1.
Translation:

The X360 can't output digital video by itself and needs another ATI chip. I guess DMA (digital copyright protection) wasn't much of an issue when the X360 was being designed.

We are likely to see an HDMI port on the back of the X360 HDDVD unit, however I am interested in seeing if we can play games through that port as well, or will the X360 end up hogging 2 video ports on my TV.

Posted at 6:22PM on Jul 12th 2006 by jc 8 stars

2. I hate ob/gyns because of you. Im richer than you because my father toile for hours to bring your sorry life into the world.

Posted at 7:39PM on Jul 12th 2006 by Rolando E. Lacayo 0 stars

3. So Sorry you were a fetus.

Posted at 7:40PM on Jul 12th 2006 by Rolando E. Lacayo 0 stars

4. Pay for it retardo. or you poor.

Posted at 7:44PM on Jul 12th 2006 by Rolando E. Lacayo 0 stars

5. No, putting HDMI output would completely defeat the reason for requiring HDMI in the first place. If the setup is to use the Xbox 360 processing elements to perform decompression and decryption with an external drive to create an inexpensive means of playing HD-DVD content (when figured as an addition to the gaming functions), then the only way to output HDMI from the drive unit would be if unencrypted data streams were traveling from the Xbox over the USB connection to the drive unit. The decompressed data stream would be far too large for sending over USB 2.0 lines.

That would be just pointless.

There are some means for offering HDMI as an option for the 360 video port. It would be an expensive cable with some onboard processing but since it would be optional it wouldn't be an imposition on those satisfied with using component or DVI connections to their display.

The bigger issue is whether they can do this in a way that supports the optional ICT requirements of the copy protection system used by HD-DVD. Most indications are that it couldn't be done on the existing machine. This is only a problem if studios start to use the ICT functionality. For now, recognizing how few HD displays sold to date have HDMI inputs, it isn't being used and may never be used but the threat is always there.

Posted at 8:00PM on Jul 12th 2006 by epobirs 10 stars

6. The $500 standalone HD-DVD drive from Toshiba couldn't event output 1080P, which the movies are mastered in and put on disk. How is this 'add on' for much less going to be any more capable?

I still think they should just kill the SKU on the Core system and come out with a Gold Edition for those needing technological convergence in the HD movie and gaming console worlds.

Posted at 8:48PM on Jul 12th 2006 by GhostDoggy 0 stars

7. Ok… I know this has to work because Microsoft says it will, but how?

At firs I was extremely confused as to how Microsoft planed to cram that much HD content down the 480MB/s limitations of USB 2.0, then, when trying to find the bitrate of H.264 to clench my argument shut and allow me to reasonably conclude that the HD-DVD drive for Xbox360’s will/could not work with current Xbox360s.

Then I found the bitrate, and it all makes sense

H.264 at 1080p is only a mere 8MB/s (http://www.pixeltools.com/h264_paper.html about halfway through under the heading ‘High Definition Transmission and Storage’) the author doesn’t specifically say that he’s talking about 1080p but even if he is talking about 720p, the size ratio difference is only about 2:1 meaning that if he is talking about 720p, then 1080p should still be less then 20MB/s, not exactly crammed down the USB as I had assumed, this then easy fits the bandwidth of the xbox360 (which ranges between 22.4-256GB/s)

Basically, It may seems that due to the huge emphasis put on HD as this ferocious bandwidth-eating beast (take HDMI’s uncompressed 4.5 GB/s@1080p for example [http://www.sony.net/Products/SC-HP/cx_news/vol40/cxb1441r.html under the heading ‘HDMI/DVI’]), it’s really quite fuzzy it handled properly, and compressed.

Now onto the actual use of the GPU to handle playback: It’s Good…
That’s about it…
It’ll basicly do what Microsoft says it will

Video isn’t exactly my area of expertise; I don’t really have one, so there may be a few mistakes, sorry if there are. Also, I Apologize in advance for any misinterpretations, misquotes or any other types of mis’s that I may have made

Well that was a great way to waste half an hour, and squeeze an awful lot of acronyms into 300 words. Hope I help answer someone else’s questions too…

Posted at 1:13AM on Jul 13th 2006 by Streak 0 stars

8. Anyone else think the orientation of the tray is weird? It's on the "top" of the mini-360, and, if you rotate it around and set it upright, the tray now faces right when open, where as the tray on the 360 faces left. Just me?

