First PS3, XBox HD DVD Add-On Sales Numbers The PS3 has supposedly sold about 197,000 units in North America at launch. And Microsoft has sold about 42,000 HD DVD add-ons for the Xbox 360.

Ultimate AV was my favourite print magazine before it went web-only. The PS3 is currently my favourite console, sitting gracefully on the top of my equipment rack. So I ws wanted to know what Ultimate AV thinks of the PS3 as a Blu-ray player, and now I know.

First off, Shane C. Buettner of Ultimate AV notes how gorgeous the PS3 is, and of course I have to agree. Though I thought it was stubbier-looking than I expected, even after seeing tons of pictures.

Note that the PS3 decodes TrueHD to digital PCM, if you wish. Not so with DTS HD Master, however. If you want that track in full glory, you’ll need to use the HDMI 1.3 connector to a receiver or pre/pro that supports DTS HD Master. And…. none of them currently do.

While we’re complaining, the PS3 also doesn’t put out 1080p/24. Not a biggy, but it would have been nice. Note also that the PS3 can’t convert 720p up to 1080i. Which would suck if you had a display that didn’t accept 720p. (Of which there aren’t that many out there.)

But how does the video quality look? In a word: excellent. The PS3 is a very good BD player, which is nice to hear. Because the PS2 was only a mediocre DVD player, so people were wondering if the PS3 would carry the tradition.

Mr. Buettner also points out that 25GB BD + MPEG2 does not equal BAD. That’s what a lot of people have been saying about MPEG2, and it’s simply not true. MPEG2 films can look excellent in 25GB of space, it just needs to be done properly.

All in all, the PS3 is an excellent BD player, and I have to agree with Mr. Buettner on that.

PlayStation3 Blu-ray Disc Player

Those white-trenchcoated folks over at CNET labs put Microsoft’s HD DVD peripheral for the Xbox 360 under the microscope, and they had to adjust the focus a little bit. Once in focus, though, they liked what they saw.

But right off the bat, I have to say I can’t agree with one of their pluses for the peripheral. They say “The Xbox 360 HD-DVD player is less than half of the price of today’s stand-alone HD-DVD players and includes the Xbox 360 Universal remote.” Less than half, sure, but only if you already own an Xbox 360. Add that to the cost, and you’re paying $500 for the system.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the peripheral isn’t any good. Quite the contrary. It makes out well in labratory tests. So if you’re an Xbox 360 owner, you might want to take a look at this peripheral. However, if you’re worried that studios might one day start enabling the ICT flag, then you might want to look elsewhere because the Xbox 360 + HD DVD solution does not contain an HDMI or DVI/HDCP output. Right now, though, that’s not a problem. It might never be. So you can enjoy movies now, and for the forseeable future, in HD on your Xbox 360 with this $200 peripheral.

Microsoft Xbox 360 HD-DVD

How would you like to read a comparative review which ends in no conclusion whatsoever? If you like that kind of thing, then this article by High-Def Digest will be your cup of tea. It first discusses the HD DVD Xbox 360 addon, and its use. Then it discusses the PS3’s BD capabilities. You’d expect at the end of the article for some kind of conclusion to be draw. Like “If you’re looking for A, then get this. But if B is more important to you, get that.” At least, that’s how the writers that don’t want to offend their advertisers would do it. Writers that throw caution to the wind would just say something like “Product A is better, no doubt. Get A.” Sometimes they might add a “But in the tiny circumstance XYZ, B might be a better option.” Well, none of that in this article by High-Def Digest.

They take a look at the HD DVD addon and say that it’s a mighty good addition to the Xbox 360. Except, well for that whole lack of HDMI output. Which means you don’t get TrueHD or DTS HD Master sound. Or a digital link to your TV.

Then they discuss the PS3, and complain about the fact that if the PS3 is on when you put in a BD movie, you have to select it to play it. And that for those sets that don’t accept a 720p signal, the PS3 downconverts 720p to 480p. Which is a big deal, but only to those people who don’t have 720p-accepting HDTV’s. Which is actually a small number these days. Picture quality is great, blah blah blah.

Well, if you’ve been reading this space for any length of time, you’d know that I’m a BD fan and therefore I’d recommend the PS3. But really, these are both excellent players, and your choice, if you just had to choose a console based on movie playing, would have to come down to the format war, and who you’d think would win. But if you ignore that issue, I personally think the PS3 is a better machine, because you get to benefit from all of what the HD disc has to offer - video and sound. That’s just not true of the Xbox 360.

In the Spotlight: PlayStation 3 vs. Xbox 360 HD DVD Add-On

360 Insider has some cool pics about the Xbox 360’s new HD DVD drive. They have a couple pics of the software being installed:

Installing the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive

And they also have an unboxing ceremony, with lots of pics of the HD DVD peripheral:

HD DVD Drive Unboxing

And they also mention that the HD DVD drive will work natively in Windows Vista! Which is pretty cool.

HD DVD Drives Work Natively in Vista

I know this is late, but better nate than lever, they say. In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft will be offering a video marketplace for Xbox Live. You’ll be able to purchase both SD and HD content with the service.

Microsoft will offer movies, television shows, music videos, and game videos to purchase with Microsoft Points. Microsoft will launch the service on November 22nd, and it will be available to both Xbox Live Gold and Silver customers. However, a HDD will be required, because you have to save your content somewhere. By the end of the year, Microsoft says that they’ll have 1000 hours of content available, with 200 of that to be available in HD as well.

