Xbox 360 built-in Blu-ray drive or external?
Filed under: Gaming, Xbox 360 | By: Daniel
Posted on: June 27, 2008 | 22 Comments
There still seems to be a lot of confusion to what a DVD can do on the Xbox 360 and what it cannot, some people believe that if Microsoft were to upgrade their 360 games console with a Blu-Ray drive, then game developers would not be limited to the storage capacity of a DVD.
Microsoft knew this in part and that’s why they added an external HD-DVD drive, but as HD-DVD is now defunct, Blu-ray is the next obvious step and many owners of the Xbox 360 cannot wait for this to happen. One issue that might be obvious, if this is the case Xbox 360 owners want an external Blu-ray drive and new 360 buyers would want a built-in Blu-ray.
So lets raise a couple of questions, would you want an Xbox 360 to have a built-in Blu-ray drive like the Sony PS3 or an external version? and also let us know why you make that choice.
Some people will never want a Blu-ray drive and they feel that the 360 does not need it, its hard to believe that a DVD can handle all that is needed in today’s advanced games, but still some gamers believe a DVD does just fine. In the end, it does seem logical that Microsoft will add the Blu-ray option and it will likely be in both an external for existing owners and a built-in Blu-ray for new buyers.
Are you happy to keep having DVD’s for games that you buy for the Xbox 360 or do you see a need for Blu-ray discs?
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Greg said:
“Needless to say that this “Super Upscale” would be a step backwards compared to Blu Ray, and is thus useless.”
Maybe as far as the few BD fanboys go, it’s useless; but for owners of 40 billion DVDs, it will be a “free lunch”. Very HQ DVD playback eliminates any need for the extra expense of buying blu-ray. Not everyone cares what their bit-meter says except BD fanboys.
Greg said: “Aside from that, and as far as movies, support for BR games, and DATA go, Blu Ray is doing fine, thank you”.
Apparently you haven’t been reading much (except blu-ray.com perhaps): blu-ray is tanking big time. No one cares except Sony worshipers.
Greg said: So, if it will even happen, it’ll probably be an external drive, geared toward movie playback.” Why would MS develop a BD add-on at the cost of 10s of millions of dollars, and pay $50 per unit for royalties, only to sell 100,000 units at $300/unit price ???
It’s ridiculous from a business standpoint. I repeat - 99% of the population does not care about blu-ray.
Greg said: “Now, for the next gen of Xbox, an integrated drive -would- make sense.”
Next-gen xbox = 2011. By then it will be all downloads. BD will be dead.
i think MS Should Buy The HD-DVD Fromat Up And Use It For there next gen system,not for films but for the games,
look at the ps3 you have to wait ages for updates to install then you have to install the games to help with loading times because of the acsess time of blu ray,as with GTA4 if it has not installed propperly then you will have frame rate porbs in parts of the game unless you reinstall it.
MS Could buy the HD-DVD Format off toshiba and also use it for pc games and games for the next xbox system as they are starting to be on multi-dvds now.
i do have a hd dvd drive as i got a new one with 2 films at £25
and hd dvd films are the same or less than a cost of a dvd,
blu ray is not selling as good as sony wants and they just saw it as a quick way to make money(remember the ps2 when it came out it was the cheapest dvd player around) just now everyone(most people) are happy with dvd and upscaling
when blu ray players and films get cheaper then it will take off(i remember dvd when they came out was £40 each blade and matrix) dvd was just a upgrade from lazer disc’s granted lazer’s was big and cumbersome dvd was 25% better quality and had menu’s they only too off when they got cheaper for the average person to buy now blu ray and hd dvd is a step up from dvd but not as much as what dvd was from lazer disc’s or vhs was(my poinion) if hd dvd was cheaper hd dvd’s and players hd dvd would have won by now and MS could have injected money into it as they have money to burn and stop using there money to make blotware, anyway rant over lol
oh mcm not everyone has internet so strictly DL games wont happen ppl like to own the games would you want to carry your next xbox or ps4 to a mates house(by then they will be as heavy as a avarage pc of todays standards) to play a game on youe system even though he also has a xbox or ps4,dont be so silly sony might want it that way and they will lose out in the uk they charge us english more for a ps3 £300 thats just under $600 atleast MS has reduce the xbox and treat us as gamers and not a money tree
I think its going to be external for sure. Sega made the mistake with their add-ons in the past and i dont think Microsoft would make the same mistake wuth the 360 as Sega did with the Genesis.
