MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

[Murph]

"Building on Xbox 360 leadership in high-definition experiences, the company announced plans to deliver a new Xbox 360 external HD DVD drive in 2006. The new drive will offer millions of Xbox 360 owners the ability to easily enjoy HD DVD movies and will provide consumers with even more choices for experiencing high-definition content, in either physical or digital form."

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060104/sfw158.html?.v=1

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

If it wasn't external, I'd say it would give PS3/Blu-Ray a run for its money. I guess it all depends on how much Blu-Ray and HD-DVD costs compared to one another.

[freezeframe]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

Means nothing for Video Games, It will be for Movies only.

[23]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

How much

[EWRMETS]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

If they were going to release it in 2006, why didn't they just release Xbox360 with HD-DVD

[CaptainZombie]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

I'm not interested, I feel like it's still too soon for Blu Ray and HD-DVD. But what do I know.

[rawdog805]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

"Building on Xbox 360 leadership in high-definition experiences, the company announced plans to deliver a new Xbox 360 external HD DVD drive in 2006. The new drive will offer millions of Xbox 360 owners the ability to easily enjoy HD DVD movies and will provide consumers with even more choices for experiencing high-definition content, in either physical or digital form."

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060104/sfw158.html?.v=1

The damn thing should have come standard with a HD-DVD drive...

[nyyanksfan20]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

I don't get this really unless if it is much cheaper than a HD-DVD player. Otherwise at this point I don't know why anyone would buy this. If they wanted to support either HD or Blu-ray they should have made it built in, but they wanted to get the 360 out before the PS3 so it wasn't possible. They should have just not bothered taking sides in this war.

[bryan_05]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

I really am thinking this technology is going to be too expensive right a way. I had ZERO interest in how HD-DVD was related to the 360.

[SportsorDeath]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

Well, if the early reports on pricing for the standalone players is any indication, then yes it will be quite expensive. Then again, anyone could have guessed that. Anyone else remember how much current DVD players were when they first came to market in 1997?

The prices I have seen so far, though.....

Blu-ray will apparently be quite a bit more expensive out of the gates. There have been only two players announced so far, a Samsung unit which will retail for $1,000 and a Pioneer for $1,800.

On the HD-DVD side, Toshiba has announced two players: an entry level machine at $500 and a higher end one at I believe a grand.

Personally, I am going to wait it out a while. I will gladly take the Blu-ray player in the ps3 as I was going to get one anyway, but no way am I going to pay even $500 for the cheap HD-DVD model. This is first generation technology, which is bound to be buggy, the players are all really bulky, and the cost just doesn't justify what you get yet, imo. Also, I am more interested in a Blu-ray recorder so I can record football games and stuff in HD quality. I shudder to think what those are going to cost at launch.

Oh, just one more tidbit....for those of you interested in 1080p, only one player announced so far will have it, and of course it is the most expensive one, the Pioneer Elite Blu-ray $1,800 model.

One cool thing about all of these is that they will all upconvert standard DVD's to either 720p or 1080i through the HDMI port, so not only are they all backwards compatible, but they will make existing DVD's look marginally better. If anyone is considering buying one of the upconverting players on the market now, you may wanna hold off and just put that $$$ towards the $500 HD-DVD player.

As for the external drive for the 360, I can't see too many people running out to by it, but I guess there is a market for it. Add ons never sell well to begin with, and I bet this thing comes with a price tag of either $299 or $399.

[Flawless]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

I could careless about an HD-DVD drive, but...

"Gates announced that more than 50 new high-definition Xbox 360(TM) games will be available by June 2006."

[Ice Cream Truck]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

Ah this is stupid. This why people wish they didn't rush the launch. Gotta buy an external drive to play HD movies? And thats if you got a premium? Because if you have a core you don't have HD cables..

Premium $400
HD-DVD drive $200
$600?

This is so sloppy. This'll sell like PS2's addon HDD. Most likely less since it has nothing to do with games.

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

Well, if the early reports on pricing for the standalone players is any indication, then yes it will be quite expensive. Then again, anyone could have guessed that. Anyone else remember how much current DVD players were when they first came to market in 1997?

The prices I have seen so far, though.....

Blu-ray will apparently be quite a bit more expensive out of the gates. There have been only two players announced so far, a Samsung unit which will retail for $1,000 and a Pioneer for $1,800.

On the HD-DVD side, Toshiba has announced two players: an entry level machine at $500 and a higher end one at I believe a grand.

Personally, I am going to wait it out a while. I will gladly take the Blu-ray player in the ps3 as I was going to get one anyway, but no way am I going to pay even $500 for the cheap HD-DVD model. This is first generation technology, which is bound to be buggy, the players are all really bulky, and the cost just doesn't justify what you get yet, imo. Also, I am more interested in a Blu-ray recorder so I can record football games and stuff in HD quality. I shudder to think what those are going to cost at launch.

Oh, just one more tidbit....for those of you interested in 1080p, only one player announced so far will have it, and of course it is the most expensive one, the Pioneer Elite Blu-ray $1,800 model.

One cool thing about all of these is that they will all upconvert standard DVD's to either 720p or 1080i through the HDMI port, so not only are they all backwards compatible, but they will make existing DVD's look marginally better. If anyone is considering buying one of the upconverting players on the market now, you may wanna hold off and just put that $$$ towards the $500 HD-DVD player.

As for the external drive for the 360, I can't see too many people running out to by it, but I guess there is a market for it. Add ons never sell well to begin with, and I bet this thing comes with a price tag of either $299 or $399.

I bought the Sony S7000 back in 1997, it was $1299.99. So, I remember! LOL

[Mintsa]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

I dont get it???

Does this device allow you to play hd-dvd movies???

Or allow you to play normal dvd's in hd format???

or both???

[fishepa]

Re: MS announces EXTERNAL HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

It's impossible to convert normal movies to HD.