Ever since the (not so?) great mass defection of 2007-2008, it has been expected that Microsoft would at some point, abandon their own support of the HD DVD format. If you've taken a
peek at Gamerscore since Saturday, you probably saw them announce just that:
"As a result of recent decisions made by Toshiba, Hollywood studios, and retailers, Microsoft plans to withdraw from HD DVD. Xbox will no longer manufacture new HD DVD players for the Xbox 360, but we will continue to provide standard product and warranty support for all Xbox 360 HD DVD Players in the market. As we stated earlier, we do not believe this decision will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace. HD-DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own."
Not the best of news for those that hoped that the struggling format would finally take off and fly on its own, but there is one silver lining in this situation -- it has zero effect on the Xbox 360 and its games. The announcement should also put those bothersome rumors of yet another SKU with an internal HD DVD drive to rest. If only we could now get rid of the current scuttlebutt calling for the notably green console to transform into something a little more Blu-ray. When are people going to lose those silly notions that add-ons just don't cut it?
I always thought of it as prudent on MS's part not to shove HD DVD down our throats from the start. It was just too risky. As history now shows, it would appear that they made the right choice, and it looks like good old fashioned DVD may be here to stay for a while longer -- at least until Blu-ray players and the disks themselves start matching the price-point that the mainstream finds comfort in.
[Via Kotaku]
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Contest:
12:46 PM on 02.24.2008
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... Just some random thoughts. :D
I'm not sure about that. Maybe if they did shove it down our throats HD-DVD would have won in the end.
I only care about owning Planet Earth on Blu-Ray, and that's about it. I've sold off my entire DVD collection (500+), and I don't miss them one bit.
At first glance, you may be tempted to say yes. However, it would've jacked up the price of the 360 -- and nullified the competetive advantage it had over the PS3 at the onset.
The 360 has gone on to sell very well, I'd say.
However, now that HD DVD is dead I'll be keeping my eye out for a the 360 attachment for cheap. I'm talking like $2o cheap. Thats not a bad price for DVD upscaling.
Wait... Narishma was quoting me ;-)
I mean look at it, Blu-ray has 10 more gigs PER LAYER compared to HD-DVD
Anywho, scuttlebutt aside, I think it would have been interesting if the 360 had HD-DVD in one of the SKUs (maybe not the first one), such as the Elite. Maybe shoving HD-DVD down our throat was exactly the strategy needed to help keep the format afloat? We may never know for sure.
As far as I'm concerned, back to buying normal DVDs for me. No Blu-Rayz are in my future.
Kudo's to anyone who gets the reference.
You have a good point but the Disc-less future you speak of is still decades off. Digital Distribution is awesome and it will continue to grow, but it is still not for everyone.
Yes, have you seen movies in Blu-Ray with HDTV before? It makes a DVD movie look like it's VCR. If we follow your logic, then you mind as well throw away your DVD and watch movie in VHS.
I agree with you that Digital Distribution is a ways off. Take CD's for example. Yes, you can download essentially any song you want for a reasonable price now. And many people do. Yet we still CD's for sale everywhere we go. In my opinion, this is true and will remain true for a number of reasons. First, there are people who like having the whole package (art, case, etc.). I'm one of them. Second, it's not yet easy enough to take digitally distributed material and switch it from player to player without paying a significant amount of money. I also don't think there is much of a clamoring for such an ability yet, either. Third, and this one wont change for quite a while, people are afraid of the internetz. It's relatively normal to walk into a Best Buy and grab a CD, then pop it into a player and hit play. We've been doing the same thing since 8-tracks, and records were even more complicated. Of course WE don't find the prospect of downloading content imposing at all, but a large portion of the population does. They don't see the benefit in such an arrangement.
Frankly, I'm not sure I disagree with them quite yet.
Price wouldn'tve been that much of an issue either imo
Until then, I hope you learn to adapt or just live under a rock till DLC actually comes. Prob 5 years or more from now.
HD movies and games take 25-50gigs of space, were having problems now with regular DLC on our current consoles because the max they offer are around 200'ish Gigs of space. Meaning if DLC comes anytime soon, you would have 4 movies of Talladega's Nights and your HDD is full.
And what about PC you say? how many of you have a 8Core multi-tread chip on your PC with 2 Terra's of HDD space with the new external Nvidia Video cards that has it's own power cord and 200gigs of ram and 100mb DSL connection? aw you dont have it? well better get used to physical media sticking for a while longer.
DLC does seem like the next likely step, but its a long way off if you look at the restrictions placed on it by our actual internet connections. I'm unsure what you get in the US, but data caps seem to be a rule here, and with my current (more high end) plan, I would be able to download less than 1 HD movie a month. I also would prefer to watch a movie now, it's faster for me to physically go and buy it than download the 20+ gig file.
Are your connections in the US different to this?? How long would it take you to download 20 gig?? Are you uncapped on your downloads??
Blu-ray will be around for a long time if it's only going to be superceded by DLC.
Digital cable already allows for immediate viewing of movies, it's just one more step for ownership.
And even easier step if Apple puts HD content iTunes.
And about streaming. Most people want to own their movies not just stream them, therefore its not happening mainstream for a long time.
What I meant to say was this:
We just downgraded our 7Mbps pipe to 1.5Mbps because we can't afford the exorbitant price it costs. It took me about an hour or so to download the Crysis DEMO (2GB) on my 7Mbps connection. Can you imagine trying to download entire HD movies (20+ GB) over a 1.5Mbps pipe? I'd love DLC to take over, but until the US can get cheap fast Internet like the cool countries, I'll take my discs kthx.
Just a couple of questions,
How much compression can you put HD video through before you lose image quality??
Does Digital Cable allow for viewing of standard def or high def and how fast does it stream??
Maybe if MS would have used it as a game format as well as a movie and have it internal, then things may have been very diffrent. As it stands, though. They half-assed it like they have done with the 360. I used to think the only thing they got right was xbox live, now, I question that even..
"I don't know wahat the big deal is. DVD is obliterating Blu-Ray and Blu-Ray has no chance in hell of beating it before DLC takes over. The war was two years too long, and the average joe just doesn't want it."
I'm sure this point has been made here before but I'll say it again. The broadband penetration in the US is NOT NOT NOT where it needs to be to allow digital distribution to take hold. And working for AT&T I can tell you that from personal experience. Is it getting better? You bet. As it stands right now anywhere between 60-80% of people that want broadband from us won't be able to get it just because of where they are geographically. And that's just regular broadband speeds, do you know the speed requirement that would be required to download 700mb or more file in a reasonable amount of time? Its at least double but more likely quadruple the speeds that are out there now to get people interested in digital distribution.
Also, the storage needed to download movies and have a whole library of movies like I have dvds in my house now is staggering, and the storage capability is not there yet to do that, and won't be for some time.
Lastly, a lot of people including myself like to have a hard copy of my movie on a physical disk. What would I do if the hard drive I had a lot of movies on crashed? Download them all over again over a couple of days? F that. While digital distribution will be around in the future it is so far off most people don't realize it and think it will be here in 2-5 years, take it from me it won't. I see different people everyday that don't own a computer.
holy fucking shit dude, i'm listening to that song and that part happend as I read it your post!!!!
IM SERIOUSLY FREAKING OUT MAN