[RnB180]

http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/09/h...-hd-dvd-drive/

well, the drive looks like it will be released very soon, to catch an early market and possibly steal some of PS3's blue ray thunder.

For those interested in HD DVD players, this may be a welcome addition to 360 owners seeking to upgrade into the HD era.

It will be an external USB HD DVD drive. Looks like no fluff here, just the basics in a pretty box.

I think the price will hover in the $200 price range. Which will be nice compared to the $500 price on the toshiba.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/09/h...-hd-dvd-drive/ well, the drive looks like it will be released very soon, to catch an early market and possibly steal some of PS3's blue ray thunder. For those interested in HD DVD players, this may be a welcome addition to 360 owners seeking to upgrade into the HD era. It will be an external USB HD DVD drive. Looks like no fluff here, just the basics in a pretty box. I think the price will hover in the $200 price range. Which will be nice compared to the $500 price on the toshiba.

Just by looking at the pictures, I think it looks corney, much like a standard drive. I really am more concerned about the 360 hardware in comparison to true video decoding hardware (or atleast just the comparisons of the 360 compared to regular dvd players.)

BTW, RNB, considering you've got some free time now (I read your other thread), want to get on live now and get a quick game or two going?

 

[RnB180]

I usually play Fight night 3 or uno, but late at night sometimes.

But lately Ive lost interest in playing online, FN3 has too many cheaters that pull the cord right before the match, the thing is they do it in a way to bypass the automatic loss to preserve their record. I got sick of it so I just dont even play it anymore.

UNO NEVER has anyone online to play so I havent touched that game much either. I got condemned a couple of weeks ago and played it for a few minutes once and never touched it, havent played graw in about 3 weeks, havent played burn out in about 5 weeks. table tennis hasnt been played for about 3 weeks. I dont think Ill be using the xbox much aside from utilizing its upscaling features for those movie nights once in a while.

Online gaming isnt really much fun to me, too many people abuse the glitches and loopholes.
For goodness sake, they even quite before they lose on UNO.. UNO!, which is how these people get ridiculous stats, which is numerically impossible and with zero probabilty on a game thats based off random percentages and luck of the draw. When you see these people cheat their way on something like UNO, thats pretty lame.

what game were you considering, I wouldnt mind chatting it up with you sometime.

Cheers.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 I usually play Fight night 3 or uno, but late at night sometimes. But lately Ive lost interest in playing online, FN3 has too many cheaters that pull the cord right before the match, the thing is they do it in a way to bypass the automatic loss to preserve their record. I got sick of it so I just dont even play it anymore. UNO NEVER has anyone online to play so I havent touched that game much either. I got condemned a couple of weeks ago and played it for a few minutes once and never touched it, havent played graw in about 3 weeks, havent played burn out in about 5 weeks. what game were you considering, I wouldnt mind chatting it up with you sometime. Cheers.

PGR3, or bankshot billiards, or possibly something else we both have. I'm really interested in chatting with you, I'm on now if you'de like to link up.

 

[RnB180]

Im actually working right now, but I have access to a computer at my workstation. No time for xbox right now. I have a lot of other things to do at the moment.

Maybe later tonight I can meet you on live. I usually see Edwood late nights, seems like hes a night owl like me.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 Im actually working right now, but I have access to a computer at my workstation. No time for xbox right now. I have a lot of other things to do at the moment. Maybe later tonight I can meet you on live. I usually see Edwood late nights, seems like hes a night owl like me.

Yeah, we're all night owls, but I seem to be up at the coociest (sp?) of all of you

. Would love to discuss cables with you later anyway.

 

[marvin]

I'm more interested in the HDMI cable than the HD-DVD drive. I wonder if they'll support higher resolutions (e.g. 1920*1080) through it. I just picked up a Westinghouse LVM-42W2 (LCD, 1080p) and it'd be nice if MS offered a resolution bump with the HDMI cable.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvin I'm more interested in the HDMI cable than the HD-DVD drive. I wonder if they'll support higher resolutions (e.g. 1920*1080) through it. I just picked up a Westinghouse LVM-42W2 (LCD, 1080p) and it'd be nice if MS offered a resolution bump with the HDMI cable.

