~~~XBOX360 and HD~~~

Decided to hunt one post down because it really explains this really well. Here is a copy of a post from the HD Player forum. Great info.



Right now there is a big question of HDMI connectivity -- an alternative to component connections it's an all-digital audio/video interface capable of transmitting uncompressed streams -- Microsoft said they have nothing to announce, but are considering the possibility.


We pressed this issue and asked if Microsoft is concerned about the fact that the Image Constraint Toke (ICT) component of HDCP/AACS copy-protection won't work over component video connections, which could make the X360 HD-DVD drive useless sometime in the future if the copy-protection scheme is fully implemented in HD-DVDs.


Microsoft replied via email:


"The image constraint token feature of AACS is an optional flag for the [motion picture] studios and several have publicly stated they have no plans to invoke [the copy-protection flags]. Therefore, the copy protection scheme is fully implemented in both HD DVD and Blu-ray today.


"We [Microsoft Corporation] do not see the absence of HDMI/HDCP as an issue over the lifetime of this generation of [the X360] console. HDMI/HDCP is still a very new interface and until it is supported broadly across the CE and PC industries and by consumers on a wide enough scale to be considered a standard, we don't expect anyone to impede content flow over non-HDMI devices (re: invoke the ICT)."


One Microsoft rep told us that "Let us [Microsoft] worry about that. The consumer shouldn't have to worry about that!"


Until we are actually able to plug it in and power it up that's all we know about this handy little peripheral. If you're an X360 owner and want to play HD-DVD movies this winter Microsoft seems to have designed the smartest and cheapest way to do just that.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/733/733328p1.html



There, that should help explain it to everyone.

i just heard an interview about the HD DVD and it sounded better to me. They asked MS why they decided to not use HDMI and their reposnse was that it is somewhat of a myth that you need HMDI to view true 1080p. They said the USB is perfectly adequate for transfer rates and that VGA can transmite full 1080p movies and games once the update patch is released (while Component can only do games in 1080p).


I think its a real smart buy if you have a HD tv. I dont have one yet but now i want one even more.


I was alittle unhappy with the question: "Will we see games down the line that are produced on HD DVD?" (or something like that). The reponse was vague but it sounded like no. That MS wants consumers to have a choice and that they do not want to force gamers to buy the console and HDDVD to play certain games. As a huge gamer myself im worried about this. With games getting so advanced the limits of DVD space will soon be exhausted. Then what?

The limits of DVD will soon be exhausted? That's not even close to true, in fact, that's still at least a few years down the line from being true. But, here it is, the solution to the limit of space available on DVD's... drumrolll please!!!!!!!!!


Put the game on two DVD's! I know, I know, it's an insane concept, what with every pc game in the last decade using multiple cd's and numerous games on the playstation coming in on multiple cd's. It would be absolutely crazy for developers to put there games on two dvd's. *Ends sarcasm.


Sony has completely misinformed the public about the space advantages to Blu-Ray disks. Do you have any idea how much it is going to cost a developer to produce a game that actually fills the whole 50gigs provided for by Blu-Ray? I don't, but you'd better believe that it is, and will continue to be, prohibitively expensive for some time coming.


Sony has repeatedly stated that the PS3 is supposed to be able to last over two generations. In other words, they intend their PS3 to not be supplanted by the PS4 until 2016. Perhaps in 3 to 5 years it will no longer be so cost prohibitive to actually produce games that use all 50gigs of space provided for by Blu-Ray. But, does anybody remember the lifespan of the original XBOX? Oh, right, it was 4 years. 2001-2005. So, in three (4 tops) years, we can safely assume that Microsoft will be releasing a new console (the 360's already been out a year). By that time this ridiculous format war will be over and Microsoft will be able to decide, based on the market, what technology they choose to have their games stored on.


Finally, there are new development technologies which allow the textures in video games (the largest space hog that exists in game developments) to be shrunk down dramatically, and then expanded in real time by the power of the XBOX360. Check out info on a game called "Roboblitz", an XBOX360 Arcade title which uses Unreal Engine 3 techonlogy, and the entire game fits into a 50 meg download. So even if developers view the dvd as too restricting within the next couple of years, there are tools that are available, right now, to rectifiy that problem. Of course, this post is so off forum that it should probably be deleted immediately, so we'll see if anybody actually gets the opp. to read it.

Quote:
Its not quite that easy. For certain types of games, this could be a solution. The Gamecube for instance saw a lot of 2 disc games (Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes). However, it would have been impossible to use the 2 disc solution for a sandbox type game like Grand Theft Auto. The amount of game data that would have to be replicated across both of the discs would eclipse any space advantage that the 2nd disc would introduce. You can argue compression to me all day, and all day I will tell you COMPRESSION IS NOT A GOOD THING. Reduced sampled audio, lower res textures, smaller poly counts will all get a Blu-Ray disc game running on the 360, but none of these things make the game better. They all make it worse.


This isn't the place to be arguing this... but if you think that more space isn't a good thing... well, your just dead wrong. Period. I'm not even going to argue it. More space allows for NEW types of games. New types of games that no one has even thought of yet. New tech that hasn't even been invented yet. Do you think games on the scope of Halo or Grand Theft Auto would have existed last generation if it weren't for the bump in capacity up to DVD? Do you seriously think Halo would have fit on 2 CDs? Your wrong. Just wrong and I'm totally done talking about this.


In 3 years... there will be dozens of games that I will be able to point to and say... these would not have been possible without BR.