Microsoft HD-DVD add-on info?

When will this thing come out?
If it sells for $200 bucks it will mach the price of PS3' s low end machine. Good for video but most likely no games.
Is there a chance of having let' s say next year' s 360s with built in HD-DVD?

Who will manufacture the add-on? Support for HDMI??

(damm, had some pics of the drive to post but it gives me the " 550 Error" ...)

Q4 2006 - $100-$150

Is there a chance of having let' s say next year' s 360s with built in HD-DVD?

None.

Support for HDMI??

HDMI cable is soon to be released anyway, but it' s still uncertain whether the drive itself will be HDMI or HDCP compliant.

(damm, had some pics of the drive to post but it gives me the " 550 Error" ...)

That thing looks ugly as sin. What if you are a normal person and lay your 360 horizontally instead of vertically? That thing looks like it was designed for vertical plcement. How does it hook up to the 360? Does it even hook up to the 360? Do I need a 360 to use this piece of crap? When will they start releasing good movies on HD-DVD?

You know, Mr. Redifer, you have a valid point - I, for one, do NOT stand my 360 vertically, so standing the HD-DVD Add-on vertically next to my horizontal XBox would be, for lack of better words, ugly.

I' m also worried about certain specs on the product. I' ve read about the new copy protection scheme being used in the next-gen DVD formats, and there is speculation as to how the HD-DVD Player (which will be connected via USB) will be able to handle these things. If there is not an HDMI connection, which as you know the 360 doesn' t have one, then the scheme kicks in to " dumb down" the image to 480p - or slightly better.

There seems to be a lot going on with this add-on that Microsoft is keenly quiet about. Until there is more concrete information on the product (instead of a stupid screenshot), count me out.

' ve read about the new copy protection scheme being used in the next-gen DVD formats...

...then the scheme kicks in to " dumb down" the image to 480p - or slightly better.

That WAS what was going to happen, or at least what had been talked about, -- however since the rather large backlash (mostly due to the fact that 3 million + of the HDTV' s have been sold in the states aren' t HDMI/HDCP compliant) it' s been scrapped.

Yes it connects to the console, no you won' t be able to use it as an external drive for your PC, yes it looks retarded.

Thank you for clearing that up Majik. However, at the risk of sounding dumb, there is one more question.

If it is connected via USB, just how piss-poor do you think the transfer rate will be? Reviews of the current HD-DVD players on the market speak of loadtimes of up to Three Minutes before the movie even starts! How on EARTH will they get that data through USB in under that amount of time?

3 minutes for a streaming movie to load? Count me out. Also, will this add-on support the new Dolby codecs like Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital TruHD (lossless)?

USB 2 definetly does not have a problem like that.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

Well, USB also isn' t the fastest method of data transfer on the market. And my point is, if a player that runs HDDVD directly on the player, with no kind of extra connection, takes that long to load up, how do you think MS will be able to speed that up after ADDING a connection to another box to get it running?

Where did you hear it takes that long to load up? It is going to be just like a normal DVD.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

it looks like shit that' s for sure...

Actually, i think it looks fairly cool! Just imagine that you dont have to put it right next to your xbox, maybe you could put it on a different shelf?

I have a Video " table" for my xbox and DVD player, which has 4 compartments, 2 big and 2 small, it would look great if i could have my HD-DVD player in the small compartment next to the one i have my Xbox in!

I just hope the load times spoken off are fiction, though USB with its 410Mbs, shouldnt have trouble transfering that amount of data, so it shouldnt be a bottleneck for the system!

I think it looks little chunky but if I did get one I could just put it behind my 360 out of view.

Actually, I read about the long load times for movies in HD as well. Sorry, I can' t remember the source, but I do recall that it said that HD-DVD players (can' t remember if they included Blu-ray or not) are more like computers than regular DVD players. I vaguely remember the load times being about a minute or so, but that' s still too damn long. I' m sure it will get better with time.

As far as HDMI being supported, MS has already confirmed as much.

As far as the look of the unit, I' m gonna paint mine to look like a book. Prob' ly Moby Dick. Then I' ll just set it on a shelf. When people see me load it up, they' ll be like, " DAAAAAMN" !

Would be cool if they changed it up aswell just like how you can change your faceplate (doubt they will though) saves you painting it.

I don' t get why the bandwidth issue keeps comming up, the 360 is usb2, and the specs so far suggest 480MB/s data transfer rate possible. More than enough!

HD movies are recorded at around 24Mbps, and Im sure there will be some compression in use to get the data to the console as well. Most of these rumours come from sony bias sites, people dont realise how fast USB2 can be...

Also remember that in this generation MS isnt doing things by halves. As for the comment on existing players, early gen players always get out performed by later ones to market. I paid £400 for a PC DVD system and MPEG2 Decoder card in 96/7 I remember it well

THe format war is every bit as much succeptable to hype and spin as the console race, and they have never been closer!

Typically however, the more expensive formats die, Sony are making a huge gamble with BR, it could pay off, it could ruin them.

I saw an interesting article the other day stating that of SOny' s entire turnover last year, only around 1% was profit. If you compare their PC and consumer electronics departments to their rivals panasonic / matsu, they are being panned. With rivals tripling their growth in consecutive years. They are really struggling, and for tehm this trojan horse technique gives blu-ray a fighting chance.

But with betamax, MD, UMD and more in their closets does this mean this format has what it takes? Going to be interesting! The most popular DVD writable format in the world is still DVD-R, the first, and still cheaper than the rest.

Hmmmn...

this thing seems too expensive for me, and considering I just use my computer for everything anyways I' m getting a HD-DVD rom for that.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

I also don' t get why people are saying it' s ugly? It looks EXACTLY like the 360! If anything, it might be plain or boring, but ugly?

It looks kinda like a book...

I am not interested in watching HD movies anyway.

The front shouldn' t be poop gray, it should be white or chrome.
I' m extremely interested in watching HD movies, I download pretty much any HD videos I can off xbox live just so I can experience HD.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

ORIGINAL: locopuyo

The front shouldn' t be poop gray, it should be white or chrome.

Now that you mention it that idea sounds better to me. As for the hd thing I think I might wait a while until I decide but i' m interested very much in hd though.

Who took a crap next to my 360?

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."