Industry Insiders Q&A Thread: only Questions to insiders please - Page 86  

Amir:

First, thank you for your invaluable contribution to this forum.

I would like to ask if you can tell us when MS will announce the US release date and price for the Xbox 360 add-on. We have the UK and the Japan dates and prices now, but not the US date and price.
I am not asking for any confirmation of the actual date and price (unless you are free to divulge them :D ), just a time frame for when such an announcement will be made. Thanks in advance.

Amir

Can you confirm of any upcoming Xbox feature that will allow DVD content to be up-converted over component?

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/20/tg...-bullet-point/

I'd also like some more info on that. How does that fit it with your statement that DD True HD 5.1 would be supported by the add on?

Isn't upconverting any copyrighted SD DVD over component prohibited, whether it be 1080i or 1080p?

Prohibited by who? I am sure alot of people have put copy protection features on discs they have mastered who don't care if its up converted over component. Honestly I think someone should be sued for preventing me from watching movies I have purchase from being converted over Component.

Oh Question,

Is the Component limitation on Upconverting limited for a particular reason Amir? and hows does the X-Box360 get around it, or is it only for VGA. And if so can you use a VGA to DVI converter to get around it to use on normal TVs?

Amir, their have been a few rumors today concerning the recent news about the Xbox 360 so would you mind answering the following three questions?

1. In the recent news about 1080p60 output with the Xbox 360 for DVD and HD DVD does this apply only to non-copy protected content? I ask this since CSS rules restrict component video output to 480p60 and AACS rules restrict component video output to 1080i60.

2. When they talk about 1080p60 output in regards to games does this apply only to scaling or does it also apply to rendering? The Xbox 360 GPU is certainly capable of 1080p60 rendering but I have not heard if the rest of the console is designed for that.

3. Would you confirm that the Xbox 360 is not capable of HDMI output? I ask this since from what I read in the HDMI specs it only allows standard HDMI connectors.

^^^ I second the above questions. Hopefully MS would announce the details ASAP, at X06, if not at TGS, and hopefully Amir could drop some hints.

Amir--

Is there anything you can answer regarding TL-45 support on the next gen A2?? I'd like to believe that Toshiba guaranteed future-proof technlogy by ensuring that at least the A2 gen will 100% support TL-45s. I know the spec hasn't been implemented into HD DVD yet...

any comments on this?

If SD DVD dicsc aren't encoded as copy-protected (CSS, Macrovision) then it would appear to the player to be basically exactly the same as a non copy-protected disc. It's not the player's fault that the disc manufacturer left out copy-protection.

Dear Amirm,

ok so peter moore just anounced that the fall firmware update will allow the 360 to output at 1080p and my question is, will the 360 only output 1080p of component or will it do the same over vga as well and also will the the hd dvd add on look better over 1080p as aposed to 720p?

Not an insider but seeing that this is a question that is regurgitated constantly these relevant links to the dvd license have been posted here and here

No wonder the lack of component upscaling makes no sense to consumers.

common Amirm tell us will 1080p only be threw component, vga, both or an hdmi cable for xbox 360?

My pleasure. Thanks for the kind words.

As you can imagine, since the news is already out in other parts of the world, it will not be long before you hear more about US specifics.

is ther gonna be 1080p support over vga?

Plz Amirm

tell us will the 360 support 1080p over vga or only component?

sorry cjplay, I menat for the video

I think one of the interesting areas will be taking the inherent strengths of HD optical media (i.e. great PQ and lots of storage) and finding innovative ways to present it, whether a greatly souped up version of "Scene It", or an in-depth exploration of the worlds of LOTR or Star Wars (think of a fully-interactive high definition immersive world). Recognizing that we generally don't want a lot of extra stuff happening while we're actually watching the movie, I think the most successful features will be those which allow the viewer to become part of the environment created by the movie (i.e. the locations, history, storyline, characters, etc.) in some manner.

I'm confident the creative community will come up with applications for the platform which I can't even conceive of today.

- Talk

1080p is supported over VGA for DVD, HD DVD and gaming output. And yes, AACS does allow 1080p over VGA (classified under authorized "computer monitor outputs").

For component, you get gaming up to 1080p, and 1080i for HD DVD. DVD only works at 480p over this connection. The latter two are due to restrictions in DVD CCA and AACS rules for DVD and HD DVD playback respectively.

On gaming, the machine supports both scaling of 720p games to 1080p, and native games running at 1080p resolution. It is up to game developers to decide which way to go.

To bad VGA is Analog crap.No DIGITAL output= NO TRUE HD.

And if you say otherwise I suggest, get rid of ALL DVI connected to your pc and HDMI to your tv or BLU-RAY.

What consumer display supports 1080P over component anyhow? Isn't the goal to eliminate analog outputs on CE devices in the long wrong? What's the point of 1080P on component for gaming if any TV that has component today supports only 1080i? Also with the VGA output, most people with new 1080P sets would need something like a Gefen VGA to HDMI convertor to get 1080P on these new displays...I must be missing something basic here, because I just don't see the value of adding 1080P support without HDMI as the transport. And what about audio? Where are we with that?

Amir, I am a bit confused by your mixed messages of support for Dolby TrueHD. You have already stated it would decode TrueHD 5.1, but how is it going to transport it? With no HDMI or analog outputs how is it going to be done without downsampling through optical? This is probably the biggest mystery of this add-on.

Please clarify if possible.

Your silence on this matter is not reassuring. I thought everyone was fairly clear on expectations for Dolby TrueHD and I had hoped you encouraged the development team to incorporate the full chain of decoding and transporting. I am hoping this is last tidbit of info that your holding back, but from what's been reported thus far it's not looking so good.
:confused:

Perhpas the Xbox will go straight to hdmi 1.3 when that is available?

Great News, thanks for the inside info! I know it's a partisan thing to say, but it's just another example of how the HD DVD side delivers more than promised.

Don't most HD displays have a VGA input? I know two of mine do. And one them also accepts 1080P over the VGA.

so that means no 1080p movies on component on the 360 or we have to wait until the final documentation in October to find out.

amirm, can the 360 with HD-DVD drive output 1080p at 24, 48, or 72 Hz on VGA (for movies, of course)?

Thanks

A lot, yes, but most? No.

or at least 1080i48 or 1080i96?

Insider question: When will HD-DVD PC drives be out? If this depends on AACS, when will that be finalized? I guess I was hoping to have one of the drives under the tree this December. :)

Amir,

Could you please let us know what kind of compatibility the Xbox 360 HD-DVD addon drive will have with Media Center?

1) Will it stream video or data from HD-DVD vid to any MCE? to any MCE with proper HDCP/Software support? if video stream will it be 1080P (kinda rough if uncompressed video stream)? if data stream i assume we'll need at least 100BT networking?

and/or

2) Can we directly connect the drive via USB2 to a MCE2005/VistaMCE box with proper software and HDCP video card and expect to get flawless 1080P output?

If #2 is the case I guarantee you I will buy at least 1 possibly two of these drives. And I'm willing to bet that a large number of MCE folks buy this drive as well.

Thanks a bunch for being so informative!

I'd like to know this as well. There is a post about someone getting his HD-A1 drive working in his PC for HD-DVD, but all subsequent tries from other people have failed.