Something going on at Microsoft HQ?

Jihad said:
Indeed, basically already decided upon now that I think about it!

Shame I have to put some bucks towards the Macbook. :p
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When i got my MacBook Pro last year, it was the best thing i have ever done in computing.

Make sure to get education discount, speak to EVH about that.

Have fun with it!

Josh
 
Caustic said:
I don't see the appeal of having built in WiFi. If you want to stream HiDef content, plain old g network isn't ideal and it means anyone with n based networks are out of luck. That and the fact that using a cable (where possible obviously) is still the best option IMO.

It would be nice, but not if it means a more expensive 360. A price cut for the console and the adapter would be better IMO.
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The 360 wi-fi is a/b/g, 'a' CAN stream it. It's a very good wi-fi adapter, and I would hazard that's the reason for the cost. Most people criticize it as if it's a run of the mill thing, it's not.
 
Inoshishi said:
I'd still be embarrassed if I was MS, going to the competition for the technology.
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As said elsewhere, public companies aren't fanboys.

Sony Vaio laptops ship with Vista.
Blu-Ray discs use the VC1 codec (MS)
MS and Disney jointly deveoped HDi (HD-DVD)
Toshiba, Sony and IBM developed Cell.
Toshiba build the MS Zune player.

If MS wanted a BR drive in the 360 Sony would welcome it with open arms.
 
Wrathamon said:
Why?

The "competition" as you put it went to Microsoft to license their video codec for Blu-Ray!
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It may not be a massive problem for MS, But it's definately a case of losing face when the format they supported is the 1 to go down the pan.

That said, It's an external drive. and not much of a problem considering all you need to do is not buy one. And for those who have one, CHEAP HD-DVDS!! :D
 
Wrathamon said:
Why?

The "competition" as you put it went to Microsoft to license their video codec for Blu-Ray!
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True but MS have always been seen to back HD-DVD, and then seen to be going to the competition (Apple/Sony/Sun to name a few) and using their technology.

It's not a huge deal but surely slightly embarrassing for them.
 
I wonder if MS will get Sony to dump BD-Java and use HDi instead. Maybe too late to do that now though. Do any discs even use BD-Java yet?
 
MS should stop messing around and address the fan & drive noise issues. Most 360's are too noisy mine is so bad that even with headphones on I can hear it unless I turn the volume up a lot.
 
AWPC said:
MS should stop messing around and address the fan & drive noise issues. Most 360's are too noisy mine is so bad that even with headphones on I can hear it unless I turn the volume up a lot.
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that seriously isnt going to happen until they migrate everything to 65nm, i just cant see there being any room for improvement with the heat the current consoles kick out.
 
Abooie said:
If MS wanted a BR drive in the 360 Sony would welcome it with open arms.
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I don't think they would because many people are now chosing the PS3 over the 360 due to it having the built in BD player and this has shown through in last months NPD figures. If MS had the same BD playing capabilities then it could swing things back in Microsofts favour.
 
Bluray player is a smart move, think MS said they've always had their foot in the door with BluRay so I guess this is to be expected..

Not that i'd need one though :)
 
But sony dont OWN the whole of BR rights dont they not, its made up of a rather large consortium on companies, Sony dont really have the final say in the matter, its just hey have the biggest BR product out at the moment.

besides BR on the 360 will never happin, its too stupid to comprehend.
 
cu3ed said:
besides BR on the 360 will never happin, its too stupid to comprehend.
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Why is having a BR player for 360 stupid???

Now that the format war is won, I might consider getting a blu-ray player. If there is a 360 addon drive that costs less than standalone players then I would consider one.
 
NokkonWud said:
The 360 wi-fi is a/b/g, 'a' CAN stream it. It's a very good wi-fi adapter, and I would hazard that's the reason for the cost. Most people criticize it as if it's a run of the mill thing, it's not.
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Thats very true. However, I think it was a mistake to include 'a' support since it was probably not very popular and as you said, must have added to the cost. I still have my WiFi adapter, great piece of kit it is too. I think if they brought out some new low cost wifi adapters it would be ideal. They could even release an 'n' version later as well that way.

As for 'a', whilst I have not tried it, it still maxes out at 54mbps, same as 'g', so it might just be okay for medium bitrate 720p signal, it would struggle to cope with anything much higher.
 
Just been confirmed on the news. It's a portable Xbox360 with BluRay support and motion sensing capabilities for $499.

Not bad.
 
mmj_uk said:
Blu-ray Xbox 360 Planned By Microsoft
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Now that would be an interesting development.

Taking fanboy-ness out the equation, having the 360 Blu-Ray equipped (and still cheaper due to optional wi-fi, smaller HDD etc) would lessen the blow of people buying a PS3 because of the 'it's a cheap Blu-Ray player' argument.

Still, I don't see it happening. An optional add-on, but not built in.
 
I don't see an internal one ever happening on the 360. Blu-ray drives at present have a lower data transfer rate than the DVD drive built into the 360. The PS3 can just about get away with this as developers can utilize the harddrive to speed things up a bit or in many cases, put several copies of the same bit of data all over the disk to reduce seek times.

The current 360 dvds don't have as much space for this 'repeating data', and not all the SKUs have a harddrive so they would be alienating a large user base if a it became compulsory to play the game at all. The result of this is the techniques that developers use to get around the slow read speeds of a blu-ray drive just wouldn't be feasible on the 360.

An external blu-ray drive wouldn't be a surprise to me at all - microsoft even said they would go that way if they needed to. To be honest i would bet the only reason they opted for a HDDVD external drive in the first place was to throw a spanner in the works for blu-ray so that when they start to fully push downloadable media it won't be quite as absorbed into the market as it might have been.
 
Streeteh said:
I don't see an internal one ever happening on the 360. Blu-ray drives at present have a lower data transfer rate than the DVD drive built into the 360. The PS3 can just about get away with this as developers can utilize the harddrive to speed things up a bit or in many cases, put several copies of the same bit of data all over the disk to reduce seek times.
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That's a very good point.

I also doubt we will see an internal one.

Josh
 
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