Hedge your bets in the HD War - the PS3 for $1050 & XBOX HD-DVD drive for $200

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Hedge your bets in the HD War - the PS3 for $1050 & XBOX HD-DVD drive for $200

AceVPD

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Master Geek

#13072 20-Apr-2007 21:20

Hedge your bets on who is going to win the HD war & buy one of each :)
PS3 has a Blu Ray drive & the HD-DVD drive works on an XBOX 360 or on XP or Vista (>3.2G) using Power DVD Ultra

Ps3 for $1050 ($150 off)
http://www.ferrit.co.nz/3876514.html

X-Box HD-DVD drive with King Kong & remote for $200 ($50 off)
http://www.ferrit.co.nz/3782046.html

Ace

[Moderator edit (bradstewart): Hyperlinked]

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#67937 20-Apr-2007 21:29

yes but you still need a PC or XBOX360, which makes them around the same price, unless you are getting a PC

weblordpepe

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#67939 20-Apr-2007 21:32

My money is on HDDVD.

Because it doesnt hold as much as BluRay, and it runs on Windows. And its name sounds more like its a newer extention to the DVD / CD family (its a bunch of letters, not a name).

bradstewart

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#67940 20-Apr-2007 21:34

Well HD-DVD is a much better name. Blu Ray could be anything, sounds more like something you want to avoid or Dr Evil would use to try take over the world with.

I'm getting an Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive for my PC, I had the use of one for a while(with quite a few HD movies from the States) and it was really good so keen to get my own.

STI

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#67949 20-Apr-2007 23:58

I would like to get a XBOX HD DVD drive however my graphics card and monitor isn't HDCP supported. Bradstewart which DVD player are you going to be using with XBOX HD drive?

bradstewart

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#67950 21-Apr-2007 00:00

WinDVD HD at this stage

Fossie

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#67951 21-Apr-2007 00:17

You can watch Hd-dvd movies without HDCp..using a sneaky application.
Im backing HD-dvd, im getting the xbox drive in the near future.

richms

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#67959 21-Apr-2007 02:38

My money is on HD-DVD (if I had any that is ;) ) - simply because of microsoft and the 360 making for a very cheap playback system. It will be like what the PS2 was to DVD.

Sony ruined beta, ruined minidisc, backed their own obscure atrac format in the face of the iPod and MP3 marking the end of the walkman generation and are also the ones that are releasing broken normal DVD's that wont even play on their own gear. Look how far sacd got - thats another sony.

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lchiu7

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#67971 21-Apr-2007 10:22

richms: My money is on HD-DVD (if I had any that is ;) ) - simply because of microsoft and the 360 making for a very cheap playback system. It will be like what the PS2 was to DVD.

Sony ruined beta, ruined minidisc, backed their own obscure atrac format in the face of the iPod and MP3 marking the end of the walkman generation and are also the ones that are releasing broken normal DVD's that wont even play on their own gear. Look how far sacd got - thats another sony.

Probably both will survive in the end with the advent of dual format players. I myself plan to get a PS3 in the US since I don't want to be restricted by the region coding of BluRay. But ultimately content will decide this war and BluRay (despite Sony) has many more content providers than HD DVD.

Also as an aside the HD DVD and BluRay encrpyption has been hacked though of course they are busily out there invalidating the players keys that were hacked. BluRay has a second layer of protection BD+(?) which might turn the tide as far as content providers are concerned

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

richms

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#68003 21-Apr-2007 14:02

Yeah, at least there is scope for dual format players, which is a luxury that the tape formats didn't have because of the physical sizes. Still, if anyone can ruin it, sony can...

Richard rich.ms

lotech

126 posts

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#68024 21-Apr-2007 17:55

I think more than anything, once the 2 formats actually get the momentum and maturity of normal people (your parents etc) to use them most of the world will have switched to online distribution for their HD needs. Its like SkyTV in NZ - if you don't offer it some of us will just get it online. AppleTV as such devices (maybe even the XBOX360 - if M$ doesn't screw it up) are the true future of HD content.
This especially true in our Monopoly of paytv operators in NZ.
But to that - $200 for a External HD-DVD Drive (360/PC Compat) a Programmable Remote and King Kong - is the deal of the year. Our internet speeds still suck here so getting at least some of my media needs without a week long wait is worth the cash.

Also another reason HDDVD might win - No Regions (for now) Sony have once again made it a pain for someone to legitimately buy a BluRay on holiday - I just got Children of Men while in the states - no such luck if you're locked into your NZ PS3.

lotech

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#68027 21-Apr-2007 18:05

Oh - and my $200 HD-DVD is on its way....

lotech

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#68174 23-Apr-2007 15:40

Seems that the price popped back up to $250 today - maybe a weekend stuff up?
Oh well I got my order in - lets see if they honor it.

AceVPD

137 posts

Master Geek

#68189 23-Apr-2007 17:21

Yeah, it must have changed today. I had it in my cart but hadn't purchased it yet. My cart has now come up with an error & it has been removed. It was also on my wishlist & at $200 & that has changed to $250 :(

My mate has over 30 Blu-ray discs so I ordered the PS3 last Thursday (which by the way is $1050 until the end of the month). If he didn't have all those discs I wouldn't have ordered the PS3 & would have brought the HD-DVD drive. May still buy the HD-DVD drive to go with my HTPC depending on the Auckland rental shops stocking of HD DVD discs.

Ace

gehenna

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#68300 24-Apr-2007 13:33

doesn't help that both Blockbuster Video and the CD/DVD Store are going with Blu-ray over HD DVD..... read http://nothing-safe.blogspot.com

mixja

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#68304 24-Apr-2007 13:45

Interesting that Bluray appears to be outselling HD-DVD by at least 2 to 1 if not more.

Amazon carry five times as much stock of Bluray as they do of HD-DVD.

This may of course be a regional thing - US might be more pro-Bluray because of the early PS3 launch there, whereas Europe might be more pro-HDDVD due to the late PS3 launch.

Region coding is interesting - studios do not have to region code if they don't want to. For example, Warner Home Video release all titles are region free. Some studios release titles that are region coded but can play back in other regions. Some titles are region coded and only play back in the region. So what I think was put in place to give flexibility to the content providers has made for a very confusing mess for the consumer.

My pick is that once Universal support Bluray (I think this is only a matter of time, especially if Bluray continues to outsell HD-DVD as it is now), the war will be over. Consumers will want access to all movies regardless of studio, and with Universal on board, only Bluray would actually offer this.

The fact that Microsoft did not include the HD-DVD drive with the XBox 360 Elite also sends a very clear message as to the confidence they have in the format. And Microsoft's claim that users will never use the PS3 as a video player is so crap - I use my PS3 primarily for watching HD content, whether it be Bluray movies or HD MPEG2/MPEG4 content I've got off the net...loving it...

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