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360 HD-DVD Add-on Dropped to $179
Joystiq reports that the HD-DVD add-on for the 360 has been permanently dropped in price to $179. Additionally, Bob Barker style, you get five free movies too: "Appearing at Comic-Con in San Diego, the announcement was made amidst promotion for the HD-DVD releases of the film 300 and the cheerleader epic, Heroes. Not content with just a twenty dollar dip, Microsoft has extended Toshiba's 'Perfect Offer' promotion to Xbox 360 owners, awarding five free movies with purchase. The hard part now is choosing between Casablanca and The Dukes of Hazzard. Naturally, the Xbox Live Marketplace wasn't left out in all this news as 300 will be making its way to the service in HD on August 14th, while free content for Heroes will arrive sometime before its HD-DVD release."
Save $20, save the world
You can't use it for games, so what's the point? Honestly, dropping the price by $20 on a peripheral that you still need to buy a $400 machine to work with it won't really do much. This only helps people that are on the fence for a PS3 ... except they don't offer a blu-ray drive for the XBox, so even then, not really.
$20 got them 3 days of coverage from all the major news outlets... It's been on the front page of Google news for days. Tiny price-cut, tons of press. Geniuses. They really are amazing.
amazing what lengths they will go thru to try and push a peripheral that uses a dying format. more and more places are going bluray only and microsofts effort to fight back is with a $20 pricebreak. this would go right on my self next to my Sega Genesis-32x-CD.
I guess that's 20$ less than I *would* have spent, had I intended on buying this, or any "next generation" movie format. Until this entire thing sorts itself out, I refuse to buy either. I personally hope they both go down in flames, and in return, we can get something the entire market agrees upon. Not only that, maybe we'll get something less locked down. (I know, it'll never happen, but one can always hope.)
My interest in next generation formats has very little to do with movies, anyway. I'm much more interested in high capacity removable storage for my PC. One that doesn't include moving parts, and one that I can easily hand off to my relatives and not worry about getting back.
Anyone really buying into BD/HDDVD? I'd rather just watch a HD movie on one my HD movie channels or the occasional $6 rental off the Live Marketplace.
Does the 360 (or the PS3) upconvert regular DVDs to higher resolutions? I can't find anything official either way.
Since most of these HD-DVD / Blu-Ray topics as of late are all flamewars akin to ps3 vs. 360. I thought I'd jump in and try to add some reason.
I bought the 360 hddvd add-on because I wanted to see what some of these movies were like in 720p (I don't own a 1080p tv). I found a great deal on craigslist and that was really the only reason I bought one. The movies look fantastic; much better than upconverted dvds, and noticeably better than movies on HD channels over Dish Network (from the compression I assume). In addition to the higher quality the way the menu works while watching a dvd is much friendlier (something that always annoyed me about dvds) and they have a new way of presenting some of the extras. NetFlix rents both hd-dvds and Blu-Rays now, so for that and the $100 or so i paid for it, it was a decent buy.
Obviously there are downsides. I hate playing it through the 360. The fans are noisy (not initially but eventually) and the start-up is a mild annoyance. I don't want to speak out of turn, but I assume I'd have the same problems playing blu-rays through the ps3. Theres just nothing as convenient as a stand-alone player... but theres something to be said for saving $300 when buying into unproven technology.
There are no "winners/losers" here yet, anyone claiming so is a fan-boi or uninformed. There are still some great movies you can only get on HD-DVD (and vice-versa with Blu-Ray) so people who are fans of those will still gravitate towards their respective studios and what format that studio supports.
Now with hybrid players appearing I wouldn't be surprised if we see a dual format thats basically invisible to the consumer. In 10 years (or whatever, i'm making an example) the majority of people will own a hybrid player, you'd head to BB or CC and pick up the latest release not even really paying attention to whether it has a Red case or a Blue case.
Not really sure where I'm going with this. Heh. I'd say if you own a 360, a hd tv and you're into the hd craze. Its only a couple of hundred dollars, its been fun for me and I've probably gotten that much enjoyment out of it. If you don't have an hd-tv, you don't really care about the hd craziness thats been going on, or you don't have $200 to blow on tech that you'll throw away in a few years, I wouldn't even worry about it. You're missing out on a few lines of resolution but nothing you should kick yourself over.
479.99(XBox 360 Elite) + 179.99(HD-DVD) + $99.99(WiFi Adapter) + $49.99 (XBOX Live 12 Month Subscription)= $800 Thanks for the extra 20 dollars....
Everyone who ever told you Casablanca was a chick flick is an idiot. There's only so much time a movie can spend with guns being pointed at people (with or without them being fired) and still be considered a chick flick. Casablanca far exceeds that amount.
What sound do people on rollercoasters make? Hint: it's not Xbox 360.
Well, I guess I could use this as a PC drive. I had looked previously at this, and the price-drop as well as the movies is atleast a little enticing.
... still ... something to look at, and thats speaking as someone who owns a PS3 with only 1 BR movie (yea, taledaga nights)
However, looking at the posted PDF for the Toshiba rebate (assuming a similar plan) the movies are a little thin on selection.
But
think before you write, it'll save me moderator points.
just if I could use it instead of the cyclone sounding drive in my 360 I'd be happy.
Actually what I'd really like is just being able to cache and spool games of the faster, quieter HD - ignore my post - as you were.
...of upconversion.
The reason upconversion on the player side makes sense is because it happens in the digital domain. Whereas if you go over component and have your TV upconvert it, it's lossier - it has to go to analog and then back to digital again and then gets upconverted.
Past that it just becomes a matter of which thing is better at conversion, your player or your TV.
The main gain from upconverting players is that they force you to use a 100% digital connection.
The promised implementation of upscaling in that old ps3 article has already been done like two months ago. Both DVD's and older ps2 games are upscaled.
Hmmm... Pie...
Most actors are ugly enough in stanrdard definition. Or so I heard :-)
add HD-DVD reading capabilities and HD output to the wii.
That's how I would value them as the movies are $20 on Amazon (and that's where I buy them), but it should be noted the HD DVD's MSRP are $25 so the potential savings is $125 in movies... (If of course you want them...) which would make the player $55.