HD DVD: A Drive For (Effectively) Free

October 22, 2007

Not surprisingly, considering the blue laser format war is nowhere near over, both the contending Blu-ray and HD DVD camps have extended their ‘five free movies’ promotions through the holidays. Additionally, this week only, Best Buy retail stores are bundling a free copy of the (excellent) Heroes Season One HD DVD set with the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive. Do the math:

The Heroes set is normally $70
Single-disc HD DVDs run $25-$30 each

If you were to buy all those discs, you’d be paying much more than the $179.99 that Best Buy is selling the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive (with all those discs) for. Granted, it’s not a standalone player. But if you’ve already got an Xbox 360, or for that matter a powerful-enough computer…

Posted by Brian Dipert on October 22, 2007 | Comments (2)

October 23, 2007

In response to: HD DVD: A Drive For (Effectively) Free
Brian Dipert commented:

Dear Stiggle, you apparently didn't access the links in my writeup. The Xbox HD DVD drive most certainly CAN be used with a PC, assuming it has a DRM-aware graphics subsystem and driver suite.

October 23, 2007

In response to: HD DVD: A Drive For (Effectively) Free
Stiggle commented:

It is a shame the XBOX HD-DVD drive can't be used with a PC. I agree teh Hero Season 1 qas quit good. Most of the HD titles offer quality only slightly better than standard DVD which tend to be about 1/2 the price or even less. Still $150 for a player only, plus the much higher cost of HD-DVD discs just doesn't seem worth it. Also consider that PS3 already had Blu-ray player built-in and looks to be the winner of Blue format war.

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