We all know the story, HP went from being a "strong" Blu-ray supporter (like
Samsung and
LG) to
pushing for changes in the Blu-ray spec,
hinting at pulling out of the Blu-ray Disc Association altogether, to
deciding to remain neutral in the next generation disc format wars by supporting both Blu-ray and HD DVD in their products. While the managed copy feature central to those debates is still completely absent from both formats, HP is rolling out several HD DVD-based products for the 2006 holiday season. Pictured above is the hd100 external HD DVD drive, connecting via USB 2.0, it's a 2x HD DVD reader plus DVD and CD playback. Cyberlink's PowerDVD HD DVD Edition software is included for HD DVD playback, as long as you
meet the hefty system recommendations. If you're looking to buy a whole new system -- which you'll probably need -- the HP Pavilion m7600n Series PC includes Windows XP Media Center Edition, Intel Viiv technology, HD DVD drive, built-in NTSC tuner and 7.1 surround sound capabilities. For HD on the go, there's always the Pavilion dv9000t laptop with an optional HD DVD and DVD burning drive, 17-inch 1440x900 LCD, HDMI out, 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 GPU. No mention of Blu-ray products yet, but one must wonder why HP's HD DVD drive says "BD" under the access light on the lower left corner. All should be available "soon", prices for the PCs depend on the configuration, no price yet for the hd100 drive, but we know another USB 2.0 HD DVD drive that
recently got a pricetag.
[Via
Engadget]
HP Pavilion m7600n Series PC:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Big Sam @ Sep 30th 2006 2:31PM
The m7600n comes with a HD-DVD drive and comes with a NTSC tuner but not an ATSC/QAM one?
a2 @ Sep 30th 2006 2:35PM
This is certainly interesting. A new HD DVD player. I seem to recall a few weeks ago someone be adamant there would be no other major HD DVD supporters this year beyond Toshiba and Microsoft's offerings.
Aaron @ Sep 30th 2006 7:57PM
When I heard the price of the 360 drive, I wondered why some tech company could not mass produce a PC read-only drive for about the same price. If this external HD-DVD device is anywhere near $200 like the 360 drive, say goodbye to Blu-Ray. At anywhere near that price point, many current hold-outs (including myself) would definitely jump on the HD bandwagon. With all the HTPCs being built and new cards like the X1600 Pro HDMI and ASUS EN7600GT HDMI, this would be a phenomenally cheap way to get HD movie content now.
Will @ Oct 1st 2006 12:32AM
Can someone please explain to me: Does the 360 drive work on Vista (Or XP for that matter)? I want to know because it could be the difference between me getting it for my 360 and not. I mean it is UDB anyway why wouldn't they make it PC compatible.
Rick Lyon @ Oct 1st 2006 12:49PM
So this won't run on a mac? Are we waiting for an Apple solution and/or will we sometime see a aftermarket solution running on a mac?
jdb @ Oct 1st 2006 3:18PM
It's been mentioned by amir (MS employee) on avsforums.com that the 360 drive isn't being targeted to run on a PC. However, it was also stated that MS isn't doing anything to prevent it running either -- it's simply not tested/supported. Keep in mind that the 360 drive isn't going to deal with AACS in hardware; it's simply going to stream the encrypted data to the 360 where it will be decoded in software. This is similar to the NEC drives used in the Toshiba standalone HD-DVD players. Thus far, people who have removed the drive from the Toshiba's and put them in a PC have been unsuccessful at finding a way/program that can play the direct AACS stream.
The only successful PC attempt thus far has been with people using the HD-DVD laptop drive, which does handle AACS in hardware. These HP drives should do the same, given that they're aimed at seamless PC usage. The 360 drive, on the other hand, will be a headache and a half to get running on a PC -- if at all possible.