BluRay Drives Coming to Xbox 360 As Accessories

[KillerWhiteMan]

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BluRay Drive May Be In the 360's Future​

In a recent interview with Gizmodo, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked about the upcoming Project Natal, and also made a comment about BluRay drives with the Xbox 360.​

When aksed about BluRay and the Xbox 360, Ballmer responded with, "Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there—you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories."​

He seems very certain about BluRay being part of the 360, but no timetable seems apparent. When Gizmodo asked Xbox spokesmen about Ballmer's comment, they responded, "Our solution for HD quality video on an Xbox 360 is coming this fall with Zune Video and 1080p instant-on HD video streaming. As far as our future plans are concerned, we're not ready to comment."​

It is possible that Microsoft may make a further announcement at CES. By the looks of it, an external BluRay drive accessory seems to be what will be in store for the 360, instead of a built-in BluRay drive.​

Head over here to Gizmodo for the full details and to watch the video interview with Ballmer.​

 

[InsaneNutter]

If the 360 gets Blu-ray it will most likely be an add-on like the HD-DVD player was, it would allow them to keep costs down as I imagine a lot of people still don’t want Blu-ray.

 

[paardje]

w0000t! And then to think of it that I would chuck away my XBOX 360! (is collecting dust after my burner died in my pc) Used it to download/burn the great demos of Digiex and more! (But mostly Digiex, haha!)

 

[Titcher]

>> From majornelson.com:

During an interview yesterday, Steve Ballmer was asked about Blu-Ray and the Xbox 360. I wanted to clear something up. Steve was referring to Blu-Ray accessories for the PC. As we have said in the past, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360. In fact, the future of home entertainment starts very soon when Xbox 360 becomes the first and only console to offer instant-on 1080p streaming HD movies. With a library of thousands of TV shows and movies to choose from, Xbox 360 owners can instantly watch the movies they want, when they want, in the highest form of high definition.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Im sure the 360 will get it at some point, not really bothered either way at the moment though. Official Blu-ray playback support in Windows Media Centre would be much appreciated from me though.

 

[Trebor]

Im sure the 360 will get it at some point, not really bothered either way at the moment though. Official Blu-ray playback support in Windows Media Centre would be much appreciated from me though.

I'm sure it will do soon. They can't ignore their customer base if more people buy Blu-ray (players are getting cheaper, fellow Digiex members know how I feel about HD content ).

 

[Nimrod]

I bet sony charge for licenses, and i bet they charge a lot plus the media is expensive, I dont see Windows including codecs for it builtin anytime soon.

Edit:

Found this on the net

The new licensing fees taking effect later this year will be $9.50 for a Blu-ray player, $14 for a Blu-ray recorder, 11¢ for a read-only disc, 12¢ for a recordable disc, and 15¢ for a rewritable disc.

Yeah, I dont want $14 added to the cost of a Windows License, just for those who want blu-ray

 

[InsaneNutter]

It would most likely be an optional add-on, I remember when XP first came out you had to buy a DVD codec for Windows Media Player to play DVD’s I believe.

Wasn’t there also one for encoding CD’s to MP3’s originally too?