Microsoft recently announced the release of its Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator. By offering this new tool, Microsoft hopes to streamline the
development and testing process by giving film studios and disc authoring companies the ability to model the behavior of HD DVD disc
content in a virtual environment.
Microsoft Corp. today announced the release of the Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator, enabling
film studios and disc authoring companies to model the behavior of HD DVD disc content, including encoded video and HDi interactivity, in
a virtual environment before committing to burning a single HD DVD disc. This comprehensive tool is among the first commercially
available, software-based solutions of its kind, eliminating the need for expensive hardware or time-consuming and costly trial-and-error
processes for testing HD DVD titles, helping to ensure that titles ship error-free.
The enhanced content and rich interactive
capabilities of HD DVD increase the need for an efficient way to troubleshoot coding to maintain the highest-quality consumer
experiences. The emulator uses a combination of available hardware (the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and the Xbox 360 HD
DVD Player) and specialized emulation software to ultimately enable playback of near-final assets from a network storage share, portable
hard drive or optical disc. This allows focused testing of the layout, the menus, and the behavior of the interactivity functionality of
a title. Detailed log reports from the Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator deliver valuable tracing information to help quickly and easily pinpoint
problems with advanced interactivity code that otherwise could take hours of manual debugging.
The emulator is available
now via Xbox LIVE for a one-time licensing fee is $2,999. Full details can be found here.
