Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player - Worth it?

Question

Now that the HD-DVD player comes with five free movies (not yet in the UK, but very soon), do you reckon it's worth it? I mean, I am aware that the HD-DVD is a floundering format, but there are some decent films for it. Also, £120 with five films is practically a sign that Microsoft are giving it away, so should I take advantage of this offer? Exclusive titles such as Matrix: Ultimate Collection, Heroes (TV), Batman Begins, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz make me want it even more, regardless of whether its redundant or not. Cheap HD movies = good, eh? Alternatively, there's the option to just get GHIII on release date instead, and forget the whole 'HD-DVD' thing. I'm rather interested in it thought.

Answer 1

In my opinion, none of the HD movie players on the market are worth buying.



Right now, all players will only play half the HD movies on the market. Why would you spend so much money on something that forces you to choose which movies you are - and aren't - going to watch?



The format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is far from over - we've probably got at least another 1 to 2 years of this stupidity before there's a clear winner. This brings up another reason to ignore both formats - why would you waste money on a player and media that has a VERY GOOD CHANCE of becoming obsolete within the next 12 to 24 months?



I currently give you 33% odds of picking the "right" format - that is - the player you buy ends up dominating the market, becoming the one, single standard for HD media. Where'd this figure come from?



Common outcomes of a standards war:

1: Format A wins - Format B goes away entirely.

2: Format B wins - Format A goes away entirely.

3: Hybrid players that can play Format A and Format B arrive, making ALL SINGLE FORMAT PLAYERS OBSOLETE.



Outcomes 1 & 2 are essentially what happened with videocassettes. There was a fight between VHS and Betamax. Guess who won? But not before 1000s of people bought Betamax players. Oops.



Outcome 3 is similar to what happened with burnable DVDs and is why we have DVD-R and DVD+R and DVD-RW and DVD+RW and...so on and so forth. At this rate, hybrid players are the most likely outcome. There's already been some sucessful prototype players released, which normally means full production isn't that far away. Once these players hit the streets, the "war" is over.



The stupid studios and companies wanted the consumer to choose which format would be the winner - which is a stupid, stupid thing to do. Multiple formats just scare off the all-important early adopters, which slows down how fast the format gets accepted by the market. DVD had the fastest market acceptance of any new format. Why? It provided a clear upagrade from LDs and VHS, but more importantly, THERE WAS NO COMPETING FORMAT. Early adopters of DVD could be very confident that their players would still work with later DVDs, just as their early DVDs would still work with later DVD players. Right now, we don't have that luxury. Even a hybrid solution just lessens the impact if one format were to go away entirely.

Answer 2

As quoted from another of my posts:



**XBox releasing an HD/DVD player was a step-backwards. It was a loss of face. After condemning Sony's commitment to Blu Ray, they release a $200 add-on for an inferior competing format. It was like saying "You guys are stupid for going completely HD...but since you guys have already done it and it puts you way ahead, I guess we have to do it too." **



If (when?) 360 starts making games that are exclusive to the HD/DVD format, then it might be worth it. Since Blu Ray has more than 5 times the capacity of 360s current media, I think its inevitable that they'll start putting games on HD/DVD. But, until then its just an expensive paperweight. Movie-wise, HD/DVD is getting its @$$ kicked in the format war so unless you are REALLY into Hi-Def movies...just save your money.

Answer 3

Personally, I don't think it's worth it because like you said, HD-DVD is heading toward failure. Once it becomes a failure, those other movie studios have no other option but to make movies for Blu-ray.



Toshiba is paying movie studios large sums of money to make movies for HD-DVD, but the problem is that where is Toshiba getting the money? Does Toshiba expect those movies to help it offset the cost needed to bribe those movie studios? We're talking about 150 million dollars just for 18 months of HD-DVD exclusivity. After that 18 months, those movie studios are going to go back to making movies for that format that's selling the most, which would be Blu-ray. The DVD market is lucrative, but that's only DVD, not Blu-ray or HD-DVD. Those haven't infiltrated the market enough to be highly profitable.

Answer 4

Here's the thing: All the above are right in one way: HD-DVD is a dying breed, but Blu-ray is slowly dying, anyway... unless you want transformers really badly, just dont get either....



.....besides, some new technology that hybrid's all 3 formats(DVD,Blu-Ray, &HD-DVD.) was originally come out soon, but it has been "indefitenitly postponed" So you should wait for that, or you could just choose one of 3 sides: "Blu-Ray's side, HD-DVD's side, or Nobody's side".

Answer 5

HD DVD and Blu-ray are not worth it because they are both dying formats. sorry, but it's the truth.