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Xbox 360 HD-DVD player.
Greenleaf
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The Xbox 360 HD DVD player, a 200 dollar 'flicker show' machine.
I've been reading reviews on the HD DVD player but I can only find reviews praising the player for its relatively low price. The downside of the player, really the only downside that I've heard, is the lack of a HDMI cable? I'm not a savvy fella. I have only begun my adventure into the unknown world of HD and its various components so I only have a vague idea of the neccessity of this fabled missing cable port.
Any dispensed advice or info that you have on the HD DVD player would be incredibly helpful because I'm still not entirely sure why the top-end purpose of the HDMI cable is so essential. Also, what's the deal with the Xbox Live and HD DVD Player, exactly? I've read that you can download HD movies/shows and play them on your HD player? If so, what's the downloadable library looking like right now and what are the fees. (outside of regular XBL fees)
I've been reading reviews on the HD DVD player but I can only find reviews praising the player for its relatively low price. The downside of the player, really the only downside that I've heard, is the lack of a HDMI cable? I'm not a savvy fella. I have only begun my adventure into the unknown world of HD and its various components so I only have a vague idea of the neccessity of this fabled missing cable port.
Any dispensed advice or info that you have on the HD DVD player would be incredibly helpful because I'm still not entirely sure why the top-end purpose of the HDMI cable is so essential. Also, what's the deal with the Xbox Live and HD DVD Player, exactly? I've read that you can download HD movies/shows and play them on your HD player? If so, what's the downloadable library looking like right now and what are the fees. (outside of regular XBL fees)
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If you don't have a 360 yet wait for the "elite" model which will be released fairly soon, it includes an HDMI port. HDMI isn't as important as some people make it out to be either, btw. It is just considered the best connection but VGA and component are both great and both can send out 1080p signals from the 360 now.
I just picked up a used HD-DVD player, $150, so you might want to look around EBStop for one. It doesn't come with King Kong but, meh, who cares.
HDMI is just an interface/cable for connecting your HD player to your devices. It supports 1080p video at 60Hz and 8-channel audio in compressed and uncompressed formats, including DTS, Dolby Digital, and the newer HD audio formats.
It's basically a new way to hook up your shit. The Xbox 360 Elite will have HDMI support, so if you really want to use a 360 as a fully-featured HD-DVD player, that's the way to go.
For movies available see http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/moviestv/?WT.svl=nav Honestly, I'd be tempted to just rent my films for the moment, and let the war burn out over the rest of the year.
No. That'd be great, but no. The Elite still has just a DVD drive, therefore cannot read HD-DVDs.
The two are completely and totally unrelated. Not connected at all. You don't need an HD-DVD drive to play downloaded movies because when you download things, they go on the 360's hard drive. The HD-DVD drive plays HD-DVD discs. They have nothing to do with one another whatsoever. I suppose it needs to be said that you have to have a Premium system, or if you have a Core system, buy a hard drive otherwise there's no place for the movies to download to. Also, the downloaded movies look like absolute ass compared to an HD-DVD. Resolution and bitrate are way the fuck higher on an HD-DVD. Consider that an HD-DVD is 15-30GB of 1080p video and an "HD" movie downloaded from Xbox Live is only 4-5GB of 720p video. And the downloaded movies are rental only, which means you can watch it as many times as you want for 24 hours, then you have to "rent" it again. TV shows you can download and watch forever.
See, from the way I understand it, all the HD-DVD player does it connect to the 360 via USB. There is no other connections on it, that is all done from the 360 unit itself. Tis why the Elite will allow you to do HDMI.
Is also why you can hook it up to your PC and use it as an HD-DVD drive.
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Meh, they're not even that inevitable. And if you don't have a 1080p television, not having HDMI isn't even a big deal. Currently, no studios have any plans to start using the ICTs. It'll likely change eventually, but nobody's really that enthusiastic about them.
