Xbox 360 Blu-ray Rumors: The Nail in the Coffin?

Hard media format is so dead, Bluray is a non-player these days. Digital distribution FTW.

Actually there is a simple technical reason while we'll never see Blu-Ray in the 360 (at least unless Blu Ray drives change). There's a big difference in the read speed and capabilities between a Blu Ray and a DVD laser. Blu Ray players reading DVD movies is one thing. But putting a Blu Ray into a 360 hobbbles the 360 because the 360 would have to read game data at current Blu Ray speeds (slower) and at constant rates (a problem for data this is spread across different paerts of a disc). The end result of putting a Blu Ray drive in a 360 would be to require 360 games to have mandatory installs and it would require refactoring all existing games. This is NOT trivial. Games are made with the specs of the DVD drive in mind for reading data. Microsoft cannot change this midstream in the consoles life.

Here's an article that inadvertently touches on this issue by trying to explain why some PS3 games require Hard Drive installs. The short, simple answer is that if the game requires a hard drive install it was likely developed as if the dev studio was making the game for a DVD drive and then they had the hard realities of the high storage space but inflexible read speed and slower speed of the Blu Ray drive.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/04/01/the-mystery-behind-playstation-3s-sometimes-mandatory-installations-as-far-as-we-know/

"The issue arises from differences in the reading techniques of DVD and Blu-ray. By nature, the outer and inner parts of a disc move at different speeds while a disc is spinning, regardless of format (CD, DVD, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, etc.). While DVD drives can read data at those differing speeds, Blu-ray reads at one speed. Combine that with the extremely large size of Blu-ray discs, and simply dumping existing DVD data onto a Blu-ray disc will inevitably result in longer load times.

Installations are a way around this issue."

The main reason you will never see a 360 blue ray player is JAVA. Ballmer *HATES* Java and has banished it. The ass whoopin Sun lawsuit might have helped....

FYI you need a Java machine to run most if not all Bluray movies....

Pretty stupid move on their part. I have both systems, and when someone asks me which one to get I tell them the 360 has more games and better online, but that the PS3 has the complete package of HD movies, games, and media center. The people asking me aren't hardcore gamers. They don't care about GTA DLC, and they don't care about one particular exclusive game or franchise. Guess which system they end up going with to feed their shiny new HD TV.

Microsoft's stubborn refusal to accept that their pet format lost is costing them sales. Period.

So does this mean no Debbie Does Dallas in Blu-Ray for 360 users?

BTW why do PR people always have to talk in jibber jabber.. "I can categorically say.." and "To my knowledge, we don't have any intent.."

Just because they don't have a blu-ray player doesn't mean they won't support it as DLC most likely.. but we'll just have to wait and see i guess *shrug*

So how will MS tackle major ISPs cracking down on big bandwidth users and widespread bandwidth caps/limits?

Won't be long before stand alone blu-ray players are cheap. So I don't really think this is a huge deal.

You know, with the announcement of being able to 'install' games to the 360 HDD, the lack of a higher-capacity-than-DVD drive may not be an issue anymore. There can be multiple discs installed to the HDD so you don't need to do any swapping.

PS3 owners boast blurays can hold more data so it's better than dvds since you would need multiple dvds to store the same amount of data. What's funny is that with Metal Gear, you had to wait to install each act which took a long time.. id rather just pop in another DVD and keep playing right off the dvd.

Give us streaming movies in h.264 format please! Or at least make it an available option, that would be nice for those who have the connection speed and the hard drive space to download a movie like that.

Im glad I got a PS3 just for Blu Rays. It doesnt bother me at all that I dont really use it for games.

It would be a dumb move by MS to put one in. For one, the price would be ridiculous, and Sony I presume would get a piece of every 360 sold.

Secondly, its the opposite of their goal which is to put something in your living room that they can send digital downloads to.

Woulda' preferred if HD-DVD won, but that ship has sailed.

Did he just say I should buy a PS3?

I'd rather see consoles embrace streaming movies than get external hardware peripherals aplenty.