xbox 360 hd dvd drive now £24.99

[Simon]

LOL, but soon (if the rumours are true) blu ray will be playable on the 360 with another addon drive!

p.s. jon did you get my message (i.e. username change)?

[Jon]

I think that was why MS made it a seperate drive for the HD DVD, if it did loose the format war, they could easily make a blu - ray player to the same size/style (hopefully!)

I did, will do it soon (group them in batchs of 3/4 as it makes it easier for me to track whos who!)

[Beanie85]

I've started on the HD-DVD bargain bonanza few months back, got quite a few hd films cheap from a few australian sites. Just browsing play.com now got them at £3.99 wow! To good to miss at that price, ordered 14 films.

[mattflower]

optical media is dead. downloaded content is the way forward, using xbl to rent a film or downloading (legally) is so much better. I have loads od rips @ 720p and they only take up about 4GB.

I bought the HD-DVD for £130 . . .feel my pain

[Jon]

I think optical has a place for the next 5 years untill the communications companies can provide a decent nation wide fibre optic network for the net, once that happens streaming will be the way to go, though part of me thinks optical (or what ever replaces it) will never die as people still like to go out and "own" the record/tape/cd/dvd instead of just having it on a ipod or similar device

[mattflower]

I completely agree, my post was very opinionated.
At the mo, you are right downloads do take time. I have a 16MB line and streaming can still be jumpy!

[SwedishTom]

Originally Posted by SwedishTom

*snip*

I will now see if I can get it all to work with my machine here!

Hmm for some reason the Corel WinDVD Advisor tells me that my monitor, Samsung Syncmaster 226BW is a Non-HDCP Supported Digital Display! But both on the Samsung site and the reviews that I have read all says it is HDCP supported!

This is driving me nuts here.. anyone has any suggestions?!?

Cheers
Tom

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by SwedishTom

Hmm for some reason the Corel WinDVD Advisor tells me that my monitor, Samsung Syncmaster 226BW is a Non-HDCP Supported Digital Display! But both on the Samsung site and the reviews that I have read all says it is HDCP supported!

This is driving me nuts here.. anyone has any suggestions?!?

Cheers
Tom

strange, everything i'm reading also says it is HDCP compliant?!

I'll have a think, have you tried othersoftware rather than Win DVD?

[SwedishTom]

I have tried CyberLink PowerDVD also, both version 7 and 8 and neither wanted to play it.. so I tried WinDVD since it was recommended on the Digital-Digest site..

Software you'll need:

* CyberLink BD / HD Advisor
* PowerDVD Ultra
Or
* WinDVD High-Definition Advisor Tool
* WinDVD 9

I have the latest graphic driver, downloaded the latest driver from Samsung for the monitor, I can access the DVD drive through My Computer for browsing purpose.. but for some reason I can not play the DVD's?? Do you know any other software that can play HD DVD's?!?

Cheers
Tom

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by SwedishTom

I have tried CyberLink PowerDVD also, both version 7 and 8 and neither wanted to play it.. so I tried WinDVD since it was recommended on the Digital-Digest site..


I have the latest graphic driver, downloaded the latest driver from Samsung for the monitor, I can access the DVD drive through My Computer for browsing purpose.. but for some reason I can not play the DVD's?? Do you know any other software that can play HD DVD's?!?

Cheers
Tom

Hmmmmm.

Just had a look as i would have suggested power DVD but i think Intervideo Ulead do one and also maybe something from Theatre Tek

Let me get back to you once i've done a bit of reading up!

[Simon]

Im planning on eventually making a media PC and will simply just rip all the films (inc HD DVD) to huge hard drives (will need like 5tb!) and hopefully make it relatively quiet so i have them all there with no disc fuss. Partly why i got the external 360 hd drive, also because of the price! Then obviously i can link them up to other terminals for viewing in different rooms. The only downside of the HD DVD drive is the combined noice of 360 + drive can be a little annoying, but much better when i pump the surround up!

As for downloads, yes it is the future. But wont really be the norm for years to come until the speed and reliability of networks have improved greatly.

Originally Posted by Jon

I did, will do it soon (group them in batchs of 3/4 as it makes it easier for me to track whos who!)

Cheers!

[SwedishTom]

Still not able to play a HD DVD on the drive, can play a normal DVD though so it is working in a way.. both the WinDVD and PowerDVD is telling me that my monitor is not HDCP compliant.

WinDVD - Your display environment do not support protected content playback.

PowerDVD - Failed to enable HDCP. Please switch to analog output (VGA, D-Sub) and try again. - (Error Code 0107)

Have been suggested to try SlySoft AnyDVD HD, and on my way to their website to see if they have a trial version!

Anyone else got any suggestions?!?

Cheers
Tom

[SwedishTom]

Sorry for double posting bu thought I would let you know it works now.. so for anyone that is going to use the xBox360 HD DVD Drive on their computer without the xBox you will have to use the following..

Firstly, if you have the XP OS then go here and follow the instructions there, make sure to download the suggested drivers (here is the link if you want to jump ahead.. linky) If you have Vista, the xBox360 HD DVD Drive already have supporting drivers in the OS.

You will need either the WinDVD 9 or CyberLink PowerDVD version 7 (If you have version 8 it wont play HD DVD's unless you follow the instructions here) software to play the HD DVD's.

Then if you have the same problem as I had, mainly that the software is telling you that your monitor is not HDCP compliant, then go to the SlySoft website and download their AnyDVD HD software, linky.

That would make the xBox360 HD DVD Drive work on your PC!

Hope this will be to any help for anyone that wishes to use it on their PC's!

Cheers
Tom

[Jon]

does xp support hdcp?

[SwedishTom]

I think so.. haven't seen anything that would suggest it don't support it.. fact is I think I read somewhere that you need version XP Service Pack 2 to make it work.. I will have a look through the sites I been visiting to sort this out and see if I can find it again..

Cheers
Tom

[Jon]

Heres a link to the play.com offers

Play.com (UK) - Free Delivery - HD DVD - HD DVD's From Just £4.99!

[christoski]

Sorry if this has already been asked, but what is the quality like using the hd-dvd drive with dvi to computer in comparison to hdmi to tv!? I'm debating whether to get one as I have a non-hdtv but a bigish monitor!

Thanks in advance

[Parkdude]

Anyone who's interested Asda now are selling cheap HD-DVDs too. Many titles similar to play and the other sites but one or two differences:

Asda Entertainment - HD Clearance

[Simon]

Originally Posted by prettyfly

Anyone who's interested Asda now are selling cheap HD-DVDs too. Many titles similar to play and the other sites but one or two differences:

Asda Entertainment - HD Clearance

Or alternatively at The Hut.com: HD Clearance

Which is the same company...

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by christoski

Sorry if this has already been asked, but what is the quality like using the hd-dvd drive with dvi to computer in comparison to hdmi to tv!? I'm debating whether to get one as I have a non-hdtv but a bigish monitor!

Thanks in advance

DVI and HDMI carry the same video signal but HDMI also has audio and HDCP.

You will not notice any difference in picture using DVI vs HDMI

You can even get DVI to HDMI convertors for a few quid which would allow you to output on DVI into a HDMI enabled device