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Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive demoed

How to switch between drives.

Microsoft yesterday demonstrated the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive to a DVD Forum in Los Angeles and said it would be among the least expensive of its kind.

"All the audio and video processing is done inside the Xbox," senior program manager Kevin Collins told the Forum, CNet reports - something that will help keep costs down. CNet describes the drive, which was seen only briefly during E3, as about the size of a hardback book.

Meanwhile, the company's core of bloggers shed light on how the technology will be integrated with the Xbox 360 dashboard. PR and communications group manager John Porcaro said that the idea was to use the up/down buttons to switch between DVD and HD-DVD drives while the "Open Tray" button is selected. He also posted pictures of the interface buttons on Gamerscoreblog.

Elsewhere, Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb dealt with the subject during his podcast.