New Xbox 360 disc format in the works...

[heybtbm]

To allow more space on a disc?

http://kotaku.com/#!5786898/microsoft-tests-an-updated-xbox-360-disc-format-in-the-latest-update-preview (http://kotaku.com/#%215786898/microsoft-tests-an-updated-xbox-360-disc-format-in-the-latest-update-preview)

http://majornelson.com/2011/03/29/xbox-360-system-update-preview/

Interesting.

[c0ldb33r]

Neat. I wonder how it'll work. How can you fit now stuff on a DVD? If they find a way hopefully it will be useable on pcs too.

I was hoping to sign up for the beta but it's USA only :(

[kedawa]

I wonder why any link from kotaku sends me to the main page. I never see the article people are talking about.

How can you fit now stuff on a DVD?
:hmm:

[Leo_A]

I imagine it has to either do with security, how the data is encoded to the disc itself, or some new compression technique.

They're not going to be able to do anything too revolutionary here with existing DVD drives. 8.54 gigs/7.95 GiBs is pretty much it. All they can do is change how the data is presented in that given amount of space on a DVD-9 disc.

About the only other thing I can think of is they're considering double sided disc and want to get our reactions to it and see how well they hold up to wear and tear with a large scale test program? Perhaps single player will occupy one side of the disc with multiplayer the other?

I sure hope not, I hate double sided disc.

[Robocop2]

I signed up; hopefully I get in

[buzz_n64]

Maybe they will try something like the GD-ROM. Maybe double sided discs without flipping the disc over? Maybe they will reintroduce the HD-DVD as an exclusive gaming media format.

[DKTheArcadeRat]

I signed up. Let's see what happens.

[swlovinist]

Interesting, lets see what happens.

[PapaStu]

Registered. Doesn't hurt to try.

[Leo_A]

Maybe they will try something like the GD-ROM. Maybe double sided discs without flipping the disc over? Maybe they will reintroduce the HD-DVD as an exclusive gaming media format.

Keep it mind that whatever this is, it's going to involve the current DVD drive every Xbox 360 is equipped with. So it can't be any of those since the current drives can't handle such things.

Signed up, I'm curious and also wouldn't mind a free copy of Halo Reach.

[Rob2600]

Stop wasting disc space with FMV. (It was a novelty in FFVII. Now, it's pointless and annoying.) That'll free up some gigabytes worth of space. Problem solved.

[Kitsune Sniper]

They already answered this at Kotaku. It's nothing special, just 1 GB of extra space that was used by security measures... won't be used anymore.

If only Microsoft would go with Bluray already. :P

[Rob2600]

If only Microsoft would go with Bluray already. :P

How? With an add-on?

[The 1 2 P]

With an add-on?

And thats exactly why bluray won't happen on the 360. But it doesn't matter since we don't actually need it. If a game needs to be two disc then so be it.

[kedawa]

I kind of expected it would be something related to copy protection. If the current method wastes that much space, then it makes sense to ditch it considering how ineffective it is.

[WCP]

I kind of expected it would be something related to copy protection. If the current method wastes that much space, then it makes sense to ditch it considering how ineffective it is.

Supposedly, they are going to try a brand new copy protection technique, and this is one of the reasons they need a lot of beta testers for it. They have to make sure that these new disks will run in all the various 360's. I'm guessing they will have a new firmware, that will check for this new disk, and only allow it to play if it can verify it's the new type of disk. But the problem is, they need to test it out on every model Xbox 360, and get some real world experience with it, before they switch over their stamping process.