Xbox 360 HD-DVD £129 November 7

[JAMESTALKALOT]

To conclude this exhilarating roundup of the X06 bombshells we can confirm that the hugely anticipated HD DVD player will launch on November 7 – just a few short weeks away. The player will come bundled with a Universal Media Remote and, for a limited time only, a copy of Peter Jackson’s amazing King Kong, also in HD DVD format. All for just €199.99, or a mere £129.99 in the UK.



:eek:

As somebody who has a 360 already and a HD telly I can't tell you how good this news is :)

It will tide me over until a REAL HD player comes down in price.

Nice one Microsoft (Never thought I would say that :) )


EDIT: Pics and mini review on page 2

[JAMESTALKALOT]

My Xbox 360 just died last night :( Random freezes then the 3 red lights of death.

Back it goes in a wee while to Argos for another one :D It's less than 6 months old. :rolleyes:

[TheThirdLeg]

I have seen a demo of King Kong on HD-DVD and i have to say it looked amazing. It was on a 50" plasma and still looked great.

[JAMESTALKALOT]

My Xbox 360 just died last night :( Random freezes then the 3 red lights of death.

Back it goes in a wee while to Argos for another one :D It's less than 6 months old.

Got a new one from Argos. I had to haggle a good bit because they said I could not get a swap only a repair (yea right)...Some talk about small claims court from me and I came away with a brand new 360 ;)

To be fair, the girls in the shop did there best to help me and in the end, after they did a lot of calling they got me the new 360...Thing was though; I never for 1 second thought that I would come out the shop without a new 360...It's the bloody law and they did not have a leg to stand on :D

[JAMESTALKALOT]

So is anybody going for one of these? I've got it on pre-order from Sendit.com but don't know if i'll keep the order....I may just wait a while and let HD and BD battle it out.

[Hubbs]

its all 2 soon :( no need,rushed,boo

[StuartBannerman]

Question: i have a 36 inch 100 htz tv, NOT HD though.......will i benefit from watching DVDs through the x box 360 add-on if i get one or shouldnt i bother with one until i upgrade the TV

[JAMESTALKALOT]

Question: i have a 36 inch 100 htz tv, NOT HD though.......will i benefit from watching DVDs through the x box 360 add-on if i get one or shouldnt i bother with one until i upgrade the TV


I would think that it would not make much difference....If you buy the add on though you would want to use the 720p 1080i and even the 1080p if you could...With HD dvd now out HD TV prices will fall quick ;) (This Jan sale the year of the HD TV bargain? :confused: ;) )


Part of my brain just about let me go and buy one of these HD players now that they are in some shops, but I've stuck to my guns and I'm not going to get one for at least 6 months to a year.

I know some people on another forum who have the Add-on and there's no extras on the free King Kong you get? Why does it feel like the early days of DVD? Are we expected to now double dip on HD DVD every year when a better version comes out, like we do with DVD? You just know this first batch of HD movies will come out again later on with new packaging and better HD exclusive extras.

Since we would probably have most of the HD DVDs on SD DVD already, any SE that comes out on HD is going to be tripple dipping for those who buy these at the moment. It's just crazy and you need to know when to draw the line.

I hope Blu Ray and HD DVD do a Spice Girls on us. (2 become 1) :D

[JAMESTALKALOT]

I ordered this with Christmas money (it was burning a hole in my pocket) so I'll give a review when it turns up :D

Also ordered Mission Impossible trilogy set in HD off course :)

Thing is. I don't know if you get the King Kong DVD free still and the remote? If not I might not keep it and buy it when it's cheaper or has more freebies. :D

Reading about HD dvds MI3 seems like the disc to show it off. Extras are also in HD :D and it's the first (I think) 2 disc HD set.

[TheThirdLeg]

Where did you order from James as i hear they are in short supply. Its crazy that there is a lack of units here when there is an excess of them on US shelves.

[JAMESTALKALOT]

Where did you order from James as i hear they are in short supply. Its crazy that there is a lack of units here when there is an excess of them on US shelves.

Amazon uk mate. Keep an eye open as they seem to pop onto the site now and again, but you need to be quick because when they do, they are maybe online for an hour or less :D

Avforums or dvdtimes forums are your best bet if you're looking out for one as when a site has them somebody will post saying so.

[harley69]

i really really want a hd-dvd drive!!!
but they sold out on play.com
:(

[JAMESTALKALOT]

As promised...Pics of the 360 HD-DVD player and some views.

First off all I want to moan a bit...

Menus...HATE them...I really hate them...they are bland and boring...Rubbish! Hope these are better on other/future releases (only have King Kong and Serenity at the moment both by Universal)

The box...I hate this as well...It just a rubbish odd size Amaray :mad:

Extras in standard def...Oh my god do those suck...I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong but the extras are in letterboxed (top and bottom) windows...They look really bad....GET ALL EXTRAS IN HD OR DON'T BOTHER studios :mad:

Sound...Theres going to be an update to the 360 soonish, so the sound will be better but I've read the sound on this is not up to par with other HD drives (sounds fine to me though but this is something to consider if you buy one)

Ok rant over..


Good things...Pic quality is AMAZING...I really is that good.

