Xbox 360 Elite ("Zephyr") coming, price cuts also ($229 core)

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Asher
I don't think any explanation is necessary if the point is to debunk someone's assertion that the war is over.

The next gen DVD wars are just beginning really. You'll see things really decided when the prices of the players (at least one side or the other... and far more likely HD DVD) fall below $200.

[laurentius]

My point still stands at 60% strength. We're winning

[asleepathewheel]

Do you own stock in blu-ray companies or something?

I can see caring about consoles, but dvd formats? Give me a friggin break.

[Elok]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
Do you own stock in blu-ray companies or something?

I can see caring about consoles, but dvd formats? Give me a friggin break.

I was thinking something along those lines myself. It is a funny thing to argue about. Then again, I've argued about some strange things in my day, too...

[Verto]

Originally posted by Asher
The one REALLY cool thing about the PS3 is Folding@Home...I'm going to download the update tonight and run that thing 24/7.

You won't be alone.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/folding%40home/ps3-dominates-foldinghome-246543.php

[Asher]

I know.

[Asher]

It's 435TFLOPS alone for PS3s right now.

[Asher]

Bluray gets messier...they're about to release an updated spec this year that makes your $1200 bluray player obsolete in order to try to bring feature parity to what HD DVD had at launch.

'Blu-ray Disc players released after Oct. 31 will feature markedly improved functionality over models currently available for sale.

The Blu-ray Disc Assn. has mandated that all hardware streeting after that date must be able to play back picture-in-picture video, as driven by BD Java interactive technology. Many players on shelves now can handle BD Java, but to varying degrees. Few Blu-ray players include picture-in-picture capability, for instance, not even the PlayStation 3.

Sony’s current and summer 2007 stand-alone models and available Pioneer and Philips units are among those lacking the picture-in-picture feature.

With two different pools of players at retail in the near future, studios will have to navigate how to best create titles that play universally. A title with a highly touted picture-in-picture feature, for example, might not play properly on all players.

Additionally, after Oct. 31, all Blu-ray players must hold a minimum 256MB of persistent memory storage, which will help power the picture-in-picture feature. Also, any Blu-ray player that features an Internet connection is required to have 1GB of such memory, in order to hold whatever content users decide to download from the Web."

So if you want to hold off on a fully spec'd BR player, wait until the holidays. While the PS3 does have the raw power, Sony has been very tightlipped about it being firmware updated to sped 1.1 or above in the future. Still, the PS3 is the safe bet until proper players comeo ut.

[Nikolai]

Take that, PS3!

[laurentius]

soooo...for what excatly would you be using this feature?

[Asher]

Which feature?

Dual video streams/Picture in Picture? For special features mostly, eg video interviews, special effects comparisons, etc. The Matrix trilogy is going to use this very extensively, which is why it's coming to HD DVD soon but not Bluray until after they get that feature.

Internet connectivity? http://www.emedialive.com/Articles/R...rticleID=12326

You can talk about fancy pop-up menus all you want, but the interactive capability that really stands out and promises to propel HD to stardom is internet connectivity, pundits say—hook up HD disc players to the web and the sky will indeed be the limit.

"Perhaps the biggest new feature is that of network connectivity, which hasn't yet been leveraged by discs in either format," says MX Entertainment senior technical director Joe Rice. "I expect that this year we'll see examples of downloading new content as well as community applications where one can not only interact with the disc and downloaded related content (bonus material, games, etc.), but interact with other fans of the movie as well."

Pioneer Electronics (USA) senior VP Andy Parsons says he expects to see live online "communal events" surrounding these new discs. This could lead to video conferencing-like user experiences associated with certain HD content, and may even lead to a whole new genre one might call communal entertainment.

"With the addition of that network connection, interaction with the disc becomes an evolving experience; one that changes over time as new content becomes available via the network," says Rice. "It's no longer the 'what you see is what you get' experience of DVD, where the disc gets stuck on a shelf after a couple of viewings. With HD DVD and BD, one could go back to a disc after six months or a year and have a deeper experience available."

