Will the 360 include BR in the near future?

[Iguana Man]

A dude at work said to me today that he expects MS to incorporate a BR unit in their 360's soon since BR has all but won the 'war'.

Whatcha think?

(new BRAO maybe?)

[ganthc]

I would say so. There will be plenty of users that will want one.

[Taxi]

No! NO! Haven't you heard?

Bill Gate$ wants all physical media to fail so we all are forced to download our movies from him.

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by Taxi

No! NO! Haven't you heard?

Bill Gate$ wants all physical media to fail so we all are forced to download our movies from him.

That $ sign is wrong man. I declare you banned.

I can see it, sorta. It would be a great interim to the evil plan MS has and buy them some thyme for that to happen.

I hope someone sees my point. Sea? Wire? Bahhh.

[Ruined]

I see an internal BD drive as unlikely given the relationship with Sony... Why not just do another addon?

Also, it will be interesting to see what MS does with BD-Java if they do support BD... I bet they'll emulate it so they don't have to include Java with the drive.

[dugpa]

Naw, I doubt you'll see a blu-ray drive, internal or external, for the xbox. HD-DVD used some microsoft technologies so they had an incentive to push the format. There really isn't that with blu-ray. At this point, since the format they had a small stake in is gone, they'll probably shift over to centering on downloads. There's just no real reason for them to make an addon blu-ray drive. Besides, by the time they started development on a blu-ray add on and got the product to market, they'd probably be on to the next gaming console anyway.

[Wilson]

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/...7L7H2R4?page=1

These guys seam to think so

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by dugpa

Naw, I doubt you'll see a blu-ray drive, internal or external, for the xbox. HD-DVD used some microsoft technologies so they had an incentive to push the format. There really isn't that with blu-ray. At this point, since the format they had a small stake in is gone, they'll probably shift over to centering on downloads. There's just no real reason for them to make an addon blu-ray drive. Besides, by the time they started development on a blu-ray add on and got the product to market, they'd probably be on to the next gaming console anyway.

Yeah, it is most likely they will come out with nothing... But we'll see.

[Rileydog]

Initially I would say Bill Gates is too stubborn and individualistic to buy into his competitiors technology.

I wish he'd realize this "HD Pay Per View" he's pushing isnt going to take off to the level that could compete with BRD sales as stand alone.

But, after reading the article, it does give me a little faith that it will happen.
And, think about it strategically. What is the main difference between the 2 consoles, and in my opinion the main reason why the number of PS3's have been sold?

BRD !! Thats why i bought mine- not for the gaming, or even the games. At the time it was rated as good a BRD Player as some of the standalone players on the market. And, for the same $$$ you could get gaming thrown in as a bonus.

360, I feel, is a far superior GAMING system, and its LIVE capabilities are phenomenal. Compare the 360 Dashboard to the PS3- colorful vs. black and white-ish, easy functionality to get to downloads, etc.

Now, throw in the one item, either incorporated or as an add-on (as long as it has freaking HDMI), and it has the best of both worlds.

Think of how many PS3's wouldnt have been bought if this was the case from the beginning.

I only hope this news comes out fast enough that I could decide to try to return my PS3, cause I really dont use it for games at all.

[sub780lime]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

Sea? Wire? Bahhh.

*'crickets'*

[ganthc]

The way I see it, if MS thinks there is a good demand for it, and they can make some good money on it...which could be the case, then MS will develop a bd drive.

[Damian]

I thought Microsoft already kind-of sorta announced they "may" offer blu-ray in the future?
In my opinion they'll have to if they want to keep ahead of the PS3.

[videoworx]

Originally Posted by Damian

I thought Microsoft already kind-of sorta announced they "may" offer blu-ray in the future?
In my opinion they'll have to if they want to keep ahead of the PS3.

I doubt very much that MS will ever include a Blu-Ray add-on drive with their current console. It would also be cost-prohibitive (meaning, by the time they could get around to it, standalones would be a cheaper and simpler solution). No CE is going cut MS a break on a cheap Blu-Ray drive.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by videoworx

I doubt very much that MS will ever include a Blu-Ray add-on drive with their current console.

It would be a great boon to Blu-ray, and I think this is why they won't do it. It appears their longterm strategy is on downloads (both games & movies, probably apps too in the future), so with Blu-ray lacking HDi why bother helping it? They already get the bulk of video codec licensing costs by having VC-1 mandatory in the hardware, and by far the largest studio (Warner) and its subsidiaries use VC-1 and state they will continue to use VC-1 for the forseeable future, and I'm sure Universal will too. Aside from LionsGate they have had mixed results with the reception of other studios, so what do they have to gain by offering BD? With the cheaper prices we will see later in the year for standalones, console integration of BD will be a non-factor... much like what happened with the 360 HDAO when HD DVD standalones dropped under $300.

