now. Of course, maybe because they arent allowed to sell a game that suddenly halts before reaching the end

so ummmmmmmm where is the announcement?!?!?


ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!