Xbox360 HD DVD player - $50

[ChadTower]

HD DVD may be on its way out but for $50 this is probably worth picking up.  Plus if you do it fast you can still get 5 free HD DVDs.

[AcidArmitage]

now THATS desperation!

[Kangum]

im glad its finally over. maybe now movie rental places will commit to a format and regular dvd will finally die.

[ChadTower]

im glad its finally over. maybe now movie rental places will commit to a format and regular dvd will finally die.

You can still get VHS tapes in rental stores.  Why would you think DVD is going anywhere?

[SithMaster]

im glad its finally over. maybe now movie rental places will commit to a format and regular dvd will finally die.

so you expect them to rebuy all their current stock in blu ray format?  considering many videos will not be released in blu ray for quite a while (if at all) i dont think standard dvds are going anywhere soon.

[odysseyroc]

deepdiscount has a bunch of HD-DVD titles for $10 and Amazon has a bunch for $12. It's a good time for cheap HD-DVDs, while waiting for Blu-Ray to come down in price

[Samstag]

I had my HD-DVD drive on Ebay last week, but it didn't even get a nibble at $0.99.  Now it's not worth getting rid of so I bought my very first HD disk.  Also my second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, all for $78 shipped (thanks deepdiscount!).  HD is finally in what I would consider a reasonable price range.

[SNAAKE]

where ? great deal if it comes with 5 movies.

[pointdablame]

I picked one up last night and dont really even care about the drive itself.  I got King Kong in the box, a remote for the 360 that I didn't have and 5 free movies on the way.

I'll see if I can sell the drive itself locally for a few bucks, but if not.... I guess I have an extra HD DVD drive just in case.

[SNAAKE]

uh....where again ??

do I just buy it from gamestop and get the free hddvds or I get them by mail ??

[HaRuMaN]

There are some good titles in HD for $10 at deepdiscount.  Top Gun, Last Starfighter, etc...  but do you think these will be re-released on Blu-Ray in the future?

[ChadTower]

There are a lot of references saying it's just a USB drive, too, if you can find the drivers for your OS.

[Samstag]

There are some good titles in HD for $10 at deepdiscount.  Top Gun, Last Starfighter, etc...  but do you think these will be re-released on Blu-Ray in the future?

I think you'll start seeing the HD-DVD exclusives make their way to Bluray by the end of the year, but not at anything close to these prices.

[AcidArmitage]

is there any use for it other than watching hd movies?

[versapak]

is there any use for it other than watching hd movies?

Well...

You can watch regular DVDs too. If this is something that you do with your 360, it gives you a different drive to play them on, so as to perhaps prolong the life of the drive in the 360 itself, which of course is used for games.

Other than that though...

Nope, no other use.

[AtomSmasher]

is there any use for it other than watching hd movies?

It might make a nice hat.

[Samstag]

is there any use for it other than watching hd movies?

It might make a nice hat.

It might keep a little rain off your head but it makes an awful hat.  Pay a little extra and get yourself a quality hat more suited to the purpose.  Unless of course you need a hat that also plays HD-DVD and DVD.  Then this is still your best bet.

[ChadTower]

I hate it when I get HD-DVD head.  Makes my hair look stupid.

[SithMaster]

uh....where again ??

do I just buy it from gamestop and get the free hddvds or I get them by mail ??

I believe a voucher is inside the box when you get it.  And then im not sure but i think you use it as a coupon on some online movie seller.

[AtomSmasher]

uh....where again ??

do I just buy it from gamestop and get the free hddvds or I get them by mail ??

I believe a voucher is inside the box when you get it.  And then im not sure but i think you use it as a coupon on some online movie seller.

There could be a voucher inside the box, but heres a link to a copy of it:  http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com/_pdf/perfect_hd_dvd_offer_redemption_form.pdf

[AcidArmitage]

can i at least hook that ---Cleveland steamer--- up to a computer?

...a retractable cup holder?

[Samstag]

can i at least hook that ---Cleveland steamer--- up to a computer?

Yes.  Google it a bit and you should find drivers and codecs.  Originally you needed WinDVD8 but I think now if you get the right codecs you can play it with any DVD software.

[pointdablame]

Yes it works on PCs as an external HD DVD drive.... normal DVD drive as well of course.

You need to send in a form to Toshiba for your 5 free movies, but King Kong is in the box as is the $20 Xbox 360 media remote.

I got mine at Best Buy.  You have to buy the drive BY TOMORROW in order to get the 5 free movies, so don't delay if you're thinking of this.  Tomorrow is the last day the receipt can be dated, but you have 30 days to send it in.

[AcidArmitage]

damn thanks for the heads up

[lcddream]

did they make dragons lair hd on hddvd?

[SithMaster]

did they make dragons lair hd on hddvd?

http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Lair-HD-DVD/dp/B000IMUYRO

yes they did

[lcddream]

did they make dragons lair hd on hddvd?

http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Lair-HD-DVD/dp/B000IMUYRO

yes they did

then there is officially a use!

[knave]

did they make dragons lair hd on hddvd?

http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Lair-HD-DVD/dp/B000IMUYRO

yes they did

then there is officially a use!

Didn't they just crop the top and bottom of the 4:3 version to make Dragons Lair fit into HD?

[Samstag]

did they make dragons lair hd on hddvd?

http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Lair-HD-DVD/dp/B000IMUYRO

yes they did

Damn!  I forgot they did that.  With any luck it'll drop in price before it becomes too scarce.  It's still too high for me.  Must.  Resist.  The Buy Button.

[Samstag]

can i at least hook that ---Cleveland steamer--- up to a computer?

Yes.  Google it a bit and you should find drivers and codecs.  Originally you needed WinDVD8 but I think now if you get the right codecs you can play it with any DVD software.

I've been reasearching this lately and it's not as straightforward as it seemed.  The version of WinDVD 8 people were using had to be imported from Japan and  originally didn't even work at anything above 540p resolution.  Nowadays people are using PowerDVD Ultra for $100  and you can get full 1080p out of it, but only if your system meets HDCP requirements.  Download Cyberlink BD/HD Advisor to find out if your PC is going to be useable.  You either need a fairly modern (fast) CPU or a video card with hardware HD support just to play the movies in addition to being HDCP compliant for full resolution.

When you plug the drive in for the first time XP will recognize it and can install the new drivers for you.  Then you'll need to install the Toshiba UDF 2.5 drivers (note: I can't vouch for the safety of this download although I have virus scanned it and have it running on my own system) and reboot.  Now you should be able to browse the drive when you have a movie in the tray.  From there you load up PowerDVD Ultra and you're done, probably.

The AVS forums have an enormous thread on this and it's hard to follow because they're also discussing using PowerDVD for Bluray playback, and a lot of people aparently have systems with both drives.  So when they're talking about using one build of PDVD for this movie and a diffeent build for that movie it becomes hard to tell whether they're having problems with one format or the other, or both.  A few comments here and there seem to imply that it's the Bluray movies that cause the problems.

I haven't tested this fully yet because I have an oddball dual video configuration that may or may not work so I'm trying to either get a definitive answer on that or find an "evaluation copy" I can test.  Even if it works, $100 is a bit steep for video playback software.  But then I've gone from zero HD-DVDs (in about 8 months of owning the player) to owning more HD-DVDs than DVDs in about a week, so maybe it's worth it to give my poor 360 a rest.

[SirPoonga]

Just a note, you can get the Xbox HD DVD emulator for free now.  So if you want to make your own HD DVD projects you can test it with your 360.

http://blogs.msdn.com/amyd/archive/2008/03/05/overwhelmed.aspx