Xbox 360 HD DVD Player

The Xbox 360 HD DVD Player, which was released in November 2006, is billed by Microsoft as the "most affordable way to jump into the next generation of DVD technology," and if you own an Xbox 360, it certainly is.

While Toshiba HD DVD drives typically sell for around $400 - $500 and Blu-ray players for around twice that, the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player sells for $199 and includes the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote, and, for a limited period, a copy of King Kong on HD DVD.

The Xbox HD DVD Player has features such as picture-in-picture, scene selection, and menu access, while the main feature is playing. HD-DVD has a key benefit over Blu-ray in that HD DVD discs can have HD DVD content on one side and DVD content on the other. However, the HD DVD format has a lower maximum capacity than Blu-ray — 30GB versus 50GB for dual-layer discs and more movie studios have signed up to the Blu-ray format than HD-DVD. That said, according to Microsoft you can still "enjoy hundreds of great HD DVD movies this holiday from major studios such as Universal, Warner, Paramount, Studio Canal, and more"

Microsoft also claims that "independent research of gamers and players shows HDTV owners prefer HD DVD two to one over Blu-ray." Quite what the difference is between a "gamer" and a "player" isn't explained. Nor was it explained how the figure was reached, bearing in mind that very, very few gamers or players have access to either format. Finally, why canvas the views of gamers when the Xbox 360 HD DVD player is geared towards watching HD DVD movies?

It's also worth noting that the HD DVD Player connects to the Xbox 360 using USB 2 and the Xbox 360 then connects to your TV. To take advantage of the HD features of the player, you'll need to connect the 360 to your HDTV using the Xbox 360 component cable. Also, component isn't one of the formats supported by the HDCP protection scheme, so if this becomes widespread there may be an issue with playing HD DVDs at HD quality using this player

If you've yet to decide whether to go down the Blu-ray or HD-DVD route, and you own an Xbox 360, the HD DVD Player could be an inexpensive way of checking out HD DVD.See our Blu-ray vs HD-DVD page for more information on the differences between the formats.