Xbox 360: To Blu-ray or Not to Blu-ray?
Those folks at Sony are the biggest kidders, to liberally paraphrase Xbox 360 product manager Aaron Greenberg. Greenberg just told Reuters that Microsoft is in fact decidedly not in talks with Sony to do anything whatsoever with Blu-ray and the Xbox 360.
Instead? Focus on online distribution of content, i.e. directing Xbox 360 owners to Xbox Live's hundreds of downloadable TV shows and programs.
In case you missed it, last Friday a Sony executive suggested to the Financial Times that Sony and Microsoft were in talks about the Xbox 360's Blu-ray future. Needless to say, Microsoft's response was "We have made no such announcement." Now, via Greenberg, they've gone one further to effectively quash speculation that talks are occurring at all. Pay attention to our online distribution model instead, says Microsoft. Optical media? Who needs optical media when you can download TV shows and movies direct?
My response: Fine, fair enough, but let's keep it real here. For all Microsoft's claims about offering "high-definition" content, the company is simply dreaming if it thinks it can compete with Blu-ray at the pixel-for-pixel level. Microsoft knows it, and so does any videophile. Imagine trying to download the BBC's Planet Earth, something like the Harry Potter Collection, or frankly any single given 1080p movie. For the record, Microsoft's existing service tops out at 720p, the movies have to be downloaded (as opposed to streamed) and each one takes up a whopping 4-5 GB space with no recourse to burn and store on the side. Can you say yikers?
Not only will more than a handful of movies chew through what little space is available on your average Xbox 360's hard drive, they simply take forever to download. Want the latest movie-of-the-week? You can either trigger the 4-5 GB download, or you can hop in your car, rent the movie for $5 or buy it outright for $20-$30, then be home and have it watched by the time the download's a third complete.
I'm just not convinced online distribution mechanisms for film-length 720p or 1080p content are mature enough to get around the need for a physical optical drive. Eventually, probably -- when we can either offload that content to instant-recall backup media or internet speeds are so fast backups no longer matter -- but the digital infrastructure isn't close to ready. On my 7 Mbps DSL connection, it can take upwards of half an hour to download 100MB Rock Band music packs if Microsoft's servers are running slow (they often seem to be).
Do the math. Using services like "OnDemand," I can cue up the entire first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm on my cable box connection in HD in seconds. Microsoft's enemies are time and space, and I don't see either the 360 or PS3 obsoleting Blu-ray or cable/satellite or services like Netflix with regard to either dimension in the near future.
Long story short, don't worry Xbox 360 owners. Reality is completely amorphous when it comes to public relations. If a company says no on Friday, there's a 50-50 chance they'll say yes on Monday. All this announcement tells us is that someone picked up the phone and told Mr. Greenberg to stay on target with "digital distribution," even if its a message that rings a little hollow to someone like me who's finally ready to start up-converting to incontrovertibly glorious-looking 1080p HD.
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yeah just look at sony's flip-flopiness. one day no 40 gig, next day oh yeah we have 40 gig.
Xbox 360 downloadable media may be the future. I've rented well over 20 movies and TV shows all of which start playing after about 3 minutes and all are in 720p. None of which I need any additional storage space. Even TV shows stream, which I delete after I watch and which I own. They can be downloaded again and again and watched over and over without media to scratch in less time then it would take me to get up and find the disks. Add some NFL and NHL and I wouldn't even need cable T.V. The next logical step is to use this Media with a non gaming device connected to your tv and allow your content to be used on PC and devices like the IPOD Video or Zune which a proprietary disk format could never achieve.
Actually you can start watching movies while they download on Microsoft's xbox-live service. It usually is about 5 to 10 minutes before I start watching a movie I download. Just enough time to make popcorn. There is no interruption or degraded play when watching in this manner.
Also, you delete the content when your done with it. That's why its called a rental. Microsoft never intended for the xbox 360 to be used for storing a large number of movie files.
As far as the pixel by pixel content. Yes, it is true the resolution isn't quite as nice. Hopefully they will support the higher resolutions sooner than later. Of course, higher resolution means larger file size. But given the 40 gig average harddrive size and the 24 hour rental nature of the movies and television shows their service offers, I don't think it's unreasonable at all.
This article is pretty sensationalized, innacurate, and skewed in my opinion.