It would also be cost-prohibitive (meaning, by the time they could get around to it, standalones would be a cheaper and simpler solution).

MS could launch a BD drive in a flash if they wanted. They offer BD authoring software so I'm sure they could easily put together a player (or even have a player in firmware as was the case with the HDAO). The interface is there on 360. The problem is that with BD's use of Java and the inclusion of it on the PS3, combined with MS' longterm downloads focus, it may be counter-productive to make it more popular. The BDROM drives out even offer 12x DVD support, meaning it could be used both as an addon or internally if they wished. With BDROM prices falling to under $150 on the retail market, I could see it not being too expensive...

But as you state, why buy an addon or videogame console with BD when you will be able to get a profile 2.0 Sony standalone for under $299 in 4 months?

Originally Posted by videoworx

No CE is going cut MS a break on a cheap Blu-Ray drive.

You are forgetting TSST, who obviously would give MS a good price in a second... Not to mention Lite-On who currently has a $130 retail BDROM out (with 12x DVD) and a strategic partnership with Microsoft
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106227

[videoworx]

Originally Posted by Ruined

they already get the bulk of video codec licensing costs by having VC-1 mandatory in the hardware, and by far the largest studio (Warner) and its subsidiaries use VC-1 and state they will continue to use VC-1 for the forseeable future, and I'm sure Universal will too.

I disagree. I think you'll find fewer and fewer studios using VC-1 over the next 12 months. When I first started shopping around for encoding facilities (before I did it myself), I was offered many incentives (discounts) to use VC-1. Those deals have long since vanished, and all the latest promotions are heavily biased toward H.264/AVC. The 2 software applications I use (which are professional, not consumer, level) only allow H.264 and MPEG-2 encoding. VC-1 did not become the standard Microsoft was hoping for.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by videoworx

I disagree. I think you'll find fewer and fewer studios using VC-1 over the next 12 months. When I first started shopping around for encoding facilities (before I did it myself), I was offered many incentives (discounts) to use VC-1. Those deals have long since vanished, and all the latest promotions are heavily biased toward H.264/AVC. The 2 software applications I use (which are professional, not consumer, level) only allow H.264 and MPEG-2 encoding. VC-1 did not become the standard Microsoft was hoping for.

In terms of BD, VC-1 did become a mandatory standard in BD hardware/specs, and MS get some big bucks from the licensing associated with that (much more than per software royaltees). And, as stated before, by far the largest studio and all of its affiliates use VC-1 on all of their releases. Warner and its studios does all their encoding in-house, so encoding facilities mean jack to them. Plus, we are seeing other studios trying it out here and there... LionsGate's latest hit release 3:10 to Yuma uses it, for instance. With Universal's strong ties to MS and their long history with HD DVD, its makes sense for them to use VC-1 on BD as well.

Why exactly do you think Warner Bros et. al would completely relearn a new codec/encoding techniques/software/etc when VC-1 has been so successful for them? Makes no sense to me. Nor does it to them, as they have already stated they will use VC-1 exclusively going forward on Blu-ray, albeit at higher bitrate to save money through less tweaking.

I see you're also forgetting that VC-1 is used all over the internet (a little format with extension .WMV), in addition to Blu-ray. VC-1 has been quite a success in many realms.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=.wmv

So doom and gloom really doesn't work too well in this case. I see you didn't respond to my other points in my previous post, probably for the same reason

[videoworx]

Warner and its studios does all their encoding in-house

Not entirely. A good portion of their DVD and Blu-Ray production is contracted out to other companies (and freelancers). Smaller studios, whose work is distributed by WB, often use the cheapest software available (and, in some cases, trial versions of that software). You'd be amazed how completely disorganized that part of the industry is.

Windows Media 9 (which I'm well aware is VC-1) is a great codec. I use it quite a bit for internet distribution - but it pales in comparison to the flexibility (and popularity) of h.264/avc, which I can use to encode to many more file formats. Flexibility is the keyword here, and I believe with the inclusion of "digital copies" (as Fox calls them) on Blu-Ray discs, making multiple encodes of the same movie - using a single codec - will be much easier (and cheaper), than switching back and forth.