Review: Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player
Those white-trenchcoated folks over at CNET labs put Microsoft’s HD DVD peripheral for the Xbox 360 under the microscope, and they had to adjust the focus a little bit. Once in focus, though, they liked what they saw.
But right off the bat, I have to say I can’t agree with one of their pluses for the peripheral. They say “The Xbox 360 HD-DVD player is less than half of the price of today’s stand-alone HD-DVD players and includes the Xbox 360 Universal remote.” Less than half, sure, but only if you already own an Xbox 360. Add that to the cost, and you’re paying $500 for the system.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the peripheral isn’t any good. Quite the contrary. It makes out well in labratory tests. So if you’re an Xbox 360 owner, you might want to take a look at this peripheral. However, if you’re worried that studios might one day start enabling the ICT flag, then you might want to look elsewhere because the Xbox 360 + HD DVD solution does not contain an HDMI or DVI/HDCP output. Right now, though, that’s not a problem. It might never be. So you can enjoy movies now, and for the forseeable future, in HD on your Xbox 360 with this $200 peripheral.
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December 11th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Henning said:
“Less than half, sure, but only if you already own an Xbox 360.”
While this is true for use with a 360, there are many that are using this as a stand alone HD DVD with their PC. One could even argue that the PC use is the real driver of this product right now.
As for me (a 360 owner), I just can’t bring myself to buy this yet. I simply am happy with standard DVD quality - even though I have a 720p tv.
December 11th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
“Less than half, sure, but only if you already own an Xbox 360. Add that to the cost, and you’re paying $500 for the system.”
That’s like saying that the PS3 really isn’t $600, because you have to add in the cost of your $3000 HDTV and the $1000 receiver and the $1000 surround sound speakers and $200 monster cables. Heck, why not just include the $250,000 home that houses the home theater? Seriously, this is intended for the existing 8 million owners of the XBox 360 (going on 10 million). If they want to get into HD DVD, all they have to do is spend less than $200 and they’re in. Simple as that. Is there a Blu-Ray add-on for the PS2? No. You’re forced to buy it with the PS3. Moreover, many people already have an HDCP compliant PC as well (as I already do), so this drive will work with the HTPC that I already own. Do you now want to add the cost of my computer and other equipment to the overall cost as well?
December 11th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
You’re just being silly.
The HD DVD peripheral is a … wait for it … peripheral. It does not work by itself. You need to buy something with it for it to work. That is not true of all the other HD DVD players out there.
Which was my point.
December 11th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
You have to buy a … wait for it … an [b]HDTV[/b] for all players to work, be it a stand alone Blu-Ray or HD DVD player. And let’s not forget that many of us can use the add-on with our HTPC. When all is said and done, I’ll be paying only about $220 for a great HD DVD movie viewing experience.
Whether we split hairs or not, there is no denying that there is nearly a 10,000,000 strong customer base that can get into HD DVD for under 200 bones.
December 11th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
An HDTV is not a peripheral. The HD DVD player is. And not all Xbox 360 owners have an HDTV.
December 12th, 2006 at 1:18 am
The add-on being a peripheral is moot. It still costs under $200 to get into HD DVD to existing XBox 360 owners and HTPC owners.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:32 am
Microsoft at least gives the choice to the consumer. If you just want to play games, you can buy the 360. If you want to play HD-DVDs, then you can buy the add-on. You don’t care about HD-DVD ? Great, you just saved $200.
Don’t take me wrong, I think the PS3 is a great console and, from all I read, the best blu-ray player out there. But I don’t like Sony’s trojanhorse strategy. They shot themselves in the foot with this one. Without the blu-ray player included, the PS3 would have been much cheaper, out earlier, and therefore a better position in the raging new-gen console war.
I bought my 360 more than 6 months ago, as a gaming machine. I bought the HD-DVD add-on as soon as I could, because for me it was the best and cheapest way to play HD-DVDs in my HT. Sure, the 360 don’t have HDMI (yet). The image it displays using component is absolutely stunning, and it takes abous 15s to load an HD-DVD (againt 30s for the latest standalone player).
The point about ICT flag is moot. No studio would be stupid enough to implement it now that a large share of HD-DVD players are 360s. It would be suicide.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:55 am
The C|net review contains a mistake : “The 360’s current component video and VGA adapters both have an optical digital output as their highest-quality audio jack, which can carry only standard DVD-level Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound.”
With the 360 HD-DVD add-on, you can select whicherver soundtrack you want, and it will be decoded and then converted to high-bitrate (1.5Mbps) Dolby Digital by the 360. This is not as good as unconverted Dolby Digital Plus or DTS-HD (5.1 analogue outputs on the add-on would have been extra nice but then it wouldn’t be so cheap), but it is not DVD-grade Dolby Digital (384kbps) either. It is clearly superior. Hell, I’m no audiophile and I can hear the difference.
December 12th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Lively debate here…I like. I think your write-up was basically fair the to the drive, but you should acknowledge that in addition to millions of 360 owners, this is useful for PC owners (gazillions) and especially Media Center owners (all 10 of them).
Cheers!