Posted at 9:27AM on Jul 13th 2006 by Philip 0 stars

9. "The $500 standalone HD-DVD drive from Toshiba couldn't event output 1080P, which the movies are mastered in and put on disk. How is this 'add on' for much less going to be any more capable?"

You don't know what you're talking about. The Toshiba couldn't output 1080p60, only 1080i60. But movies are mastered in 1080p24.

The way to play 24 fps video on a 60i display has always been 3-2 pulldown which actually doesn't remove any picture information, it just redistributes the frames over the fields. Of course any decent 1080p HDTV can reverse the 3-2 pulldown to display the original 24p video.

Posted at 1:01PM on Jul 13th 2006 by SlyEcho 0 stars

10. There is a massive amount of confusion about this nonsense:

1. The 360 HD-DVD -will not- have an HDMI port. It has a power port and TWO USB ports, as well as space to mount the 360 wireless unit so you can daisy chain HD-DVD and wireless all at the same time.

2. One poster said "it could an HDMI port because HD H.264 only needs 8MB/s" or something to that effect. This isn't really true on many levels. 8MB/s is 64Mbits... which is about DOUBLE what HD-DVD and Blu-ray are delivering. Add to this that the 64Mbits worth of video is what is being read FROM the HD-DVD disc, not what is being played BACK to the HDMI port. The uncompressed, raw video bandwidth requirements of 1080i, iirc, is about 1.5 Gb/s, or rougly 3 USB 2.0 cables worth of payload - WITHOUT audio.

3. If there is going to be an HDMI solution for the 360, it's likely going to be through a revised console with an HDMI port directly on the box itself, or via some add-on cable that provides the HDCP handshaking.

4. SlyEcho is quite correct. 1080p24 is easily interlaced to 1080i60 and then re-deinterlaced back to 1080p by any compatible TV. The only trouble with this is when/if HD-DVD's come out that are not in 1080p24 but are in full 1080p60, like concert videos or TV series that are shot in 1080p60 to start with. At this point, a player that supports 1080p60 directly is obviously needed.

Posted at 2:13PM on Jul 13th 2006 by Dylan Neild 0 stars

11. 1080p is not needed. The only people pining for this are the super techno-weenies with lots of cash. For most people 720p is just fine and they're never going to notice ANY difference between 720p and 1080p.

There's a reason most networks chose 720p as their HD broadcast standard. It's the best looking of the most accessible formats. Nobody's going to care about 1080p. As it is, people are still dragging their asses to move away from 480i.

Of the HDTVs in homes right now, only about 2% of them support 1080p, and fewer still are owned by people who know the damned difference, anyway.

Posted at 7:23PM on Jul 15th 2006 by ZeroCorpse 1 star

12. jc: "The X360 can't output digital video by itself and needs another ATI chip."

Who said anything about a chip?

The external drive is just a drive. It streams encrypted, compressed data over USB. ATI's codec ("ATI decoder technology") runs on the GPU and decodes the video stream. The XBox360 then displays it on the screen.

* GhostDoggy: "The $500 standalone HD-DVD drive from Toshiba couldn't event output 1080P, which the movies are mastered in and put on disk. How is this 'add on' for much less going to be any more capable?"

Because the techology is so new, ultra-low-cost "jelly bean" parts haven't become widely available. HD players are essentially PCs, with respective CPUs, such as Pentiums. It's very hard to build off-the-shelf PC components into a $500 package and sell it for a profit, especially since PC components are not very good at vector operations, the kind required for video streaming. The XBox360 is a custom architecture designed to do this kind of stuff.

Any resolution limits that may exist are for legal reasons, not technical.

Posted at 1:36AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Waccoon 0 stars