360 HD-DVD Demo Pictures

[Pooon]

[dso]

Is it me or is there a wireless network adaptor at the back of the HD-Drive??

[C225]

Yep there is an adapter on the back on it and is it just me or is the HDDVD bigger than you thought..

[fabbers]

Originally Posted by dso

Is it me or is there a wireless network adaptor at the back of the HD-Drive??

That's because you have to put the official adaptor there if you're using the usb on the back of the 360 for the HD-DVD

[butleri]

Yes there is - if you plug the HDDVD drive into the USB port on the back of the Xbox360 where are you going to put the wireless adaptor? On the back of the HDDVD drive.

[dso]

Thought so - I actually thought it was a new fancy feature on the HD drive

C225 - and yes it does look alot bigger than I originally thought it would

Any news on a release date or price? cant wait for HD DVD...

[NackNack]

Originally Posted by C225

Yep there is an adapter on the back on it and is it just me or is the HDDVD bigger than you thought..

Nope, I thought that at first, but if you have a wireless network adapter, look at it, it's twice the side of it, it's pretty tiny. Bear in mind it'll also be laying so the drive is facing you, so it's pretty streamlined.

[kasumi]

Originally Posted by C225

Yep there is an adapter on the back on it and is it just me or is the HDDVD bigger than you thought..

Yes, a lot bigger. It's not sleek or particulary good looking IMO.
Especially considering how small our mac/windows laptop drives are at home (especially the mac with its slot loading) that are also high speed and dual layer writers as well!
Dissapointed with it's size, let's hope it's performance makes up for it.

[oasismark]

It says 'Games for Windows' on the Xbox 360 side of the diagrame?

Could we be able to play windows games from our pc's on the 360?

[PlexShaw]

Originally Posted by oasismark

It says 'Games for Windows' on the Xbox 360 side of the diagrame?

Could we be able to play windows games from our pc's on the 360?

No, I would have thought it would be to do with certain PC titles where you will be able to play online against users running the Xbox 360 version.

[CAS FAN]

It's about the size I thought it would be to be honest. It's pretty much the size of a PC drive inside a plasic casing. The 360 dvd drive takes up around 2/3rds the size of the console and this looks a similar size to that.

[Phil_Boggild]

What's the source for these pictures?

[Pooon]

Originally Posted by oasismark

It says 'Games for Windows' on the Xbox 360 side of the diagrame?

Could we be able to play windows games from our pc's on the 360?

As plex says, we will be able to play 360 games agianst pc owners via xbox live anywhere. the first game to support this will be ShadowRun which is a FPS game, see marketplace E3 coverage for a video or this moths GamesTM magazine for a preview

Phil - images are from Flickr.com iirc

[liambiggs]

The HD Drive is mahoosive!

[rimmep1]

It is, but at least it contains its own power supply! It's got a certain hardback book look about it - but hey, if it plays HD-DVDs and the price is right, I'm sold.

Originally Posted by kasumi

Yes, a lot bigger. It's not sleek or particulary good looking IMO. Especially considering how small our mac/windows laptop drives are at home (especially the mac with its slot loading) that are also high speed and dual layer writers as well!
Dissapointed with it's size, let's hope it's performance makes up for it.

This isn't your bog-standard drive at home - it's new technology. HD-DVD laptop drives are like dodo eggs at the moment, I doubt anyone will see them in mainstream PC retail until at least Q3 next year. Toshiba laptops shipping with these drives are in the £2500 price region.

Tosh is aiming for the big HD-DVD push in Europe this Autumn. They'll be making these PC-type HD-DVD drives by the truck-load and hoping that the XBOX360 add-on will help them establish a foothold in this barmy 'format war'.

[kasumi]

Originally Posted by rimmep1

It is, but at least it contains its own power supply! It's got a certain hardback book look about it - but hey, if it plays HD-DVDs and the price is right, I'm sold.



This isn't your bog-standard drive at home - it's new technology. HD-DVD laptop drives are like dodo eggs at the moment, I doubt anyone will see them in mainstream PC retail until at least Q3 next year. Toshiba laptops shipping with these drives are in the £2500 price region.

Tosh is aiming for the big HD-DVD push in Europe this Autumn. They'll be making these PC-type HD-DVD drives by the truck-load and hoping that the XBOX360 add-on will help them establish a foothold in this barmy 'format war'.

Obviously it's not a bog standard drive, but physically the mechanics employed for reading the disc are the same as always for dvd sized platters. It's size is way off the mark, there's simply no denying it. It could of been a slot loader like my mac even, but then it's cost, even the 360's drive is crap as well.
This 360 HD drive is even bigger than the standard format 5.25" it will need to be to fit in a PC or external case that also has a power supply.
The only differences should be in the laser and video board which shouldn't be barely larger (especially the laser).

I'm not actually intending to buy it anyway, I'll be buying a dedicated HD player for my cinema, but that doesn't mean I couldn't care less about the 360 add on player. True AV cinema nuts will require something slightly quieter than a 360 and no doubt better performance & possibly multi-region plays a part too. With the 360's security still not properly hacked this will undoubtably be a factor too.

[oasismark]

Years down the line surely this wil be built in?

Depends on the price for most people, so when will we get to know what the price is?

