YankeeH8er
08-11-2006, 03:52 PM
"The Xbox 360 is at the forefront of high-definition entertainment with its cutting edge graphics and digital surround sound, and now - slowly but surely - the other fields of digital entertainment are taking their first step into the new high-definition era.
Although high-definition TV shows and movies are a fact of life in America via satellite and cable, only now is the UK beginning to catch up with HD offerings from Sky and Telewest, with the BBC also currently piloting their own free-to-air high-definition TV system in London.
In terms of 'buyable and rentable' movies, two disk formats are coming to market - HD-DVD and Blu-ray. The former's being backed by Microsoft and the influential DVD Forum, which rubber-stamps all DVD formats.
HD-DVD will be supported by the Xbox 360 in the form of an external optical disk unit that hooks up to the main console and uses the console's built-in HD processors to interpret the raw data supplied by the new drive.
The movies themselves look set to be the new reference standard for home cinema, far outstripping the MPEG2-based USA cable services and annihilating Sky HD in terms of audio and video fidelity. HD-DVD offers support for both high-definition video and audio, and what's more, the movies are encoded at 1920x1080 in progressive scan - again ensuring a higher level of quality up against the interlaced, compressed signal you get from Sky HD. Some Sky HD movies have even been transmitted with stereo soundtracks. This is nowhere near as high quality as the Dolby Digital Plus and TrueHD surround sound systems used by HD-DVD.
So what can HD-DVD do? What movies are available? Where does the Xbox 360 and its addon unit fit in? How will Blu-ray affect its chances? Read on for everything you need to know...
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Q+A
HD-DVD drive tech confusion dispelled! At this year's E3, Microsoft took the wraps off its HD-DVD add-on drive, revealing this innocuous-looking box as well as giving rise to a raft of technical questions from people keen to get their hands on the latest piece of Xbox 360 kit. Like the main console, it can be stacked either vertically or horizontally, and it connects to the Xbox 360 via the USB connection. The most common technical questions are answered below:
Is USB fast enough to handle HD-DVD?
The proof of the pudding is in the HD-DVD add-on itself. It works! But getting down to some technical aspects of the player, the highest bandwidth HD-DVD requires is around 30 megabytes per second. The USB 2.0 connection can handle a maximum data pull-through of double that, so there are no problems there.
Will there be any Xbox 360 games exclusive to HD-DVD?
It's highly unlikely. There's no good reason to do it as the majority of Xbox 360 owners won't own the new drive. It would hit publishers in their pockets to make games available only to a minority of Xbox 360 gamers who've bought an add-on HD-DVD drive, excluding everyone else!
Don't you need an HDMI connection for HD-DVD movies?
The Xbox 360 doesn't have one. As it happens, HD-DVD works just fine without the digital HDMI connection, providing an analogue high-definition picture through HD component connections. In theory, there's no reason why the Xbox 360's superb VGA cable can't be used either.
But what about the digital copy protection?
Sadly, the movie studios are so paranoid about piracy that there has been talk of hobbling HD playback on the component output which would have a big impact on picture quality. This copy protection is referred to as ACSS. Happily, none of the studios have used it yet, and there is allegedly an agreement in place that it won't be used until 2012. It would be commercial suicide as HDTV has been around for a while in the USA, and none of the older HDTVs support HDMI. The 'hobbled' HD picture resolution would be 960x540 - not much better than a well-encoded PAL DVD, and a quarter of the 'full fat' display.
Will the Xbox 360 ever have an HDMI output?
Microsoft has said it will launch HDMI output when the Xbox 360 user really needs it. Far be it for us to challenge the wisdom of their designers, but we've stripped down our Xbox 360 and have found little evidence that digital video is being generated by the machine. Perhaps Microsoft will manage to surprise us!
Does the lack of digital output reduce the quality of the picture?
In theory, yes. In practise, no. The analogue component and VGA outputs of the Xbox 360 are of an incredibly high quality. On the current generation of flat-panel displays, the human eye physically can't tell the difference between analogue and digital HD sources. Users of the world's first HD-DVD player - the Toshiba HD-A01 - also note no discernable difference.
Will the Xbox 360 HD-DVD players picture quality be on a par with a dedicated player?
For the moment, yes. The Xbox 360 is limited to a 1280x720 video output, which is around the same as most HDTVs available today. However, HD-DVD is encoded at a colossal 1920x1080, and all indications are that the Xbox 360 cannot match this resolution. It's not an issue if no HDTVs can either, but will be in future when the technology catches up. Whether the add-on will enable a full HD-DVD resolution 1920x1080 output from the Xbox 360 is unknown, but we'd say it is unlikely.
How much will the HD-DVD add-on cost? How much will the movies be?
No official announcement has been made, but a cost of between £130 and £170 is likely. In contrast, the Toshiba HD-A01 dedicated player will cost around £350-£400. The HD-DVDs should be more expensive than current DVDs. Expect to pay £20 to £25 at the most - around the same as DVD when it launched. For a cheap way into the next generation of home cinema, you could invest in an Xbox 360 and the HD-DVD add-on - and still spend less than on a standalone player!"
