XBOX 360 and HD DVDs

[Smack500]

I thought one of the perks of the 360 was the ability to play HD DVDS, however while at Best Buy today I saw an add on for the 360 to do this. Unless I got the wrong info on the ps3 aswell, isnt it suppose to support HD-dvds, and Blue ray discs.

The more I think about it the more I regret buying the 360, I wonder if I could exchange my 360 for $400 store credit to use on a PS3.

 

[destrukt]

What's so much better about the PS3 than the X360 ? Also, why do you regret buying one ?

 

[AiM]

The 360 cannot play HD-DVD's without a seperate peripheral add-on. As for the in-store credit, you'd be better off asking Bestbuy directly (assuming your 360 is in good condition).

edit: Just to be clear, my first sentence is not meant to answer you (Destrukt) but to confirm the poster's original question, there's countless debates of 360 vs PS3 so I don't feel the need to re-aggravate that again... (there's no change in opinion and in-between actual discussions, there's about a million "LOL PS3 $600 WTF SUCKS" spam)

 

[-Psy-]

The X360 supports HD-DVD via an add-on.

I think they did this because they wanted to either;

a) Keep the price down on the console
or
b) The technology was still in development

 

[VictimOfScience]

Don't sell back that 360 just yet. When next Spring rolls around and games like Alan Wake and Bioshock are running beautifully on it, your feelings of regret will fade like the morning dew in the warm brilliance of the sun.

Oh, and I'd wait for some user reviews of the HD-DVD add-on before I go jumping in bed with it. Kissing and telling can actually save a lot of heartache in the end.

 

[Warbie]

The 360 supports HD DVD with the addon, the PS3 supports Blu-ray. There won't be any combi players around for a while, if at all.

At the moment HD DVD is the av enthusiasts choice for movie viewing - it uses a better codec and is winning the visual battle. Blu-ray is catching up, but as things stand HD DVD is the better format.

Who will win?? Place bets now!

//edit

expecting an HD DVD player (which are going for over £350) incl. with the 360 was a little much

 

[Sebastian]

I like the fact that with the xbox 360, you have a choice as to whether or not you buy a next generation video player. I mean, most of us have dvd movies now and don't really need the uber 1080p output of an hd dvd player.

 

[Warbie]

^ a fair point. It's also worth noting that this format war is far from over - we really don't know which will win out. This is one of the reasons i'm not buying a PS3 at launch - it'd suck to pay a premium for a Blu-ray player for it to lose the battle with HD DVD. Then you're stuck with an expensive player which only gives some extra storage space for games (whoopdeedooo )

//edit - but if Blu-ray does win, then cheap Blu-ray player and games console bundle woohoo \o/

 

[Iced_Eagle]

I like the fact that they are giving you the choice. Cause I for sure don't need a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player right now, especially with me moving to college next year, it's the furthest thign down on my list of things to be.

 

[Revisedsoul]

with the add-on though i have a feeling that there will be more games coming out that will be hd-dvd only, being pushed my microsoft or otherwise

 

[AfternoonLemon]

I think the majority of 360 owners are not particularly interested in HD...

I believe Sony have made a big mistake by sticking with Blu-Ray for their console, they should have left it optional - such as Microsoft have done.

This situation seems somewhat familiar... think 1994, and another big name video games company, who seemed unstoppable back then....

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

For the "casual" gamer, with a normal sized television, does the next generation of disks matter?, besides more storage room?

 

[Iced_Eagle]

with the add-on though i have a feeling that there will be more games coming out that will be hd-dvd only, being pushed my microsoft or otherwise

Games can NOT be put on HD DVD's though. It's what Microsoft has already stated. The connection is too slow for that shit and there isn't a mandatory HD so you can't "install" the game there temporarily.

DVD's will be pushed to their limits this generation, but they can do it... Next-gen though definetely either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray will be in all consoles more than likely. It depends on who wins the "war".

