Finding antique electronics

Nakatomi2010

So, I've made the decision to retire my Media Center PC. She's served me well over the years, but lately I've been having so side issues that I've decided that it's just not worth my time constantly correct issues.

So, here's the problem with that thought. When I original built the PC I bought a HDDVD/BluRay drive thinking that which ever lost, I'd win since I could still play both. Here we are a few years later, and I'm now feeling like a BetaMax movie owner.

The challenge for me is that as all the major players in town have stopped selling HDDVD players, I must resort to the great internet in finding whatever players are left. I know there's eBay, but I'd much rather finding one in the box, if it's possible...

Where would one go to find antique equipment? Short of getting lucky and finding it on Woot one day.

corky842

I think the Xbox 360 HDDVD player still works with its current OS or dashboard or whatever. You might be able to find one of those. When HDDVD lost, they went on clearance for crazy cheap. Heck, I'll trade you mine (barely used) for your HTPC :P

Nakatomi2010

I don't own an xbox 360, so that HDDVD player is not an option. Unfortunately.

I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to handle retiring the HTPC. My wife and I are planning on cutting our FiOS TV service, and were going to use the HTPC's TV Tuner to record broadcast channels, specifically CBS, and have it act as a DVR. Though honestly I can rebuild the system for that purpose and if it failed it would not be as detrimental. Right now if the HTPC fails, I lose all entertainment functions, except TV. So that's obviously got to stop.

Sir Carcass

I'm pretty sure the 360 HD-DVD player will also work on a computer through USB. I have one and haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure I remember reading it somewhere.

bobmyknob

Take the drive out and put it in the new HTPC?

Rook

Sir Carcass wrote: »

I'm pretty sure the 360 HD-DVD player will also work on a computer through USB. I have one and haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure I remember reading it somewhere.

I had one, and yeah, it does exactly that.

useless4

If your blu/hd drive is still good why not rebuild your htpc over with that drive as the center?

Decius

The problem with HD-DVD drives isn't the physical hardware itself. I own two combo drives. The problem is finding software to run the HD-DVD side of things that is also compatible with current operating systems.

I have a stand-alone HD-DVD player that I bought off eBay. I was looking for a backup recently, in case this one kicks the bucket, and the prognosis isn't good. There are very few HD-DVD players still available on eBay, especially if you are looking for something that does 1080p.

Sorry I don't have good new

darkgrue

The PC+360 HD-DVD drive situation isn't hopeless.

MPlayer supposedly should play HD-DVD.

ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre 3 Platinum plays HD-DVD (so does the other Version2), it's pay software. I've used this at home on Windows 7 with the 360 drive, so I know that works.

CyberLink PowerDVD 8 doesn't include HD-DVD, they dumped it from the code base when Toshiba threw in the towel. However, if you can find a copy of PowerDVD Ultra (version 7.3) it does include that support.

Other than eBay for used or NOS stand-alone players, I can't really suggest much. It's a dead standard, so I don't think even knockoff manufacturers are going to make them.

Nakatomi2010

I'm trying to retire the HTPC, I want to shift to stand alone units to play movies and things, only because my current HTPC has taken so much of my time in trying to fix it when something goes wrong. On a couple of occasions my wife and I were all set to watch a movie, only to discover my HTPC decided to take an extended leave of abscence.

She's served me well, but in our busy lifestyle, I no longer have time to perform maintenance on this guy. It's time for it to retire.