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Ruined, this player does have to support HDi, ethernet port, and have memory in it right?
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Yes. Full HDi support, ethernet port, and at least 128mb of persistent storage and decoding of DD+/TrueHD/DTS-HD. It uses the Microsoft/Broadcom BCM7440 reference design which includes all of these things. Without them it could not bear the HD DVD name or logo.
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Originally Posted by ganthc
Do Venturer machines even get firmware upgrades? I think the price points for Toshibas will be low enough that they hold more value than this, especially with the free movie deals.
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The machine will be based upon the Microsoft/Broadcom reference design. And, as you know an ethernet port and perisistent storage is mandatory hardware with every HD DVD player. Therefore firmware upgrades are possible.
Further, the benefit of a reference design is that it can also use reference firmware. Meaning that every player based on the Microsoft/Broadcom reference design can use the exact same software/drivers/whatever you want to call it - the same firmware. Therefore Microsoft can write a firmware update and
every single HD DVD player based on the reference design will be able to use it. In fact, these players may be pre-configured from the factory to use a Microsoft update server. We'll see.