Bill Gates just announced...

[D-Vader]

An external HD DVD for the 360.
From what I understand, it's just to watch movies, not for games. So I guess MS beat PS3 to the punch. Rumor is that the PS3 will have a Blu-Ray drive (expensive). The battle for the next gen DVD will be fought between HD DVD and BluRay. I think if MS is behind HD DVD, then that will be the odds on favorite to win out in the states.

[ObiWanFTW]

sony has NEVER made a successful video format and never will.I laugh at some people on the net that say 360 is not true next gen,well just download the fight night demo from marketplace and they will be proven wrong real fast.Oh and a stand alone external drive will always be better than a built in one.Sony just lost the console wars if you ask me.

[Amidala Starkiller]

Bill Gates just announced...

that he is the son of satan?

[ObiWanFTW]

NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!(vader voice)

[DarthMaximus]

Here's some more interesting info on the future of DVD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD: www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

Thank god the new players are going to be backwards compatible.

[D-Vader]

Personally I don't think we're ready for this.

In the games market, very few of the Xbox (and I assume PS2 as well) used much more than 2 GB of info for the game. The original Outlaw Golf fit onto a CD and had room left over. I haven't checked, but I'm sure that even the 360 games don't fully utilize the amount of space available on a DVD. I could be wrong, but I don't see games running out of room on DVDs just yet.

In the movie realm, I see even less use for them. Unless HD movies are significantly larger than normal movies (I assume they are), then I don't need to see an extra 8 hours of background info and home movies of the actors to fill up the 30 - 50 GB of space on the disc.

What I do see as a possibility is that the home HD-DVD and Blu-Ray burners could let us compile the complete Star Wars saga onto one disc that we could carry with us and pop into a player at any given time for 12+ hours of wholesome family entertainment.

I'm not saying that the technology shouldn't be released or anything by any means. I think the first movie released on DVD was Outbreak and that was in the mid 90's. CDs were available back in the early 80's, and technology progresses giving us new formats every so often. I'm sure there will be a time when HD DVD or Blu Ray is as common as DVD is now, but I feel we're in the 1994 of the new format. (See Pioneer)

[DarthMaximus]

I would say the larger capicity of these discs will allow a completely uncompressed video and audio to be produced. That being said, only newer movies being made will take full advantage of this format. The audio and video quality of any movie is only as good as it's source. So, movies from the sixties aren't gonna look perfect no matter what even if they are remastered.

[ObiWanFTW]

yep that sounds about right john.

[D-Vader]

Here's an article that says basically what I've been saying about next-gen consoles filesizes. Pay close attention to the procedural synthesis part. Good stuff.

Something I hadn't thought about is that even though later games tend to be bigger in size, they are also more efficient than the earlier games.

So while BluRay and HD-DVD formats will be great for better quality movies (not better movies necessarily), it would pretty much be wasted space for the PS3 and the 360.

[lanther]

amidalastarkiller said:

Bill Gates just announced...

that he is the son of satan?

Just the son? Thought he was the Dark Lord himself

[Amidala Starkiller]

He will be when he kills the master in his sleep.

[DarthMaximus]

Here's some news about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Players from TheDigitalBits.com:
Here's a bit of high-def news (while, again, you wait for my CES report to conclude) that's sure to set some early adopters into a tizzy: the companies and studios behind the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) copy protection scheme (that's going to be used on both Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD) have officially decided this week to require hardware manufactures to prevent full 1080-line resolution video signals (1920x1080) from being passed through unprotected analog outputs (read: component connections). The decision as to whether or not to use the restriction will be left up to the content providers and will be triggered by a software flag on the discs on a case by case basis. What this means, however, is that most movie discs are only going to be displayed at full 1080 resolution through digital HDMI connections. If you don't have HDMI on your HDTV or projector (we're not sure if DVI-to-HDMI adapted connections will be affected), the best you'll be able to see through your component cables is an electronically down-converted 540 lines (960x540 lines). That's just a tad better than regular DVD, which weighs in at 480-line resolution (720x480). We knew this was coming, but still... ouch! The problem is that many early adopters - the very folks these new formats are going to have to hit with to succeed - have older displays that aren't equipped with HDMI inputs (although most new HDTV and projectors sold now have them). You can read more on this here at DVD Exclusive.

Here's the rub... while I know that this is going to piss many early adopters off, I'm willing to bet my right arm that NOTHING is going to make the Hollywood studios change their minds on this. Over the last couple months, I've spoken privately with a number of highly-placed studio execs on this subject, and nearly to a person they tell me that there's no way the studios will go forward without this analog restriction on the hardware. There are a couple of exceptions (Fox, for example, has reportedly lobbied privately against the feature, and the hardware manufacturers themselves are generally against it), but by and large, the sense I get is that most of the studios would rather see Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD wither and die on the vine (and stick with regular DVD alone) than leave unprotected 1080 video signals on disc open to casual digital pirates. Clearly, there's no way to stop the organized, professional pirate - sooner or later they'll crack whatever protection there is (or figure out a practical work-around). But Hollywood seems DETERMINED to get the piracy genie back in the bottle, and trust me when I say that they're not going to budge on this issue. It just isn't going to happen. So while it yeah... it really sucks, we're unfortunately either going to have to live with it or just not upgrade to HD discs.


Sounds like those without a HDMI connection on their tv will be SOL. I wonder how this will affect the HD-DVD drive for the 360?

[D-Vader]

darthmaximus said:

Sounds like those without a HDMI connection on their tv will be SOL. I wonder how this will affect the HD-DVD drive for the 360?

\

Microsoft will create a work around and call it the VCN, for Virtual Chuck Norris. The VCN will roundhouse kick any software protection provided by BluRay or HD DVD discs and allow 360 users the full use of 1080 resolution. Microsoft will also emply the real Chuck Norris to roundhouse kick all studio execs who complain about the Virtual Chuck Norris.