Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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157 of 187 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent entry-level HD DVD Player, December 15, 2006
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I've been using this Xbox HD-DVD player for almost a month now and so far it works just great. I actually had no plans to buy either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD until one of those losers became a dominate player. Unfortunately it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon. And for $200, I couldn't pass it up since I already had an Xbox. And I couldn't bring myself to keep buying low-def regular DVD's with these awesome HD DVD's out there. AND, the HD DVD combo discs still have regular DVD content for normal DVD players in other rooms in the house.
Out of the box, this drive is extremely easy to setup. Just pop in the setup CD, plug it in, and you're ready to go. There is a separate power cord as well. The included remote is nice, but I'll stick with my Harmony 880. It's able to control all the basic functions of the player. The player is also unable take advantage of the improved audio quality of HD-DVD, so you just get the normal "good" audio quality you had with previous DVD's. Which isn't bad, but still somewhat disappointing. Otherwise, all the menu's work nicely, the player starts up fairly quick, and the picture quality is awesome - for component video at least.
Component is probably the biggest negative I can think of - and that's really due to the Xbox 360's fault, not the player itself. If you think HD DVD looks good on your xbox component connection in 1080i, just wait until you see it via your HDMI port in 1080i or even 1080p (if your TV accept 1080p and is big enough to take advantage of such a high res). Unfortunately, there is no word of HDMI for the xbox. So you only get 1080i via the Component connection. To get 1080p, you need the VGA cable, which has a somewhat better picture.
So I bought the VGA cable. The picture does look a little better on my 61' Samsung HL-S6187W since it's also at 1080p, but there is a 1-3" border around the screen, and the image is tilted. Samsung had no idea how to fix it. But I suspected that might happen since a TV with a VGA port is still a TV, not a PC Monitor. Your results will of course vary depending on your model TV.
The VGA port limitations aren't that big of a deal. If you REALLY want 1080p, you just need HDMI - period. I'll live with 1080i via Component for now until the 1080p players come down in price. In the meantime, at least I've got some awesome looking HD movies to watch on my new TV!
Pros:
* Cheapest HD-DVD solution if you have an XBox 360
* Easy to setup
* Accepts IR from your universal remote via the Xbox
* Great picture quality
* Includes Microsoft Remote and free King-Kong HD-DVD
* UPDATE: HDMI Output (with Xbox 360 Elite Only)
Cons:
* Only outputs 1080i via Component (VGA required for 1080p)
* VGA output has limitations, both due to Xbox and/or your TV
* Can't take advantage of HD-DVD improved audio quality formats
Bottom line, if you have an Xbox 360, and have a HD TV, you've gotta pick one of these up. You just can't go wrong for a $200 entry-level HD player!
*** ELITE/HDMI UPDATE ***
Just purchased the Xbox 360 Elite w/ HDMI. This HD DVD player is even more awesome than before. We just watched the entire Matrix Trilogy in HD DVD in 1080p on the 61" Samsung DLP - and it looked awesome. When compared to component, the HDMI picture is much more crisp, detailed, and even better black levels. Definately recommended!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost perfect, December 8, 2006
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
Microsoft has released the HD-DVD drive as an obvious counterstrike to the PS3's Blu-Ray capability, but the drive is much more than a bullet point in the console & format war.
PROS: The HD-DVD drive is quite simply the most efficient and cost-effective HD solution for those of us that already own XBOX 360s. However, even if you were to consider buying a 360 with the HD-DVD drive solely for movie watching, it is still very competetively priced compared to the stand-alone models. Adding to its value, the package includes Microsoft's Universal Remote, and a copy of King Kong on HD DVD. The picture and sound quality is superb, as advertised, almost identical to the quality produced from Toshiba's newer HD DVD model. Add all this to the fact that installation and operation is quick and seamless, with load times for discs quicker than that of the Toshiba. Finally, for those of you with super-nice TVs, at the time of release the XBox 360 HD DVD drive is the only HD source (apart from Blu-Ray) that is capable of outputting in 1080p (full HD), if you have a TV that will accept a native 1080p signal.
