Ultimate XboX

Sounds like it isn't going to be cheap.
 
if they do the built in HDDVD now they are dumb as fuck.
 
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Was reading this about the ultimate xbox a while back. Got to say i would highly highly doubt MS add a HD DVD player into the drive at this point. They just arent that type of company, that type meaning one that would set them selves up to fail. MS knows only how to win man. They run over so many other companies, i wouldnt doubt it being a blue ray drive instead.
 
this was rumored to be revealed at CES 2008 and it never was, MS has said time and time again they will never release it with a built in HD DVD drive, they want consumers to have a choice between gaming and movies, not forced to buy it all in one.
 
This would be the failure point of the XB360 if they did this. They would be alienating so many people who already have a 360. The reason they would add an HDDrive wouldn't be for movies, but to allow developers to put games onto an HD disk that wouldn't fit onto a normal DVD9. It seems to me they are trying to attract games like MGS4 or FF13 which won't fit onto a single disc, so developers like that are shying away. Everyone who had a regular 360 wouldn't be able to play these games, which would in turn force them to upgrade.

To me it is a really stupid move.
 
Not to mention MS pretty much gave up on HDDVD and is going straight to dl content.
 
Chasym said:
this was rumored to be revealed at CES 2008 and it never was, MS has said time and time again they will never release it with a built in HD DVD drive, they want consumers to have a choice between gaming and movies, not forced to buy it all in one.
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Like Chasym said: not happening.
 
Doesnt Sony own the rights to producing Blu-Ray Player? If so then i doubt the 360 will ever get a Blu-ray player for the 360
 
Microsoft is within the digital rights management for Blu-Ray aside form a few others, so if they wanted to they can use Blu-Ray. Which they should.
 
That thing looks pimp, I'd buy it and move my H3 edition to the bathroom or something. Then I can take a dump and kill zombies - two of my most favorite things - at the same freakin time!

They could slap that paint job and a 500gb drive on the Jasper platform due this fall and flog it as the Elite II. I mean jesus christ, how long can they even buy 20gb drives? Manufacturers don't want to keep machinery busy printing legacy platters when they could be pressing 160gb+ platters to use for revenue across the entire product line.

Could be a private custom order but you'd think that would be comparable to market value of a ~200gb drive today before any OEM discount. I dunno maybe I'm talking out my ass.
 
Anttaru said:
Microsoft is within the digital rights management for Blu-Ray aside form a few others, so if they wanted to they can use Blu-Ray. Which they should.
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The small fact overlooked here is that MS is so invested in HD-DVD winning or at least holding off Blu-Ray long enough to disenfranchise the consumers so much that they decide the only way to win is to get digital download content. Microsoft backs HD-DVD because it uses the WMV encoder, where as Blu-Ray uses Apple's mp4 encoder system. The Apple format is superior in just about every way to the WMV, which is why almost no company would use it. Then HD-DVD came around and Microsoft cut them a deal to include it as the exclusive video encoder for HD-DVD in addition to funding for studios such as Paramount to become exclusive.

Nintendo's next console will likely also have a Blu-Ray drive. After all the mocking they've received for not being high def this generation, they will most likely include it in their next console in one form or the other. The reason I say they will likely back the Blu-Ray is because while Nintendo and Sony might not see eye to eye, Nintendo has a huge backing from Disney who is a primary supporter of Blu-Ray.

I could actually very well see a future where Apple and Sony (and probably a few other big names) all team up to create the greatest line of interactive home electronics in history, simply because of how well those companies do what they do.

(keep in mind about what I said in the last paragraph that as of right now, I currently can't stand the Apple interface, but it's still 10000x better than Vista)

As for on topic, adding all that together will likely slam home a huge financial loss to MS when the HD-DVD fails to continue once they can't afford to keep paying off Paramount and Dreamworks to stay exclusive anymore. Kinda hard to suffer the huge profit hindrance caused by not being able to release the Indiana Jones quadrilogy this next Christmas on Blu-Ray. Those sales alone would be more than what MS is paying them most likely.
 
