AfterDawn: News

Microsoft denies Blu-ray on Xbox 360

Earlier this week we reported that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made comments that implied that the company would be bringing Blu-ray accessories to the Xbox 360.

At the time, the notoriously tongue-tied Ballmer had said: "Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there -- you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories."



The company has since released a statement denying the rumor and adding that Ballmer was speaking instead of PC accessories.

"During an interview yesterday, Steve Ballmer was asked about Blu-Ray and the Xbox 360. I wanted to clear something up. Steve was referring to Blu-Ray accessories for the PC. As we have said in the past, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360. In fact, the future of home entertainment starts very soon when Xbox 360 becomes the first and only console to offer instant-on 1080p streaming HD movies. With a library of thousands of TV shows and movies to choose from, Xbox 360 owners can instantly watch the movies they want, when they want, in the highest form of high definition," says the post on MajorNelson.

That should put the Blu-ray on Xbox 360 argument to rest, at least for the time being.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Oct 2009 17:18

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• 13 comments

• Morreale

  Oh god. 1080P streaming movies sounds like a great idea, for those who have a mass load of bandwidth...
  
  I prefer download to own or rent anyways. You are guaranteed no hiccups when you are watching the movie or degrading quality if speed drops during stream...
  
  This won't be the true future for a long time until ISPs lighten up on bandwidth limits.

  25.10.2009 19:26 #1

• lamain

  I am a little confused here. I live In a small town in Alaska. It has a population of 8500 and no roads leading off the island. I pay $90 a month for 7M unlimited internet connection. I have been using it for over a year as one of my main ways to watch Movies.
  
  Living were I do you get used to paying more for less. From what I keep seeing people post on forms like this though leads me to think that I have a much better option for internet then a lot of the country.
  
  Can this really be true? Or am I just paying more then most would consider a reasonable price?

  25.10.2009 20:26 #2

• llongtheD

  @lamain
  I think you are paying a little more, I pay $59 a month for 10M through charter, $79 would get you 20M. Thats in Oregon anyway.
  I use my connection to stream movies as well, and it works great for me.

  25.10.2009 20:41 #3

• scorpNZ

  There's nothing on the net that gets reported by whatever numskull saying nonsense this is what's going to happen to a 360 or whatever,i'll believe when i see it & now it's been confirmed for a second time that the 360 will not have a blue ray we can all get some sleep...out

  25.10.2009 21:16 #4

• KillerBug

  Apparently no one here has netflix. If they did, they would know that microsoft's internet video streaming is terrible, with quality that is incredibly low for the resolution. Streaming 1080P from Microsoft will probably not look as good as an upscaled DVD does.
  
  Lamain - by Florida standards, you are getting a terrible deal on internet. I pay $47 a month including taxes and other fees. I get 30mbps downstream and 3mbps upstream. There are better deals in some parts of the state, and even other parts of my city, but this is the best deal per mbps that I can get at my place. Then again, it goes without saying that your ISP is spending a lot more money to bring you the internet than my ISP is spending to bring me the internet.

  25.10.2009 23:30 #5

• lamain

  Quote:This won't be the true future for a long time until ISPs lighten up on bandwidth limits. Question then were do they need to lighten up the bandwidth limits? are we talking more then 50% of the population has this problem? I am curious who has worse internet options then Alaska?
  
  Again maybe I am just willing to pay more? there is cheaper internet option here that I could get that do not have unlimited bandwidth. are there no reasonable priced unlimited plans maybe?

  26.10.2009 00:15 #6

• KillerBug

  Remember that it will be of a quality that makes DivX look good, and will be served from Microsoft's network of servers owned and operated by other companies. These two facts mean that you won't need much bandwidth to utilize this service. Perhapse a 3G cell plan won't be enough, but most cable plans should be fine.

  26.10.2009 05:54 #7

• xnmalletx

  I'm on 1500 kbps down and 370kbps up and I pay $20 a month because it is the fastest DSL offers and I refuse to subscribe to evil time warner cable.

  26.10.2009 19:39 #8

• chris4160

  Wow, you guys are lucky. I'm paying $69 a month for 12gb of download limit with a 10mb dl connection... but it's only a 0.1mb upload (sucks for xbox live).

  27.10.2009 04:13 #9

• modmyxbox

  i pay 26.99 per month for 7mbdown 5mb up. no limits.

  27.10.2009 14:49 #10

• Morreale

  I was paying $45 a month for ~6.5mbit down and ~1.0mbit up on a 60GB cap (Cable). Now I'm switching to $30 a month at probably ~4.0mbit down and ~1.0mbit up with a 200GB cap (DSL). Now I'm going to have a big enough cap but the speed isn't all there...
  

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  **\\\**//**\\\*//**\\\*******
  ***\\\//****\\\ ****\\\****

  27.10.2009 15:08 #11

• handsom

  Well; I'm out here in San Diego. My cost is about $55month for the highest speed Cox offers. I get Netflix HD streams flawlessly, no stutter, haven't seen it stop to re-buffer for speed\quality since February, and it's very good on my 42" 1080p flat screen. I'd love it to have 5.1 sound, but that's not a huge deal for streaming media.
  
  Some of the movies are lower quality, but that's through no fault of the service, that's the movie. If you're watching 'Alien Nation', filmed in the 80's... It's going to look like an 80's movie. If you're watching a Starz-hosted flick, it's going to be standard(not high) definition, because Starz has gotten legal right only for that quality level. When I load up an episode of the Office or Heroes, the quality is amazing. Full high def, no lag, no rebuff, just good quality stream.

  27.10.2009 15:11 #12

• Gnawnivek

  That's more like it, no BD add-on for the Xbox. It's not that i don't want to see the BD add-on made for the Xbox 360. It's just that it will confuse a lot of people... Imagine mama and papa buy PS3 games for the kids with the notion "Blu-ray" and they don't work on the add-on? And then there are BD movie and game kind of discs? Like Watchmen, so on the add-on, only the movie runs...

  29.10.2009 09:25 #13