Harvey Lee talks HD-DVD

Pretty much every Xbox 360 owner’s got a question or two about the new HD-DVD add-on for Microsoft‘s videogame console. From HDMI issues to HD-DVD games, someone’s finally stepped up to give gamers a few answers to some of their HD-DVD questions, and that someone is Harvey Lee, Platform Marketing Manager for Xbox 360 Europe.

HDMI Connectivity. In a recent Xboxyde interview with Lee, one of the most notable topics of discussion was HDMI connectivity. According to Lee, gamers “just donÂ’t need it and it’s a myth that you do.” He added, “I’ve spoken to many folks recently at trade shows and X06 and there’s a common mis-conception that you ‘need’ HDMI for native 1080p support from a technical point of view. Not true.”

Special Features. And what about special features for the HD-DVD Player? Lee says that the so-called special features are “really on the discs themselves, not the players and the Xbox 360 HD DVD players fully supports all the features of HD DVD. For example picture-in-picture, hybrid combo discs (1 side DVD, 1 side HD DVD), commentary, etc.”

HD-DVD Games. Of course, since the Xbox 360 is a gaming console, the subject of playing HD-DVD games came up. To this, Lee answered, “Our compression is leading edge and thus it makes genuine next-generation games like Gears of War possible without the need for games on an HD DVD.” Also, “At the end of the day, gamers have to pay a higher price for games on HD discs and as we have proved that leading edge HD games are not dependant on having an HD Disc format, we don’t pass that cost on to gamers unlike some.”

Pretty much every Xbox 360 owner’s got a question or two about the new HD-DVD add-on for Microsoft‘s videogame console. From HDMI issues to HD-DVD games, someone’s finally stepped up to give gamers a few answers to some of their HD-DVD questions, and that someone is Harvey Lee, Platform Marketing Manager for Xbox 360 Europe.

HDMI Connectivity. In a recent Xboxyde interview with Lee, one of the most notable topics of discussion was HDMI connectivity. According to Lee, gamers “just donÂ’t need it and it’s a myth that you do.” He added, “I’ve spoken to many folks recently at trade shows and X06 and there’s a common mis-conception that you ‘need’ HDMI for native 1080p support from a technical point of view. Not true.”

Special Features. And what about special features for the HD-DVD Player? Lee says that the so-called special features are “really on the discs themselves, not the players and the Xbox 360 HD DVD players fully supports all the features of HD DVD. For example picture-in-picture, hybrid combo discs (1 side DVD, 1 side HD DVD), commentary, etc.”

HD-DVD Games. Of course, since the Xbox 360 is a gaming console, the subject of playing HD-DVD games came up. To this, Lee answered, “Our compression is leading edge and thus it makes genuine next-generation games like Gears of War possible without the need for games on an HD DVD.” Also, “At the end of the day, gamers have to pay a higher price for games on HD discs and as we have proved that leading edge HD games are not dependant on having an HD Disc format, we don’t pass that cost on to gamers unlike some.”