San Diego—Today at Comic-Con International 2007, Microsoft Corp. announced it will lower the price of the popular Xbox 360™ HD DVD Player from $199 to $179 (in the U.S. only) starting August 1, 2007, and will add five free HD DVD movies for anyone purchasing an Xbox 360 HD DVD Player between August 1 and September 30.

In addition, Microsoft further solidified the Xbox 360 as the ultimate high-definition entertainment platform, with key announcements around the HD DVD launches of 300 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and Heroes: Season 1 from Universal Studios

They should of included the Hd-Dvd on the 360....My opinion that is.Also as the Wi-fi adapter, to put those adapters integrated on the 360 wouldn't cost them much at all and I'm definitely not going to buy the external adapter, which costs $99.99. Screw that!I'm not going to get ripped off just for wireless.I'd rather buy a another wireless router for about $40, and just Bridge the both routers.Which is also a bonus, because if you want to stream from Pc to 360 all you have to do is connect your Pc through a wire on the router where your 360 is connect to and it'll be much faster than wireless.For those who use a desktop it'll be a bit difficult to move your Pc around, but for me I have no problem moving my laptop around.Wait hold on a sec a second router!Your signals will be much stronger actually. Say if Router-A is on the West side of the house signals will be weak on the East, but if you have your 360 on the East and you put Router-B on the East signals will be much better. Again, this also applies for me since I have concrete walls.I love it when I think.

They should of included the Hd-Dvd on the 360....My opinion that is.Also as the Wi-fi adapter, to put those adapters integrated on the 360 wouldn't cost them much at all and I'm definitely not going to buy the external adapter, which costs $99.99. Screw that!I'm not going to get ripped off just for wireless.I'd rather buy a another wireless router for about $40, and just Bridge the both routers.Which is also a bonus, because if you want to stream from Pc to 360 all you have to do is connect your Pc through a wire on the router where your 360 is connect to and it'll be much faster than wireless.For those who use a desktop it'll be a bit difficult to move your Pc around, but for me I have no problem moving my laptop around.Wait hold on a sec a second router!Your signals will be much stronger actually. Say if Router-A is on the West side of the house signals will be weak on the East, but if you have your 360 on the East and you put Router-B on the East signals will be much better. Again, this also applies for me since I have concrete walls.I love it when I think.

Yes, but then they would be forcing unnecessary products on you, kind of like Sony.

*cough* Blu-Ray *cough*

Actually, I don't really care about the HD-DvD Drive. I don't have an HdTv....But, there should of been a a fourth, well fifth(consol) option and that option should of had an Hd dvd thing inside it. So if who ever wanted the Hd Drive would of gotten that one.And it would some how drop price a bit since your replacing the other drive with the Hd one. So about 50 buck left maybe?
However,it's all about money with these companies.....

CrAzE, what's the point of bundling the HD-DVD drive with the 360 after Microsoft has already said that they won't be making any games for the HD-DVDs? If you're a HD enthusiast, you can go buy it. If you're a normal gamer, who doesn't care less, you get a low-cost [compared to the extra expense of including a HD-DVD player] system that lets you do what you want to do...play games.

I can honestly say that I wouldn't buy a 360 with a HD-DVD player unless it was absolutely necessary, or if the player came for free. Why? I don't need it, or want it. I'm sure a lot of people agree with me on that point...we're not ready to upgrade our DVD collection. ;)

But I'm speaking for those who do want it.
I don't want it...I have no use for it....I have not HDTv >='[...
You can't shut the doors for the ones who do want it.
If I'd want it, I'd love that fifth option.

But if you want it, what's to stop you from buying it? I mean, if you have the money for a high-dollar TV and upgrading your movie collection to the HD-DVD standard (possibly wasting it all, as the format-wars aren't even over), I'm sure you can afford $179.99 for a HD-DVD player. I mean, if Microsoft were to bundle the HD-DVD player with the 360, I'm sure the price wouldn't be too much different versus just buying the HD-DVD player.

I don't think you understand what I mean I Don't want it.

But you're 'speaking' for the people that do want it, or so you said. Is this your way of saying you don't have a counterargument?