Taurothar said:
The small fact overlooked here is that MS is so invested in HD-DVD winning or at least holding off Blu-Ray long enough to disenfranchise the consumers so much that they decide the only way to win is to get digital download content.
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That's why i said "they can use it if they wanted to, and they should."

The High definition media war is over. And in these times, trying to replace this type of media, would require x360 consumers to purchase 500 GIGs, which probably won't be enough if someone wanted several games and make the most of their Live membership. No one wants to download 10+ Gigs with these DSL's and cable modems every time they want to own a game.

Taurothar said:
Microsoft backs HD-DVD because it uses the WMV encoder, where as Blu-Ray uses Apple's mp4 encoder system. The Apple format is superior in just about every way to the WMV, which is why almost no company would use it. Then HD-DVD came around and Microsoft cut them a deal to include it as the exclusive video encoder for HD-DVD in addition to funding for studios such as Paramount to become exclusive.
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Microsoft started backing HD-DVD cause they were trying to pull a fast one on the PS3. Windows OS can run Apple encoded Mpeg4 off of Apple's media facility (Quicktime) I've done this in Windows Xp with Sony Vegas and DVD creator. I'm sure it's possible to playback Mpeg 4 on HD-DVD format, Microsoft just made it law not to do it.

Taurothar said:
Nintendo's next console will likely also have a Blu-Ray drive. After all the mocking they've received for not being high def this generation, they will most likely include it in their next console in one form or the other. The reason I say they will likely back the Blu-Ray is because while Nintendo and Sony might not see eye to eye, Nintendo has a huge backing from Disney who is a primary supporter of Blu-Ray.
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Maybe Nintendo will have someone make them the Wii-Station. An attachment that makes the Wii one of the big boys and has HDMI output with 1080p scaling.

Taurothar said:
I could actually very well see a future where Apple and Sony (and probably a few other big names) all team up to create the greatest line of interactive home electronics in history, simply because of how well those companies do what they do.
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Sony, IBM, Toshiba, RAMBUS, Nvidia made the PS3. I think Apple would need to be creative if they wanted some of this.

Taurothar said:
(keep in mind about what I said in the last paragraph that as of right now, I currently can't stand the Apple interface, but it's still 10000x better than Vista)
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Yeah OSX makes me feel sad. I wonder how that new Leopard OS is.

Taurothar said:
As for on topic, adding all that together will likely slam home a huge financial loss to MS when the HD-DVD fails to continue once they can't afford to keep paying off Paramount and Dreamworks to stay exclusive anymore. Kinda hard to suffer the huge profit hindrance caused by not being able to release the Indiana Jones quadrilogy this next Christmas on Blu-Ray. Those sales alone would be more than what MS is paying them most likely.
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Microsoft messed up Paramount and Dreamworks for a combined $200 million. I think Microsoft should let them go cause whats happening is so wrong. The format war is over, why should Microsoft Paramount and Dreamworks continue to look silly ?
 
FYI MPEG4 plays on Windows now after massive complaints from customers, but they originally worked Windows XP to make it as buggy as possible so that people would use their own formats in an attempt to kill quick time.

No way there will be Blu-ray on Xbox 360. The biggest thing that MS wanted was their own system implanted into the specifications. Blu-ray uses java. Microsoft won't put java onto an Xbox anymore than they'll put quicktime into it. They leverage their install bases to kill off rival standards and push their own.
 
Taurothar said:
Nintendo's next console will likely also have a Blu-Ray drive. After all the mocking they've received for not being high def this generation, they will most likely include it in their next console in one form or the other. The reason I say they will likely back the Blu-Ray is because while Nintendo and Sony might not see eye to eye, Nintendo has a huge backing from Disney who is a primary supporter of Blu-Ray.
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The people who have mocked the Wii's lack of high definition are mostly the retards who think anything not in 1080p looks like complete shit and is unwatchable. Nintendo's already said that the Wii is capable of doing 720p graphics, just that the user base of HDtv's wasn't high enough to warrant it. It should just take a firmware update to let them do high definition, since you can already use the component cables and the hardware is already in place; plus the games would have to be written for 720p as well.

