hows the HD-DVD drive?

how do u like it? im thinking of getting it in a couple months.

how does it run, and what movies do you  think look good on it?

thanks!

I hope it's good, and that it will work OK. Since I got the Japanese HD DVD player for only US$ 135.92 (limited offer) online. This is almost half the price of what I had to pay for it in a Norwegian store.technofranki

[QUOTE="technofranki"]I hope it's good, and that it will work OK. Since I got the Japanese HD DVD player for only US$ 135.92 (limited offer) online. This is almost half the price of what I had to pay for it in a Norwegian store.fore_runner

No, HD DVD is region free (Blue-Ray use regions). HD is it's own standard. PAL and NTSC is a SDTV standard.

Pretty good. It even upconverts regular dvds on component that is unless you have a tv like a samsung which converts on component. It'll still look okay no matter what. Even if it upconverts, it is still on 480p regardless.milb78

 The  HD-DVD drive has no difference at all with regular DVDs compared the internal DVD drive. They both play DVDs the same because both are just drives, not players, they read the digital code, 1's and 0's, which then the 360 reads and processes and outputs. So the 360 is the player, the drives are just drives, thus, upscaling DVDs over VGA on either will be exactly the same. No way does the HD-DVD drive allow upconverting of DVDs over component, it's not allowed by the DVD group.

[QUOTE="fore_runner"][QUOTE="technofranki"]I hope it's good, and that it will work OK. Since I got the Japanese HD DVD player for only US$ 135.92 (limited offer) online. This is almost half the price of what I had to pay for it in a Norwegian store.technofranki

No, HD DVD is region free (Blue-Ray use regions). HD is it's own standard. PAL and NTSC is a SDTV standard.

[QUOTE="technofranki"]

[QUOTE="fore_runner"][QUOTE="technofranki"]I hope it's good, and that it will work OK. Since I got the Japanese HD DVD player for only US$ 135.92 (limited offer) online. This is almost half the price of what I had to pay for it in a Norwegian store.Theilaxu

No, HD DVD is region free (Blue-Ray use regions). HD is it's own standard. PAL and NTSC is a SDTV standard.

 The DVDs will still be region based, not sure if the HD-DVD drive itself has the locked region for reading dvds or if it depends on the 360 itself. 

Ill ask this question here instead of making a new thread.... should I buy the hd dvd player or a stand-alone?instantdeath999

 A stand-alone would cost twice as much or more, depending. Though, I heard of a deal of Circuity City having the HD-A2 Toshiba player for $399, with instant 4 movies and then 5 more by mail from toshiba. That would be pretty good, $399 for a player and 9 movies. Here's a thread on it, which I haven't checked recently to see how confirmed or false it is: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=824578 

Though, it all depends on your setup. Stand-alones offer HDMI, which then in turn offers upscaling of DVDs (which the Toshiba players get great reviews for), better audio decoding, regular player design. While the add-on, that would save you space, cheaper, it comes with one movie, but you are limited to component/vga that will never ever support HDCP, can't do advance audio. Though, then again, it is the cheapest 1080p player if you can do it over VGA or get an Elite HDMI 360, and it starts instantly compared to the slower stand-alones. I could go on, but that should give you an idea. 

[QUOTE="instantdeath999"]Ill ask this question here instead of making a new thread.... should I buy the hd dvd player or a stand-alone?TimothyB

A stand-alone would cost twice as much or more, depending. Though, I heard of a deal of Circuity City having the HD-A2 Toshiba player for $399, with instant 4 movies and then 5 more by mail from toshiba. That would be pretty good, $399 for a player and 9 movies. Here's a thread on it, which I haven't checked recently to see how confirmed or false it is: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=824578

Though, it all depends on your setup. Stand-alones offer HDMI, which then in turn offers upscaling of DVDs (which the Toshiba players get great reviews for), better audio decoding, regular player design. While the add-on, that would save you space, cheaper, it comes with one movie, but you are limited to component/vga that will never ever support HDCP, can't do advance audio. Though, then again, it is the cheapest 1080p player if you can do it over VGA or get an Elite HDMI 360, and it starts instantly compared to the slower stand-alones. I could go on, but that should give you an idea.

[QUOTE="TimothyB"]

[QUOTE="instantdeath999"]Ill ask this question here instead of making a new thread.... should I buy the hd dvd player or a stand-alone?Theilaxu

A stand-alone would cost twice as much or more, depending. Though, I heard of a deal of Circuity City having the HD-A2 Toshiba player for $399, with instant 4 movies and then 5 more by mail from toshiba. That would be pretty good, $399 for a player and 9 movies. Here's a thread on it, which I haven't checked recently to see how confirmed or false it is: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=824578

Though, it all depends on your setup. Stand-alones offer HDMI, which then in turn offers upscaling of DVDs (which the Toshiba players get great reviews for), better audio decoding, regular player design. While the add-on, that would save you space, cheaper, it comes with one movie, but you are limited to component/vga that will never ever support HDCP, can't do advance audio. Though, then again, it is the cheapest 1080p player if you can do it over VGA or get an Elite HDMI 360, and it starts instantly compared to the slower stand-alones. I could go on, but that should give you an idea.

HDCP means High Definition Copyright Protection, and it only works over a digital cable. Luckily, right now HD movies don't have anything enabled like the ICT, image constraint token, that would require you to use a HDCP connection to play in HD or else it will downscale to 540p. But most people guess they won't be doing that to movies till 2011 or so. But yes, I'd assume the Elite HDMI supports HDCP.