Well theirs nothing like new software, especially the kind that comes out of left field that no one saw coming. Microsoft has done exactly that with the release of the Xbox360 HD DVD Emulator a single piece of hardware designed to streamline the development and testing of HD DVD content.
What the software does in a nutshell is take the guess work out of HDDVD authoring. It allows for the developers to create HDi creations and test them out in a simulated environment before ever having to burn a single copy onto real media. The Emulator has the flexibility to mode the behavior of the HD DVD disc countent from the encoded video content to the HDi interactive layer all in a virtual environment.
Getting started isn’t “cheap” by average joe standards but then again it isn’t insanely expensive either. And for the small development studios and content houses it really isn’t expensive at all coming in at $2,999 + the cost of a HDDVD addon and Xbox360. But considering the number of HD DVD coasters that will be avoided in a busy studio it seems well worth it in terms of next gen media development.
Source: CNN
