Xbox 360's HD-DVD uses 4.7 million lines of code

Xbox 360's HD-DVD uses 4.7 million lines of code

Lee® on 06 November 2006 - 18:31 · 24 comments & 13443 views

Advertisement (Why?)

As a result of the complexities of decoding HD DVD audio and video content, as well as providing a user interface and DRM, over 4.7 million lines of code went into the HD DVD software. The external HD-DVD drive can play H.264, MPEG2 and VC1 videos. There is no hardware HD DVD decoder chip set on board the Xbox 360. As a result, the HD DVD subsystem is almost entirely written in software. It’s one of the most demanding applications written for the 360 to date, using up all six of the system’s hardware threads.

Shaheen Gandhi, an Xbox 360 engineer, said: "At the moment, the player software pushes Xbox 360 harder than any other (save, perhaps, Gears of War during some particularly busy parts of the game)."

News source: Team Xbox

About the Author

Full name: Unknown
User name: Lee®
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: View All
More: View Profile

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 24 additional comments

#1 jimbo11883 on 06 Nov 2006 - 19:37

That is just insane!

#2 Raven on 06 Nov 2006 - 19:39

Yeah, no bloat in that code ......

#3 Guyro on 06 Nov 2006 - 20:02

wow gears of war will kill my 360

(1 reply) #4 ThePitt on 06 Nov 2006 - 21:00

too much code just to play an (stupid?) movie. And the worse part, is that this might short the life of your xbox 360.

#4.1 mr_da3m0n on 08 Nov 2006 - 03:43

Quote - ThePitt said @ #4

that this might short the life of your xbox 360.

How? I fail to see how it would do so significantly.

#5 TDSM999 on 06 Nov 2006 - 21:05

glad i dont have xbox 360

#6 trance on 06 Nov 2006 - 21:07

Yeah, I don't see how this is a good thing... lots of code, no hardware decoder, and maxing out the 360.

#7 virtorio on 06 Nov 2006 - 21:27

I'm sure they could have done a better job than this. From what I remember the Toshiba HD-DVD players are just PC's in a box (using the Pentium 4, running some Unix based operating system).

#8 Croquant on 06 Nov 2006 - 21:43

I'll just bet that it's the DRM that's doing most of the bloating.

(1 reply) #9 Magallanes on 06 Nov 2006 - 21:48

Over 4.7 million lines?

...
/* 4.699.997 Bill Gates Rulz */
/* 4.699.998 Bill Gates Rulz */
/* 4.699.999 Bill Gates Rulz */
Set Active HD_DVD=1;

IMHO 7 millions of line of code is equal to 7'000 worker hours, not counting debug. So in a 1 man work its equal to 3 years.

Last edited by Magallanes on 06 Nov 2006 - 21:53

#9.1 gunnerhkjp on 07 Nov 2006 - 03:38

lol

(1 reply) #10 g0wg on 06 Nov 2006 - 21:53

couldn't they stick a hardware decoder into the HD DVD player? and pass decoded data to the console??

#10.1 claw on 07 Nov 2006 - 03:02

If they did that, then that means the raw video would go from the player to the console over an unencrypted channel, which anyone could use to pull movies off the disc. I don't think the movie industry would be too happy about that.

#11 jb23fan on 06 Nov 2006 - 22:23

wow..

(1 reply) #12 jab1981 on 06 Nov 2006 - 23:04

Quote -

couldn't they stick a hardware decoder into the HD DVD player? and pass decoded data to the console??

I think that's the whole point behind the low price point... if it were to include the hardware decoder it would probably be closer to a $500 price range. For those who want the hardware decoder included one shouldn't look to a $200 add on.

#12.1 thenay on 07 Nov 2006 - 01:41

Exactly

Either way it is a lot of code tho... but why are people so concerned of it? It's not like your typing the code.. lol

(3 replies) #13 illz55 on 07 Nov 2006 - 00:21

It's funny how everyone here assumes that this could've been done better and that it's too much code. God, some people are soo foolish and misinformed.

#13.1 advancedboy on 07 Nov 2006 - 02:06

true... it's not like the code has to print itself onto the screen before the movie plays...

#13.2 virtorio on 07 Nov 2006 - 02:12

Yes, because we all know Microsoft has a history of excelling at code efficiency. It's not the amount of code that's been written, it's how well it works and the fact it pushes the incredibly powerful Xbox 360 to such limits it's quite obvious there is still work to be done.

Last edited by virtorio on 07 Nov 2006 - 02:45

#13.3 +Smigit on 07 Nov 2006 - 04:53

Why is it "obvious theres still work to be done"? Playing HD movies on many pc's is taxing enough for the system with many not being able to play a 2minute HD trailer smoothly. Movie playback is a very very processor expensive task and pushing it all to software isn't going to help. I'm not referring to old Pentium 2's either. Many pretty decent systems simply struggle at this task.

If it had been done in hardware then the story would be different but theres likely many reasons as to why it wasnt done in hardware starting with the fact the Xbox doesn't include the hardware to do it and possibly a cost factor too.

Lastly does it really matter if it uses a few threads? It's not like you'll be playing a game as the dvd runs. Give it 6 months and I'm sure many of the games will be taxing the system just as much as this and GoW are now.

(1 reply) #14 AionXn_ on 07 Nov 2006 - 07:53

Imagine a bug.

#14.1 Sawyer12 on 07 Nov 2006 - 09:32

Its not that hard to imagine lol. But seriously though its good that its pushing the 360 to the limit. If it didnt why build it to that specification its like buying a ferrari and driving it 10mph everywhere. Youve got to open it up sometimes. Of course the code will be optimized anyway its not like its running on a calculator, Then I could see the problem

(1 reply) #15 DaveBG on 07 Nov 2006 - 18:51

LOL thats why hd dvd is dead already!

#15.1 Kushan on 11 Nov 2006 - 03:25

And I suppose Blu-ray is alive and well, despite poorer sales across the board?

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Advertisement (Why?)

Neowin.net

Xbox 360's HD-DVD uses 4.7 million lines of code

Share this Article

About the Author

Related news