by Playfuls Staff |
9th August 2006
At a DVD Forum in Los Angeles Microsoft finally demoed the HD DVD drive it prepares for its next-gen gaming console X BOX 360. Microsoft’s move comes natural, as rival Sony has already announced a Blu-Ray drive for its PS3 console.[more]
Although Sony has decided to lose a lot of money and integrate Blu-Ray as a standard component in PS3, which is priced at $499 or $599, Microsoft thought it’s better not to force its existing owners of an X BOX 360 to buy another X BOX with an HD DVD upgrade. They will be offered the alternative to buy the HD DVD drive separately.
The estimated price according to speculations for the gadget is around $200. Microsoft on the other side declined to comment upon the subject.
This would make it the cheapest HD DVD player on the market at the moment of its debut. Generally, an HD DVD player in the US ships for a price between $430 and $500. Blu-Ray drives on the other hand are much more expensive (between $840 and $1,000) but they offer an improved quality of the displayed image and they read discs that reach up to 50GB of storage capacity.
The option for upgrade is considered cheap by Microsoft officials compared to what the concurrence is offering: "Here's what I can tell you for sure; it's going to be the cheapest HD-DVD player you can buy without a doubt, when it comes out. I think it's going to be a great value... Everybody is very enthusiastic with the direction we're going. There are still a few surprises left. And I don't want to spill the beans yet, but I think people are going to think it's a great value," said Microsoft’s spokesman Larry Hyrb.
Since the heavy processing duties are all taken care of inside X BOX 360, the $200 price for the separate gadget added to the X BOX is considered fair and with a lot of advantages. Kevin Collins, senior program manager at Microsoft, said: "All the audio and video processing is done inside the Xbox."
Collins also added that a recent study showed most of the X BOX 360 owners posses a HD display, which makes the HD DVD useful. An X BOX drive provides them with all the other equipment they need to watch HD DVD movies, he said.
"This gives consumers choice and keeps their cost down," Collins was quoted saying.
The demonstration for the HD DVD’s drive capabilities in Los Angeles included the “Phantom of the Opera” movie.
The design of the drive, which has the internal codename of Sapphire, was all done in-house by Microsoft while Toshiba was selected to manufacture the drive. It will feature two USB 2.0 ports on the back to make up for the one USB port that the device itself uses. It also features the same cut-out on the back as the XBOX 360 to hold Microsoft’s XBOX 360 Wireless Networking Adapter if you chose to mount it there. The HD DVD interface, while not yet finished, was also on display.
The new interface basically replaces the "old" Open Tray button on the dashboard with a hybrid button that can toggle between DVD and HD DVD options with the up/down arrow keys. The drive will also be software updatable via XBOX Live so as new features are introduced, they can be automatically downloaded and applied.
Microsoft is expected to launch the drive in time for Christmas, and it's thought that a specific release date and price point will be announced shortly.