CrAzE, what's the point of bundling the HD-DVD drive with the 360 after Microsoft has already said that they won't be making any games for the HD-DVDs? If you're a HD enthusiast, you can go buy it. If you're a normal gamer, who doesn't care less, you get a low-cost [compared to the extra expense of including a HD-DVD player] system that lets you do what you want to do...play games.

I can honestly say that I wouldn't buy a 360 with a HD-DVD player unless it was absolutely necessary, or if the player came for free. Why? I don't need it, or want it. I'm sure a lot of people agree with me on that point...we're not ready to upgrade our DVD collection. ;)

http://www.ropesofsilicon.com/Images/hddvd/h/hotfuzz.jpg

But you're 'speaking' for the people that do want it, or so you said. Is this your way of saying you don't have a counterargument?

What so wrong about having Hd Dvd???
Yes, people can go buy the the add-on, but the 360 would still be favoring the stander drive.

What so wrong about having Blu Ray???
Yes, many people doesn't need it...but what about those who bought it for that?They win,to tell the truth!They get to have their Blu Ray player and a Gaming console and vice versa for those who bought it for the Gaming...

http://www.ropesofsilicon.com/Images/hddvd/h/hotfuzz.jpg

The Double Trouble.

http://www.ropesofsilicon.com/Images/hddvd/h/hotfuzz.jpg

LMAO. CrAzE, I've already addressed those topics...to repeat myself would just result in the debate going around in circles. =)

Since when has the Xbox 360 HD-DvD price drop not been considered news?

If you read the forum description, the SG News forum is for discussing the articles posted on SarcasticGamer.com. =)

If you read the forum description, the SG News forum is for discussing the articles posted on SarcasticGamer.com. =)

You don't think this is News worthy?

Yet, " Why I want the PS3 to win the Console War" is?

Sarcastic Gamer News (5 Viewing)
Here's where you can talk about all of the stories you've read on Sarcastic Gamer.

Case and point. The forum's for SG News, not gaming news. Doc can have me add a forum for news if he wants, but for now, the SG News forum is for discussion of the articles posted to SG. I wasn't attempting to debate the newsworthiness of the article you posted. =)

Case and point. The forum's for SG News, not gaming news. Doc can have me add a forum for news if he wants, but for now, the SG News forum is for discussion of the articles posted to SG. I wasn't attempting to debate the newsworthiness of the article you posted. =)

Well, I was just simply posting something that I believed and thought most other people would believe would be big news. But if you honestly don't think it's 'Good enough' news, then I'm sorry for bothering you.

I completely understand! I'm glad you posted it. :) You just posted it in the wrong forum. The SG News forum is for the articles that are on the main page. For now, this is the general forum for news. Technically, this should've been in the Xbox 360 forum, but whatever.

Again, take no offense, I was just doing my job. =)

Proof of Price Drop:

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2007/07/30/more-proof-toys-r-us-ad-hints-at-360-price-cut/

CrAzE
"They should of included the Hd-Dvd on the 360....My opinion that is.Also as the Wi-fi adapter, to put those adapters integrated on the 360 wouldn't cost them much at all and I'm definitely not going to buy the external adapter, which costs $99.99. Screw that!I'm not going to get ripped off just for wireless."

Ever heard of a Betamax Player (Sony)? It competed with VHS tapes. How did VHS win the battle? Adult Films chose VHS's cheaper tapes, and the rest is history. Those who bought Beta max were left with Dinosaurs. Just like when DVD's first came out there was DIVEX vs. DVD.
M$ did not want to get stuck with Betamax or DIVEX built into their 360's. The battle still wages between Blue Ray and HD DVD and this way a 360 owner is not stuck with the loser.

What no one has brought up yet is that the HD drive with the 360 is NOT true HD. For a true HD experience you have to connect through HDMI cables. The 360 drive connect to the 360 via usb cables correct? At best you're getting an upscaled picture, which you can get from a $40 DVD player.

What no one has brought up yet is that the HD drive with the 360 is NOT true HD. For a true HD experience you have to connect through HDMI cables. The 360 drive connect to the 360 via usb cables correct? At best you're getting an upscaled picture, which you can get from a $40 DVD player.

Wow. Are you kidding me? The 360 is connected using HDMI cables then the HD-DVD player is connected to that, making it appear through the HDMI cables.

