Microsoft "explains" the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on
by Richard Lawler 
posted May 8th 2006 at 2:57PM
Microsoft has been so nice as to post some information about their upcoming add-on for the Xbox 360, and HD DVD in general. While my take isn't quite as harsh as our good friend Henning's, I think it can be pretty well summed up as heavily skewed marketing-speak that glosses over any shortcomings of their product while highlighting and detracting possible weaknesses of the competition, not at all giving a fair comparison or unbiased information.That was a mouthful, well, once you get through the BS (get your waders, the hip-deep ones), you'll notice that they don't specifically mention how the add-on will deal with HDCP, only that it will "connect to the Xbox 360 console with a USB cable, enabling it to harness the power of the Xbox 360 console for the HD video outputs and digital surround sound.". Does that mean analog only, and facing the prospect of downconversion on ICT-flagged discs? We can't say for sure and we also can't tell you what it looks like because it hasn't been shown, hopefully we'll know more after their event tomorrow afternoon.
Check out Joystiq's live coverage for more E3 information.
[Thanks to all who sent this in]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
justin @ May 8th 2006 3:05PM
Anyone else notice a lack of video display (gamma) controls on Xbox 360. I don't think an HD-DVD player would appeal to me due to the fact that I would then have to recalibrate my HDTV on the VGA input everytime a went to watch a movie. I tend to keep the input for my 360 set a bit brighter and the VGA is the only input with seperate color controls from the rest of my HD inputs (which are calibrated for HDTV and DVD playback.) Would be a nice option for some people though, especially if no HD service is in your area.
henning @ May 10th 2006 9:22AM
I thought they'd just include an HDMI port on the player. But that doesn't look to be the case...