XBox 360 HD-DVD external drive price drop

[Grain]

Microsoft has dropped the price of their 360 external HD-DVD drive to $179.99US. Apparently you can also take advantage of 5 free HD-DVD movies (via mail) with the offer, choice out of 15 pre-selected. Sorry, no link.

What I want to know, when will competitively priced computer drives be available?

[Ian]

Here's Microsoft's press release:

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/pres ... DVDPR.mspx

From what I've heard, the 15 movies are the same ones Toshiba is offering.

The thing that kills the price of PC based drives is the cost of the software. Figure you need to tack on another $50-$100 to get some software capable of playing the movies back.

[Grain]

The thing that kills the price of PC based drives is the cost of the software. Figure you need to tack on another $50-$100 to get some software capable of playing the movies back.

I agree with the software pricing issues, but that you can't yet buy HD-DVD or BR ROM drives sans software for ~$100 is a little strange. Thanks for adding the link.

[vinnie97]

MS should be less stingy and drop it to at least $150. I picked one up for $180 on St. Patrick's Day...

[Wesociety]

The rumor is that Microsoft is looking for additional OEM suppliers of HD-DVD-ROM drives to help supply the newly priced HD DVD add-on drives...

http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20070730PD201.html

[Ian]

The rumor is that Microsoft is looking for additional OEM suppliers of HD-DVD-ROM drives to help supply the newly priced HD DVD add-on drives...

http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20070730PD201.html

Digitimes has been reporting that rumor for the past six months. They need to come up with something new.

[OoAnd1]

As a 360 owner I think I'm going to take advantage of this deal. I don't plan on buying a PS3 anytime soon for games and I'm definitely not going to pay 500+ for any High-Definition player.

But 180 for a HD-player and 5 free movies, not bad.

Does anyone know if the 5-free movie offer is valid with the HD-DVD players that come bundled with King Kong in HD. My Walmart and Target still carry those.

Also, does anyone know if getting a discount or using a coupon on products such as the HD-DVD player terminates its validity for the 5 free movie offer. I want to buy it at Target and open their card to get 10% off along with a couple movies.

Hopefully HD-DVD and Blu-Ray battle it out for at least a couple more years. It should save me some money on movies.

[Wesociety]

From what I understand, the King Kong HD DVD Add-On bundle is perfectly eligible for the 5 free HD DVD rebate offer.

As far as store specific coupons like the Target one you mentioned, I'm sure those are perfectly fine to use also.

In other news, Bestbuy.com had the Xbox HD DVD Add-on on sale for $149.99 for a limited time this morning, but as of now, the price is back up to $179.99. Still, you should probably keep an eye out for special deals. With an MSRP of $179.99, the street price will most likely be lower at some stores.

[OoAnd1]

From what I understand, the King Kong HD DVD Add-On bundle is perfectly eligible for the 5 free HD DVD rebate offer.

As far as store specific coupons like the Target one you mentioned, I'm sure those are perfectly fine to use also.

In other news, Bestbuy.com had the Xbox HD DVD Add-on on sale for $149.99 for a limited time this morning, but as of now, the price is back up to $179.99. Still, you should probably keep an eye out for special deals. With an MSRP of $179.99, the street price will most likely be lower at some stores.

Thnx. Yep, I was one of the lucky ones that bought it from BestBuy for 149.99. It also had King Kong bundled in. King Kong looked great, so many scenes looked almost 3-D. I'm sending in the rebate for the 5 free movies and I may buy 300 from Walmart for 28 dollars tomorrow. After that, I'm really looking forward to TMNT and Transformers in HD. By the holidays my HD-DVD collection should be around 10 movies. Not bad.

[Wesociety]

Wow, you really got in on the good deal! Welcome to the HD DVD club!

[OoAnd1]

Wow, you really got in on the good deal! Welcome to the HD DVD club!

Thank you. The guy at Bestbuy was trying to convince me to get the PS3 instead of the HD-DVD addon.

He couldn't comprehend that there isn't one PS3 exclusive that I want now or in the foreseeable future. But if they come out with a great looking Spider-Man trilogy on Blu-Ray...that may be enough for me to own both formats....one day.

[dolphinius_rex]

Wow, you really got in on the good deal! Welcome to the HD DVD club!

Thank you. The guy at Bestbuy was trying to convince me to get the PS3 instead of the HD-DVD addon.

He couldn't comprehend that there isn't one PS3 exclusive that I want now or in the foreseeable future. But if they come out with a great looking Spider-Man trilogy on Blu-Ray...that may be enough for me to own both formats....one day.

Well, at the moment the worst case scenario is that you end up having spent about $150 on a format that ends up going nowhere... but as long as you're happy with what you have and what is available NOW then there's no problem. After all, you can always buy into Blu-Ray later on when the pricing has gone down a bit more

[Grain]

That's how I made my decision to buy HD-DVD, Universal. They have a large amount of my favorite movies. If the format fails, I'll still have my collection of favs on HD. In all likelyhood we'll see cheap dual format players in the future, be that distant or near doesn't matter. Look at SACD and DVD-Audio, there are very few of us adopters out there, but they are still pumping out compatible players. When they first came out hardware was expensive, there were no dual format players, and talk of such ever happening was quite negative. Now you can get a great dual format player for $150, even though the discs are getting to be hens teeth.

[OoAnd1]

Well, at the moment the worst case scenario is that you end up having spent about $150 on a format that ends up going nowhere... but as long as you're happy with what you have and what is available NOW then there's no problem. After all, you can always buy into Blu-Ray later on when the pricing has gone down a bit more

Exactly. I bought the player for 150 now. Let's say the HD-DVD people stop everything, in let's say 2 years. By then the PS3 will be about 150 dollars cheaper anyway. In the end I'd have paid 500 anyway but, it would have been 500 throughout 2 years. I don't want to pay 500 for a player right now. It's kinda like paying 150 for the PS3 right now and then paying the rest within the next two years without having to deal with credit cards. Also, by then the PS3 will actually have some exclusive games I may be interested in.

Like I said, I DO want a Blu-Ray player because I love the Spidey movies but I can wait. HD-DVD has most of the other movies I love like Serenity, Transformers, TMNT, King Kong, and especially Heroes Season 1! But I personally wouldn't mind if both formats survived until something drastically better comes along.