HP External HD-DVD ROM $129.00 AR

[Polypro]

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/507...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG


P

[Fluffdaddy]

WOW !!

[Jesse]

Hi,

Wow, the price on this thing keeps going down. The (maybe) nice part is that it includes the oem version of PowerDVD HD. What I am wondering is if this version of PowerDVD can be patched/upgraded to the latest 7.XX version of PowerDVD Ultra. I understand that the older oe versions don't do hardware acceleration at all. If it can be upgraded that is another $99 saved by not having to buy PowerDVD Ultra.

Anyone know?

Jesse

[warrenlj]

Just saw on the news this morning that blockbuster is switching all hd rentals to blue ray because 70% of rentals are those. Hd dvd will be available online. That may have something to do with the drop in price. Maybe the shakeout will be sooner rather than later.

[lobosrul]

Note to MPAA:

If AACS didnt exist I'd buy one of these today!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by warrenlj

Just saw on the news this morning that blockbuster is switching all hd rentals to blue ray because 70% of rentals are those. Hd dvd will be available online. That may have something to do with the drop in price.

Price was "dropped" before the "announcement".

Maybe the shakeout will be sooner rather than later.

Considering neither format is selling in any signifcant quantities, there's not a big incentive to ditch the status quo. HD optical's biggest seller, Casino Royale (only "blockbuster" day and date release with DVD so far) sold a whopping 59,000 copies in March (two weeks or so), compare that to over 1.6 Million copies of the DVD version in the UK alone.

[Jesse]

Hi,

In case anyone else is wondering, it looks like the oe version of PowerDVD HD that comes with this drive is upgradable to the latest Ultra version.

Looks like a few users at AVS have verified this.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8&page=1&pp=30

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8&page=1&pp=30

If you consider that PDVD Ultra is $99 on its own that makes this drive $30!!

Jesse

[flavius]

Watching HD DVD on computer? Nah.

[Polypro]

I posted that right after I ordered...should be here in a day or two. Going to have to paint it black like the HDHR At $129, it's a worthwhile experiment for me. HD-DVD on an HTPC...why not?

P

[Polypro]

This was almost too easy Just watched "The Good Shepherd" in HD-DVD

P

[Fluffdaddy]

D@mn just when I save up e-nuff money to join my local gym.

[Jesse]

Hi Polypro,

Have you had a chance to try and integrate PDVD HD with sage? I would imagine it could be (sort of) done with nielm's dynamic menus.

What are you using for a remote and how easy was it to set up?

TIA

Jesse

[Polypro]

Not yet...and I probably won't. Minnimizing and then restoring Sage sometimes kicks FSE off for good...which I need with XP Pro. If Vista doesn't need FSE, then I might. I have "Exit Sage" on the main menu and it only takes a couple clicks to close. The MCE keyboard is used to start PDVD for now. I noticed that some of the MCE commands (Rew/Pause, etc...) work out of the box with PDVD...and I really don't navigate too often in a DVD. Adding PDVD commands to the Harmony would be easy though.

Even though playing HD-DVD's worked out of the box, in order for XP Pro to see the drive as anything other than a "CD Drive"...I had to install the X-Box 360 UDF 2.5 Drivers (thdudf.inf & sys). This seems to only be needed if you need to copy files off a HD-DVD data disc. FYI

P