Xbox 360 HD-DVD Addon Announced

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Xbox 360, while powerful on its own, is also a foundation from which new technology and accessories can be added. Chief among these is the recently announced HD DVD add-on. This much anticipated accessory carries with it an extension of the HD Era that Xbox 360 offers, and provides the most visually stunning movie watching experience available.

This new accessory will connect to the Xbox 360 console with a USB cable, enabling it to harness the power of the Xbox 360 console for the HD video outputs and digital surround sound. As an accessory, it becomes another shining example of the flexibility of Xbox 360 designed into the console in order to grow and add new features. It's also just one of several new accessories being announced at E3.

So what's the suggested price for the Xbox 360 HD DVD player? "Stay tuned. We decided to save that good news for another day, but we're clearly out to make this an affordable option for Xbox 360 owners," said Penello.

News source: The full story

(1 reply) #1 m-head on 08 May 2006 - 18:10

Gotta love the way they describe their own products.

#1.1 cryptic on 09 May 2006 - 00:22

Yeah, I suppose they should just call it a huge steaming pile of crap, that would sell lots of them I bet

(2 replies) #2 neufuse on 08 May 2006 - 20:12

so umm is this HDMI or are they still using component? because i thought if a HDDVD played on a non HDMI conenction it was significantly scalled back in res... and yet the XBOX 360 has no HDMI adapter as of yet

#2.1 Ryster092 on 09 May 2006 - 08:36

Actually reading the article and digesting it's contents helps to answer your own question.

The HD-DVD drive will not have any direct connections to your TV. It connects to your Xbox 360 using a USB cable. Therefore whatever connection options the Xbox 360 has will continue to be your options once you attach the HD-DVD drive.

Note however, that there have been many rumours recently about a HDMI connection cable for the Xbox 360 so maybe that will be released at a similar time to the HD-DVD drive.

#2.2 neufuse on 09 May 2006 - 11:11

if you read what I said you'd realize that wasnt what i was talking about, i know it connects to the xbox i just wanted to know if it was going to require the xbox 360 to have a different connection... the XBOX 360 is going to do the processing of the video not the HD-DVD drive, which allows the drive alone to be cheap compared to the other ones out there..

(3 replies) #3 tiddlie on 08 May 2006 - 20:28

So can we expect a new model Xbox 360 with built in HD-DVD player instead of the standard DVD-Rom drive?

If theres a chance, i'll wait a few months to buy my 360.

#3.1 chicken-royal on 08 May 2006 - 21:06

maybe, maybe not. if they do, the games will still have to be on DVD so all the people who bought a 1st gen 360 can still play games.

I read somewhere they're going to bring out a 2nd gen 360 with different chips in (ie manufactured from a different company) so they run cooler and quieter, so I'm glad I waited. I'll try and find the source. it was either posted on Neowin, Techspot or C|Net. I've seen it somewhere recently

#3.2 voidunknown on 08 May 2006 - 22:01

Quote - tiddlie said @ #3

From what I read before, Microsoft said they have NO PLANS to ship a HD-DVD Xbox 360 becuase they don't want to upset early adopters. They would only be shooting themselves in the foot later down the road. It would also create less early adopters for their NEXT console.

#3.3 Xerxes on 09 May 2006 - 11:59

I think there is a small possibilty of a future revision of the Xbox 360 having a HD-DVD drive built it, since (currently anyway) MS only plans to use the HD-DVD drive for movie playback, so including it in future revisions shouldn't cause to much upset since far as I know all Xbox 360 games will be DVD, so it just means people who buy it later on just get another feature out the box..the people who got in early..well they don't need HD-DVD but if they want it, it's available to them as an addon. This is a bad example, but it is like with the PS2 network adapter, it started as an optional addon but in the future revisions it was built in.

(3 replies) #4 yukycg on 08 May 2006 - 23:07

down the road MS can redesign their xbox360 to a silm version with HD-DVD, just like what Sony did with PStwo.

#4.1 Ryster092 on 09 May 2006 - 10:00

No. All Sony did was shrink the console, they didn't change the technology used for their disc drive.

Technology=DVD

#4.2 chicken-royal on 09 May 2006 - 13:45

they did combine the network adapter though, which was an add-on for the original PS2 design.

#4.3 supersaiyanjericho on 09 May 2006 - 23:58

the network adapter doesn't work with the slim

#5 Hubert J Farnsworth on 09 May 2006 - 05:02

So it connects through a USB port ... will the drive work on a PC too then?

(2 replies) #6 Fubar on 09 May 2006 - 09:30

gotta love ms marketing stratergy , guess they have to make some money up after losing so much per console , first time im gonna ever say this but hats off to them , the way they have confused the customner is unreal , soo many times people come into my shop not knowing the differance between the full and core system , when they find out the core system is bog standard theyalways go for the full system as buying the hd and stuff sepereatly would just work out so much more

69.99 quid for a 20gig hard drive lmao , who they trying to kid

#6.1 Ryster092 on 09 May 2006 - 10:19

They are just trying to kid you, apparently...

On dabs.com, the price of a 20gb 2.5" laptop drive (the type the Xbox 360 uses) is around 40 quid. Then there is the enclosure which for a USB variety from dabs costs around 25 quid. The Microsoft version will be proprietary technology which will obviously cost more. So £69.99 seems like quite a reasonable price to me.

#6.2 HawkMan on 09 May 2006 - 14:54

Not coutnign the price for all the other extras the premium comes with as well.

(1 reply) #7 Shadrack on 10 May 2006 - 01:14

I seriously doubt any games are going to be taking advantage of the HD-DVD format. All game producers have adopted in-game real time rendered cinematics as oppose to prerecorded scenes.

#7.1 HawkMan on 10 May 2006 - 20:48

In addition the MS licensing agreement does not allow them to use the HD DVD for games, if it is even possible in the first place(might be a block in the system).

and judging from the HAlo3 trailer. and the fact that pre non interactive cinematic scenes with the game engine can look a lot better than actual in game interactive graphics. I'd say we don't need pre rendered anymore... I mean I haven't seen many pre-rendered cinematics that beat or even match the Halo3 trailer.

#8 flashguy28 on 06 Jul 2006 - 06:28

This site has a ton of information about Blu Ray and Hd Dvd...they're also giving away free movies:
www.hd-dvd-report.com

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