XBox360 HD-DVD sold out (1 Viewer)

[ppltd]

I did the same thing (HD-DVD add-on, only from Amazon). If you recieve yours first, I will look forward to your comparison, as I own the XA-1 also. As a side note, just checked your link and EB is showing the unit as Out Of Stock.

I think this unit may be selling a little better than MS expected. Good news for the HD-DVD camp.

 

[RAF]

Thomas,

I just went back to that link and it looks as though the HD-DVD drive is, in fact, still in stock (or back in stock) at EBGames. Are you sure that you didn't mistake the "used" section (which is out of stock) with the new product? Just a point of information.

As soon as I add the HD-DVD to my XBox system I'll run a comparison with my XA-1 (assuming that I can tear myself away from playing Gears of War or Lumines on the Xbox)

I will say one thing about my XA-1. The more that I use this Toshiba unit, the less that I am liking it. I really don't like the sluggishness of the unit and several other things have become major annoyances for me. For one thing, the fact that each studio chooses to implement the menu settings differently means that there is no standardized way to find the time remaining on the discs. When you press "display" on the Toshiba remote you get an on-screen display that gives time elapsed, but that's not what I'm usually looking for. I guess I got spoiled with the Denon DVD player interface in this regard. Yes, some studios do have a nice time line (total time with a marker for the current position) but the Paramount title that I was viewing this weekend, Mission Impossible III, was terrible in this regard.

Speaking of the remote - the automatic backlighting is sporadic at best and isn't consistent in detecting motion when you pick it up in a darkened room.

And I'm also finding more and more issues with sound not being present at random times when you load an HD-DVD. The "fix" seems to be to turn the machine off and start again (and we all know how long that takes!). Finally, I'm getting a lot more "stuttering" on certain titles that doesn't seem to be explained away by a dirty DVD or similar. This is not the best DVD player I've ever owned. Not even close.

(FYI: I'm running the latest firmware update on the XA-1.)

If the Xbox360 HD-DVD has a faster load time (rumor has it that it does) and a remote with friendlier controls and time information then that alone will have made the $199 investment worth it for me. And I'm not worried about the lack of 1080p or HDMI out from the Microsoft unit (unless the industry activates the copy protection token on component - which will be a much bigger problem for those with component-only HDTV sets). I use an external video processor (DVDO VP50) to create my 1080p from a 1080i source and my display accepts native 1080p.

I'll have much more to say about this once I get to run the 360/HD-DVD through its paces. I look forward to your comments as well.

 

[ppltd]

I have had to go out of town, and will be back home this weekend. I will post my comments as soon as I get a chance to. Or like you, can break myself away from GOW. Didn't get alot of sleep last night. At least it is not quite as addicting as Oblivion was to me.

 

[Sam Posten]

I got mine at CCity today, they have plenty. Theres a coupon you can use to get it for a nice chunk off if you do some research. I'll be getting a refund tomorrow. The deck itself is not to impressive so far to me, see my short writeup in the games hardware forum for that.

 

[ppltd]

I think what I am most interested in with this player is that it seems that many have already hacked the system to get it to work on a PC. This would become my travel unit. As I live in Phoenix, but work in Pittsburgh, this would allow me to have HD at both locations.

 

[RAF]

Since my current (soon to be former) audio processor doesn't have HDMI inputs I'm certain that my audio issues are not HDMI related since I'm using the digital output for sound. That's not to say that the HDMI from the Toshiba doesn't have a host of audio/HDMI issues of its own like what you are experiencing, but my lack of audio (on occasion until I re-boot the XA-1) stems from the digital audio feed via toslink. My Denon 3806 audio processor just arrived so in the next couple of days I can finally check out audio via HDMI and I'll see if I experience some of the sound issues that you are talking about. The XBox360 HD-DVD (and my Denon 2930ci DVD player) also were delivered today so I'm going to have a busy couple of days - just as I'm gearing up for Thanksgiving so this might take a bit of time to get all connected.

 

[ppltd]

I will have a similar problem this Thanksgiving. Having to work 1800 miles from my home leaves me little time for my toys. Luckily, my daughter and her husband will taking care of all of the Thanksgiving cooking, serving and cleaning this year, leaving me all day to play with my Grand Daughter , watching Dinosaur (BD), and the 7 ro 8 HD-DVD's I haven't had time to watch. Sometime during that time, I have to hook up my HD add-on, play some Gears of War and maybe finally mounting my Projector on the ceiling where it belongs. So many toys, so little time.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Any tips as to where to find that coupon for CC?

Thanks - Steve

 

[BrettGallman]

Same here. While I'm not that far from home, I leave all my stuff there during the week while I'm at school (to eliminate distractions), so next week is going to be awesome: I get to catch up on some 360 games (like GOW), play the PS3 and Wii (knock on wood), watch some HD discs. Thanksgiving day is going to be nuts though. Everyone always comes down to my house, and my room is going to be absolutely packed especially.

 

[ppltd]

What is even harder is that I a few weeks ago I traded off an older Pioneer Elite reciever to a friend for his Samsung BD player. With both formats, I now have more movies to watch. This is getting out of hand.

 

[Bob_L]

Steve:

Just do a Google search on: circuit city coupon 360

 

[BrettGallman]

Same here. I've got about 5 titles on each format that I haven't gotten around to watching yet.