Microsoft To Bundle "King Kong" w/ Xbox 360 HD-DVD player! (1 Viewer)

[Jordan_E]

I wouldn't be getting the add on right away, more like some time next year. And I doubt if I could FIND a PS3 this year anyway, as I'm not one of those who camp out or pre-order years ahead of time for such things. My getting a 360 well over a year after release proves that.

 

[Cheech]

If you're the patient type, that is really the way to do it. Neither Sony nor Microsoft has done "rev 1.0" console releases well. They've all stunk in various ways. The newer 360s are whisper-quiet compared to the original boxes, and if you wait until next year, they are actually shrinking the die for the CPU, which allows them to reduce the size/number of fans, making it even quieter.

 

[Ron-P]

That's my take on the A1 for only $499. I don't care who wins either, the entry price is so darn inexpensive.

 

[ppltd]

You could very well be correct. I believe this add on will do well with the current XBox 360 owners, and there are currently alot of us, as it requires little money to get into HD movies. I am not so sure that it will be to important to gamers buying a 360 for the first time, at least not initially. After they own their 360 for 6 or 7 months, maybe.

I can not wait for the numbers to be released late Jan 07 to see just how well it does.

Thomas Eisenmann

 

[Jeremy Little]

According to Amir, the Microsoft employee who contributes in the HDTV insiders thread over at AVS, Microsoft has done nothing to prevent you from using it on a PC. It will only be a matter of time before someone makes up some software for it.

 

[JackKay]

Boy, if it isn't much trouble to get it working on a PC, then there are going to be more people buying these than have 360s.

 

[Cheech]

If that's the case, the only thing you're gonna need is DVD software that supports H.264(?) such as WinDVD 7 Platinum. There are others, they're all around $50 or so.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I figure this will happen since it's a stright USB Interface. I hope someone will create an interface and drivers for this. I have a laptop I use on my Upstairs setup to Serve Media files, and I would much rather interface it from that than my 360

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Nero's Showtime can play these files I think, it would be nice to get a list of players that support H.264

 

[Cheech]

You won't need a driver, any more than you need a driver for any other external optical drive. The operating system will see it regardless. The only thing that makes it "different" is you need a program to both decrypt the video files on the DVD, and play it back. WinDVD/Nero Showtime/Etc. does both.

 

[orestes]

I went to my local EB Games store near where I work, and reserved this HD-DVD dirve with $60 down. EB Games store were only asking for $25 down, but since I am going to buy it any way, I decided that it will be easy to place a reservation with a $60 cash so that my credit card does not get hit so heavily at the time of the purchase.

I still have a question. Since my Xbox 360 is hooked to my HDTV via components (my HDTV only have components for HD), what resolution will I get on my screen? My TV only supports 480p and 1080i.

Regards,
orestes

 

[JackKay]

Glorious 1080i!!!!!

I am in the same boat, a tosh CRT I bought 3 years ago.

All ajustments will be on the dashboard.

 

[ppltd]

In a word, 1080i.

 

[Darcy Hunter]

Yes, 1080i is what you'll be seeing. I have a 2 year old 30" Toshiba HD CRT and a 5 year old 52" Pioneer HDTV, and I've used my 360 to stream Hi Def content from my computer to these sets via my Media Center PC, and the images were stunning.

My only question is, will the 360 HD DVD add-on up-convert SD-DVDs through the components? My guess is no, which is a bit of a let down, but for only $200 for a HD DVD player, I'll take the trade-off. I still have my Samsung up-converting player for that.

 

[Mike~Sileck]

News is that the HD-DVD drive will connect to PC's though USB.

The drivers will not be avaiable right away, but within a few days I'm sure we'll all have a sub 200 dollar external HD-DVD drive. I for one don't really mind, I mean my PC and 360 are right next to each other, on the same display, so it doesn't really matter, but this will surely help sell some units for Microsoft.

I cannot wait for release, I already pre-ordered one at my local Gamestop.

First movie will be V for Vendetta (Oct 31st!). SO PSYCHED!!!!!

 

[Brent T]

Well I read that MS is also coming out with HDMI connection for the 360. So should we buy one of these (my dvd player is 6 years old) or wait for a better HD-DVD player?

 

[Lew Crippen]

Can you post a link?

 

[Brent T]

Sorry I can't remember where I read about the 360 HDMI connection but I know you can pre order it at EBgames.

here is a link

http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802523

 

[Nickrh]

The HDMI adapter was a mixup, The HD-DVD drive will only output threw Component Video or VGA, 720p and 1080i threw component and 720p, 1080i AND 1080p threw VGA The only drawback for me that is really bugging me is it won't support the new HD lossless audio formats sense you can only output them threw HDMI or Analog 5.1 outputs so it downconverts and outputs threw optical, Im still not certain if the audio will be any better then regular DVD's maybe someone else has some info on what it downconverts to? Im sort of on the fence right now, I went and preordered it and then i hear this but at the same time Toshiba's standalone's have so many issues with audio sync and disc freezes that i think i may just go ahead and keep my preorder to hold me off till toshiba's 3rd gen players, I can't afford the HD-XA2 and the HD-A2 has no analog 5.1 outputs so thats of no use to me.

 

[Cees Alons]

Buy the HD-A1. For some of the prices you can have it now, you'll never get a better deal within 2 years or so.

Forget those "many issues with audio sync and disc freezes", they're not there.


Cees