CONS: There is only one real 'con' that I can think of - the drive's lack of HDMI connectivity. Although you can view the stunning 1080i picture over the XBox's HD component cables, for (I believe) copyright protection reasons you can't output HD DVD picture over component, despite the cable's capability. Therefore, if you want to take full advantage of the drive's picture capabilities, you'll have to utilize the seperately-sold VGA HD cable ($39.99), and this will only work if you have an 1080p HD monitor with PC/VGA input. Even with this, on my TV (Samsung 1080p DLP), a little black box is drawn around the picture frame, which slightly reduces the picture size, despite the increadible quality. Also worth mentioning is that while the drive has the same upconversion cababilities as the other HD DVD & Blu-Ray models for standard DVDs, this too is only obtainable through use of the VGA cable. Finally, without HDMI, the drive can't make full use of the newest HD Dolby Digital & DTS surround audio tracks, instead downconverting to the standard DD & DTS tracks you're used to on standard DVDs (still good quality, though).
In conclusion, the drive is fantastic, a tremendous value. Although the capability range of the drive is limited through the lack of HDMI connectivity, for most people this isn't going to be an important factor. Most people, even those with nice HDTVs, don't have 1080p TVs or 7.1 channel audio receivers with HD decoding capabilities. Hopefully, though, Microsoft will eventually produce an HDMI port for the XBox, which will unleash the drive's potential. In the meantime, this wonderful, small HD DVD player will be more than sufficient for most everyone looking to step in to the world of True HD (even those of us that can currently get around the 1080p issue with an extra cable).
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Little Add-On, January 23, 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a great product if you already own the XBOX 360. As everyone has already mentioned, it's no-brainer for $200.
Pros:
· Incredible 1080i picture that blows away any HD transmission from your cable/satellite provider even at 1080i - at least on my HDTV.
· Runs much quieter than the noisy regular DVD drive of the XBOX 360
· Up-scales regular DVDs. I did a real-time comparison with a regular DVD movie and quickly switched it from the XBOX 360 regular DVD tray and then into the HD-DVD player. I witnessed an incredible upscale in visual quality to the point that it was almost as good as an actual HD-DVD movie. The other amazing thing about my little experiment was that since both drives are "powered" through the same XBOX 360 processor/"brain", upon switching from one drive to the next, the XBOX was "smart" enough to pick up right where I stopped to the exact second in the scene from the regular DVD player. I was pretty impressed by that. Not sure how I would apply that again in the future, but it was cool nonetheless.
Cons - And it's a major one if you own any of the Sony SXRD line of HD TVs:
· No HDMI output = No 1080p picture if you own a Sony SXRD line of HDTVs like me. I have the amazing Sony SXRD 50" rear projection LCD TV which defies logic at how sharp the picture is and how vivid the colors are in HD. With that said, I have yet to enjoy a 1080p picture on it because: 1) My cable provider transmits only a 720p/1080i picture (which I believe every satellite/cable provider is currently limited to in the US), and 2) XBOX 360 can only "transmit" a 1080p picture through a VGA cable. Though my TV does have a VGA input, a 1080p picture can only be possible utilizing the HDMI inputs.
· Conflicting XBOX Helpdesk support- When talking to XBOX support, their helpdesks gave me conflicting advise about whether or not my TV would project a 1080p picture through my VGA input. However, when I touched base with Sony, they were quite clear that the VGA connection for my TV would only go up to 1080i. The HDMI cable was necessary for 1080p.
You might say, "So freakin' what?" However, when you've paid a considerable amount of money for a TV that has 1080p capability over a substantially less expensive TV that can only go up to 720p/1080i - you get the drift.
Hopefully, Microsoft can come up with a HDMI solution for current XBOX 360 owners (not just the rumored XBOX 360 version 2) and this problem will be solved. All in all, despite all of this 1080p nonsense, the HD player is a solid little add-on and I still highly recommend it.
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