digitalfreaknyc

Can i have your ass again if it is, all-knowing one?

awmurray

Jimmy, most analists agrre that it will come in undre $100.

digitalfreaknyc

Ahh...i see you're trying to communicate with it by speaking it's language.

Jimmy 345

It will sell that low as soon as Microsoft becomes a charity. Microsoft can't sell it for that low and still make a profit. Toshiba can afford to sell HD-DVD for cheap because they get royalties on HD-DVD technology. Microsoft gets small royalties on IHD but not nearly enough to sell the drive at such a huge loss. $200 is the cheapest it can sell and still make Microsoft any money and I believe thats an optimistic estimate.

mbs

Does MS not get any royalties on VC-1? I somehow doubt they just gave that away.

digitalfreaknyc

I think he was being sarcastic.

BobDole42

Jimmy,

you're forgetting a few key things. First, this IS NOT an HD-DVD player MS will be selling. It is nothing more than an HD-DVD *DRIVE*. The 360 will do the heavy lifting. Second, MS, like Sony, has an incentive to take a loss and get the player's into people's home. If MS can help make blu-ray look like it might lose the format way, the higher cost of the PS3 is going to be harder to swallow if consumers think it is only a gaming machine.

Joseph B

This is a great point from the article:

"In fact, HD DVD is the official next-generation optical format from the same international organization, the DVD Forum, that created the ubiquitous DVD format used for digitally storing movies, games, PC data, and more. That also means the new HD DVD players will also play back all of your current DVDs."

People tend to forget that HD-DVD and Blu-ray have already battled head-to-head in front of the DVD Forum about 18 months ago, and HD-DVD won that war!

Jimmy 345

Blu-Ray has VC-1 too. There might be more VC-1 titles on Blu-Ray then HD-DVD. So Microsoft gains nothing hurting Blu-Ray adoption in this department. The only thing Microsoft has to gain from HD-DVD winning is both IHD and a hope that it will slow down the Playstation 3. These are good reasons for a company to support HD-DVD but not good enough reason to sell this drive at such a huge loss.

BobDole42

I disagree. I think one of the most appealing aspects of the PS3 is its blu-ray capibility. It is also the only thing that would make me even consider swallowing the price of the PS3. If the success of blu-ray isn't assured by the time the PS3 launches, I would expect many consumers to balk at paying a several hundred dollar premium for a format that may tank.

mbs

No crap. But it was developed by MS. So I am curious if they gave it away or are licensing it.

Jimmy 345

Yes but the laser diodes are at least half the price of an HD-DVD player that is already selling at no profit. So the only way for Microsoft to make a profit off the drives its to sell above $200. You believe that they will sell at a loss to slow down the Playstation 3. A possibility but would be a riskey move that I don't believe Microsoft will be willing to take. Sony is risking it for Blu-Ray because they are Blu-Rays inventers and will make it big if Blu-Ray makes market success. Thats a much bigger incentive then Microsoft has to sell a few more Xbox 360s.

awmurray

I've read that it is licensed and that's why Sony doesn't want to use it. I think that was one reason for the BR and HD-DVD camps never coming to a merged format.

Yea, he didn't get it. I was testing to see if he would pick up a post full of misspellings that also contained unsupportable assertions and run with it...

awmurray

Let's see, Microsoft giving away a product for free to drive out a competitor... Hmmmm. **Cough**IE***Cough**

Inconceivable!!

jdslater1

I'm at work at the moment so cannot check but does the 360 have USB ports at the back? I've got a 360 but cannot remember.

matome

Yeah there's one in the back above the ethernet jack, unless you have the 360 wireless adapter attached which uses it.

jdslater1

As I'm at work and cannot click onto the xbox.com link, is the plan to use the USB at the back. If not, it's going to look abit crap having the cable coming out of the front.

Burnt Thru

I do not mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?

MS will recieve license fees for their portion of the VC-1 patents from both formats, so there's no real gain to them on that front. As for iHD that was jointly developed by Disney, and they've abandoned that tech for the competing BD-J, which suggests the licenses involved there aren't that large.

It will certainly be interesting to see what price Microsoft come up with for their HD DVD strap-on drive. They won't be using it for games, so it's only purpose is to act as a partial counterweight to the PS3's HiDef movie capability. But while Sony will recieve a hefty chunk of change for each BD disc sold, MS won't get the same return on each HD DVD sold, so you've gotta wonder where they make their money back if they do decide to sell at a loss.

awmurray

Well, Microsoft has like 48 billion dollars in their "rainy day fund". In 1996 it was 60 billion dollars (enough to give everyone in the US $108 each), but the SEC got hold of them (like they did in '94) because of MS hoarding all that cash. Here's a link: MS Has Too Much Money

One thing no one wants to do is get in a spending war with MS. They beat the US Goverment in their anti-trust cases. Sony who?

Jimmy 345

Playstation 3 just announced for $500. So who is willing to guess that Xbox 360/HD-DVD add-on combined will be the same price as the Playstation 3. Except with less features and no ability to use next generation discs as games.

digitalfreaknyc

Shit.

Guess I have to change part of my sig. Still holding out for that 2nd one, Jimmy. I'm not giving up hope.

darkside

If you want your much desired 1080p through HDMI you will be spending $600.

BobDole42

When did this become a 360 vs. PS3 thread? I think multiple consoles are a good thing (indeed, over the past few years I've owned the Xbox, PS2, GC, GBA, GBA SP, DS and 360). The fact that the PS3 is going to be $500 (which is a good price point for it, IMO) makes it even more likely that the 360 HD-DVD add-on will be ~$100.

Burnt Thru

MS have tried any number of ventures outside their core OS and Office business. None have taken off, in spite of their vast resources. Frankly I'm stumped as to why, but thems the real oats. MS TV, MS Bob, MS mobile tech, etc, they've not managed so far to succesfully branch out into other areas. When I bought my Xbox I was confident they would show Sony what for, but that's just not the way things panned out. 22million Xboxs and 100million PS2s later they're said to have lost around $3billion on this venture so far, with further loses from the X360 yet to be factored in.

BTW does Halo really look much better on the X360? Along with the promised release of Halo3 this would be the key thing to persuade me to buy in.

Qui Gon Jim

Dofus, it can sell that low since the only tech that has to be included is the optics. All the processing horsepower will be done in the 360. I'd expect this areound $150.