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Xbox 360 HD-DVD Review

I recently went out and purchased the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 on a whim. I had been doing some reading over Thanksgiving about the HD players and didn't even realize that it was released. After reading about the pricing and the format war going on, I figured $199 for an item that normally runs $499
as a standalone player, $200 isn't much of a cost to incur. As for the format, I plan on picking up a PS3 in the next couple months so I'll have both formats covered.

Now apparently this item is pretty scarce but I was able to pick up at the first place I stopped in. Turns out it was on hold for someone but they ended up not wanting it. In the box, I received the unit, a usb cable, power cord,a remote, King Kong and a bunch warranty info. Also a disc to update the 360's firmware. So when you get down to, I really only payed about $140 for the drive, not a bad deal.

As for set-up, nothing could be easier. Plug the power cord in, hook the the drive up via the usb cable and turn the machine on. After everything boots and your on the dashboard, insert the update disc and let it run. Set-up time is probably about two minutes, if that.

My 360 is hooked up to a 47" Samsung DLP Hdtv capable of 1080i via component cable. This was probably the first time I ever looked at the FBI warning and said "Wow" not to mention I was actually able to read every word. The clarity on the text was incredible. This was something I should have seen coming but I didn't expecting it. As for the movie, I never liked King Kong the first time I saw it, so I pretty much skipped around just to see what it looked like in HD. Everything was crisp, bright and the audio was much better then on standard DVD. It was a wide-eyed experience, kind of like this years season premier of Lost.

To keep this short and sweet, if you have the money to burn and are an early adopter, pick this thing up if you have a 360. If the public decides in two to three years that Blu-ray is the format standard, at least you've been watching hi-def movies from the start. At $200, even if HD-Dvd fails, you'll still have a few years worth of playtime with this format.

posted by Mashko @ 08:36