I think the Blu-ray drive is going to be external. Sega made the mistake with their add-ons in the past and i dont think Microsoft would make the same mistake with the 360 as Sega did with the Genesis.
i think microsoft have a lot more money than sega did
if they had less crap fmv games and had more class games like sonic CD for the mega/sega cd system
shame sega didnt know what they was doing two addons for one system was too much at the time if they waited a bit longer and did the mega/sega cd with the tech of the 32x built into it i would have had more of a chance and they could have held off on the sega saturn and sgea would stood a better chance and develope the saturn a bit more and have it full 3d and not the 3d,2d set up it had,and any way the blu ray drive should be external if its internal it will devide 360 owners and making ppl upgrade there whole xbox makes more sence to have it external because 1) everyone can upgrade when they wish to
2) because the 360 should not have the games on blu ray because it will devide the owners over the games if some are blu ray only and if it will be a external usb 2.0 wont cope with the data transfer speed
3)blu ray games will need to be installed to help with data rate on blu ray disc’s (may need a bigger hd than the 120gig)
4) microsoft will have to pay a % on every internal blu ray drive on the xbox 360 for the license so a external will be cheaper why do you think they did a dvd remote/dvd play-back kit seperate from the xbox? to save money
it makes sence and it if dont make sence it makes dollars LOL
The problem I see with the external blue ray addon will be with the usb connection. It would have 2 put a lot of the movie in the ‘buffer zone’ and do it continuosly. What if the system cant keep up with the huge amount that is required. Rather have a conversion program where u get like a big discount on a xbox 360 with the blue ray built in. This way microsoft can strip those ones that are brought in and use those components 4 the production line. Therefore there will be little or no buffering of the movie required. Games might still need to be installed but remember ms is introducing a 60 gig hard disk, prices will drop 4 the 20 gig. Then people will upgrade to a bigger hard disk
But Saying That The Hd dvd Drive dose ok with just usd port so they can just double up on the usb ports just use 2 usb cables
having an internal blueray player would be better for the next gen xbox but not for the 360. matter of fact internal or external wouldnt make since for the 360 right now. blue ray is a new tech and slow as hell. todays market requires media to have fast data access speed and to be able to hold large amounts of data. blueray read speeds are slow and needs alot of improvements but by 2011 who knows. As far as the “hd-dvd, blue-ray wars” blue ray has reported 500gb and toshiba has stopped production of hd-dvd product. Also, xbox has stop selling its external hd dvd. so to all you xbox360 fiends that bought all hd-dvd product i feel sorry for you, thats why you wait then buy because technology changes everyday. and i know i cant spell for sh*t lol
I think a bluray add on is a nonsense.
As first i’d like to know who is going to develop all these 100 gb games…
In the next 2-3 years we’ll start hearing about xbox 720 and ps4 and i wonder who is going to spend money to upgrade an old console…and during these years how many 30 gb games do you think will be developed?
two?
four?
ten?
Microsoft should waste money for 5 games?
They will concentrate on next gen’s hardware that’s the only thing to do! And maybe the most part of games will be downloaded that time.
I own a ps3 (used) and it’s for bluray movies on my projector. And a 360 for games, that’s all.
If you really think you need a bluray reader just look for an used ps3 that maybe will cost as much as an ipothetic external one for the xbox.
When you hear bluray is so necessary just think that in seventies sony tried the same with betamax, later with 8mm, MSX and now they pay for every ps3 they sell because they want blu ray to be the next gen media.
Don’t forget sony bought MGM production’s rights too and they just want the world to use theyr blu ray.
That’s what i’d like too if i was Mr. Sony…
Am I missing something here. Isnt a Blu-Ray drive capable of backwards compatibility with older DVD’s and threfore also standard xbox360 games. Why would previous owners miss out if Microsoft included a Blu-Ray disk drive in there console. I’d certainly upgrade my current XBox360 for a newer version which gave me the capability of playing Blu-Ray DVD’s.