Feb 6, 2008 | Posted by Nino Marchetti
It looks as if Microsoft has shaved a little off of the price tag for its Xbox 360 HD DVD Player accessory. It was reported this morning by Major Nelson, aka Larry Hryb of Microsoft, the company was dropping the retail price from $179.99 to $129.99 and that the drop was immediately effective in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
There was no immediate word on why the price drop was made, but one has to think with the recent Toshiba HD DVD player price drops Microsoft is just trying to stay up with the pack.
Jan 10, 2008 | Posted by Nino Marchetti
Toshiba must surely have a headache by this time today. First Warner Brothers announces plans to end HD DVD support. Microsoft next comes along and indicates it might begin offering Blu-ray Disc support. Things smoothed out later however for the HD DVD camp as Microsoft backpedaled on the comments.
A Reuters interview earlier this week quoted a Microsoft marketing manager as saying his company would consider a Blu-ray option for the Xbox 360 if there was consumer demand for it. The company changed its tune quickly though after these comments were published, indicating that "HD DVD remains the only format to deliver quality experiences at affordable prices."
You can hear the sighs of relief right now coming from Japan.
Mar 13, 2007 | Posted by Stephane Dion
Microsoft released a business-to-business Web site (www.thisishddvd.com) aimed at bringing independent program suppliers into the HD DVD fold.
Microsoft is hoping to garner further industry support for HD DVD with its new website. Microsoft’ want to reach out is reaching out suppliers and DVD authoring facilities in order to ramp up the production of HD DVD titles.
“We want to show the smaller guys—the second- and third-tier studios—how easy it is to make HD DVD movies,” said Kevin Collins, Microsoft’s director of HD DVD evangelism. Currently, the bulk of BD and HD DVD releases are coming from the major studios.
Source
Oct 12, 2006 | Posted by Stephane Dion
Simple but good! The ad gets the point across that you can see six times as many dancers on your screen if you watch movies on HD DVD vs regular DVD. Ready to buy your HD DVD drive?
Sep 14, 2006 | Posted by Stephane Dion
According to Digitimes and Newlauches.com, Microsoft is currently working on a new version of the Xbox 360. The new unit would be equipped with an internal HD DVD drive. Microsoft is currently selecting a manufacturer for the drive. The new version could be available in the first half of 2007.
This looks like a defensive move by Microsoft after the announcement by Sony that the PS3 would be equipped with an internal Blu-ray drive.
Microsoft is expected to launch an external HD-DVD drives for its Xbox 360 at a retail price of US$200 by Christmas of this year.
Aug 15, 2006 | Posted by Stephane Dion
According to Digitimes Microsoft will launch external HD-DVD drives for its Xbox 360 at a retail price of US$200 by Christmas of this year, and Taiwanese games developers and gaming services providers indicated this is a smart marketing strategy as compared with Sony's adoption of built-in BD drives for its PlayStation 3 (PS3).
External drives have more flexibility than built-in models, the companies pointed out, while adding that despite BD having a much larger storage capacity than HD-DVD, pre-installation of BD drives may decrease the market competitiveness of PS3 units.
Microsoft adopted HD-DVD instead of BD mainly because HD-DVD is compatible with existing DVD formats while also having much lower production costs, the Taiwanese companies noted.
Apr 24, 2006 | Posted by Stephane Dion
Today at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, NAB2006, Microsoft Corp. and Universal Pictures announced their collaboration on the release of next-generation HD DVD discs using VC-1, the video compression standard recently approved by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and one of the mandatory codecs in the HD DVD specification. Universal will also use iHD for the interactive features of the new titles. The launch of HD-DVD Players and titles last week in the U.S. represents the first broad market availability of high-definition optical media for consumers.
Continue reading "Microsoft and Universal Pictures Collaborate to Release HD DVD Titles Using VC-1 and iHD" »
Sep 27, 2005 | Posted by Stephane Dion
Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corp. today announced that they will join major consumer electronics manufacturers, content providers and other companies as members of the HD DVD Promotion Group.
Continue reading "Microsoft and Intel Back HD DVD as Next-Generation High-Definition DVD Format of Choice" »
Sep 27, 2005 | Posted by Stephane Dion
Memory-Tech Corporation, NEC Corporation, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. and Toshiba Corporation, the managing member companies of the HD DVD Promotion Group, today warmly welcomed Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corporation's announcement of support for the HD DVD format and their decision to join the HD DVD Promotion Group.
Continue reading "Managing Member Companies of HD DVD Promotion Group Welcome Intel and Microsoft as Newest Members of the Group" »
It looks as if Microsoft has shaved a little off of the price tag for its Xbox 360 HD DVD Player accessory. It was reported this morning by Major Nelson, aka Larry Hryb of Microsoft, the company was dropping the retail price from $179.99 to $129.99 and that the drop was immediately effective in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
