Xbox 360 HD DVD Player

The Xbox 360 HD DVD Player was a discontinued accessory for the Xbox 360 console that enabled the playback of movies on HD DVD discs. Microsoft offered the drive for sale between November 2006 and February 2008.

Bill Gates announced during his keynote speech at CES 2006 that an external HD DVD drive would be released for the Xbox 360 during 2006. [ [http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jan06/01-04CES06PR.mspx "Gates Outlines Vision for the Digital Lifestyle and Showcases New Products and Technologies From Microsoft] , Microsoft, 4 January 2006] At E3 2006, Microsoft officially presented the external HD DVD drive.

On February 23, 2008, the Xbox 360 HD DVD player was discontinued by Microsoft. [ [http://gizmodo.com/360054/microsoft-xbox-360-hd-dvd-player-officially-discontinued Format War Over: Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD Player Officially Discontinued ] ] This decision came just days after Toshiba's announcement to discontinue all HD DVD players and effectively end the format war. Two days later, the price of the HD DVD Player was reduced to a clearance price of $49.99.

Peter Moore had stated that if HD DVD loses the format war, Microsoft may also release an external Blu-ray drive. [ [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6142137.html "Moore: Blu-ray Xbox 360 add-on possible"] , Gamespot, 10 January 2006] This was later denied by Microsoft. According to Japan's chief of Xbox operations, Yoshihiro Maruyama, Microsoft will not release Xbox 360 games in the new disc formats.

For many employees of the Xbox department of Microsoft, prior to the launch of the Xbox 360 Elite, 1,000 black HD DVD drives were made and given to members of the team who worked on the Xbox 360 Elite to create it and to keep it secret.Fact|date=September 2008

Technology

The HD DVD player connects to the Xbox 360 using a USB connection. All of the audio and video processing and output come from Xbox 360 itself. The unit can also function as a USB hub, with 2 ports on the rear (however, the hub only works when the HD DVD Player is plugged in). It also includes the clip for attaching the wireless network adapter to it,like on the Xbox 360 itself.

The drive will not read Xbox titles, Xbox 360 titles, audio CDs or mixed media CDs. All Xbox 360 games continue to use DVD-9 media. No Xbox 360 with a built-in HD DVD drive was ever released. [ [http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=61482 "No HD DVD games for 360"] , Eurogamer, 1 November 2005]

The HD DVD drive is also compatible with Microsoft Windows XP PCs. [ [http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20061125/etc_xhddvd.html Impress article] (in Japanese)] Windows XP will recognize it as a DVD drive, but drivers have surfaced so Windows XP will see it as the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive. Windows Vista and Mac OS X both natively recognize it. Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" introduced UDF 2.5 driver support for reading HD DVDs, but its included player software can only play HD DVDs authored by DVD Studio Pro. [cite web|url= http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305800|title=DVD Player: Plays HD DVD discs authored in DVD Studio Pro only|publisher=Apple|accessdate=2007-12-12]

" * Free HD DVD title (in certain areas)": King Kong (US/Australia), Batman Begins (Mexico)

*In the USA, any purchases made between August 1 and September 30 included five free HD DVD movies. For the same SRP online retailer Amazon.com increased the offer to a total of nine HD DVD titles when used with a mail-in rebate.

*Following the discontinuation, the HD DVD Player was reduced to $49.99. The UK price was cut to £39.99 and it was still bundled with the $19.99/£19.99 (SRP) Universal Media Remote, essentially making the price just $30/£20. On the 1st of May 2008 Xtra-vision reduced the price to £6.99.

References