XBOX Blog: No Blu-ray drive for the XBOX 360

Here we go again. Back and forth.

You know what, dvdtown? We get it. No Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive. Not that it matters. Stop being whores for HD DVD already! War's done if you missed the memo. Who cares if Microsoft's going to create a drive or not?! There are plenty of players out there anyway. If they don't want to profit from next-gen HD, fine by me - and everyone else.

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There are plenty of players out there anyway.

Ummm where????

Umm...here?

http://www.blu-ray.com/players/

That was really hard to find, let me tell ya...

He didn't say AFFORDABLE or WORTHWHILE players. So in that case, yeah there are tons of players...

Man, people complaining today about affordability obviously have little or no memory of a little thing called laserdisc. And by the way, there's a very simple solution to having to pay out the nose for the latest and greatest hardware: don't be an early adopter. Comes with the territory, folks.

[Post edited by CroweDawg1121 on Mar 18, 2008]

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little thing called laserdisc.

Well some of us can afford HD and Blu . But I think what pisses some of us off is that Blu's strategy sucks thus far and it may just end up being a nitch market like Laserdisc.

Sure being an early adopter has its risk but come on when the majority of consumers doesn't even know that their DVDs will actually play in a Blu players then your doing something wrong.

Blu needs to stop acting like consumers need it more then they need consumers and start lowering it prices because last time I checked gas prices are above $3.50 a gallon, millions are losing there houses to foreclosure, and the stock market has lost 100s of points. Blu is ripe for SD DVD or DVD2 to send it into Laserdisk Land.

[Post edited by xavier311 on Mar 18, 2008]

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Blu needs to stop acting like consumers need it more then they need consumers and start lowering it prices because last time I checked gas prices are above $3.50 a gallon, millions are losing there houses to foreclosure, and the stock market has lost 100s of points.

Well, gee, when you put it that way, I suppose there are a lot more pressing things in the world to spend your money on in general, aren't there? That being the case, if I were you, I'd probably start saving your hard-earned dollar to buy fuel for your car instead of griping that you can't get movies for under $25. No one's twisting your arm to buy plain ol' DVD's, let alone Blu-ray at a premium price for a premium product. No offense, but your argument sounds similar to someone bitching about those same gas prices who refuses to put regular unleaded in their tank. Don't like HD pricing? Well, last I checked, that pricing has, in fact, dropped quite a bit since the format's inception - hardware *and* software. But if it's still too steep (and, for my money, an average $10 premium on HD over SD is *not* too much to ask), no one's stopping you from buying DVD. And hey, no worries - if you believe some people on these boards, if you get an upscaling DVD player you won't see a difference anyway. LOL

[Post edited by CroweDawg1121 on Mar 18, 2008]

And you want dvdtown to stop picking sides? Fanboys will never change. (see above post)

But regardless, you are arguing that we don't need Blu-Ray, therefore they don't have to fix anything (still high pricing for everything, and compatibility that is a gamble for every movie). Incomplete "profiles" and iffy SD DVD playback, $40 new releases and players that STILL can't decode DTS-MA. I refuse to accept the "you don't like it, don't buy it" argument. I did buy it (both formats actually) and the inferior format won because of a bribe, for lack of a better word. And I know Toshiba did it too, but it doesn't change the fact.

Maybe dvdtown is just still hoping at what could have been (like many of us) if HD-DVD had won instead of Beta-Ray, Profile Version Incomplete. Or maybe they are covering the news that they exist to cover...

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And you want dvdtown to stop picking sides? Fanboys will never change. (see above post)

If the side I'm picking is HD over SD, then I don't know about you, but count me in. I'm not telling dvdtown what to do, I'm just saying simply that going out of their way at this point to put a negative slant on anything related to Blu-ray is just silly (not to mention meaningless at this stage in the game). Microsoft won't build a drive. I'm sorry, but who cares? Many other manufacturers are making Blu-ray drives already, so who really gives a rat's if there's one in the XBox? That's all I'm saying.

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But regardless, you are arguing that we don't need Blu-Ray, therefore they don't have to fix anything (still high pricing for everything, and compatibility that is a gamble for every movie). Incomplete "profiles" and iffy SD DVD playback, $40 new releases and players that STILL can't decode DTS-MA.

When did I say they didn't need to fix anything? Again, *high* pricing is a subjective term when talking about the latest and greatest technology. You can't go after cutting edge home entertainment and then get your panties in a bunch when you have to pay a premium for it. Well, actually, I guess you just proved that you *can*, but it's a bit ignorant to do so. New technology is pricey and it's a risk. It has always been that way. Maybe fanboys will never change, but neither will people who will never learn that with early adoption comes hiccups and issues that *only* early adopters have to deal with. I don't know where you're shopping to pay $40 for a Blu-ray, but even Best Buy, one of the worst of the pricing bunch, doesn't stock hardly anything over $34.99, with most titles WELL below that mark. And I don't know what player you have, but I have a PS3 and I have never - repeat, never - had a disc compatibility issue on my system. The profiles are complete now and are rolling out with the very next batch of players to market (and a great many of those already available will be firmware-upgradable to the latest profiles once they're out - if your player isn't, then perhaps you should have done your homework before investing in such a *pricey* bit of hardware...ahem...like I did when I bought the PS3). And you know who you can blame for their being incomplete up to now? Your beloved format war which forced BOTH formats to market before they were ready. Yes, HD DVD got it's stuff together a long time ago and I concede that, but honestly, I give Blu-ray a lot of credit for getting this thing ironed out as quickly as they have and still being able to fight the format war at all. As far as players not being able to play one particular audio codec (which only Fox releases even implement, by the way), once again it comes down to a risk assessment you make when buying brand new hardware in a budding market. Not all DVD players played DTS at first. Not all of them upconvert. Hell, some of them didn't even decode Dolby Digital to begin with, so don't talk to me about how crappy Blu-ray is because of DTS-MA HD playback issues. If you want a player that will do absolutely everything the format's capable of, you have to wait for it. It's always been that way. Always. I'm also not sure where you get "iffy SD playback", eiher. My 60GB PS3 upconverts every SD DVD to 1080p and they look ten times as good as they ever did on my old standalone...but to each his own.

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I refuse to accept the "you don't like it, don't buy it" argument. I did buy it (both formats actually) and the inferior format won because of a bribe, for lack of a better word. And I know Toshiba did it too, but it doesn't change the fact.

And what makes it so inferior? Aside from it upsetting you because you're an early adopter? Video quality and audio quality is as good or, in some cases, even better than HD DVD (when using 50GB discs), so where does "inferior" factor into that exactly? And by the way, accept the argument or don't...your acceptance or lack thereof doesn't make the argument any less valid.

[Post edited by CroweDawg1121 on Mar 18, 2008]