News - Microsoft reiterates: Blu-ray not coming to Xbox 360

[pow1983]

i agree. electronic downloading of media files is the future. stores like HMV and Zavvi will be none existant in the future i reckon.

And then you remember BT is in charge of our Broadband future.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

And then you remember BT is in charge of our Broadband future.

yes but go with bethere broadband and u will see that they dont spy onw hat you download and they dont cap u either

[j.o.s.h.1408]

i can see where MS is going with not wanting to bring BLUE RAY to the 360.

i for one am very happy with dvds and it was way to soon to start upgrading. A new high def tv fine but way too soon for bluray to replace all media.

whats the point in getting a hd tv if u dont play hd content on it?

[neonplanet40]

i agree. electronic downloading of media files is the future. stores like HMV and Zavvi will be none existant in the future i reckon.

Sorry but thats nonsense. Whether your with BT or Be Broadband.

A full HD bluray with all the pcm audio and bonus extras and film at full HD can clock in at near 50GB.

You tell me whish isp will allow you to transfer data like that? Lets say you watch 8 films a month. Thats 400GB alone for 8 films. If everyone starts doing that i cant see our internet keeping up with the demand. Even when BT 21C goes live. For a starts BT charges resellers approx £1 per GB so your paying £24 a month and costing that reseller £400 alone. So its gets to the point where tha data charges cost more than than the actual blu-ray disks. And if everyone goes over to BE becase its "unlimited" i can assure you it wont stay unlimited for long and the speeds will plummet.

I mean fair enough, if usages prices per GB drop drastically low and the networks are upgraded tenfold then yea maybe, digital will take over. Till then Blu-Ray is the way forward.

And don't even start talking to me about 4GB encodes. They have far inferior quality to the real thing. Lower bitrate etc. If your happy enough with that then fine but your not expieriencing true-hd.

[finlay666]

Sorry but thats nonsense. Whether your with BT or Be Broadband.

A full HD bluray with all the pcm audio and bonus extras and film at full HD can clock in at near 50GB.

You tell me whish isp will allow you to transfer data like that? Lets say you watch 8 films a month. Thats 400GB alone for 8 films. If everyone starts doing that i cant see our internet keeping up with the demand. Even when BT 21C goes live. For a starts BT charges resellers approx £1 per GB so your paying £24 a month and costing that reseller £400 alone. So its gets to the point where tha data charges cost more than than the actual blu-ray disks. And if everyone goes over to BE becase its "unlimited" i can assure you it wont stay unlimited for long and the speeds will plummet.

I mean fair enough, if usages prices per GB drop drastically low and the networks are upgraded tenfold then yea maybe, digital will take over. Till then Blu-Ray is the way forward.

And don't even start talking to me about 4GB encodes. They have far inferior quality to the real thing. Lower bitrate etc. If your happy enough with that then fine but your not expieriencing true-hd.

Sorry but I have to make a point here

Yes Blu Ray can clock in at 50gb, that is at lossless compression with multiple video/audio streams, and given that many do this on 25gb as a single layer

Compression and removal of unneeded audio streams such as languages and directors commentary would reduce this further

The product I work on supports HD VOD, you only need an ~8mb connection or so to be able to use this feature. 720p will be more likely used over 1080p because of size/quality playoffs.
http://www.microsoftmediaroom.com/#

Saying that people will download 400gb is absolute rubbish, that is the max capicity of the disc, not what is used. The compression will reduce the quality yes (entirely dependent on codec/compression technique), however you do exactly the same thing with iTunes, you don't download an image of the original disc or lossless, you get a compressed m4a/mp3 for bandwidth saving. If you want the proper product go buy it in a shop.

[neonplanet40]

But that still means your arent getting the full quality. I dont use itunes for that reason. I like to have the full bitrate available and the max quality i can achieve. I know that 50GB is tops. But was just making the point. Even if you take out all the bonus features (which to be honest are very good on some films) and the extra audio tracks then yea this will shrink it way down but your still talking over 20GB on some films which when used enough times is enough for any isp to cap your connection.

But picking 720p over 1080p defeats the purpose. As then its not fullhd so again your sacrificing the extra quality which you can get from the disk.

If your happy enough with this then yea thans fine but i prefer to see it in as good a quality as available. And 400gb is easily uacheiveable should you watch alot of movies, tv shows etc etc. But i wasnt talkin about encodes with lower bit rates i was talking about like for like with a blu-ray disk equivalent in turns of bit-rate/extras/quality etc.

And you said that if you want the proper product then go to the shop. Thats the exact point im trying to make, If you want full hd quality as found on a blu-ray disk then getting it digital IS NOT viable at this time or in the foreseeable future in my opinion.

[finlay666]

If your happy enough with this then yea thans fine but i prefer to see it in as good a quality as available. And 400gb is easily uacheiveable should you watch alot of movies, tv shows etc etc. But i wasnt talkin about encodes with lower bit rates i was talking about like for like with a blu-ray disk equivalent in turns of bit-rate/extras/quality etc.

Well lower bit rate doesn't always equal lower quality, you can have a higher bitrate mp3 and you can have a lower bitrate ogg vorbis file and the quality of the ogg could be better, it's down to the encoding and compression techniques.

A 1080p mkv contained, h.264 endoded 1 hour programme comes in at 2gb, but compatibility with hardware is low, h.264 on the other hand in an mpeg is quite widely supported. (so on that basis a film will be 6gb max, XBL has a film for 7-8gb currently at 720p so there is room for improvement)

Difference in quality really will be negligible to all but the purists who actually have the equipment to notice lossy audio, let alone video (which I might add will be harder to do), and they will be the ones that do buy the original media.

[s_kinton]

If you want the proper product go buy it in a shop.

You said it!!

[fred1979]

whats the point in getting a hd tv if u dont play hd content on it?

but my point was im not ready too replace dvd media with hi def yet- its only recently dvd burners have started being adopted and lots of people have built up their collections of dvds etc

besides theres still a point of getting a hi def tv with no need for bluray as there are channels being broadcast in hd, more dvd players can now upscale existing dvds to make use of the better resolutions of hd tvs and games consoles too.

im not saying dvds are better than bluray btw lol

[miniyazz]

Off-topic in a different direction, DVD support for Wiis would be far more welcomed than Blu-Ray support for XBox 360s, not least because Blu-ray support would add c. £60 to the price, whereas DVD players cost around a tenner these days. All the more important with Microsoft and Nintendo vying for the cheapest console.