Microsoft Readying Blu-ray for 360?
Most of us predicted this weeks ago, and despite the entirely understandable (if not always polite) lamenting of the HD DVD beholden, this was virtually inevitable once the studios said "make it so."
Okay, so technically it's still a rumor (go Australian insider access) but word on the street is Microsoft's prepping a standalone Blu-ray player to...I won't say "replace" so much as "complement" it's existing standalone HD DVD player, though I'm betting the latter will only remain available until Microsoft clears stock.
HD DVD as you know has suffered almost weekly setbacks since most of the major studios dropped it for Blu-ray exclusively. Warner, the final holdout, jettisoned support for the format in January. Late last week Toshiba itself halted HD DVD production and rumors suggest the format's progenitor may be close to throwing in the towel entirely.
If Sony's sales for January were in fact more Blu-ray video than software driven as I've been speculating, Microsoft releasing a Blu-ray player couldn't be more timely and demographically crucial. Sony's January numbers suggest consumers may be paying considerably more for a PS3 for the Blu-ray capability alone. Thus Microsoft needs to introduce the Blu-ray option it's been silently hedging all along, to take on Sony in a lucrative venue that's finally picked a winner.
Regarding rumors of an integrated Xbox 360 Blu-ray player: Microsoft's argument against integration ostensibly hinges on the HD battle moving online, and to downloadable content instead of physical discs. For casual, streaming, episodic content, this almost certainly makes sense.
But for videophiles like me, who'll probably need terabyte storage solutions and demand nothing less than Blu-ray-analogous HD sample playback, online HD looks like a battle that won't be starting en masse until we figure out how to quickly download or stream video that easily figures in the "dozens of gigabytes" range. Anyone care to guess how long it would take on the average 1.5 Mbps DSL connection to download Season Three of Lost, which ships on six Blu-ray discs?
How long before you can buy the rumored standalone player? If it happens, sources say three months, i.e. May/June 2008 timeframe.
Replay
Agree? Disagree? Have your say below in comments, visit Wake the Happy Words for expanded dialogue, or pelt me with emails here.
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To answer your retorical question, it would take just under two years, assuming that all of the six discs are 50GB, and they are completely full, and assuming that you are downloading at 1.5 Mb/s the whole time.
I really don't think streaming or downloads will become common in the near future.
Unless Internet Connection is 1.5 GB/s which to me I think could happen!!
Wow, at 1.5mb/s, it would take just over 18.96 days.... a bit far from 2 years.
NO...takes 12.64 days at 1.5 megabits per second
8 bits = 1 byte
50 GB = 409600 megabits
409600 mb * 6 disks = 2457600 mb total for 6 disk set
2457600 divided by 1.5 mb = 1092266.67 Seconds it would take
1092266.67 divided by 60 seconds = 18204.4445 Minutes it would take
18204.4445 divided by number 60 minutes = 303.407 Hours it would take
303.407 Hours divided by 24 hours = 12.64~ days to download 6 Blu-ray disks at 1.5 megabits
50 GB * 1024 MB = 51200 MB
51200 MB * 1024 KB = 52428800 * 6 BD discs = 1887436800 KB
1.5Mbps * 1/8th to bytes = 187.5 KB/s
1887436800 KB / 187.5 KB/s = 10066329.6 s
min = 10066329.6 s / 60s = 167772.16min
h = 167772.16min /60min = 27962.02 hours
days = 27962.02 h /24 h = 1165.084 days
years = 1165.084 days / 365.25 days = 3.189yrs
... but check if i have errors
Previous posters: You really scare me with your lack of mathematical skills. m2j1r0 is the only one that came up with something sensible.
But all of you should note the following:
Transfer speeds are always measured "decimal-wise" - i.e. 1,5 Mbits equals 1500 kilobits (multiplied by 1000, not 1024), while storage sizes are usually measured "binary-wise". That makes it questionable to first calculate how many megabits the 6 BD discs comprise, as the transfer speed in megabits is a decimal-ish value, while the size in megabits is a binary-ish value.
I would suggest the following calculation, if you believe that the 6 discs contain 50 GB of data each:
----
187,5 KB/s
50 GB * 6 BD discs = 300 GB
300 GB * 1024 = 307 200 MB
307 200 MB * 1024 = 314 572 800 KB
314 572 800 KB / 187,5 = 1 677 721,60 sec
1 677 721,60 sec / 60 = 27 962,0267 min
27 962,0267 min / 60 = 466,0338 h
466,0338 h / 24 = 19,41 days
----
TCP/IP overhead, traffic etc. is not taken into consideration here.
Actually, iam2cool, you made a mistake when multiple total KB x 6 discs...
"52428800 * 6 BD discs = 1887436800 KB"
in my calculator it give me
52428800 * 6 BD discs = 314572800 KB
following the rest with that, gives 19.418074074
same result that get OddHenriksen
and as OddHenriksen point out not all factors were take in consideration
at the very perfect conditions it will take at least 20 days to download, sum all the electricity you will waste for a full 20 days computer on, the media you will have to buy to store that 300 GB, that the price of today digital downloads is almost the same that physical media and you will see how that download movie hype, its so unreal, its not like music, the size of files, the fact that you can buy a single track instead the full cd its the big bonus and seller for music download
not to mention the huge drawbacks, you cant see the movies on other devices, exchange or resell it
why buy something virtual that a virus or hardware failura can destroy
Mb ≠ MB