Although high-definition TV shows and movies are a fact of life in America via satellite and cable, only now is the UK beginning to catch up with HD offerings from Sky and Telewest, with the BBC also currently piloting their own free-to-air high-definition TV system in London.
In terms of 'buyable and rentable' movies, two disk formats are coming to market - HD-DVD and Blu-ray. The former's being backed by Microsoft and the influential DVD Forum, which rubber-stamps all DVD formats.
HD-DVD will be supported by the Xbox 360 in the form of an external optical disk unit that hooks up to the main console and uses the console's built-in HD processors to interpret the raw data supplied by the new drive.
The movies themselves look set to be the new reference standard for home cinema, far outstripping the MPEG2-based USA cable services and annihilating Sky HD in terms of audio and video fidelity. HD-DVD offers support for both high-definition video and audio, and what's more, the movies are encoded at 1920x1080 in progressive scan - again ensuring a higher level of quality up against the interlaced, compressed signal you get from Sky HD. Some Sky HD movies have even been transmitted with stereo soundtracks. This is nowhere near as high quality as the Dolby Digital Plus and TrueHD surround sound systems used by HD-DVD.
So what can HD-DVD do? What movies are available? Where does the Xbox 360 and its addon unit fit in? How will Blu-ray affect its chances? Read on for everything you need to know...
Advertisement:
Q+A
HD-DVD drive tech confusion dispelled! At this year's E3, Microsoft took the wraps off its HD-DVD add-on drive, revealing this innocuous-looking box as well as giving rise to a raft of technical questions from people keen to get their hands on the latest piece of Xbox 360 kit. Like the main console, it can be stacked either vertically or horizontally, and it connects to the Xbox 360 via the USB connection. The most common technical questions are answered below:
Is USB fast enough to handle HD-DVD?
The proof of the pudding is in the HD-DVD add-on itself. It works! But getting down to some technical aspects of the player, the highest bandwidth HD-DVD requires is around 30 megabytes per second. The USB 2.0 connection can handle a maximum data pull-through of double that, so there are no problems there.
Will there be any Xbox 360 games exclusive to HD-DVD?
It's highly unlikely. There's no good reason to do it as the majority of Xbox 360 owners won't own the new drive. It would hit publishers in their pockets to make games available only to a minority of Xbox 360 gamers who've bought an add-on HD-DVD drive, excluding everyone else!
Don't you need an HDMI connection for HD-DVD movies?
The Xbox 360 doesn't have one. As it happens, HD-DVD works just fine without the digital HDMI connection, providing an analogue high-definition picture through HD component connections. In theory, there's no reason why the Xbox 360's superb VGA cable can't be used either.
But what about the digital copy protection?
Sadly, the movie studios are so paranoid about piracy that there has been talk of hobbling HD playback on the component output which would have a big impact on picture quality. This copy protection is referred to as ACSS. Happily, none of the studios have used it yet, and there is allegedly an agreement in place that it won't be used until 2012. It would be commercial suicide as HDTV has been around for a while in the USA, and none of the older HDTVs support HDMI. The 'hobbled' HD picture resolution would be 960x540 - not much better than a well-encoded PAL DVD, and a quarter of the 'full fat' display.
Will the Xbox 360 ever have an HDMI output?
Microsoft has said it will launch HDMI output when the Xbox 360 user really needs it. Far be it for us to challenge the wisdom of their designers, but we've stripped down our Xbox 360 and have found little evidence that digital video is being generated by the machine. Perhaps Microsoft will manage to surprise us!
Does the lack of digital output reduce the quality of the picture?
In theory, yes. In practise, no. The analogue component and VGA outputs of the Xbox 360 are of an incredibly high quality. On the current generation of flat-panel displays, the human eye physically can't tell the difference between analogue and digital HD sources. Users of the world's first HD-DVD player - the Toshiba HD-A01 - also note no discernable difference.
Will the Xbox 360 HD-DVD players picture quality be on a par with a dedicated player?
For the moment, yes. The Xbox 360 is limited to a 1280x720 video output, which is around the same as most HDTVs available today. However, HD-DVD is encoded at a colossal 1920x1080, and all indications are that the Xbox 360 cannot match this resolution. It's not an issue if no HDTVs can either, but will be in future when the technology catches up. Whether the add-on will enable a full HD-DVD resolution 1920x1080 output from the Xbox 360 is unknown, but we'd say it is unlikely.
How much will the HD-DVD add-on cost? How much will the movies be?
No official announcement has been made, but a cost of between £130 and £170 is likely. In contrast, the Toshiba HD-A01 dedicated player will cost around £350-£400. The HD-DVDs should be more expensive than current DVDs. Expect to pay £20 to £25 at the most - around the same as DVD when it launched. For a cheap way into the next generation of home cinema, you could invest in an Xbox 360 and the HD-DVD add-on - and still spend less than on a standalone player!"