The "external player" is not a player. It's just a drive. It has no decoding, scaling or output capabilities. All it does is read the information on the disk and sends it to the 360 (or PC) which then decodes/scales/outputs the video to your display. And while you can potentially use it with your PC, I think it's best if you keep it simple and just use it via your 360.
downloaded content?
360 Gamertag: Baronskatenbass Steam: BaronVonSnakPak HgL: AnsonLuap
The thing is, if the Xbox 360, with its lack of HDMI, becomes the dominant player for HDDVD, they're never going to turn that crap on in the first place.
You don't need the HDDVD drive for downloaded content as it is.
but wouldnt the hdmi port improve the quality of the downloaded content?
360 Gamertag: Baronskatenbass Steam: BaronVonSnakPak HgL: AnsonLuap
Buddy, if you can tell the difference between HDMI and VGA (on a compressed video stream no less), then by all means throw your current 360 away (or send it to me; I'll even pay shipping) and grab the Elite. I personally can't unless I'm using a magnifying glass.
You can buy as many HDMI cables as you want, you just won't have any place on the 360 to plug them in to.
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So if I want true 720p, then I need the HD-DVD player? I could care less about HDMI, since from what I know component is the same thing minus copy protection.
*sigh*
all the HD DVD player has is a USB cord, one that you plug into the 360, or a PC. that's all it has. After that, whatever the 360 can output to, the HD-DVD player can use. Literally all the HD-DVD player is is a drive to read the discs, it sends the data over USB to the 360, and the 360 does all the work.
Ahhhh lamesauce. I...I thought the HD-DVD player was cool.
This is making me think that a PS3 isn't too bad after all. I mean, the 360 HD-DVD has to convert the signal how many times? PS3 is just once.
if you already have a 360, the HD DVD player is a really good deal actually, and even if you don't, you can buy it and plug it into your PC, fully supported on XP and Vista, and have a $200 external HD-DVD drive for your PC. If I had any interest in the next gen formats, I'd actually buy one for a media center PC.
Oh yeah, that actually does sound right to me. In that case, I can accept it.
I believe your right.
Also it works with the Mac as well, not that I know if there is HD-DVD software for the Mac, but still. It also has a usb hub so you can still plug stuff into the back.
from left to right the holes are: Power, USB in, USB out, USB out.
Normal DVDs are encoded at 480i/480p. There are no optical media formats that use 720p. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are both encoded at 1080p, which will be downscaled by the player to whatever the maximum resolution your television can display unless you specify some other resolution supported by your television.
DVDs will be upscaled to 720p by either your television or the 360, though both do a shitty job of it and likely won't look any better than normal 480i/p content. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will be downscaled to 720p on your television, which will look way the fuck better than any regular DVD and most native 720p content because it's effectively supersampled 720p. If you want high definition content, 720p/1080i/1080p, you need to get an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player.
And to clarify the HDMI situation, just forget about it. You cannot use an HDMI cable with a 360. The way the HD-DVD add-on drive (IT IS NOT A PLAYER) works is that it plugs into the 360 via USB and the 360 decodes and scales the video and sends it to your TV. You don't hook the HD-DVD add-on drive to your TV. It connects to the 360 or a PC. That's it. Whichever box you hook it to, the 360 or a PC, is what outputs the video, and the 360 does not support HDMI. So forget about HDMI. Use the component or VGA cable for the 360 and that's it.
I've already posted this information. The data on the HD-DVD disc is read by the HD-DVD add-on drive which is sent via USB to the 360 where it's decoded and scaled to whatever the output resolution is. It is then sent to your TV. There is only one D/A conversion. And to be honest, I have no idea why you're so concerned about how many times it gets converted from digital to analog when you don't have any semblance of a concept of how a simple console add-on works.
Personally, I recommend you buy a PS3 just so you stop asking retarded questions.
And it's not wonky. It connects the same way as every other console peripheral ever made.
You would also need a receiver that can decode Dolby TrueHD, and if you've got that kind of money you might as well get a dedicated player anyway.