Digital Home Thoughts: Why The Xbox 360 Doesn't Have an Internal HD DVD Drive

Since even before the Xbox 360 launched, there's been one recurring question: why doesn't it have an internal HD DVD drive? Well, there's a bunch of reasons. First: load times. HD DVD drives currently read DVD-ROM discs at a maximum speed of 8x or 10x speed. The Xbox 360's internal DVD drive runs at 12x. Were Microsoft to put an HD DVD drive in the 360, load times for games would go up significantly. Since the Xbox 360 is a game console at heart, Microsoft focused on providing users with the best gaming experience, above all else.

The second reason is simple: cost. Adding an HD DVD drive to the console would add anywhere from $150-200 to the retail price. This would drive up the base price of the 360 to $500-600. As it is, the Core runs $299, competing directly with the Wii at $249. On the other end of the spectrum the Elite (sans HD DVD drive) looks like a relative bargain compared to the PS3, at $479.

Reason three: choice. Microsoft understands that not everyone who buys an Xbox 360 is going to need or want to watch HD DVD movies on their console. Those who do want that added functionality can spend the extra $200 to get it.

Then there's the noise. Reason four: the Xbox 360 is loud. Because the Xbox 360 plays games in high definition, it has some pretty powerful hardware under the hood. All that power produces a lot of heat. The fans required to move all that hot air out of the console are anything but quiet. Loud console + quiet living room = bad movie watching experience.

Last reason: there's no clear winner in the HD format war, and won't be for quite a while. There's no reason for Microsoft to lock itself (and it's customers) into HD DVD yet. If Blu-Ray ends up being the de facto HD disc format, they can release an external Blu-Ray drive at a later date.

So, there you have it. Don't expect an internal HD DVD drive in the Xbox 360 anytime soon, if ever. I wouldn't expect a high definition optical drive until the third generation Xbox in three or four years. By then though, HD discs will likely take a backseat to downloadable content delivery.