You can say all you want about Sony flip-flopping the models but does that really matter at this point? PS3 has blu-ray built in does XBOX360? NO! Did they ever have HD-DVD built in? NO! And if the media war was still going on you would have to purchase your HD-DVD drive as a add-on to the 360 which in turn would cost you pretty much the same amount as if you purchased the PS3. So I ask you this Yuffiek133 when you want that newest HD capable movie how are you going to watch it or better yet lets blame sony for its flip-flopiness? Hey microsoft take a hit and put blu-ray in your 360's before one of the backers of blu-ray makes a compatible blu-ray drive for you and steals even more of your money, or stick with your online distribution and see if that gets you as far as HD-DVD did. Dont get me wrong I like the idea of downloadable content but lets say i want to watch elsewhere i will have to lug my 360 around just to play the movie where as if you have a disk thats all you need.
What a load of hog wash I much rather start a download and wait 30 minutes at home and get the video I want (ie not already hired out at the video store ) going to video store is yesterday, so yesterday Mr Peckham... I could be wrong but youtube and the others already prove that case mute... As for storage going by todays prices on 250 GB hard drive (networked of course) you case about storage also becomes a mute point... I will sleep easy when the days of optical dics dies and we just carry terabytes on our cell phones linked wireless to the 1000 terabytes at home ...
Its interesting because I think the whole Net Neutrality thing is really going to decide whether we are downloading movies or not (unless an extreme compression tool can push the HD content to a couple hundred megs).
Depending on how net traffic is defined for the future we could all be paying a lot more to download gigs of stuff every evening. Aren't ISP companies already taking action to heavy downloaders (such as limiting their DL speed, etc.)?
For me, that would limit my desire to download large content online.
Thought my input might help....
I live in Montana, and when I download an HD movie, it can start in usually under 3 minutes. I was shocked the first time when I downloaded the first terminator in high def. And since my tv only supports 720p/1080i its even better. I just wish I had the movie on DVD so I could compare the downloaded 720p vs an upcoonvert from my Samsung dvd player. By the way, I pay $53 a month for 8.0 Mbps and it'd be even cheaper if I bundled service. I do have to manage my small 20gb hard drive closely though, what with all the tv shows I've been buying. I can ususally store 1 HD rental at a time but thats usually all I want if I can find a good movie in their selection.
YouTube? Seriously? Did someone just use that as an example of a competitive video standard? :o
Sure, the YouTube thing is fabulous and trendy and on everyone's minds right now, and that's a certain market the Xbox 360 totally works for if you want short clips and you're watching more for content than audio-video quality. I was just grousing on behalf of those of us who do care about the latter, and don't want to watch episodes of our favorite shows or full-on movies in a format that doesn't showcase a new and true 1080p LCD or plasma flatscreen. Also, for those of us who might still feel a little safer having our video in a more durable, storable, non-electronic medium than a single-point-of-failure hard drive.
If you're all about the lower quality stuff, power to you, but know that my post wasn't aimed at you.
Not two months ago there were articles saying that the net would collapse under the weight of its own traffic. Currently most of the traffic for media is NOT high def, so what happens as more and more go to hi def?
I have seen many people say they download then place the movie on a disk. Wouldn't it be easier to just buy the pre-recorded disks with the jewel cases, booklets, and other inserts?
I also hate that there ins't ONE place that I can go to get all of my movies or music. I-Tunes, for exapmle, has 300 but where's Baby Jane? I may have to find a different service to rent or purchase Baby Jane, which is just a pain. Why should I explore multiple sites to find all the movies I like when I can get them all at my local video store?
I'm also concerned about what happens to older movies? I do like some of the black & white flicks, which aren't usually easily found as downloads.
Thanks but I'll keep my standard DVD's for the time being.
Anybody that knows anything about HD knows that Microsoft cannot expect to compete with Blu-ray through digital subscriptions. As movies become better quality people will have to download 4+ GB of data before they can watch it. The people that say the quality is the same are probably all running 480i TVs.
Yeah, there's not going to be a big difference when your TV is crap but give it a year or so when HD is much more popular and people will start to notice the difference. You can't stream HD quality like you can with a Blu-ray. Some people say they don't care about quality but once you go 1080p, you don't go back :)
The sooner Microsoft swallows their pride the better.
