Microsoft: "Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format"
It's been an ongoing rumour in the tech and gaming industries for some time now but it looks more certain than ever that Microsoft's Xbox 360 console won't ever support Blu-ray.
As Sony's PS3 steps up its compatibility with the format, bringing 3D Blu-ray playback to the machine, Microsoft's Xbox and Entertainment Director, Stephen McGill, has seemingly confirmed the Xbox won't adopt Blu-ray.
Speaking to the Xbox 360 Achievements website, he was asked if Xbox should adopt Blu-ray: "I think people now recognise what a smart decision it was to keep the pricing low, and actually Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format.
"People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming, so we offer full HD 1080p Blu-ray quality streaming instantly, no download, no delay. So, who needs Blu-ray?" he said.
There have been rumours about external Blu-ray drives for the Xbox 360 for some time but it looks more certain than ever that the console's adoption of HD will be solely via downloadable content.
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Does anyone else get tired of Microsoft banging on about this. They should just support Blu-ray on their games box. Personally I don't care if they do or not, just wish they would wise up - HD-DVD died a long time ago.
To be fair I did try and stream an extended HD clip of Avatar from the Zune marketplace on my 360 quite a while ago (prior to Avatar being release at the cinema). The buffering was minimal and after a few seconds of seemingingly optimising the picture quality, I would say that it produced a near HD quality picture.
The caveat here is near HD picture. It was nowhere near the picture quality of the blu-ray version (even on my modest 720p TV), and the sound was of course not a patch. I'd actually like to see MS claims to stream 1080p video, and include HD audio on top of that.
I agree with Dylan Williams. The sort of comments made by MS, can only be made by urbanites with almost limitless broadband capacity. Back in the real world, where it takes 10-20 minutes just to download a game update on the Xbox, things are not so rosy for streamed HD material. It's quicker for me to buy a Blu-ray on the net & wait for posty to drop it through the letter box then to download a movie to the Xbox.
This situation is not going to improve in the UK any time soon, with providers saying it is un-economic to extend optical networks & Government setting very low speeds as a minimum requirement.
Mr McGill should spend some time in the UK, where pigeons can beat broadband, before he makes these statements, or have MS given up any marketing notions outside metropolitan US & Japan? It does also smack of sour grapes, after backing the wrong HD horse.
The problem is that Microsoft did not invent Blu-ray and so do not want to pay royalties to use it. When enough people stop buying Xboxes citing the absence of Blu-Ray as a reason things might change. But by then Blu-Ray will, of course, have long since been superseded!
I'd say it's all horses for courses myself.I bought a Sony BDPS 370 which came earlier today.... wow !
anyway...
Playing games, especially online is best on a computer tbh.
If you like movies then dvd is still real good ... up-scaled, even better ... blu-ray better still.
If you are a real a movie buff then maybe you'd want all your better, more loved movies in the best standard you can buy .. but if it's just a movie to watch for a few hours then it doesn't have to be THE BEST ... not for me anyway. I'm keeping to just having my favourites on blu-ray depending on cost as dvd's up-scaled ... make for fine viewing.
The speed of broadband in this country is far too poor to download 1080p films, it took me 3 days to download one onto the PS3. BluRay players are now available for less than �100, they are backward compatible with DVD, and people have invested in HD TV sets, so I think BluRay has a lot to offer. Plus, not everyone who watches movies has a computer, or games console, or broadband.
agree, bluray works and looks alot better when played on my projector than any of the hd streamed stuff and how long would my 2.5 meg max broadband take to download a movie as good as a bluray disc and course theres cost of storage and back up storage cost,with a resale value of?
Digital media is alright but with a helluva lot of the country (uk) having poor broadband speed the only option is to sell the media on some kind of physical memory be it SD cards as above or Blu Ray. In my humble opinion of course.
The logical step would be to skip Blu-Ray and put everything onto SD cards as soon as the price drops. It would be far easier and take up less room. Streaming is fine but people still want music for when they are on the move, so CD will live a bit longer.
This does not make sense - They backed HD DVD which is in essence the same output as BD.
If BD is superseded by the internet, why do they still support CD then?
the 360 desperately needs replacing i find it horrid compared to the gaming experience on PS3
Who's Zuning whom?
I presume that this will also mean that they will not offer Blu-ray support in WMC at any point. Can they not accept that they backed the loser, eat humble pie and adopt the blu-ray standard?