Xbox 360 HD DVD Player

Last updated
Xbox 360 HD DVD Player
Microsoft-Xbox-360-HD-DVD-Drive-Front.jpg
Developer Microsoft
Product family Xbox
TypeHigh-density optical disc player
Generation Seventh generation
Release date
Lifespan2006-2008
Introductory priceUSD$199
DiscontinuedFebruary 23, 2008
Units sold316,000 in the US (as of December 31, 2007) [3]
Media HD DVD, DVD
Display1080p (via Xbox 360)
SoundAnalog stereo, stereo LPCM, Dolby Digital, DTS
Connectivity USB 2.0

The Xbox 360 HD DVD Player is a discontinued accessory for the Xbox 360 console that enables the playback of movies on HD DVD discs. Microsoft offered the drive for sale between November 2006 and February 2008. It was initially sold for $199.

Contents

Bill Gates announced during his keynote speech at CES 2006 that an external HD DVD drive would be released for the Xbox 360 during 2006. [4] At E3 2006, Microsoft officially presented the external HD DVD drive. According to Japan's chief of Xbox operations, Yoshihiro Maruyama, Microsoft would not release Xbox 360 games in the new disc formats.

On February 23, 2008, the Xbox 360 HD DVD player was discontinued by Microsoft. [5] This decision came just days after Toshiba's announcement to discontinue all HD DVD players and effectively end the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. Two days later, the price of the HD DVD Player was reduced to a clearance price of $49.99. Peter Moore had stated that if HD DVD loses the format war, Microsoft may also release an external Blu-ray drive. [6] This was later denied by Microsoft. All future iterations of the Xbox 360 console and dashboard maintained compatibility with the HD DVD player.

Special black versions of the drive, along with black media remotes, were given to members of the Xbox 360 HD DVD development team. Unlike other black accessories which were created alongside the black Elite console, the black HD DVD drive was never made available to the general public. [7]

Technology

The rear of the HD DVD drive, showing extra USB ports and a dock for the Xbox 360 wireless adapter Microsoft-Xbox-360-HD-DVD-Drive-Back.jpg
The rear of the HD DVD drive, showing extra USB ports and a dock for the Xbox 360 wireless adapter

The HD DVD player connects to the Xbox 360 using a mini USB connection. [8] All of the audio and video processing and output come from Xbox 360 itself. The unit can also function as a USB hub, with 2 ports on the rear. It also includes a clip for attaching the wireless network adapter to it, much like what Xbox 360 consoles of the time had. The device also has an integrated 256 MB memory unit which is used for storage of HD DVD data and is accessible to the user for saving other data such as saved games.

The drive plays standard DVDs in addition to HD DVD titles; however it does not read Xbox or Xbox 360 game discs, Audio CDs or mixed media CDs. All Xbox 360 games continued to use DVD-9 media. No Xbox 360 with a built-in HD DVD drive was ever released. [9]

Compatibility with PCs

The Toshiba optical drive used in the unit can read compact discs and DVDs in addition to HD DVDs when connected to a host that supports reading these formats (such as a PC). As the drive communicates via a generic mass storage protocol over USB the drive can be used as a standard optical drive on computers and operating systems that support USB optical drives. The operating system must have a UDF 2.5 driver to read data from HD DVDs. In addition a software player capable of playing HD DVD titles is required for playback of video. The 256 MB internal Memory Unit on the drive which is used for storage of HD DVD features is also accessible by manually installing USB Mass Storage drivers. Once installed, this can be formatted for use as a storage device although it will no longer function on an Xbox 360 unless it is reformatted.

Windows XP does not have a built in UDF 2.5 driver, instead requiring a third party one to be installed to access data on HD DVDs. Newer versions of Windows and Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" and later have native UDF 2.5 drivers. Mac OS X v10.5 introduced UDF 2.5 driver support for reading HD DVDs, but the included player software can only play HD DVDs authored by DVD Studio Pro. [10]

In the box

The retail package of the HD DVD player contains the following:

Notes

Related Research Articles

A DVD player is a device that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to watch the DVD content, which could be a movie, a recorded TV show, or other content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WinDVD</span> Video and music player software

WinDVD is a commercial DVD video player software for Microsoft Windows.

The Xbox Development Kit (XDK) is a software development kit created by Microsoft used to write software for the 2001 Xbox gaming system. The XDK includes libraries, a compiler, and various tools used to create software for the Xbox. The XDK has the option to integrate itself into Microsoft Visual Studio 2002 or 2003. This is needed if one wants to develop applications or games for the Xbox. The XDK also includes a tool to record in-game footage, which has been widely used to create high-quality screenshots and trailers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blu-ray Disc Association</span> Industry development and licensing consortium

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is the industry consortium that develops and licenses Blu-ray technology and is responsible for establishing format standards and promoting business opportunities for Blu-ray Disc. The BDA is divided into three levels of membership: the board of directors, contributors, and general members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DTS, Inc.</span> Series of multichannel audio technologies

DTS, Inc. is an American company. DTS company makes multichannel audio technologies for film and video. Based in Calabasas, California, the company introduced its DTS technology in 1993 as a competitor to Dolby Laboratories, incorporating DTS in the film Jurassic Park (1993). The DTS product is used in surround sound formats for both commercial/theatrical and consumer-grade applications. It was known as The Digital Experience until 1995. DTS licenses its technologies to consumer electronics manufacturers.