Rice says he also "wouldn't be surprised to see IMDB-style metadata being available via the network as well," referring to the popular movie-related Internet Movie Database Website (IMDB). "I've more than once found myself looking up a movie or TV show on IMDB while watching it, to get more details and find out what else various actors or crew members have done. It'd be great to have this integrated into the movie."

"Internet connectivity will be the biggest single benefit to Blu-ray and to HD DVD," says Richard Diercks, president of The Richard Diercks Company. "These formats are going to be very, very similar in that respect because all of that is going to happen downstream of the program. We expect that most of the foreign languages will be delivered via the Internet. You can't put enough languages on a disc to satisfy all the needs, and each player will have 800MB of permanent memory, non-volatile RAM memory, so they should be able to download all these languages and sync them up automatically. That's how we assume all the studios are going to be handling foreign languages in the future."

Then there are the ecommerce aspects of Internet connectivity—product placement, merchandising, promotional tie-ins, etc. "What happens when the entire video screen and any element in it can be made active?" asks Diercks. "I could be looking at an HD DVD video about how to go fly-fishing, and I could click on the fly rod and go to Orbis and buy it. Or I could click somewhere else and go to a travel agency and book my fly fishing trip to New Zealand or Montana. I think that once the infrastructure for internet connectivity gets built, it's going to have an impact way beyond entertainment and way beyond selling more titles. Who knows—between increased fees for product placement and downstream sharing of revenues, they might even be able to give the titles away."

"Connectivity is going to be huge and ecommerce will be a massive part of that," says Diercks, who cites the example of web-based catalogs. Compared to paper-based catalogs, these haven't been that successful. "Even in today's web world, everybody is still sending out paper catalogs," says Diercks. "That's because paper still has a lot of advantages; you can hold it, leaf through it easier, etc. But if you translate that into HD where you've got very high-definition imagery and the ability to demonstrate features and couple with that a highly interactive search capability, electronic catalogs may become much more compelling and useful. With HD you've got the imagery to support—of all things—just plain, simple text. If you look at all the fonts and text sizes you'd need with standard-definition TV or a web screen, you can't get very much on a page and still be readable. You can't read the text unless you make it really big. With HD we'll be able to get a lot more on a page. This may open up a whole new world for the catalog, and it should be cheaper to distribute this way, too."

[Nostromo]

Well its now official.

http://prnewswire.com/news/index_mail.shtml?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-28-2007/0004554726&EDATE=

And, according to Joystick:

We can't honestly say we didn't see this one coming after spotting it in magazines and internet leaks for months. Introducing -- officially this time, mind you -- the Xbox 360 Elite! The Elite, as we already know, features an HDMI port, a 120GB hard drive, and comes in a new black color and will be in stores on April 29th for $479.99 (€479.99/£349.99). What we didn't know: the Elite is not a limited-edition product; this will be a permanent, third SKU. The Elite will come with an HDMI cable -- which it proudly declares on its packaging -- in addition to a cable used to transfer data from your existing hard drive over to the new one. It will use the "same components" as the existing Xbox 360 consoles, no cooler running 65nm processors here.

The 120GB hard drive will be available at retail for $179.99. Black wireless controllers, black battery packs, and black Play & Charge kits will also be available at retail for the same price as their white counterparts.

[Kuciwalker]

Damn

Black wireless controllers, black battery packs, and black Play & Charge kits will also be available at retail for the same price as their white counterparts.

heh

[Nostromo]

Why are the D-pad and analog sticks gray?

[Nostromo]

Other info from Engadget

* The console will come with component and composite cables, as well as an HDMI cable. (Take that, Sony and Apple!)
* The console will come with a black wireless controller and black (wired) headset.
* Sorry, the new black controller still doesn't have backlit buttons -- don't let the pic fool you.
* The black controller, black rechargeable batteries, black headset, and black Play & Charge kit will all be available in retail for the same price as the white gear.
* The HD DVD drive will not be released in black.
* Xbox didn't know what HDMI version the Elite uses, nor whether it supports PCM 5.1, TrueHD, etc.; it will obviously support 1080p, though.
* Sorry, no price cuts on the Premium or Core packs.
* Xbox Live Marketplace will also begin vending content from New Line, Paramount, and Universal (and their properties).