Is this true?!? (Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive add-on) (1 Viewer)

[Seth=L]

I read that the 360 HD-DVD add-on only plays HD-DVD movies, and there is debate on including HDMI with the drive. Is there any truth in this?

Do they have plans to utilize HD-DVD for their games in a different version of the 360 that perhaps has the HD-DVD drive built in?

It seems like Microsoft has yet again screwed up their gaming system, giving Sony a double edged sword in the seventh generation gaming systems.

 

[Joe Barclay]

I believe that the HD-DVD drive is for movies only. They are not going to design any games to be played off of HD-DVD discs.

 

[Eric Samonte]

Maybe not in the near future...
On another note, does the 360 have any available HDMI connects? I ask because this maybe the route I'll take on taking on HD-DVD and would to connect it via HDMI instead of component.

 

[BrianB]

The 360 does not have a HDMI connection & the HD-DVD unit will not add one.

 

[Seth=L]

I remember reading somewhere that Microsoft was considering HDMI for the add-on, nothing solid though. If you ask me, I would say that it would be very silly for them not to include HDMI. Think about it, it is just one simply connection that handles everything, why not have it on there?

 

[BrianB]

Regardless, the HD-DVD add-on does not add HDMI support to the 360. It has no built-in outputs, all it is is a HD-DVD drive with a USB connection to the 360. The 360 handles all decoding & output.

There's been lots of rumours & speculation, but at this time, MS has made nothing even remotely formal announcing a HDMI variant of the 360 that I know of. Adding HDMI seems like a braindead decision but welcome to the world of console manufacturers.

 

[TonyTone]

The X360 Fall Update includes among other things, 1080p video mode support over VGA and component cables...so one should be able to view 1080i HD-DVD movies played back via the 360 HD-DVD drive in their full 1080i glory w/o the need for HDMI output.

 

[Eric Samonte]

Oh goody!!!

 

[Nathan A]

Yes, it should play 1080i over component (without ICT, of course, for if that ever gets implemented), but I'm not sure that it'll upconvert any SD-DVDs.

Here's an excerpt from a news bit at 1up explaining that the 360's HD-DVD player will work via something like emulation(http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3154930):


I honestly have no idea, but I wonder if this invites the possibility of "laggy" movies or anything like that.

 

[Scott_lb]

I also read somewhere that Microsoft is considering adding HDMI to the Xbox 360. While the system currently lacks an HDMI output, that doesn't mean they couldn't sell another output cable in the future containing HDMI. The recent inclusion of 1080p (i.e., the fall update) implies that HDMI might be a reality. Also, the company really isn't missing much by putting games on regular DVD discs instead of HD-DVD discs. Most games don't take up a full DVD anyway - much has already been written about this. Just because PS3 games are encoded on Blu-Ray discs doesn't mean they are actually using all the space.

 

[TonyTone]

One can only hope for that...but if I were to make an uneducated guess, I'd say that the 1080p inclusion was introduced at this time so as to allow playback of WMV-HD videos/content downloaded from Microsoft's soon-to-be-released movie/TV video download website, in addition to any other existing WMV-HD videos that might be out there now.

 

[Halen]

The more memory a game developer has to work with just means they can be more sloppy in their programing. Also, since the PS3 is more difficult to develop for, the extra space of a Blu-ray is there to help ease this difficulty.

The one thing where the extra space will definitely help in is in Textures seen in the game. Developers will be able to include more defined and detailed textures in their games with more space. However, the drive speeds will be the problem. DVD drives and Blu-ray drives run at about the same speed. So you can imagine how long it will take to load a game that has a level that has about 3 gigabytes of data. Even if you stream the game, you can only steam as much data as you could for a DVD. So in essence, Blu-ray can help make games more beautiful at the expense of load times. Blu-ray can also help make those games longer too, but you can do the same with a DVD, you just need more of them.

Untill you can at least triple the Blu-ray bandwith, I don't see it making a major difference in games.

Oh, and the Xbox 360 will most likely never have an HDMI cable...unless one is made aftermarket, but the Xbox won't support it natively.