This Sunday Bill Gates will walk across the CES 2008 stage one last time for his final keynote speech. And just like years before, Mr. Gates will be touching on hot technology topics, Windows news, Zune facts and possibly some Xbox 360 HD DVD details as well. Or so thinks the Seattle Times. They're speculating that Billy will go out with a bang at this year's CES revealing a partnership with Toshiba to release an "Ultimate" Xbox 360 that packs HD DVD and DVR functionality. Not only that, but they also think Microsoft will announce other 360 partnerships as well.A new HD DVD enabled Xbox 360 would be pretty cool and would help defend against the Blu-ray takeover while at the same time proving that Michael Bay was correct all along. But our other half says we already have enough variety when it comes to Xbox 360 models and an Ultimate version would be kind of overkill. No matter what Billy talks about during the keynote all we really want is any Xbox 360 news that is more exciting than last year's IPTV functionality (of which hasn't come to fruition anyway). Can we at least get that much?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
1-02-2008 @ 2:09PM
Doc said...
IPTV...,why would you want this anyways? I mean really pay per episode? Why when I have a DVR and it's in HD, and with HD on my DVR I'm not a penalized like I am on marketplace with the price difference and rental time limits WTF is with that, why can't I rent a movie for 3 or 5 days?
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1-02-2008 @ 2:19PM
Neon Jebus said...
You do know that IPTV are for services like AT&T U-Verse right? It's basically turning your 360 into a cable box with DVR abilities.
Not pay per episode.
1-02-2008 @ 8:47PM
Fafhrdd said...
IPTV is not a pay per epoisde service. IPTV is a media service (like cable or sat TV) that companies will use to push their channels through. It is coming. Period. Some Government buildings already have it and it streamlines CNN and Foxnews to your desktop (I know because I help set it up for ISEC at Fort Detrick.
1-02-2008 @ 10:17PM
Platinum_Skeet said...
They should just throw a $15 capture card in that bitch and call it a night. Fios probably won't hit my area until 2012 anyways so I'll be left in the dust unless they let me stream it off my 20 mbps down connection from comcast...
1-02-2008 @ 2:09PM
Rk said...
Absolutely unimaginable.
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1-02-2008 @ 2:10PM
SimplePanda said...
To be clear, there is no evidence at all that any 360 with HD-DVD exists or ever will. Microsoft has constantly stated that HD-DVD is an unproven technology and that they don't want to sell customer 'the next beta'. They favor HD-DVD over Blu-ray but openly admit that it is:
a) Not the standard.
b) Not likely to be the standard in the face of Blu-ray's sales lead.
Seattle Times simply said "they could make a splash" by announcing such a product, but there is nothing to suggest this is anything other than just random talk.
Hell, Microsoft "could" announce that the 360 now runs PS3 games and has a new Wii compatible motion sensitive controller, but that's not very likely either...
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1-02-2008 @ 2:15PM
ryan said...
ah, cool. thanks for the info Panda. :)
1-03-2008 @ 4:57AM
Boff said...
'The next Betamax'
Sorry.
1-02-2008 @ 2:14PM
ryan said...
this would help MS in the future i think, if games relied on an HD format like blu-ray. bigger games with extra content (longer development times tho).
but it'd also screw over people who just recently bought a 360.
also i wonder is HD-DVD faster or slower than a blu-ray? this is also something to consider if games would rely on an HD format.
but if it's soley for movies i guess it wouldn't hurt to have it. more expensive that's for sure.
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1-02-2008 @ 2:48PM
Digitalspirit said...
They should have built in HD-DVD in the first place, even if HD-DVD fails it would still have given devs more room for game data a la blu-ray. As for the rest of the add ons, I bought the 360 to play games online and nothing else, so I'm not bothered about them.
1-02-2008 @ 2:58PM
ryan said...
true, if the 360 had a built in Hard drive to begin with this would have also given developers more freedom ala *cough* the PS3. :)
1-02-2008 @ 4:49PM
pkilla said...
The 360 currently doesn't need the extra space a bigger disc capacity gives. Since obviously you own PS3s have you ever seen a game on there that had more content that its 360 counterpart?
I mean look at how much is in the orange box.
1-02-2008 @ 5:18PM
ryan said...
Dude, Pkilla,
I dont own a PS3. I just see flaws in the 360s design or better ways to improve it. If HD-DVD sucks for a gaming format, so be it. these game systems are still new born and developers are finding new tricks every day.
but if there was a title in the near future with fantastic graphical effects that required a larger format and could benefit from it, why not?
1-02-2008 @ 2:19PM
Tony said...
There are a lot of other things I wish they'd concern themselves over announcing at this point. Things like what the heck first party developers are doing for 2008, which is still at this point practically unknown or full of vague release dates.
I couldn't care less about an HD-DVD playing Xbox.
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1-02-2008 @ 2:19PM
Arno said...
What ever happened to that DirecTV integration into Xbox 360? Remember that? That was like 2 years ago or so...
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1-02-2008 @ 2:19PM
Brian G said...
I own an Xbox 360, and I'd buy a second one if it came with an HD DVD drive. Especially if it was quieter than the G2 version that I have right now.
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1-02-2008 @ 2:23PM
qbix said...
If it has a 750 gig hard drive, I might consider it.
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1-02-2008 @ 2:25PM
Intentless said...
Not happening...
I see IPTV/DVR functunality being more likely than a HDDVD/360...
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1-02-2008 @ 2:25PM
OTAM said...
So we're going to split the systems again?
Ones with hard drive,ones without,ones with HD-DVD,ones without,ones with HDMI,ones without.
How many system configurations will Microsoft come out with? Fucking A already. Make up your mind at the START of your console's life instead of flipping around every 6 months with a new configuration. Why don't we just buy a computer and be done with it? It's gotten to be a bad joke at this point.
I'm starting to see where Nintendo was going with their idea of ONE package.
Please let this just be a rumor.
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1-02-2008 @ 6:44PM
NineT9 said...
Yea it seems the Playstation 3 had it the right way by doing the exact opposite
Playstation3 came with Wifi, HDD, BluRay, HDMI, Backwards Compatibility...
Then after some time they would offer other models that didn't have everything...
Whereas the 360 started with about the minimum, and works its way up (Elite, 120GB HDD, Wifi, etc)
and now this which would be about equal to the PS3
it does create confusion and screw over the already purchased customers :/ but hey, whatever makes the console better is all I care about...luckely the PS3 came with everything, now they just need to work on games which is obviously coming true :D whereas the 360 has the games and their working on the other stuff...sigh