Only on the elite right? On the Premium and core it's HD-DVD--usb---360--component or VGA-----TV that means that you lost the digital signal from the HD to the 360. I'm in no way an expert on this but from what I've seen the picture isn't nearly as good.

It still kick ass but a true HD-DVD player is better.

Only on the elite right? On the Premium and core it's HD-DVD--usb---360--component or VGA-----TV that means that you lost the digital signal from the HD to the 360. I'm in no way an expert on this but from what I've seen the picture isn't nearly as good.

It still kick ass but a true HD-DVD player is better.

You do realize that it's not "video" going over that USB connection, it's data that's read from the HD-DVD and converted from the 0's and 1's into a video signal inside the 360. This is the exact same thing that happens with a stand-alone HD-DVD player... "data" is read off the disc and converted into a video signal. As long as the USB connection can handle the data transfer rate from the disc to the CPU that operates on it (and it can) then this makes absolutely no difference in the potential video quality.

And component video is very much "HD" but in this respect you need HDMI if they ever decide to enable the Image Constraint Token (ICT) part of HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) because without HDMI, the resolution of the video will be quartered.

From what I understand the 360 can output 1080p via VGA currently, but if ICT is enabled, this will cease to be a desired way to watch movies because your 1920x1080 video will be output only 960x540 (still superior to DVD). But for gaming purposes, this will likely continue to be feasible.

So bottom line, I think you're confusing "best possible way" and "only way" to view HD content and with the Elite model there is absolutely no compromise (unless you delve into the fact that they for some weird reason chose to implement an already dated HDMI 1.2 instead of the current HDMI 1.3). And for the time being, the other models of 360s can output a nearly as good quality signal.

I'm glad rothbart said it, because I didn't want Lleu's completely wrong post to pass as fact for much longer... If you don't know, now you know.

HD DVD: Format of choice for geek TV?
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9760940-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt

Ibought it when it was released but i dont use it a lot

Anyone else buy the 360's HD DVD Drive and are still waiting for the Free HD DVD's they are supposed to send you?

I think I'm going on week 7. :(

I think they're pretty strapped for postage funds after shelling out $150M to keep Paramount and Dreamworks exclusive for the next 18 months. :D

Not a bad deal at Buy.com for the HD DVD Drive at the moment:
Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player - *** BONUS: FREE 'Heroes (Season 1)' HD-DVD Set! Plus Get 5 FREE* HD-DVD Movies By Mail! (http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203249984&adid=17070&dcaid=17070) for $164.99.
Buy.com currently sells Heroes Season 1 for $69.94 by itself, so that's pretty good.

Walmart to sale HD-DVD Toshiba player for $198 (http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=22264)

Just in time for the holiday season. I'm more likely to pick this up over the 360 attachment. I'm still not sure if I want to pick one of these up this year or wait another year or two for a winner in the HD format war.

I'm in no way trying to poopoo HD-DVD (even though I think it'll lose if there is a loser), but are people in such a rush to get a sub $200 player that they're blind to what that likely means?

Yes, you'll get a signal to your HDTV much like you did when DVD players first plummeted in price. I was checking out a $2xx HD-DVD player at Best Buy the other day and the thing was an exercise in frustration. I felt like I was giving it vague suggestions of what to do when I hit buttons.

*clicks play* ... waits, wondering if the button press "took"... yes, the screen went blank... no indicator telling me that "Hey, I know you just hit PLAY, I'm getting ready to play now"... then roughly 15 seconds later, the menu popped up. From the menu, I wanted to play something... it was slower than slowwwww to respond. And once playing, pressing Stop still took like 3-4 seconds... like it had everything buffered and couldn't just "stop". Then another (surprisingly long) load until the menu popped up...

From pressing power to seeing the HD-DVD logo takes THIRTY SECONDS (http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/toshiba_HD-A2.html)...

This is exactly what a $199 HD-DVD player is going to get people... and every "dirt cheap" DVD player I've ever purchase is currently in a landfill somewhere...

To the people that blindly buy "the $198 HD-DVD player" because it's only $198. You deserve what you're going to get... I'd much rather pay a little more for a nicer "experience".

It's Christmas season and it's Walmart. It will sell. I said I'm not sure if i wanted to pick it up or not. You make a strong case to wait. There's really only three new releases that I would want a movie in HD for. Transformers, 300, and Planet Earth.