It looks like (though not confirmed) HD movies will cost 480 points ($6US) and SD movies will cost 320 points ($4US). Both versions of television shows will be 240 points ($3). That’s crazy. I don’t care if it’s Apple, Microsoft, or whoever selling it to me, I’m not gonna pay $3 per television episode, given that I get it with my cable package already.

If you buy a show, you’ll own it forever. But you’re just renting movies, which you’ll have 14 days to begin watching. Once you do, you’ll have to finish watching it withing 24 hours before it’s POOF! gone.

Microsoft Unveils the Video Marketplace

Just yesterday Microsoft has released some details about the Xbox 360 dashboard update due to be available today. This update has been eagerly awaited because Microsoft is finally getting on the 1080p bandwagon, after poo-pooing it on the PS3.

That’s right. 1080p on the Xbox 360. Now Microsoft just needs to start convincing developers to create games in 1080p.

Also in this update, we have the ability to play WMV files from a connected PC, disc, or USB storage device. That’s cool. Unfortunately, the PC has to be running Windows Media Connect or Windows Media Player 11.

This update includes 84 fixes, down from 125 last time.

Xbox 360 fall update details revealed: 1080p, auto-download, WMV playback and more

Microsoft put up an information page about the HD DVD peripheral that it will be selling for the Xbox 360 later this year. Remember that this device will connect to the Xbox 360 through a USB cable, and that the Xbox 360’s video outputs will be used to connect the player to a display. If you want HDMI, you’ll have to buy a standalone player from Toshiba.

Microsoft’s product page is missing two vital pieces of information everyone is waiting for, however. We still don’t know the HD DVD peripheral’s launch date, and we still don’t know the price. Though we know from what they’ve said previously that it’ll cost less than $450 or so. Everybody is guessing that it’ll cost in the $200 range.

[via HDBeat]

HD DVD Peripheral

A new product from the popular gaming enhancement site XPloder promises to upconvert your PS2 games to HDTV resolutions. The settings are loaded via a CD-Rom and then stored on your memory card. You can choose from 1080i or 720p, and even 480p if you so desire. A release date is not yet available. It will be interesting to see how this effects the gameplay itself. Hopefully it will not cause any slowdown due to reprocessing of the video. This could be a big bonus for those not wanting to pay $600 right away for a PS3, but still want high resolution gaming from a Sony console. We shall have to keep our eyes and ears open for more information on this one…

Article from Club Skill

So Microsoft is trying to muddy the waters by saying that because HD-DVD had two layers of protection and Blu-ray has only one that HD-DVD must be better.

I say the surface that can resist scratches better will win this one. I think the jury is still out, but with the problems we have had with CD’s and DVD’s and scratches, I think both camps would have made this a priority to fix this time around.

Games Radar - [Multi] PS3 format apparently not that reliable

If you have Windows Vista on a machine with an HD DVD drive (just taking a little travel forward in time here…), can you Managed-Copy (I’m making it a verb) an HD DVD and then stream it to an Xbox 360 for playback?

That’s the question Chris Lanier tackles in a recent entry. He basically comes up with some words and rearranges them to look like this:

I’m not sure what the plan is for streaming the content around (in terms of the format), but if on-the-fly converting to WMV9 could be done I would think that would be choice for bandwidth considerations. I don’t know if WMRM can be applied if the content isn’t ASF/WMV, it will be interesting to see and again it’s still going to be a bit before all details are released. The Xbox 360 is going to have to get a software update (unless it’s already in place: InterVideo?!) when Microsoft releases the External HD DVD Drive since it will need to be able to decode MPEG-4 AVC, in addition to MPEG-2 and VC-1.

The way I’m reading things you still need HDCP output to get full resolution playback, so Microsoft is going to have to release a new dongle which will most likely have HDMI in order for the Xbox 360 to output full resolution. Unprotected output with WMRM is not allowed from what I can see.

You know, it might be better just to read the whole entry:

Chris Lanier’s Blog - HD DVD’s Managed Copy with Xbox 360 Extender

There is much debate in gaming circles these days about HDTV, Blu-ray, and 1080p. That’s because the (1) the Nintendo Revolution doesn’t support HDTV, (2) the PS3 is also a Blu-ray player, and (3) the PS3 puts out 1080p. This post only addresses point 1.

It seems that Nintendo’s decision not to support HD may have been a bad one. Currently 10 to 15 percent of Americans have and HDTV in their home. By the end of 2006, that number will be 26%, according to a recent survey by Panasonic. That’s phenominal growth.

This can only mean that acceptance of HDTV is finally snowballing. HDTV purchases have only been growing slowly because we were at the beginning and it takes some time to build up momentum. But now that momentum is here and more and more people are putting those lovely HDTV television into their family rooms.

Are you listening Nintendo? Maybe HD support would be a good idea after all? Hmmm?

Yahoo! Finance - One in Four U.S. Households Expect to Have HDTV Within in 2006

Are you interested in using your Xbox 360 to watch HDTV streamed via Wi-Fi? Well, it’s doable, but there are obstacles to overcome.

First of all, you can’t use 802.11b. Just not enough bandwidth. This leaves 802.11a or 802.11g. But there are advantages to 802.11a:

First off, if you can use an 802.11a router, you’re less likely to have interference from other radio signals. The 802.11a routers run at 5 Ghz, while the 802.11b & g routers run on the 2.4 Ghz spectrum, making them more succeptable to interferance. You can also try different radio channels on your router to see if that helps.

One day I’ll have wi-fi…

HDBeat - HDTV over WiFi: tips and tricks