Nero

Gizmodo was reporting this morning that MS is going to announce the long-rumored $100 add-on HD-DVD drive at E3. The page is now gone - did anyone else see this? thoughts?

Augustes

If its only a $100 its a steal. If I had an Xbox I would definitely get the add on. Can't use it for games, but it would be nice to have the option for movies.

Nimbus

same here - in a heartbeat. It has been talked about for a while, but nothing has been confirmed. Gizmodo ususally edits posts if there turn out to be fake or wrong - this is the first time I've seen a post actually deleted, which leads me to wonder....

redford

The reason the page is gone, is because that rumor was dispelled last week when it first ran.

If you think Sony will be taking huge losses on the PS3, just imagine how much Microsoft would lose on each one sold.

Nero

makes sense. I still find it odd that the post was made this morning and then removed several hours later.

Augustes

I still think Microsoft will deliver a HD-DVD add-on, just at a steeper price.

Nimbus

Does anyone know the cost of the optical drive? I would imagine that the 360 could handle the video processing, it would just need the drive. I'm still not sure how HDMI would be implemented, not to mention analog out HD-audio.

redford

The drive will have to have the HDMI built into it and I agree the $100 price seems very low. However, Microsoft may do it just to give a boost to HD DVD. I think $199 is more likely though.

Nero

Since it would need its own HDMI connection and and its own HD Audio decoders, how would it not be a stand alone player? How will it connect to the 360?

Augustes

The whole idea of this add-on really bothers me. Implementation of the idea is really difficult when you are seriously lacking hardware on the 360.

The 360 has an internal DAC right before the output, so unless they are going to allow you to crack open your system, forget about attaching an HDMI cable to your 360. You obviously need a new drive. So you need the beginning on the process and the end of the process. So will you need have the drive read the data off the disc. Send that info to the 360. The 360 will process the data and then send it back. Which can then be output through HDMI. That is an awful lot of work with so many potential holes. It just doesn't make sense.