Dolby TrueHD is a lossless, multi-channel audio codec developed by Dolby Laboratories for home video, used principally in Blu-ray Disc and compatible hardware. Dolby TrueHD, along with Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3) and Dolby AC-4, is one of the intended successors to the Dolby Digital (AC-3) lossy surround format. Dolby TrueHD competes with DTS's DTS-HD Master Audio, another lossless surround sound codec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sony BDP-S1</span>

The Sony BDP-S1 is a first generation Blu-ray Disc (BD) player and is the first such player released in North America. It was originally scheduled for release in the United States on August 18, 2006 with a MSRP of $999.95. Sony had postponed the release date of this player several times and it was released on December 4, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AV receiver</span> Consumer electronics component

An audio/video receiver (AVR) or a stereo receiver is a consumer electronics component used in a home theater or hi-fi system. Its purpose is to receive audio and video signals from a number of sources, and to process them and provide power amplifiers to drive loudspeakers, and/or route the video to displays such as a television, monitor or video projector. Inputs may come from a TV, FM, or AM tuner, satellite receiver, DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players, VCRs or video game consoles, among others. The AVR source selection and settings such as volume, are typically set by a remote controller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DTS-HD Master Audio</span> Lossless audio codec for home theater

DTS-HD Master Audio is a multi-channel, lossless audio codec developed by DTS as an extension of the lossy DTS Coherent Acoustics codec. Rather than being an entirely new coding mechanism, DTS-HD MA encodes an audio master in lossy DTS first, then stores a concurrent stream of supplementary data representing whatever the DTS encoder discarded. This gives DTS-HD MA a lossy "core" able to be played back by devices that cannot decode the more complex lossless audio. DTS-HD MA's primary application is audio storage and playback for Blu-ray Disc media; it competes in this respect with Dolby TrueHD, another lossless surround format.

The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information announced later that month at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). As a seventh-generation console, it primarily competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blu-ray</span> Digital optical disc format

Blu-ray is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-definition video. The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as feature films and for the physical distribution of video games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The name refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs, resulting in an increased capacity.

The following is a list of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC products and implementations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HD DVD</span> Obsolete optical disc format

HD DVD is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format, but lost to Blu-ray, supported by Sony and others.

The Xbox 360 technical specifications describe the various components of the Xbox 360 video game console.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High-definition optical disc format war</span> Format war in the mid to late 2000s between HD DVD, HD VMD and Blu-ray

The high-definition optical disc format war was a market competition between the Blu-ray and HD DVD optical disc standards for storing high-definition video and audio; it took place between 2006 and 2008 and was won by Blu-ray Disc.

.m2ts is a filename extension used for the Blu-ray disc Audio-Video (BDAV) MPEG-2 Transport Stream (M2TS) container file format. It is used for multiplexing audio, video and other streams, such as subtitles. It is based on the MPEG-2 transport stream container. This container format is commonly used for high-definition video on Blu-ray Disc and AVCHD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DVD-Video</span> Format used to store digital video on DVD discs

DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVDs. DVD-Video was the dominant consumer home video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia in the 2000s until it was supplanted by the high-definition Blu-ray Disc; both receive competition as delivery methods by streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and an MPEG-2 decoder. Commercial DVD movies are encoded using a combination of MPEG-2 compressed video and audio of varying formats. Typically, the data rate for DVD movies ranges from 3 to 9.5 Mbit/s, and the bit rate is usually adaptive. DVD-Video was first available in Japan on November 1, 1996, followed by a release on March 26, 1997, in the United States—to line up with the 69th Academy Awards that same day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XBMC4Xbox</span> Open source media player software

XBMC4Xbox is a free and open source media player software made solely for the first-generation Xbox video-game console. The software was forked from the XBMC project after XBMC removed support for the Xbox console. Other than the audio / video playback and media center functionality, XBMC4Xbox also has the ability to catalog and launch original Xbox games, and homebrew applications such as console emulators from the Xbox's built-in harddrive.

References

  1. ↑ Xbox 360 adds 1080p, HD DVD drive is $170 US for November 22nd in Japan - Engadget
  2. ↑ "Smarthouse - Accessories". Archived from the original on February 4, 2007. Retrieved February 17, 2008.
  3. ↑ Boyer, Brandon (January 18, 2008). "NPD: 2007 U.S. Game Industry Growth Up 43% To $17.9 Billion". Gamasutra. Think Services. Retrieved 2010-01-07.
  4. ↑ "Gates Outlines Vision for the Digital Lifestyle and Showcases New Products and Technologies From Microsoft Archived July 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine , Microsoft, January 4, 2006
  5. ↑ Format War Over: Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD Player Officially Discontinued
  6. ↑ "Moore: Blu-ray Xbox 360 add-on possible" Archived October 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , Gamespot, January 10, 2006
  7. ↑ "Special Xbox 360 Elite black HD DVD drive up for auction". Joystiq. April 9, 2007. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  8. ↑ "First Look: Xbox 360 HD-DVD Drive - IGN".
  9. ↑ "No HD DVD games for 360", Eurogamer, November 1, 2005
  10. ↑ "DVD Player: Plays HD DVD discs authored in DVD Studio Pro only". Apple. Archived from the original on December 29, 2007. Retrieved December 12, 2007.
  11. ↑ Lawler, Richard (September 21, 2006). "Xbox 360 HD DVD playback: Maximum 1080i via component, 1080p VGA-only". Engadget HD. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
  12. ↑ "Xbox 360 HD DVD Player Moves to $179, Adds Five Free HD DVDs" (Press release). Microsoft. 27 July 2007. Retrieved January 7, 2010. Today at Comic-Con International 2007, Microsoft Corp. announced it will lower the price of the popular Xbox 360 HD DVD Player from $199 to $179 ERP (United States only) starting Aug. 1, 2007, and will add five free HD DVD movies for anyone purchasing an Xbox 360 HD DVD Player between Aug. 1 and Sept. 30.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.