Xbox 360 HD-DVD Drive To Be Cheap And Easy...And Awkward
In other words, a lot like my first time. I’m not even going to touch the vipers’ nest that is the Blu-ray/HD-DVD showdown, but Major Nelson’s latest podcast has Microsoft global marketing director Alber Penello claiming that the HD-DVD accessory, which debuts sometime near the holidays, will be the cheapest HD-DVD player on the market. Get the whole story at Gamespot.
Meanwhile, CNET News.com reports on a demonstration by Microsoft’s Kevin Collins of the HD-DVD unit, generously declaiming it to be “about the size of a hardback book.” The player sits atop the 360, looking like its smaller, uglier brother. (Personally, I can’t help but be reminded of Master Blaster from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, a mean little dwarf perched on the shoulders of a lumbering giant.)
Supposedly, Microsoft will keep the price down by running all the a/v processing on the Xbox, leaving the mean little dwarf to, I dunno, spin discs and do some kind of mojo I don’t wanna have to learn about for a format that’s only half alive.
Two discs enter, one disc leaves! Will Sony outclass Microsoft’s clumsy scramble, or will the American heavyweight take down Blu-ray in what will someday become known as Betamax 2.0? Beats me, but I ain’t buyin’ nothing yet. Spin the wheel, raggedyman!
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 8 August 2006
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: blu-ray, hd-dvd, microsoft, xbox 360
I think that the 360 + HD-DVD drive could only look good in the vertical configuration…if you’ve got room for it.
I’ll definately be getting one if it’s as cheap as they claim.
totally. at least vertically it would look, you know, vaguely book-like. Like this it’s just lumpy – but at the end of the day, I guess if it plays a format I can buy movies in and is close to the cheapest thing to go around…why not?
ouch. looks like a bike with training wheels.
i’d get one too, if it’s cheap. just need to figure out how to place them so they look nice.
the drive door side looks rather plain however. i imagine that some book inspired skins for the hd-dvd drive might make the combo work.
Too bad the 360 doesn’t have an HDMI port, so HD DVDs won’t look as pretty as they would using HDMI.