A month or so ago I bit the bullet and got an HD-DVD player, and honestly, I am very happy with the purchase. Watching Planet Earth in high def is breathtaking, with the original BBC commentary not found in the American television broadcast. While the HD-DVD vs Bluray war is still far from over, the HD-DVD price advantage is gaining momentum with the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive’s price dropping from $179 to a reported $129 soon. As of this writing, Amazon still lists the price at $179, but Toys R Us has it at $129 (but is sold out).
What price would it have to be cut to before you would get the drive?
The whole firing of long time Gamespot editor, Jeff Gerstmann has left a sour taste in the mouths of gamers and game site editors alike. If the game was that bad, gamers needed to know and Jeff did just that and he gave his honest opinion. While it isn’t clear yet if his dismissal was due to the publisher of the game being a big Advertiser or not, it still is clear something rotten went on behind the scenes at Gamespot. While the video review was removed on Gamespot, it was kindly uploaded onto Youtube so I present the “controversial” video review.
Apparently the good folks over at IBM have patented a method in which movie rentals can be made cheaper by inserting 2-3 unskippable commercials into the disc. Now.. inform me if I’m wrong but isn’t the reason for buying or renting movies at home to watch them uninterrupted? So for a buck or two less you can have your movie but be subjected to interruptions by advertisements for products we could care less about. It stinks, I think it’s terrible idea as I myself find myself wanted to chew on glass trying to watch a movie on Sci-Fi channel where they show the same 4 commercials over and over again, sometimes more time is spent on commercials then the film they heavily edited. Fun stuff, particularly if the “fine” people who make Extenze or Girls Gone Wild get on the bandwagon… I think I’ll stick with paying $3.99 for an uninterrupted movie experience. Lets just hope this is entirely optional and not forced down our throats.
It’s obvious that Blizzard’s marketing folks knows who and what will entertain their potential fanbase, as made obvious in this hilarious new commercial starring the one and only Mr. T.
There’s also an ad featuring William Shatner below the break.
A couple days ago Slashdot had an article about HD-VMD, a new contender in the High Def video market brought forward from until now unheard of New Medium Enterprises. They promise capacity of 40 GB (right in the middle of what HD-DVD ad Bluray can support) at a price point only slightly higher than standard DVD media. This price is possible thanks to reusing existing technology to manufacture the disks and lasers in the players. Rather than a blue laser, VMD disks use the same red lasers as current DVD players.
Only a few titles will be available at launch here in the US, although with the players coming in under $200 (with $150 being the number that seems to be going around) and availability through Amazon, this could quickly be a major figure in the HD wars.
I like the idea of cheaper HD, but I’m afraid this will draw out the resolution of this media format war even longer, and make it even more complicated for us, the consumers.
With the new Dashboard Update that promises to make many new features available to the consumer, Engadget has reported that the video player will also receive some new codecs. The 360’s media player will now support streaming of MPEG-4 up to 8Mbps, H.264 up to 15Mbps, and PlaysForSure WMV videos without having to record it through Windows Media Center or the horrid conversion software bundled with Zune. I know I’m excited for some 1st party support for more video formats.
[I've been having great results with Orb, but being able to stream xvid directly without conversion would be great! Microsoft did this first by enabling AAC playback, hopefully Divx/XviD is fully supported! -Ed]
the Conan the Barbarian reference put it over the edge of amazing. I haven’t seen this on TV yet, but this is the kind of commercial that sells quirky games like this. Good work Microsoft/Rare!!!
I suppose it’s good news that Neil Thompson, the head at Microsoft’s UK Xbox division, said that whichever HD format wins the “war”, Microsoft will likely provide a solution.
Team Xbox has a press release from Orb Networks announcing version 2 of their free MyCasting software, which is said to allow free streaming of internet video content directly to your next-gen consoles, including the Xbox 360.
I’ll be checking this out myself later today. If you have experiences with Orb, positive or negative, let us know in the comments!
A month or so ago I bit the bullet and got an HD-DVD player, and honestly, I am very happy with the purchase. Watching Planet Earth in high def is breathtaking, with the original BBC commentary not found in the American television broadcast. While the HD-DVD vs Bluray war is still far from over, the HD-DVD price advantage is gaining momentum with the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive’s price dropping from $179 to a reported $129 soon. As of this writing, Amazon still lists the price at $179, but Toys R Us has it at $129 (but is sold out).