[NackNack]

Originally Posted by liambiggs

The HD Drive is mahoosive!

Not really, it's about half the size of the 360 on it's side (the side it's meant to be on so the drive is vertical and facing you), if anything it's small, the picture is just at a bad angle for showing the size.

Originally Posted by kasumi

It's size is way off the mark, there's simply no denying it. It could of been a slot loader like my mac even, but then it's cost, even the 360's drive is crap as well.

How so? It looks about the same size as any disc drive including the one in the actual 360. What's wrong with the 360's drive? Why slot loading? While it's handy on my iMac I see little need for it.

[phils_wicked]

Does anyone know if it uses hard or soft decoding?

[RobDickinson]

Originally Posted by phils_wicked

Does anyone know if it uses hard or soft decoding?

I'd assume soft. The xbox 360 already decodes downloaded HD material in software and DVD in software, and outputs 720p or 1080i.

I cant see it offering anything above those resolutions even with HD tho.

[danvitale]

It is software encoding. The 360 didnt ship with HD-DVD technology (decoding chips).. If it had it would have cost around £50 more per unit.

[jamieuk23]

any hint on release date yet or price ?

[kasumi]

Originally Posted by NackNack

Not really, it's about half the size of the 360 on it's side (the side it's meant to be on so the drive is vertical and facing you), if anything it's small, the picture is just at a bad angle for showing the size.

How so? It looks about the same size as any disc drive including the one in the actual 360. What's wrong with the 360's drive? Why slot loading? While it's handy on my iMac I see little need for it.

A bad angle.

It's even bigger than a PC 5.25" drive in an standard external case, which also has a power supply. As it's had to be an add-on, since MS chose to launch pre-HD (I'm not quibbling that before you start), they should have made further effort (in my view) to reduce it's problamatic placement requirements, space and user operation of the unit. Slot loaders (as noted yourself) are very handy, fast, easy to load (especially if the console is vertical like mine). Look at the Wii, it's even got a nice tilt to ease loading. They have forethought. Pity MS didn't. Less chance of scratching your 360 disc too, or would have been.

As for what's wrong with the 360's drive? That's like saying what's wrong with Tony Blair! Jesus, if ever a sh1te old noisy, cheap & nasty cost-cutted product was ever shoe-horned into a console, number 1 candidate in the world is the 360's drive. I think the world is unanimate in that & I don't need to list it's detriments here. Christ, a Pioneer 106 5.25" slot loader with flashed firmware was quiet, smooth & easy to use & reliable, yet it's years old now & runs circles round the 360's lump o' sh1te!

Look of the size of the drive, under a keyboard in my macbook, even writes dvd's, takes the disc in & out, no flimsy tray etc... know which I & probably the majority would prefer.

[NackNack]

Does your MacBook drive also play HD-DVDs?

Totally agree about the noisy 360 drive, just don't think about the sound anymore!

[kasumi]

Originally Posted by NackNack

Does your MacBook drive also play HD-DVDs?

Totally agree about the noisy 360 drive, just don't think about the sound anymore!

Obviously not, but that doesn't mean the drive should be big & clumsy either. It's only 'reading' even, not burning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

The data layer of an HD DVD disc is 0.6mm below the surface, akin to the common DVD. The numerical aperture of the optical pick-up head is 0.65, compared with 0.6 for DVD (a lower surface layer and numerical aperture allow for tighter focus and so increased data density). Both of the new formats are likely to be backward compatible with DVDs and both employ the same video compression techniques: MPEG-2, Video Codec 1 (VC1) and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.

It uses a blue laser intead of red. They just narrowed the focus. There's no excuse really on the size issue except one only, that usual bug-bear, cost. Nintendo can fit slot loader, yet it's a cheaper console.

I find it hard sometimes locating the disc in the tray & worry about scratching the data side too with the 360 being dodgy with scratches. They didn't even put 0.0001p buffer pads in the upper lid of the 360 drive either, so as many peeps found out, the slightest knock would cause disc scratches. The Xbox 1 drives had the buffers, go figure.

Oh, yeah, nearly forgot, depending on the HD DVD, yeah my Macbook would read it yes. Just noticed on the link lol.

[m1ket]

Originally Posted by danvitale

It is software encoding. The 360 didnt ship with HD-DVD technology (decoding chips).. If it had it would have cost around £50 more per unit.

the 360 is more than powerful enough to decode VC-1 or MPEG2 and they have recenly announed a deal with ATI to use some software codecs to use the GPU to decode the video, similar to gpu do in pc's these days

Also HD-DVD's are not backwards compatible with dvd drives unless they actually include a dvd layer on the disc, you cant just put your non hybrid hd-dvd in a dvd drive and read from it it a totally different tech using a blue laser instead of a red one

[BenchyUK]

If the Quality is good, the player upscales current dvds and the price is reasonable then i'll be getting one

[Waynej]

I want one.

If the price of the HD-DVD's is about £15-£25 and the add-on comes in at around £100 - Then I will certainly be getting one.

[Laura]

I wonder whether the region coding will be in the drive or the XBox.

If the price wasn't too bad could get 2 drives to allow for R1 or R2 discs....

[NackNack]

Is there even any region coding anymore?