MS Price Drops Xbox 360... HD-DVD Player.

[darth los]

Microsoft announced a price drop today at Comic-Con, but not the one everyone was hoping for. Starting on August 1st, the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player will drop by a 20 spot and cost $179. Not much of a change, but they are throwing in 5 free HD-DVDs from a pool of 15. They also announced that 300 will be available to download in HD on the Xbox Live Marketplace starting August 14th. Microsoft is also offering fans a chance to download the pilot episode of Heroes in HD "for a limited time" in anticipation of the Heroes HD-DVD Season 1 box-set. Now all they need to do is drop the price of the 360 itself. There's much more info. if you follow this link: http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=16933

[Danny]

well the 360 hd player is only 99 quid over here allready so if they took off a fiver adn threw in 5 hd-dvds tahts a great deal compare to a grand on a blu-ray player, but since i dont own a hd tv, or see the point in one yet, i can wait.

[MinionZombie]

I know, this is the thing, HD is far from standard so the war won't be over anytime soon, and getting the most out of HD requires HD TV's, which will be a while till it becomes standard. I mean heck Widescreen TV's have only recently become the industry standard...so HD is a good way off.

[Danny]

Aye, make hd and blu ray as cheap as you want, but that aint gonna make the hd-tv's drop there prices any time soon.

[darth los]

You guys are spot on with that one. All this marketing towards their formats doesn't mean a thing. Here's some free advice for sony. They make an lcd tv called the bravia. If they were really interested in winning this war they would make that cheaper. But i suppose that since the ps3 is bombing they can't afford the finacial hit they're sure to take from that. Either way if they do go that route there's no gaurantee that people will buy blu ray anyway.

[OddDNA]

Everyone I know has an HD TV (except older people)...they are already cheap here, you can get a decent HD TV for $1000.

[mista_mo]

A regular Tv of the same size will cost what...200-300 bucks cheaper if not more? no thanks HD.

[CoinReturn]

A regular Tv of the same size will cost what...200-300 bucks cheaper if not more? no thanks HD. Well, duh. New technology is always going to cost more than old stuff. You have to look at what your getting; greatly increased resolution, 16x9 aspect ratio and much greater color depth. The difference is big, and HD is going to be the standard eventually. You can get a 30'' HD set for $600, and the prices are coming down on what seems like a monthly basis.

[Danny]

A regular Tv of the same size will cost what...200-300 bucks cheaper if not more? no thanks HD. damn straight my tvs a bigass one 5 times the size of my pc monitor, and i bought it off a car boot sale cus its like 10 years old, back in the day it wouldve costed loads btu its bigger than any other hd tv (you can fit in my house) and its got a great picture, what would i need a new tv for then that costs too much for too little new in return.

[MinionZombie]

The fact is, HD is far from the standard, until it is, it won't be shifting units hand over fist. People have spent plenty of cash on their CRTs and LCDs (some of which won't be HD ready, and if you want HD, get a HD specific telly anyway)... Certainly in the UK it's far from the standard at least, and the prices of HD telly sets are retarded, people simply don't have the cash because: 1) They're taxed into the grave 2) They're in debt by possibly massive amounts due to the recent flash of spending culture being rewarded and saving culture being derided 3) They've just bought relatively recently a different TV at a better price, so they're not about to give it up anytime soon... The third being the British irony, despite this spending culture going cock-out crazy, there's many people who are so stubborn with their purchases - me & mine included - it's like with DVD, it's relatively new and people have ditched plenty of cash into their monster DVD collections (like I have) and they're not happy about this HD-DVD stuff, because what is wrong with a DVD? So MZ's mystic meg style prediction (but one which will actually come true) is that HD is several years from becoming standard, especially in the UK. Perhaps a greater push towards HD telly sets will come with digital switch-over here in the UK, people going out to buy new TV's so they combine all the new tech they're after, specifically including twin-tuner digital receivers inside the TV itself (so you can watch more than ONE channel at a time - and here I thought we were going forward in time! )

[RustyHicks]

I heard those HD TV's actually cost a fortune if the bulb inside gets busted, the price of buying a new one. I'm not all that up in the recent technology, so I don't know if what my friend told me about them is true or not. I will wait until they become a little cheaper. Hell, in the early eighties when VCR's came out they were like 500 dollars and up cause they were so new. Once it becomes more common, the price will come down. It's too new right now.

[mista_mo]

greatly increased resolution, 16x9 aspect ratio and much greater color depth so what? your trying to justify spending an extra 400 bucks on a tv just cause the pictrue looks purdier? My tv is 22 inches. It has a screen, and teh screen shows nice pictures. what do I (and the average consumer for that matter) care about a 16x9 aspect ratio and increased resolution? My tv is fine, the picture is fine, it plays games fine, and it looks fine. I couldn't give 2 s*its about HD, it's not standard yet, and until it drops down (and umm, far from a monthly basis i may add) to a reasonable price, it ain't for me.

[darth los]

so what? your trying to justify spending an extra 400 bucks on a tv just cause the pictrue looks purdier? My tv is 22 inches. It has a screen, and teh screen shows nice pictures. what do I (and the average consumer for that matter) care about a 16x9 aspect ratio and increased resolution? My tv is fine, the picture is fine, it plays games fine, and it looks fine. I couldn't give 2 s*its about HD, it's not standard yet, and until it drops down (and umm, far from a monthly basis i may add) to a reasonable price, it ain't for me. I totally agree with that mo. My 36 inch rca will do for now. With all the other bills and responsibilities i have there's no way i can justify spending $1,000 bucks on a hdtv.

[MinionZombie]

And of course there's plenty of widescreen CRT and LCD tellies already out there, so I don't see why 16x9 would be such a draw...besides, the average consumer has piss all idea about aspect ratios. Back at uni I was the only one who did, I'd come in and my housemates would be sat around a 4:3 show viewing it on the 16x9 setting like a bunch of primates and they wouldn't notice the difference - and all these guys weren't techno-phobes, they all flew around the internet, could play Halo 2 just fine/very well, yet they were completely flummoxed by aspect ratio settings. As for my parents - again, no idea. I often find them watching a 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 film on the "Wide" setting (which stretches 4:3 horozontally to fill the screen), and they've got three feckin' degrees between them...yet they don't "get" aspect ratios...so I really doubt that punters around the world understand them, at least not from my experiences.

[Danny]

i also agree with mo, adn ill throw in a bitch about regular car speakers being better than lame ass subs for good measure.