 

[SAJ]

The problem with microsoft's solution is that add-ons for consoles have never worked in the past.
Because you never have a hundred percent take-up of the peripheral, developers are reluctant to factor it in when calculating the platform's capability. So the HD drive will not be of any use beyond movies.
Sony's blu-thingy on the other hand, will be used for games as its present on all machines. It may not seem all that useful now, but think about the storage potential in the second half of the consoles lifespan.


PS - Dont own any console, not buying one.

 

[-Psy-]

I can only see uber large textures being a storage problem and that's about it =/

 

[destrukt]

The problem with microsoft's solution is that add-ons for consoles have never worked in the past.
Because you never have a hundred percent take-up of the peripheral, developers are reluctant to factor it in when calculating the platform's capability. So the HD drive will not be of any use beyond movies.
Sony's blu-thingy on the other hand, will be used for games as its present on all machines. It may not seem all that useful now, but think about the storage potential in the second half of the consoles lifespan.

Great post.. if your problems weren't imaginary ones. :O

The HD-DVD drive was never intended to be used for games, never so your story about how add-ons have never worked is void.

Also, all things point towards DVD9 being able for the lifespan of the 360 (3-5 years or so).

 

[sHaDdoW]

blueray stores more then hd-dvd, but the codecs crap on blueray, i'm sure they could change that since its software based.

 

[Stigmata]

Two facts that are important to this thread:

The HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 is NOT going to be used for ANY game.

Blu-Ray discs are more expensive to produce than HD-DVD discs, and hold about 35% more data.

 

[Venmoch]

I mean seriously as well. For a developer standpoint. Why do you seriously need more than the capacity of a DVD9.

Unless your all falling in love with FMV all over again it should be more than enough...

I mean what are you going to use 10GB (or whatever) on?

Textures? Really really big ones?

 

[destrukt]

I dunno man, but that Resistance game is using what, 25GB ? I mean, look at that, with 25GB the gameplay, enemies, graphics and everything doesn't look painfully mediocre and generic.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic. :O

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Developers just have to use better compression techniques. Also remember Resistance is putting every single language / region onto one disc.

I'm not sure how many languages total, but it really doesn't matter... Having all of that audio, text, videos etc with multiple languages will really eat up your disk size FAST. They flaunt it like the entire game is 25gb, but nobody realizes that it has so much audio and crap that we will never hear unless we turn the PS3's into different language settings.

I bet you they could get it onto a DVD9 with the great compression techniques people know for DVD's, and also if they cut out all of the junk we don't need with the other languages.

 

[Asus]

The only thing you should be disappointed about is if you thought your Xbox360 could play HD-DVD movies. I'm surprised you didn't know that it was an add-on and not included. What format the games are on shouldn't matter to you the end user. It's a console so you buy xbox360 games and they work on your xbox360.

 

[AiM]

Well the multi-langauge support is a nice bonus, this way you're never just stuck with the region's dubbed audio. However, a bigger part of the bonus is the fact that all games will NOT be region-locked now.

As for whether DVD9 has enough capacity for X360, only time will tell.

 

[Venmoch]

Well the multi-langauge support is a nice bonus, this way you're never just stuck with the region's dubbed audio. However, a bigger part of the bonus is the fact that all games will NOT be region-locked now.

Getting them however, could be one hell of a struggle

 

[AiM]

Howso? There's more than just Lik-Sang as far as importing companies goes... the only question is whether you're actually willing to get it.

 

[Lt. Drebin]

The only thing you should be disappointed about is if you thought your Xbox360 could play HD-DVD movies. I'm surprised you didn't know that it was an add-on and not included. What format the games are on shouldn't matter to you the end user. It's a console so you buy xbox360 games and they work on your xbox360.

Well put.

Further, I think most people that use their consoles to play their movies are usually thrilled when they switch over to stand alone players. That said, to each his own...IMHO the HD-DVD add-on is crippled in several ways that would and did force me to simply fork over the extra $150 to buy the first-gen Toshiba HD-DVD player.