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Again, Microsoft stomps out Xbox 360 Blu-ray rumors

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

April 2, 2008, 4:56 PM

Microsoft has again quashed rumors that it will ship a Blu-ray drive in or for the Xbox 360. This time, the speculation was fanned by DigiTimes, which quoted industry sources who claimed that manufacturers had been chosen to start production of the drives.

According to the report in DigiTimes, which has had a shaky past in predicting companies' future moves, Taiwan's Lite-On IT was asked to participate in the production of the Blu-ray drives for Microsoft.

But production of such drives is met with a fundamental problem: price. The cost to build a Blu-ray drive, estimated to be as high as $95 to $100, is far higher than the cost of the current DVD drive in the Xbox 360, thought to be between $18-20.

If it were to equip the console with Blu-ray drives, Microsoft would be stuck selling the Xbox 360 at a loss once again, after only now being able to pull a small profit.

DigiTimes said that Sony could play hardball in preventing Microsoft from gaining too much from adding Blu-ray capabilities. As the only producer of BD-ROM pick-up heads, it could reduce the supply of such components to those working with its competitors in order to stem competition.

Microsoft has reportedly addressed this report by saying "Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for the Xbox 360." The company emphasizes that right now its focus is on digital movie and TV downloads through the Xbox Live Marketplace.

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By tscar13

posted Apr 4, 2008 - 2:24 AM

That's the problem with Blu-ray, it may hold more data but it doesn't improve the quality of a movie because to get a great picture, you don't need that much space. Who, in their right mind really needs 50gb of storage? If you take so many photos or videos to use that much space then you need to get another hobby.

Score: 0

By dabogues

edited Apr 3, 2008 - 4:47 PM

I bought one of the $100 HD-DVD players at Wal-mart before xmas, fully knowing it may die, and I feel like I won the format war. It's a kick-ass beautiful upconverting player and I got the Bourne Trilogy for $30.

Not to mention Darkman as one of my freebies. No remorse here.

And yet, I don't see myself getting into Blu-Ray at all. Not because I'm a hater or anything, just because I find myself completely ambivalent. But take away my Dish HDDVR and we're going to have some tantrums...I hope that Tivo lawsuit gets shored up.

Score: 0

By WeezulDK

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 10:14 PM

Does anyone still think that Blu-Ray should have won, when the market is strangled by a greedy corporation like Sony and their cronies?

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

edited Apr 2, 2008 - 9:29 PM

This is where HD-DVD may survive as a data format versus a movie format. MS will not go BD as far as I can see.

Why not use the format solely for 360 games?

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Apr 3, 2008 - 4:18 PM

Toshiba killed HD-DVD. Sadley, it is not coming back.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Apr 3, 2008 - 4:22 AM

"This is where HD-DVD may survive as a data format versus a movie format."

They're (Microsoft) not making it any more, so I doubt it will happen. There's not really enough of them currently in the wild to warrant it.

Score: 0

By djmixxx1970

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 9:18 PM

People Need To look at specs on Blu Ray, Upto 50 GB On one Blu Ray Disc, Compared to HD DVD with 20 GB, All my friends are saying that they dont notice a picture diffrence between the two, But there is even if its little bit it holds double info on the disc,

Score: 0

By pridewalker

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 10:50 PM

Search thru some of the old posts on this site (during the formatw war), and you'll see why the difference in capacity doesn't mean a damn thing...

Score: 0

By yountmj

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 11:05 PM

And in the process, probably get the capacities correct... not like it matters anymore.

Score: 0

By gregmlr

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 7:34 PM

I see no point in it myself. If people want Blu-ray in their gaming console, they're going to buy a PS3.

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 6:36 PM

MS would be wise to leave HD until the next generation of console where it would be justified and put to better use. By this time it will be cheaper to make, and hopefully sony wont be able to keep prices high to sell off their ps3.

An external USB BD would make sense, its just a shame you cant use a PC drive on the 360 like you can with a 360 HD-DVD on the PC. This is not something MS is likely happy to allow, and for now I don't see the interest in BD making it worth while.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 6:08 PM

Are they actually suggesting it would be internal to the Xbox 360?

That certainly won't happen.

External is a possibility.

Score: 0

By Banquo

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 6:07 PM

I've watched h.264 encoded videos on it, works fine.

Score: 0

By Tenoq

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 10:03 PM

Depends on how they were encoded though. Xbox360 compatibility is fairly limited - many x264 rips (particularly in matroska containers) won't work.

Score: 0

By comeoffit

posted Apr 2, 2008 - 6:01 PM

Is 360's hardware even capable of decoding full H264 spec? They wanted both disc formats to fail so they can promote online movie distribution to people who have a console that is still working. This isn't really news.

Score: 0

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