On topic, Microsoft putting a blu-ray in the 360 would have the same effect as putting the HD-DVD in the 360; it'd piss off millions of fans and screw over their current user base. Since it's not happening with the format they're backing, it definitely wouldn't happen with the rival format.
 
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Bajaratt said:
The people who have mocked the Wii's lack of high definition are mostly the retards who think anything not in 1080p looks like complete shit and is unwatchable. Nintendo's already said that the Wii is capable of doing 720p graphics, just that the user base of HDtv's wasn't high enough to warrant it. It should just take a firmware update to let them do high definition, since you can already use the component cables and the hardware is already in place; plus the games would have to be written for 720p as well.
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I really only meant it as they were LOOKING to find problems with the Wii other than gimmicky controls. I do think that the next gen of ANY console will require a higher format than DVD9 because it simply doesn't make sense to keep releasing SD material when the user base of HDTV will more than double this year because of the 2009 digital broadcast swap.

Very few of the 360/PS3 games are even 1080p anyway. Look on the case of most of them and you'll see a little thing saying 720p or 1080i. High definition is still on the stepping stones in the end. The only thing that is 100% 1080p out there is Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Video gaming is hit or miss game to game and broadcast television is still only capable of 1080i/720p until the digital swap where bandwidth will widen enough to either add a ton more HD channels or increase the current ones to full 1080p.

But yea, I do agree with Baj on this one. Putting either into the current gen system would only piss off the install base, possibly to the point of shifting a good portion of it over to the PS3 (though unlikely with fanbois these days). MS keeps shooting itself in the foot with all these re-releases. It's like service packs for windows you'd need to pay the full price of release to get. Sure you might be able to trade in your old version for a small percentage toward the new one, but you're still cashing out for features that should have, in theory, been in a quality first release.

The 360 is the second of two huge products that people were made to pay to be beta testers for. Vista and the 360 really showed where Microsoft is trying to go with their company. Releasing an unfinished, unreliable system that people are required to upgrade to if they want to continue buying new software, and laughing as they unwittingly (in most cases) shell out money on an inferior product, from a stability standpoint, to the previous generation. Selling PCs all day, I know the disdain that the consumer base has for Vista. Requiring that all new PCs are shipped with Vista actually HURTS sales from my perspective.

This is a huge parallel to the 30ish percent fail rate of 360s. Consumers are sheep though, I can't wait to see the masses wise up to where the intelligent choices are. PS3, Wii, Macs, Linux, once the software starts being shifted to where the reliability factor is, Microsoft will finally have to WORK for their earnings, instead of just coasting on the "Vista and 360 exclusive" gravy train.
 
Taurothar said:
This is a huge parallel to the 30ish percent fail rate of 360s. Consumers are sheep though, I can't wait to see the masses wise up to where the intelligent choices are. PS3, Wii, Macs, Linux, once the software starts being shifted to where the reliability factor is, Microsoft will finally have to WORK for their earnings, instead of just coasting on the "Vista and 360 exclusive" gravy train.
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Word.

I loved Windows XP too much to wish for Microsoft's destruction, though i agree they need to start thinking of the people and not the peoples hard earned cash. Aside from gaming, there really is no need to upgrade to Vista.
 
Anttaru said:
Rumors of a new XboX360 to come with a 320GB HDD and built in HDDVD ROM, probably for gaming. How's that sound ?

http://stuff.tv/News/BIG-IN-2008-Xbox-Ultimate/
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GOD DAMNIT! With rumors around of Sony releasing 120gb and 160gb PS3s, is this just a competition of which company has the biggest?!

Seriously though, what can you do with 320gbs of HD space on a 360?

(I still don't have LIVE yet btw so I'm a LIVE noob ^^; )
 
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