HD-DVD and Video Games on Xbox 360 and PS3

I've heard some interesting comments from fairly informed but not technically savvy people. Maybe it's because of some bad marketing (or good depending on how you look at it), but it's something that should be addressed, because it only leads to confusion. A Best Buy salesman (who told me he has researched this thoroughly) and a few other people have told me that the PS3 will be better than the XBOX 360 since it will have a Blue-Ray drive - Microsoft on the other hand decided not to include an HD-DVD drive. This might be correct depending on your opinion of what makes a console better, but he also went on to say that because of this, XBOX 360 games would not be in High Definition (HD). People, this is flat out wrong and I'll explain why in a second.

I want to make it clear that this not an article about which console is better than the other or which DVD format is better. This article is about these two formats in the context of HD movies and game consoles. You can argue that the PS3 will be better than XBOX 360 because of Blue-Ray but this article is not discussing that. It looks only at the misconception that you need an HD-DVD to play high definition games.

Purpose: Capacity

Basically these two formats were created to store High Definition movies. Of course there are other applications such as video games, and general backup, but regular DVDs can't store enough information on them to fit a regular length movie in High Definition.

Why HD-DVD Doesn't Mean High Definition

Now, just because it is called HD-DVD and the original purpose was to store high Definition video, it doesn't mean that anything you put on the HD-DVD will be in high definition. Remember, the disc only holds 1s and 0s and it doesn't know the difference between 1s and 0s that make up a regular DVD movie and a high definition movie. So if you take a Regular DVD and copy it onto an HD-DVD the movie doesn't magically turn into a High Definition movie. It is still the same old regular DVD. Now consider this, if you have a regular Xbox game, say Halo, and you take that game and make an exact copy of it to an HD-DVD, does the game somehow become an HD game? How could it? it is an exact copy of the original. The answer is no!

HD Video vs. HD Games

Although full length HD movies will not fit on regular DVDs, High Definition games can and do fit on regular DVDs. Actually, current HD games are by no means pushing the limits of regular DVDs. Take for example the XBOX 360, it uses regular DVDs but all games are at least 720p which is High Definition. Even the original XBOX has games that display in 720p and a few go as high as 1080i.

Remember, HD-DVD doesn't always mean High Definition!