The size of the 360 drive is very nice indeed and the remote lights up and is very cool...I like the remote a lot :D

Worth the cash? Don't know really...maybe not...Sure it's a very cheap way (though it's still not CHEAP if you know what I mean) of having HD movies if you already have a HD telly and a 360, but I just don't think the time is right to dive into the world of HD...Keep on collection cheap quality DVDs (like I will still be doing):D

Sure I'll get the odd HD dvd but my heart still belongs to plain old DVD

[JAMESTALKALOT]

Pics since I can only add so much text
*See post above for mini review of this*
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/4556/a12cz.th.jpg (http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=a12cz.jpg)
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/4784/a24sr.th.jpg (http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=a24sr.jpg)

(What the DVD tray menu looks like when you have the HD player plugged in (it's a split eject between the 2 360 drives)
[/IMG][/URL]
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8742/as32ao.th.jpg (http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=as32ao.jpg)

I just need to tidy my cables now :D

[harley69]

yay i might be getting a 360 HD dvd drive this saturday cos they are £10 cheaper in argos
:D

[JAMESTALKALOT]

yay i might be getting a 360 HD dvd drive this saturday cos they are £10 cheaper in argos
:D

But they don't have King Kong :p ;)

[harley69]

yeah i no :(
and there all out of stock too!!!!!!!!!

[JAMESTALKALOT]

I said I hate the HD-DVD menus. Well I've now got 2 WB discs and they are much better than Universals.

I still like the old style menus though, even though you have to leave the movie I still like them better :D

[harley69]

the xbox 360 HD-DVD drive is back in stock on play.com
130 pound :confused: to whether i should buy it :confused:

[JAMESTALKALOT]

the xbox 360 HD-DVD drive is back in stock on play.com
130 pound :confused: to whether i should buy it :confused:

It's back in stock most places (Amazon/HMV...) but it's still £129.99 without Kong?....Mmmmm, Argos does not have Kong, but at least it's £10 less so you can use that £10 to get Kong online :D ...Or Serenity...Amazon UK were selling it for £11.45....Either way both are some of the best HD-DVD has to offer (pic quality wise) at the moment.

If I could got back to before I got the HD-DVD drive though I really would not bother...Simply because I'm now on my 3rd Xbox 360 in under a year...ten months to be exact (that's brand new 360 and not some refurb rubbish)

The 360 just is not a very long lasting piece of hardware and breaks all the time for a millions reasons....either way, sooner of later you will get 3 red lights of death and you will not be able to watch your HD-DVD movies...Sure the HD-DVD drive works with a PC but it will need to be pretty beefy and I don't think there are very good drivers out for it at the moment?

I just wish I had waited on those under £30 HD combo drives coming out :D

[StuartBannerman]

hi james.
i would like to know more about the dying 360s. Ive had mine for just over a year and will admit its not used that much. But its being used more and more as i find myself getting into Windows Media Centre side of things.
Are there any common faults that you have found with the 360s and how perhaps i can prevent them.

[JAMESTALKALOT]

hi james.
i would like to know more about the dying 360s. Ive had mine for just over a year and will admit its not used that much. But its being used more and more as i find myself getting into Windows Media Centre side of things.
Are there any common faults that you have found with the 360s and how perhaps i can prevent them.

Mate I really don't know. I looked after my 2nd 360 like it was my own kid and still it died without reason.

If you read through the MANY bad posts about the 360 around the net they all seems to say about the heat causing the solder to the GPU to crack after a while...so then you get a check like pattern on your screen and the game/360 will freeze...it will do this for a bit then you will get 3 red lights meaning your console is dead.

Here's is a list of faults incase you ever have one, you can see if it's easy to fix.
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=484726

My last console died of the E71 error...it's supposed to be an error from the Oct update but it did not bother my 360 till Jan, so that's not the only thing to cause it...Could have been the HD-DVD drive? But it did not happen right away so it really can't be that...Looking around for info on the E71 it seems it's the BIOS that need to be re-flashed after being corrupt for whatever reason...This error WILL lead to random freezing....freezing at startup almost always forcing you to start/switch off the system till it works and then after a few weeks of use... 3 red lights.

Did you see it on Watchdog the other night? At last its been on that...it was not a very good spot but at least they are having people contact them about this issue and say...look there's a problem here....I'm on a 360 forum and there's about 70 pages of faults in ONE THREAD :eek:

I love the 360 but it's a poorly made system.

Top things not to do to your 360 -

Keep it out in the open...don't pack it into a shelf that's too tight...make sure it can breathe.

DON'T EVER turn/move your 360 with a disc in it...it will kill your disc in seconds.

DON'T turn off the power with the disc in the drive...it can crack your disc...Always open the disc tray and take out the disc before you power down to be safe.

DON'T buy that crappy extra cooling thing for the 360..If your 360 overheats and it's well vented then it's broke...No point in spending cash on something that should not be needed.

[smoth]

Got my HD drive at the weekend but as yet have only managed to watch a bit of Fellowship of the Ring ( which looked ace, even though it wasn't upscaled at all..)

Now i just need someone to confirm that its definately multi-region for HD discs...(...im taking no chances here...)

If that's the case then its off to Amazon for me.. :D

[JAMESTALKALOT]

Got my HD drive at the weekend but as yet have only managed to watch a bit of Fellowship of the Ring ( which looked ace, even though it wasn't upscaled at all..)

Now i just need someone to confirm that its definately multi-region for HD discs...(...im taking no chances here...)

If that's the case then its off to Amazon for me.. :D


All HD discs are multi region on HD-DVD at the moment. So it's safe to order what you want:)


The 360 will upscale SD DVD through a VGA cable (so I read) though it's not worth the bother.

[smoth]

The 360 will upscale SD DVD through a VGA cable (so I read) though it's not worth the bother.

I've got the VGA cable and i have to say that i'm well impressed at image quality..

Have tried a few SD discs now and the likes of LOTR and Pitch Black look superb..

Even The Matrix looks great..although the CGI is starting to look old..

My mate however is having image issues with his...so maybe it's one of those hit and miss things...

[Hubbs]

HALO 3,i want it big time,any info needed badly.

hope its good.

whats the beat em up scene like for the 360?
any capcom classics?