Hm, well if I remember correctly, they said that no games would be offered on hd-dvd, so I assume that means that 1080i will continue to be the bottleneck of resolutions as I doubt 1080p dvd games are on the way anytime soon.

 

[wakeride74]

Well if the PS3 is going to play blueray out of the box it's price may be looking better and better. I'll still probably end up with a 360 when Halo 3 drops

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wakeride74 Well if the PS3 is going to play blueray out of the box it's price may be looking better and better. I'll still probably end up with a 360 when Halo 3 drops

Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this, but I honestly don't trust Sony, especially not until the product is in my hands and the hands of the consumers, they seem to be pretty good at releasing information and then changing it later (i.e. it was supose to have dual hdmi for dual monitors, the boomerang controller was changed, etc etc.) Still, I don't think the ps3 will be doing 1080p either, so what's the big difference? Hell, one really large advantage I can think of for blu-ray is that it will be much harder for people to rip games as blu-ray players (for pcs) will be expensive, so piracy will be at a low for a while, but otherwise, compression is pretty good from my knowledge on the 360 games as is.

 

[Nick Dangerous]

Just say no to game console DVD decoding. Why is everyone going bananas over this? The playback quality is significantly inferior to stand alone players. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD will be no different. As the format evolves, players will get better and cheaper and less prone to incompatibilities. Why spend hundreds on a first-generation player now?

Microsoft was wise to hold off bundling a Hi-Def format to keep the system cost down. Had Sony taken this route, the PS3 could have been $350 and been far more competitive.

I won't buy Microsoft's HD drive, because I'd rather spend the $200 on a standalone player. It's nice that they provided this option.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Dangerous Just say no to game console DVD decoding. Why is everyone going bananas over this? The playback quality is significantly inferior to stand alone players. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD will be no different. As the format evolves, players will get better and cheaper and less prone to incompatibilities. Why spend hundreds on a first-generation player now? Microsoft was wise to hold off bundling a Hi-Def format to keep the system cost down. Had Sony taken this route, the PS3 could have been $350 and been far more competitive. I won't buy Microsoft's HD drive, because I'd rather spend the $200 on a standalone player. It's nice that they provided this option.

This might not be the best wording for what I want to know, but what is the large difference between a 360 playing hd dvds and a real hd dvd player? I.E. what decoding differences, and what hardware differences? Don't count my word for it, but I am pretty sure the 360 can't compete with good dvd players.

 

[Nick Dangerous]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaGWiRE This might not be the best wording for what I want to know, but what is the large difference between a 360 playing hd dvds and a real hd dvd player? I.E. what decoding differences, and what hardware differences? Don't count my word for it, but I am pretty sure the 360 can't compete with good dvd players.

I don't own a 360, but I tend to agree with you. I doubt it will outperform my Panasonic S-77 HDMI DVD player w/Faroujda decoder.

 

[marvin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaGWiRE Hm, well if I remember correctly, they said that no games would be offered on hd-dvd, so I assume that means that 1080i will continue to be the bottleneck of resolutions as I doubt 1080p dvd games are on the way anytime soon.

Most Xbox 360 games are rendered at 720p, then rescaled to match the resolution you set in the dashboard. I don't expect them to render games in 1080p, I just want output support for 1080p. Completely different issues.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaGWiRE This might not be the best wording for what I want to know, but what is the large difference between a 360 playing hd dvds and a real hd dvd player? I.E. what decoding differences, and what hardware differences? Don't count my word for it, but I am pretty sure the 360 can't compete with good dvd players.

The Xbox 360 and current HD-DVD players aren't that different hardware wise. They're using general purpose processors and lots of software to decode HD-DVDs.

The Xbox 360 is a decent, but not great, DVD player.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Dangerous I don't own a 360, but I tend to agree with you. I doubt it will outperform my Panasonic S-77 HDMI DVD player w/Faroujda decoder.

It doesn't. It's noticably worse than my Panny S-97. Still want a player with Silicon Optix's Realta chipset, but those are prohibitively expensive.

 

[AuroraProject]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Dangerous I don't own a 360, but I tend to agree with you. I doubt it will outperform my Panasonic S-77 HDMI DVD player w/Faroujda decoder.

An HD-DVD player will be outperformed by an upscaling regular DVD player? I disagree.