I'll probably wait until they release Star Wars in HD since I've bought every George Lucas iteration of the movies with the exception of the laser disc.

transformers was the worst blockbuster so far this millennium. sorry, can't pass up the chance to say how much transformers sucked balls.

I really like the Transformers parts of the movie. The opening scene of the Helicopter vs military base would be a great HD show off for its capabilities.

I REALLY HATED John Turturro and Anthony Anderson parts of the movie. It ruined what could have been a great action movie. But that's what Michael Bay is known for. Great Action, Cheesy Characters.

i'm restraining from pulling out the michael bay bashing... restraint.... restraint.....

All I can say (other than we're totally derailing this thread) is that I'm happy to be easily entertained. I'm more easily entertained with passive things like movies or TV than interactive media like gaming... that said, I have a list of Michael Bay movies I enjoyed.

NYA NYA nya NYA nya nya...

Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, The Rock, and Transformers. I also didn't mind watching Armageddon once (honestly, I was more sick of that damned Aerosmith song than the movie) or The Island (again, once).

I just value being easily entertained with movies and feel sorry for people that can't just sit back, relax, munch on some popcorn, drink some soda, and "escape" for a couple hours. What a chore it must be to find an "adequate" movie...

I mean come on... Michael Bay make summer popcorn flicks... it's not like he's cranking out Ewe Boll quality flicks... even I have some standards.

michael bay does have a couple gems... i'll agree with you except for transformers, and bad boys 2 is barely making the cut for me. :p

it's not a chore to find an "adequate" movie at all, but you do have to look further than the trailer that makes you drool at the special effects. special effects do not make a movie (ok occasionally they do, ie. sin city), but they're good to have along with a movie. i have about 5 directors that i think are above all of the others that are coming out with movies nowadays. robert rodriguez, tony scott, spike jonze, danny boyle, alfonzo cuaron, the coen brothers, and quentin tarantino, although he's hanging on by a thread now (ok more than 5).

as for summer blockbuster movies, there have been some great ones! not many recently, but i think of the blockbuster directors that are still in the scene, james cameron tops them all. not to say that he hasn't made some bad movies, but i think he's the best of what's out there as far as those types of movies go.

I could never bring myself to sit past the first 10-15 minutes of Sin City. I don't see what the draw was at all. That movie actively irritated me. Maybe I need to try some drugs to find it interesting or entertaining. And frankly, I feel the same way about 300. I couldn't even tell you the plot based on the advertising they've done.

Artist: Trey Parker
Song: The End of an Act

I miss you more than Michael Bay missed the mark,
When he made Pearl Harbor.
I miss you more than that movie missed the point,
And that’s an awful lot .
And now, now you've gone away,
And all I'm trying to say,
Is Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you


Now back to our regularly scheduled thread :D

quentin tarantino, although he's hanging on by a thread now.


Not sure where your going with that. Death Proof was a great classic Tarantino movie. Kill Bill 1 & 2were very fun movies. Even though I don't see him ever topping Pulp Fiction, I haven't really seen a drop-off in his movies.

CNET review of Toshiba entry level player (http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/toshiba-hd-a2/4505-6463_7-32074340.html)

Cnet review in short:

The good: Relatively inexpensive; excellent image quality on HD DVD; solid upscaling performance on DVDs; Ethernet jack for firmware upgrades; onboard Dolby TrueHD decoding; much faster load times than its predecessor.

The bad: No 1080p output; HD DVD could lose the format war; no multichannel analog outputs.

The bottom line: Offering most of the performance of more expensive players, the HD-A2 is an excellent value for budget-minded buyers looking to jump into HD DVD.

I could never bring myself to sit past the first 10-15 minutes of Sin City. I don't see what the draw was at all. That movie actively irritated me. Maybe I need to try some drugs to find it interesting or entertaining. And frankly, I feel the same way about 300. I couldn't even tell you the plot based on the advertising they've done.

the draw was that it was an adaptation from a graphic novel. the writer, frank miller, said he was shocked at how true it was able to stay to the books, and that's due to the way it was filmed. also, for the same reason, the film is groundbreaking in so many ways. robert rodgriguez has always (since desperado anyway) been known for his use of a lot of green screen in his movies, but sin city takes special effects (if you want to call it that) to a whole new level. the dialogue can be cheesy, but it's because it was taken directly from the books. like it or not, that movie hit exactly what it was trying to do.

haha, and i didn't think anyone disliked 300 (though that was a different director)!

