Rumor mill: HD DVD add-on for 360 only $100
By Matt Burns 
posted Apr 21st 2006 11:50AM
posted Apr 21st 2006 11:50AM
Oh rumors, how you love to tease us. Joystiq has a post up that states that there is a very good possibility that E3 will see a HD-DVD add on. Supposedly, it will be available in September for only $100. I do not have to state how important this could be to HD-DVD. Many of you have pointed out in my post, HD-DVD will prevail, that the Playstation 3 is the silver stake in HD-DVDs heart. Does this change you mind a bit though. Seriously, many of our readers are Blu-Ray fans but if the Xbox 360 does in fact have a $100 HD DVD add on, would this be enough to have you switch sides?
Heck, for $100 I'd probably get it. I already have the 360, so another $100 to try out some HD-DVD movies is a pretty good deal.
None of the BR/Sony fanboys has posted a comment yet because they are quaking in terror. A worldview shift without a clutch is a messy, messy thing.
BR=UMD
I think for $100.
I would get the HD DVD add-on and the PS3.
Best of both worlds :)
My question is if the add on provides DVI/HDMI outputs or if that will be a separate purchase add on as well.
Obviously trying it with component may work, it is all dependant on the studios not turning on the Image Constraint Token.
Good since that's about all I'm willing to spend.
Hmmm .. is there any reason they couldn't release a BD add-on as well (aside from MS thinking that its the next Betamax). Or, maybe Sony will release an HD-DVD add-on for the PS3 as well .. hahaa.
Adding another optical drive to a console with a built-in optical drive is just stupid. Imagine if Dreamcast had a DVD add-on (for movies only).
Being an early adopter of Past Video formats (LD and DVD) I haven't yet purchased an HD-DVD player as I'm looking for an all-in-one player that will keep me moving along no matter what format wins. But for 100 bones, I'd add it on to my 360 if it output in 1080p. If it doesn't then why bother?
Even at $100, it may not matter if the content isn't there.
In any event, I'm hoping that HD-DVD catches on and takes off over Blu-Ray. I'll admit that technically speaking the formats are very close, with the big differentiator being the disc capacity. But they waste DVD capacity now, so I'm not expecting that advantage to mean much to Blu-Ray.
If content stays with Blu-Ray(as it stands now, it looks that way), then it won't matter. I don't think either side can win. Why?
Let's look at LD, and the CLV CAV CAA mess. Add digital, and analog audio variations. The reason DVD succeeded is that it brought a clear standard to the table. People don't like to choose. Unless a winner is determined quickly, it won't matter. A new standard will come along that has signifcant improvements, and is cheap to implement from a licensing standpoint.
Who knows, maybe VOD will take over; but unless product becomes widely available and cheap within two years, both of these will be niche. I don't think there are enough early adopters to support both formats, and the choice factor is probably keeping some of them off the market. It's keeping me off the market.
Game console add-ons like this have historically done very poorly. I don't see it doing that well, and I have a hard time believing the $100 sticker price, too.
Maybe if it was $100 for both the drive and the HDMI/DVI cable. But it really all depend on how many HD-DVD movies I could get from Netflix. And its still a big maybe. I just can't see either format really succeeding. I don't think it will be as big a failure as LD, but maybe more like the DVD-Audio/SACD "battle".
The question I have is how it will connect to the 360... if it is just via USB 2.0 then couldn't it also work in my PC as an external Drive? or why couldn't it also work with the PS3 via USB ?? just all seems interesting to me...
I'm not biased in the BluRay vs HDDVD battle, but for 100 bucks, I'd pick one up. Especially if more titles are out by that time. Heck, I may even spring for a PS3 or Blu Ray player since I only had to pay $100 for my hddvd player.
There is no way this thing will be less than $150 never the less $100. I would bet anyone that it will be more. If I win you have to buy me one and if you win I will buy you one.
I don't want an add-on, I want a built in HD DVD drive. Why's that a problem for MS?
To Dave Zats, it's hard because they have to make a drive that will read both cd's/dvd's/hd-dvd's which will be expensive. Then all the prev 360 owners are going to be pissed that they can't add it to theirs and that they got screwed and have to buy a new system for hddvd support. I'm glad they didn't put it in right away because they have waited until the standard is finalized and in the developing stages. I would imagine it would have pushed the release of the 360 back until they sorted out several things, and then we wouldn't have an established gaming library to choose from by now. Granted there aren't alot of titles that are good yet but more potential then the Dreamcast had at it's launch.
If it is an add on it will most likely be the same size as the machine and provide some other interesting features... maybe it will somehow connect through the external SATA connection on the machine and have a pass through for the hard drive. I would imagaine it would be something you could sit your 360 on top of... kinda like a rack system...
Buy yeah... 100 bucks seems way too low... the hard drive is $99 so i can't imagine they will be offering a next gen dvd player for the same price.
Oh an if MS wanted it internal we would still be waiting for the machine and it would have costed more (PS3)... I for one and glad to be playing next gen games for the last 8 months and to expect some AWESOME titles at the end of the year that will really blow away anything out there right now!
I usually don't post here but I must say, if I were to see an HD DVD add on for $100 this september, I would so jump on the HD DVD bandwagon! Why? Because I have a 360 already and I would save $400 to get a HD DVD player it seems. Especially if it is well integrated and doesn't look awful, I would so love to drop in these new DVDs and at least hold myself off until I get a standalone player I can afford or even a Blu Ray player. Not to mention, how sweet would it be to be able to watch HD DVD movies while being Live aware and having comments sent back and forth and stuff. The best thing too would be if they are able to implement some of the sharing functions once bigger 360 HDs come out. For example, you can copy the dvd on your hard drive from the HD DVD rom like was being showed at CES this yr on a vista MCE machine.