There is also a little bit that most people here, especially the XBOX fanboys are forgetting. More than half of this country does not have broadband access and will not for quite some time. And a significant number of people who do have broadband, do not have the bandwidth to even download 720p content. You cannot get around the fact that internet infrastructure in this country is not improving while the demands on it are increasing. More and more cable lines have more traffic on them than recommended. At the same time cable and internet providers are unwilling to improve infrastructure. Blu-Ray is here for a while. We are at least ten years away from having the bandwidth needed for Microsoft's plan to work. The XBox will have a Blu-Ray feature by year's end if not sooner.
Anybody that knows anything about HD knows that Microsoft cannot expect to compete with Blu-ray through digital subscriptions. As movies become better quality people will have to download 4+ GB of data before they can watch it. The people that say the quality is the same are probably all running 480i TVs.
Yeah, there's not going to be a big difference when your TV is crap but give it a year or so when HD is much more popular and people will start to notice the difference. You can't stream HD quality like you can with a Blu-ray. Some people say they don't care about quality but once you go 1080p, you don't go back :)
The sooner Microsoft swallows their pride the better.
Sorry Sony fans there will be no BD for Xbox 360. There is no benefit to the 17 million current Xbox 360 owners to add BD at this late date. BD is too expenzive and has too little benefit with its huge (LOL) 400 movie library. Sure 720p isn't quite as good as 1080p, but 99% of people still don't have HD and they don't really care. I get excellent performance with my Xbox 360 on Xbox Live hooked up through Comcast. I also have Comcast HD On Demand, and Netflix so I don't need BD. If and when BD surpasses standard DVD I will buy it, but not until then.
Most people still watch the Normal format DVD they haven't even switched to Widescreen. Adding BD will be too expensive and Microsoft won't move any more than 200,000 units before they announce their next Xbox. Do the math.
free2speak, are you paid by microsoft to troll comment sections in an attempt to debunk factual information?
No I don't work for Microsoft. What "factual information" are you talking about? Microsoft said they would support BD where "it makes sense". They are working to add BD support to Vista. BD is not needed for Xbox 360 and that is a fact. It sounds like you are the Microsoft insider since you seem to know for a fact that Microsoft indeed plans to add BD to 360. I am just stating common sense the numbers don't work out in favor of adding BD to 360.
free2 speak- should think before he does- IF in fact MS says "where it makes sense" in real time that means when MS can make a buck - of all the philanthropy of the B&M Gates Foundation-- has anyone you know benefited from it - surely not the people he has been robbing with a system (360) that has habitually failed and they have not truly made good on - but if they extended warranty 2x - but that is truly the most insincere form of support-0- RECALL THE DAMN THINGS if you know you have cold solder connections on ur GPU!!!! Oh yes but that would mean $$$$$ and it is hard to give back money already in your hand. Imagine they are rolling in bed at night for the money they could nto expunge from customers for the add-on HD unit. No they do not need optical readers, yet they would have you have 2 - the original and the HD add-on. Being humble is as alien a trait to MS as being honest is to them. How could they raise the white flag and admit they chose the wrong side for HD??
Harryki you are obviously another PS3 fanboy. PS3 fans just keep bringing up old (very old) news about Xbox 360 failures. The 360 was redesigned a year ago with a new chipset. The fact that 360 failures are not currently reported on all game sites as an on going problem shows that the problem mostly exists in PS3 fan's memories. Microsoft has a 3 year warranty to cover the issue so it is no issue at all. Microsoft gave 360 owners the "option" of adding HD DVD, it isn't even their product so they lost nothing and they don't have any reason to admit defeat. You PS3 fans better hope MS doesn't add BD because then there wouldn't be any reason to buy PS3. Xbox 360 has the largest high quality game library on any of the top three consoles to day. Xbox 360 is focused on games; not movies.
I'm not sure it's fair to say that the XBOX 360 is focused on games but not movies. Focused on games, yes, but Microsoft is also flogging the XBOX 360 as a Windows Vista Media Center extender (if you're not familiar with Media Center, think client/server AV system, with a Windows Vista-based PC serving up movies and music to extender clients throughout the house via a wired or wireless LAN). A Blu-Ray Disk player integrated into an XBOX 360 would appeal to the AV-gamer crossover crowd, as well as to families with both videophiles and gamers. Also consider the fact that the PS3 is often considered the best Blu-Ray disk player available, due to its ability to easily pick up firmware updates off the Internet via the built-in ethernet interface that other players lack. Other than an XBOX 360 with a Blu-Ray Disk drive, that is!
Great blog with lots of useful information and excellent commentary! Thanks for sharing.
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