360 Box HDDVD X Developer Interview

hddvd for x box interview (360 box hddvd x)
HD DVD HardOCP conducted an interview with Shaheen Gandhi, who is a Microsoft developer on the Xbox Console & Consumer Software team. Shaheen worked on the development of the Xbox 360 HD DVD player software and discusses the project in the interview. Here are a few of the questions and answers, taken from the interview.

Q: How long did development take?
A: We went from no hardware and no software on 360 to a full product in about 8

months. It was a super-compressed development schedule and the quality is just spectacular. There’s a longer timeframe when you consider the codecs had existed in code quite a while ago.

Q: What prevents someone from using this drive on a PC?
A: We have designed and tested the Xbox 360 HD DVD player to be a completely plug-and-play experience when used with an Xbox 360 console. We recognize that certain hard-core users have been able to enable HD DVD playback on a PC using SW and drivers from a variety of non-Microsoft sources. Consumers interested in using the HD DVD player on their PC’s should understand this is an un-tested and unsupported configuration, and we will not be providing customer support for any PC scenario around HD DVD playback.

The developer also talks about a range of topics related to the Xbox 360 HD DVD player, including the difference between DVD/HD DVD, what HDi is, the various codecs and how the HD DVD software application interacts with the core Xbox 360 system. It sounds like his development team accomplished a great amount of work in a relatively small amount of time in order to get the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive ready for prime time.

Shaheen makes it clear that the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive is not intended for use on PC’s. Nevertheless, even though Microsoft does not officially support connecting the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive to a computer, it is still the most affordable option for adding HD DVD capability to a computer system at this time. In fact, the majority of HD DVD drives purchased by consumers so far are the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive. With this external HD peripheral running at just $199, it is hard to go with anything else.

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