Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive
posted Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 by Andy Gore
With HD DVD and Blu-ray players costing upwards of $1000 a pop – assuming you can even find one – what’s a home theater aficionado in search of the highest quality video to do?
In a move so un-Microsoft-like that it may trigger identity verification tests throughout the company’s executive ranks, the Redmond, Wash.-based company has delivered a quick, easy and cost-effective way to add HD DVD playback to any home entertainment setup.
Silent Upgrade. There’s been so little buzz about Microsoft’s new $200 HD DVD external drive for the Xbox 360 that if we hadn’t stumbled across it in a random Google search, we would have missed it altogether. The drive itself plugs into any Xbox 360 via the Type B USB port on the back. There’s a disc you need to run in your 360 the first time you power it up with the HD DVD drive. It’ll take about a minute to install special drivers and you’re done. That’s all the setup required.
Once the drive and drivers are installed, just insert an HD DVD disc and you’ll be watching movies in glorious 1080i. You will need to have the component video cable connected to the 360 in order to view an HD DVD movie at its best quality. If you got one of the 360s with the HD package (including the hard drive), you should be all set. If not, you may have to invest in an HD cable kit.
The HD DVD drive will also play standard DVDs – and will even up-convert them so they look a little better than they would on a standard player; but the 360’s built-in DVD drive has this same capability, so it’s really not a big deal.
The drive itself is pretty big – a little less than half the size of the 360. Make sure you have enough space next to your game console before you install it. Also make sure there’s a second outlet available as the drive requires its own power supply. The drive comes with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote and, at least through the holidays, a copy of Peter Jackson’s King Kong on HD DVD. Combine the drive with a 1080i-capable HDTV and then play King Kong – the results are video so sharp it practically makes your eyes bleed.
HDMI Controversy. There have been some complaints among HD enthusiasts that Microsoft’s HD DVD drive doesn’t offer HDMI out; HDMI combines a high-resolution digital video and audio signal into a single cable. And while HDMI would be a convenient option, there is no loss of quality as a result of using component video. The maximum resolution of HD DVD titles (at least for now) is 1080i, which the 360’s component outputs are more than capable of reproducing.
Geek-o-Meter. If you have an Xbox 360 and want to play HD DVD discs, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 HD DVD Player is a steal at $200, even without factoring in a free movie and universal remote. If you have to buy a 360 and a drive, the combined cost is still competitive with stand-alone players: it’s practically like getting a 360 free with your HD DVD player. We give it a 10 on the Geek-o-Meter.
For More Information
December 7th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
RE: “HDMI Controversy”:
I don’t know much about it, but I was told that, given the choice, high-end home theater installers use component video paired with digital, optical audio rather than HDMI as the quality of both is better. HDMI is just more convenient for the average consumer. Any veracity to that?
December 7th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Strictly speaking, because component video is an analog standard and HDMI (which is simply a convergence of DVI video and an audio signal) is a digital standard, I don’t think there’s any way an HDMI video signal could be inferior to component. If you have really good quality component video cables that you’re not running over a long distance and aren’t close to any major sources of interference, the experience should be comparable, but not better.
However, because S/PDIF (digital optical) audio uses a fiber optic cable to carry a digital audio signal, it is immune to electrical interference and, therefore, could deliver a cleaner signal than HDMI digital audio, which is carried on an electrical signal. In most cases, however, there would likely be no difference in quality between the two cabling standards as both are digital and, therefore, benefit from error-correcting technology that should compensate for momentary drops in signal.
I think HDMI got a bit a of bad rap because some of the first TVs to implement the standard did so poorly. In fact, some early Sony True HD sets were not actually able to take a 1080p video signal off HDMI, something the standard is clearly capable of.
December 8th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
does the drive require that you have an xbox with a hard drive?
December 8th, 2006 at 9:50 pm
Hey there Dinnyin,
The 360 we tested with did have the hard drive, but I’ve checked the documentation, the Xbox site, and a couple of retailer sites, and no where does it mention you have to have a hard drive for the HD DVD drive to work.
So, I think it’s safe to say it’ll work fine on the core 360.
January 5th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
so… http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5591&ref=y
sucks to be an early adopter… I wonder if they’ll have a trade up program :-\
January 6th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Heh. It’s Microsoft, so I’d doubt it. Still, besides a cooler-running CPU, looks like the biggest difference between the old and new model is the HDMI port. Which I consider a nice-to-have but not a must-have (considering HD DVD only goes to 1080i resolution, not sure the video on HDMI will look much better than on component, anyway.)
I’m really surprised they didn’t incorporate an HD DVD drive, if the goal is to competitive with the PS3. Of course, if they had, I’d be pretty pissed about popping for that external HD DVD drive. And none of this is official, so there’s still a chance they could screw all the people who bought those external drives
Bottom line – if you bought a 360 this holiday, I don’t think this upgrade is really cheating you out of much. So, don’t feel too bad.
April 20th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Is a fiber optic output available for my receiver on the Xbox 360 HD Dvd player?