Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive Will Play HD DVD Movies On PC

[Ian]

I was going to do an article on this but these guys beat me to it:

http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2006/11/8303/

One thing I'm not sure of is if you can play HD Movies in high res or not. If you can, this is a cheap way to add HD DVD support to your PC.

[Dave88]

Yeah seems a easy & cheap way to get HD-DVD but the player software is the problem.

I was reading the AVS Forums & came away with this;

WinDVD8 plays HD-DVD's but is restricted to 960x540 with AACS protected titles, there is supposedly a patch for Blu-ray titles that enables full HD but none for HD-DVD (that anyone knows of). Acquiring the patch isn't too easy either if you don't speak Japanese or have a Blu-ray drive.

A post on the AVS Forum mentioned that the player wont be officially going public till February so maybe then restriction is lifted.

PowerDVD the HD-DVD playing version supposedly has no restrictions but is not publicly available ?

There is a Toshiba branded player available on Toshiba's own site that come with their HD notebooks. But attempts to coax it into working on other systems has been fruitless though it does add an entry in MCE for playing HD-DVD's which would be nice.

Didn't Nero mention something about HD-DVD playback a while back I wonder if they have anything cooking in the oven.

I don't suppose else has any more info or heard otherwise about the above ?

[Ian]

Here's the scoop on WinDVD 8... it won't fully support HD DVD playback without an addon pack. To be honest, I'm suprised its playing these discs at all. I'm guessing this is due to it supporting the codecs HD DVD uses.

OEM's are supposed to get a new version of WinDVD with support for HD DVD in the next week or so. Unfortunately, everyone else will have to wait until the 1Q of 2007 to get the HD DVD addon pack.

[Dave88]

I see thanks for the info Ian that means getting the WinDVD 8 HD-DVD pack could be a tricky unless you buy a drive that comes with it (in the short term at least).

Nuts

[Ian]

According to this, it works fine with PowerDVD HD-DVD:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=32 ... pert&pid=3

[Dave88]

That's good to know pity we can' buy it yet

On the AVS forum near the end of the thread Nero came up in the discussion and it seems there is a special serial key for Blu-ray/HD-DVD playback but it doesn't do anything yet...

But it looks like Nero is at least working on a player.

[Ian]

The local Circuit City finally got some in stock. I swung by on the way home and picked one up for about $170 after taxes (I had a coupon). I'll install it later and see if I can play back an HD DVD movie with the US version of WinDVD 8.

[Ian]

Here are a couple of screenshots. It doesn't look like the drive supports HD DVD-RW media or in the case of DVDInfoPro, HD DVD-R.

[Ian]

Well, the US version of WinDVD 8 Platinum will not play back HD DVD movies. Damn you Intervideo and your stupid addon packs!

[dolphinius_rex]

It doesn't support HDDVD-RW because the format hasn't been completed yet

[flash]

The local Circuit City finally got some in stock. I swung by on the way home and picked one up for about $170 after taxes (I had a coupon). I'll install it later and see if I can play back an HD DVD movie with the US version of WinDVD 8.

Hey Ian, if your looking for some great 360 gaming sites I'd suggest:

http://www.xmg360.com/forum/portal.php

and

http://www.mxgamers.com/

Members of both groups have gathered at Summerfest for the last 3 years running. We usually get together opening weekend.
People have come from Texas, Alabama, Illinois, Minnesota and this year should be even more!

[Ian]

Mature Xbox gamers? I thought I was the only one.

I do have an update on the situation with WinDVD 8. Intervideo sent me a new version with support for HD and BD playback. That catch is that its supported under Vista only. Oddly enough, I was able to install it under XP. Go figure.

[Wesociety]

Nice, watch any HD flicks on the PC yet?

[Ian]

Nice, watch any HD flicks on the PC yet?

No. I only own one and that's the King Kong that came with the drive. I can't get past the main menu with WinDVD and U-control doesn't seem to work right with PowerDVD. Half the time I can't get rid of the stupid picture in picture.

[MadBurner]

@ Ian

What build is your WinDVD?

Thanx!
MB

[Ian]

Version:
8.0 DXVA B08.032

[Ian]

According to reports at avsforum.com, the new PowerDVD Ultra works great with the Xbox drive.