Not sure where your going with that. Death Proof was a great classic Tarantino movie. Kill Bill 1 & 2were very fun movies. Even though I don't see him ever topping Pulp Fiction, I haven't really seen a drop-off in his movies.

i guess my problem is more with tarantino himself than his movies, which normally doesn't interfere with which movies i'll watch, but unfortunately, whenever you see robert rodriguez (my favorite and most inspiring filmmaker), QT is always there with him, saying things like, "i'm just a badass filmmaker."

it really makes me lose respect for him. i know an up and coming director needs to market himself and get his name out there, but there comes a time were modesty should kick in. something that rodriguez is full of. almost like he doesn't need to tell everyone how great he is for them to watch his movies.

The bad: No 1080p output; HD DVD could lose the format war; no multichannel analog outputs.

Fail. I wouldn't buy any HD gear now that didn't support 1080p.

haha, and i didn't think anyone disliked 300 (though that was a different director)!

I don't dislike it, I've never seen it. I was drawn 0% to watch the movie... I think my wife actually wanted to see it some negative percent! It looks super stylized, I couldn't get any idea of the plot, and all I've heard of is "effects and fighting"... for whatever reason, I've just never been bothered to watch it and don't feel like I'm missing anything...

I like effects and violence, but the whole stylized thing... meh.

Fail. I wouldn't buy any HD gear now that didn't support 1080p.

I would and any other early adopter of HDTV. Unfortunately I don't have 1080p since I bought my Mitsubishi 5 years ago. Sadly it doesn't even have HDMI.

well, it is stylized... if only in the manner it was filmed; almost completely green screened. but remember, this was also an adaptation from a graphic novel from frank miller. i saw the novel (it's not really a novel... more like a 20 page comic) and was surprised at how closely the movie followed it as well... of course the movie added a lot of stuff as well, but it is definitely entertaining to watch. what you referred to before as far as grab some popcorn and escape for a while, this movie i'd watch over transformers 8 days a week.

Captain Oveur: Rothbart, do you like movies about gladiators?

Captain Oveur: Rothbart, have you ever been to a Turkish prison?

Captain Oveur: You ever seen a grown man naked?

I would and any other early adopter of HDTV. Unfortunately I don't have 1080p since I bought my Mitsubishi 5 years ago. Sadly it doesn't even have HDMI.

Then I guess you can complete your early-adopter collection of gear. Now when you TV dies, you won't have to worry about 1080p either because all your other gear will only do 1080i...

If I were going to make the effort to intentionally buy high-def gear for my audio and video, why would I want to compromise on something as essential as resolution? When you buy technology like an HDTV five years ago that's what you get. I can't imagine the number of people that bought HDTVs five years ago is going to compare favorably to the number of people that'll adopt in the next year.

I'm just saying... it seems like you're getting a "less crappy" model than the one before it and it's missing what I would consider a "key" feature. When the main bragging points are how much better it is than last year's (arguably bad) model, that's not the same thing as saying it's a great piece of equipment.

I agree with that. I doubt most early adopters of HDTVs shop at Walmart for high def gear either. But I'm sure there are alot of small town yokels that will buy an HD player and put it on an analog tv and talk about "how perty a picture its gettin." Especially if this is part of a Black Friday promotion for Walmart.

It definitely sucks sometimes to be an early adopter on technology. You know what I'm saying since you own the PS3.:p

It definitely sucks sometimes to be an early adopter on technology. You know what I'm saying since you own the PS3.:p

The funny part is that I owned a PS3 before (I knew) I owned a 360... the 360 is the one with the "early adopter" hardware though... the PS3 early adopter "issues" has only been with software... and much more easily fixable.

Oddly enough, each consecutive 360 I get back from the repair center has an earlier manunfacture date than the one before them... I'm afraid they're eventually going to send me an original Xbox back! :eek:

You should really do a rant about your 360 hardware issues.:)

Anyone else buy the 360's HD DVD Drive and are still waiting for the Free HD DVD's they are supposed to send you?

I think I'm going on week 7. :(
Wow! My 5 free HD DVDs have finally arrived. :D
It only took close to 4 months. :mad: