Amazon: $80 Xbox 360 HD DVD player with 6 free HD DVDs and shipping

by Thomas Ricker posted Feb 6th 2008 at 4:36AM

And here you thought $~~199~~ $~~179~~ $129 was a good deal for Microsoft's Xbox 360 HD DVD drive. Amazon is now selling it for $79.99 with free shipping and 6 free HD DVDs. Now that's what we call Wow Microsoft.

Update: Nice, you broke Amazon -- they're sold out.

[Thanks, Fantastic1_]

Filed under: Industry, HD DVD, Players, Toshiba

Tags: amazon, hd dvd, HdDvd, microsoft, xbox 360 hd dvd, Xbox360HdDvd

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Highly Ranked

Dave @ Feb 6th 2008 5:03AM

Great deal :), with 6 free HD DVDs + remote.

Neutral

DrXym @ Feb 6th 2008 5:44AM

Heh, only 2 left in stock order soon it says.

Highly Ranked

DeadPlasmaCell @ Feb 6th 2008 5:45AM

Wow indeed.. Only the brain-dead BluRay Fanboys would say this isn't a great deal.

Neutral

DrXym @ Feb 6th 2008 6:12AM

It is a great deal, assuming you get the discs you want from the mail-in offer, and have the means to rip the HD content afterwards. In that respect the add-on is a better proposition than a standalone player. It might be possible to use BackupHDDVD or other tools to extract the movie onto a computer.

Interestingly, the 5 disc mail-in offer ends on Feb 28. We'll see if they replace it with another one because with out the deal, no HD DVD player would be worth the money. It may well be that Toshiba don't intend to replace it at all which might explain why there are so many firesales right now. March will be interesting.

Low Ranked

John Drinkwater @ Feb 6th 2008 6:23AM

heh, it�s not a good deal, it�s a good con.

Highly Ranked

anon @ Feb 6th 2008 8:48AM

@ DrXym,
Why would the content need to be ripped off the disc? They will play on the player just fine if you hook the it up to a 360 or a PC, right? That is how that works. Did you know that? And just because the free movie offer ends at the end of the month, that is supposed to mean that HD DVD is dead after that? How so? Even if the 5 free movie offer does end, you still get 300 (for the time being anyway) and Bourne Identity. Buy a standalone Blu-ray player with 2 movies, and you're spending $300+. How is that a better deal than $120-$150 for an HD player with 2 movies? Where did you learn your math? And how the hell is this a "firesale" when a player goes on sale for a few hours? Blue-ray was giving them away a few weeks ago for free if you bought a TV, and the Blu-boys all thought that was just a good sale, but Toshiba has a sale and it's the end of the format. How does this work? I'm confused. Oh, I get it. You're just spreading your fanboy FUD around. My bad. Here I was trying to use logic with you. That won't work...

Neutral

MI @ Feb 6th 2008 12:28PM

Good call. I found a good deal on a DIVX player as well... No way you can't say that's not a good deal just because it's a dead format!

Neutral

anon @ Feb 6th 2008 12:45PM

Apples and oranges. DIVX is dead. So is Betamax that people keep comparing HD DVD to. But HD DVD isn't dead. I'll admit it is hurting something fierce, but it's still alive. New releases are coming out, and are scheduled to come out for the next few months. Not bad for a supposedly dead format. But keep banging that drum all you want. In the meantime, I'll enjoy 100% of the HD movies that are available if I want, and not just 70% after the Warner exclusivity kicks in.

Neutral

DeadPlasmaCell @ Feb 6th 2008 5:46AM

Oy.. WAS a good deal.

Highly Ranked

namtastic @ Feb 6th 2008 5:39PM

Exactly. Amazon is a great example of a site that actually prices based on demand -- I saw this happen with the Nokia tablets a while ago. Prices dropped drastically, but the moment people noticed and started buying them because they were cheap, the prices eventually rose back to what they were before.

The only thing this says to me is that there was no demand for the thing.

Highly Ranked

GhostDoggy @ Feb 6th 2008 5:55AM

If it was a standalone player I might have considered a second HD DVD player, but tied to the 360 isn't interesting enough for me. Still, a good deal for a lot of people. Its showing in stock this morning.

Low Ranked

Benj @ Feb 6th 2008 6:00AM

WOW! An $80 Door Stop with Six Free Drink Coasters!

Hurry while stocks last.

Highly Ranked

eric @ Feb 6th 2008 7:46AM

yeah i feel bad for your friends... they don't let you borrow movies or games too often if you decide to use them as coasters and doorstops, huh? this looks like a sweet deal but i don't have another 360 to put it on... my buddy that just got an hdtv will love this deal... and he doesn't use my movies or games as coasters when he borrows them, because he is a human being and respect's his property and his freinds' property.

Highest Ranked

Paul @ Feb 6th 2008 10:48AM

@ eric
yes but you are assuming that he HAS friends to begin with.....

Low Ranked

ccweems @ Feb 6th 2008 6:43AM

Don't bother. It's obvious with this desperation pricing that HD-DVD has degenerated into Truth Teller's worst nightmare: HD-DVD in now a game console format aimed at kiddies!

Highly Ranked

DrXym @ Feb 6th 2008 6:51AM

Let's see how the fool spins this one. He spends so much time dismissing the 10 million PS3s in the world because they're games consoles. So I wonder how he'll proclaim this 360 add-on sale to be amazing news for his format HD DVD.

Neutral

Larry @ Feb 6th 2008 8:14AM

Ignoring the first week sales, the 360 out-sold the PS3 by 2:1 last year and has sold 4 times as many games. Sony should cancel the PS3 and admit they lost the console war.

(Haa-haa, watch the fan boys explode with rage)

Neutral

Truth Teller @ Feb 6th 2008 8:21AM

Larry

How dare you use such logic!

Why can't you 'love' what they 'love' so much? Why won't you just go along?

LMAO

As the recent sales numbers clearly show, if HD DVD gets the pricing right the sales take-off.
It's happening right now with hardware & movies, it's nice, pretty basic & obvious stuff.

The pity is that had they done this before X-mas there'd have been no 'Warner goes Blu-ray' double-cross.

Neutral

borland502 (SDF - Macross Ring) @ Feb 6th 2008 9:10AM

"As the recent sales numbers clearly show, if HD DVD gets the pricing right the sales take-off."

Of course they'll sell at that price. And Ferrari can temporarily outsell another luxury brand if they drop the price down to that of a Civic. If any HD DVD player drops that low it will sell, but that doesn't mean its sustainable.

Toshiba didn't cancel their CES conference and air an old regional commercial at a rate they could afford because they are at the top of the game you know. Believe they'll come back that's fine, but for the love of God live up to your moniker.

Neutral

Nfinity @ Feb 6th 2008 10:28AM

Truth, let them blab about events that happened beginning of January. HD DVD is getting stronger and stronger.

Numbnuts don't realize that add-on is being bought by people with a console who want to watch movies. It's pretty much being bought as a standalone. It's usage will be 100% unlike PS3 which people connect to freakin' SDTVs.

But imagine if new shipment of Elites come out with HD DVD drive. There's a reason why they are nowhere to be found.

$80 HD DVD add-on is signaling this pretty strongly. In any case $79.99 HD DVD add-on for Xbox 360 = almost 20 million potential buyers. It will saturate the market like a mofo. Blu-Ray can say goodnight to studios.

Neutral

Truth TelIer @ Feb 6th 2008 2:06PM

Ok, I may have been a little inconsistant with the PS3 comments. But you have to admitt this is really a good deal. And it is a lot cheaper than the PS3. Why not buy both, then you have it all.

Neutral

Hans Martin @ Feb 6th 2008 7:10AM

Did Amazon just have a clearance sale and discontinued the Xbox HD DVD add-on? The units thay are selling now ships from Target. Is this normal?

Highly Ranked

Mr Stevo @ Feb 6th 2008 10:28AM

No, that's normal. When they run out of stock, specially during sales, they move to the next supplier. Now, if that doesn't change within the next 5-10 days, then it's an indication that it might've been a clearance sale. But, I couldn't tell you one way or the other.

Neutral

su6oxone @ Feb 6th 2008 7:24AM

When Amazon runs out of their stock of an item, third party sellers, like Target, become the primary shipping option for that item. When it comes back in stock, Amazon will be the primary purchasing option again. However, it's not likely that the 360 add-on is coming back in stock. Obviously, Amazon is trying to dump their stock of HD DVD players, including the 360 add-on. Anyone trying to convince the average non-techie person that buying into HD DVD at this point (e.g. 70% of movies coming out are blu-ray exclusive) is being disingenuous and spiteful.

Low Ranked

Truth Teller @ Feb 6th 2008 7:57AM

Amazing price & deal.

You don't even need the XBox 360 'base unit'.

For the PS3 kiddies that are ignorant of this fact.....

The XBox 360 HD DVD add-on makes an excellent HD DVD PC ROM drive (very easily set up) for anyone with a decent recent PC.

Highly Ranked

John Drinkwater @ Feb 6th 2008 8:20AM

Does it come with HD DVD software? If not, that�s more money to be spent�
Does it have software for Mac OSX or Linux? (You gotta stop confusing PC with �Windows PC�)

Neutral

Truth TeIIer @ Feb 6th 2008 8:23AM

scratch that. that's completely retarted. who wants to watch HD movies on a PC monitor. If you're not using it with a 360 it's stupid.

Firesale.

Highly Ranked

borland502 (SDF - Macross Ring) @ Feb 6th 2008 9:17AM

I should add as a public service announcement that Truth Teller is only right if you have a powerful computer or a video card with support for H.264 acceleration, etc. VC-1 is only slightly less demanding. For instance, a person with an older computer and an ATI X1300 will only be able to run 480P content.

The addon is just a drive I believe. It has no acceleration capabilities nor does it come with PC software. The same applies to Blu Ray, although ironically, the much derided MPEG 2 transfers will play just fine on an older rig.

Neutral

Truth TelIer @ Feb 6th 2008 3:19PM

@ TruthTeIIer

So what if it is a firesale cloneboy. You get a great HTPC player at a great price. You can still be able to get new HD-DVD movies for a while yet. Warner is red through May. And don't you thing the chinese will have
a few new CD-DVD imports.

All these leg humping clones. Pathetic. I must really make sense.

Neutral

John B @ Feb 6th 2008 8:19AM

It's now back to $179.99. Oh, well.

Neutral

D@n @ Feb 6th 2008 8:24AM

Advantage DrXym

Neutral

Truth Teller @ Feb 6th 2008 8:26AM

As a Windows XP media user I found that once the unit was plugged in to the USB port it was instantly recognised & Windows asked if I wanted it to go & get the required drivers.
That was it.

You need Cyberlinks PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra and you're up and running.

It didn't cost me anything extra and within a couple of minutes I had a nice new drive able to run HD DVDs, DVDs & CDs.
Couldn't have been easier.

(fair enough about the Mac/Linux comment John, but in fairness it is true for the vast majority who are Windows PC users)

Neutral

Truth Teller @ Feb 6th 2008 8:29AM

Obviously the idiot has never heard of a HTPC.

Neutral

CassilineKnight @ Feb 6th 2008 8:42AM

Its too bad that the player doesn't look that good to me.

In terms of quality how does it rank next to the A35 or XA2?

I really want to move to High Def but there are several issues that I have with BOTH sides.

The bluray side has these different profiles. And it seems like the only 2.0 player thats coming out soon is the Panasonic DMP-BD50. It looks and sounds like a very powerful HD player but it doesn't look as badass or beauitful as the Samsung Players that have come out (like the recent dual player). And then I hear that there is a new Denon blu-ray player coming out but that its ridiculously expensive so that counts me out. I don't want to spend more thant $600-800 on a HD player. So basically I'm forced to wait in agony for more options when it comes to Profile 2.0 stand alone bluray players. Once those come out on the market from various companies at a decent price I might just jump onto the bluray side as much as I hate the thought of giving sony my money.

Now on the HD DVD side I like Toshiba as a company and I like their products as well. But I won't deny that it looks like the format is in dire straits right now. The lack of any advertising is a horrible move on their part IMO. How exactly am supposed to know the benefits of HD DVD over bluray if I don't even catch glimpses of its existence on television. Plus Toshiba has not shown any type of commitment to fighting back against bluray recently. NO new players have been announcd. Nothing in regards to strategy or getting more movie studio support.

Anyways this whole situation is one big mess.

Neutral

Mr. E @ Feb 6th 2008 10:52AM

Is the PS3 not an option for you, for some reason? It's been confirmed to be Profile 2.0 compatible (whenever media finally appears to take advantage of that). I got the $399 40 GB model, plus the Darklite PS3 remote so I could train my universal remote and have an IR receiver. It works perfectly as a BD movie player, I run Folding@Home on it when I'm not watching movies, and upscaling of DVDs is great as well.

In case anyone cares, I've owned an Xbox 360 since launch day, but never got the HD DVD add-on since I saw the writing on the wall before that was even released.

Neutral

CassilineKnight @ Feb 6th 2008 11:04AM

The ps3 is not an option for me cuz

1) I hate sony's mothafreaking guts.
2) It looks like an fugly piece of sh*t.
3) It has no videogames I want or need to play. Well except Final Fantasy XIII and that might be heading the 360's way (hopefully). But even if not I highly doubt I'll buy a ps3 just for one game.

But when it comes down to it I really do NOT want to trust sony with High Definition Media. They're the worst company on Earth and deserve nothing but failure.

Neutral

KayRazy Ken Kutaragi @ Feb 6th 2008 11:53AM

Sony is only 1, Uno, One, Ichi, Einse company out of MANY companies that designed Blu-ray. Until the 3rd or 4th quarter of this year, you will not see many profile 2.0 players out there. The PS3 is by FAR the best Blu-ray player out now. It loads up a movie in 2-5 seconds, by comparison...most stand-alone players HD-DVD or Blu-ray can take up to 2, Dos, Two, Ni, Swei minutes for a movie to load up. It turns out that the Cell is very good at decoding HD.

If you do not want a PS3 and you hate Sony so much....then you are screwed.
Enjoy watching your movies in SD....or as I like to call it CHUMPVISION

How you can hate a company so much is beyond me.
Oh well, your choice.

Neutral

Mr. E @ Feb 6th 2008 12:35PM

Okay, CassilineKnight. Obviously there's nothing I can say that will make any difference to you. All I can reiterate is that I love my PS3 as a movie player and Folding@Home. I will be playing few if any games on it, but to me it's definitely worth the price just as a movie player.

@KayRazy Ken Kutaragi - "CHUMPVISION" -- too funny!

Neutral

CassilineKnight @ Feb 6th 2008 12:59PM

@ krazyken

Your comparision is based on CURRENT players though right?

So by the 3rd/4th Quarter hopefully the technology and specs on bluray players will have advanced to a level thats on par if not superior than your precious ps3.

Thats all I can say in regards to that.

as for SD its not that big a deal man. Really quit with whole "holier than thou" mentality cuz it doesn't make you bluray fanboys look good.

Highly Ranked

D@n @ Feb 6th 2008 8:45AM

@Truth Teller

So just how low do they need to go to for sales of HD DVD to "take off" Truth Teller? Looks like 80% was the magic number this time.

Besides, this being a non-standalone console/pc reliant device then it doesn't exist in your world!

Highest Ranked

anon @ Feb 6th 2008 9:02AM

@ DrXym again,
How many times do people have to go over this? Yes, there are 10 million PS3's out there, with a potential for 10 million Blu-ray players. But are 100% of the people who own a PS3 using it to watch movies? No. You can't count all 10 million PS3's as Blu-ray players. But since the add-on only works to play HD DVD's and DVD's (it won't even play cd's or 360 games), it's only use is as a movie player. MS has said that there will never be a game on HD DVD. It's not negative news for the player to be on sale. It can only be a good thing. What am I missing here? How is any spin needed if you think about what you're saying before you say it?

Highly Ranked

Reapman @ Feb 6th 2008 10:12AM

I imagine what he's saying is just like some people on here use the argument "real men don't use the PS3 for playing movies, they buy dedicated players, therefore PS3 doesn't count", the same would be said about a "an addon for a gaming console" Obviously both are stupid, since people do use the PS3 for Blu-ray (I'll admit not all) and the 360 addon for HD-DVD (safe to say all there!) However with apparently 10 million sold, you gotta admit even 10% of PS3 owners makes a heck of a dent in this war.

Personally I've done the HTPC thing in the past and I'm not too fond of it, so I'd rather spend a few bucks extra and get a "real" dedicated Toshiba HD-DVD Player (if I was buying HD, which I'm not since I'm ok to wait and see how this plays out)

Neutral

anon @ Feb 6th 2008 10:22AM

I agree with that. I'll even say 10% is low. I'd go as high as about 30% are used for movies, and that's based on nothing but my opinion since no one really has any idea what the actual number is. So that's still about 3 million players, along with the stand alone BR players, up against HD DVD's million or so players. That's a lot more realistic than saying "10 million againt 1 million!" in some crazy fantasy world some people live in.

Neutral

JimC @ Feb 6th 2008 11:21AM

Maybe with the 80Gb version of the PS3 which is more popular with gamers you can question if it is being used for blu-ray viewing but the 40Gb version that is most popular now @ $399, there is no question when you buy it that you are buying a blu-ray viewing device.

In my limited sampling of people I know personally who have PS3, they watch movies with it, and most bought it for just that reason...

The bottom line is that the PS3 is a huge factor and blu-ray title sales are reflecting it. Had the xbox360 came with a HDDVD player built-in, then I would wager HDDVD would be killing blu-ray right now, but hindsight is 20/20....so blame Microsoft/Toshiba for not having the foresight to recognize the impact of bundling the xbox360 with a built-in HDDVD drive....

Neutral

DrXym @ Feb 6th 2008 11:51AM

@anon, how many times do people who dismiss the PS3 need it bashed into their thick skulls? Blu ray is selling more standalone players than HD DVD players and when you include PS3s, Blu Ray sales totally dominate HD DVD.

Does every PS3 owner have an interest in Blu Ray discs? Of course not. But even if only 1/4 do, that is still 2.5 million players. Sales of Blu Ray players including the PS3 dwarfs the number of HD DVD players. Sales of Blu Ray discs dward sales of HD DVD discs. Personally I use my PS3 more as a multimedia player than games though I do that too. I expect lots of people use their PS3 in a variety of ways. And many people who want a Blu Ray player expressly buy a PS3 because its an quality piece of kit that has won AV awards.

So dismiss the PS3 if you want but you're simply deluding yourself to do so. The sales figures speak for themselves. Blu Ray is handing HD DVD its ass. HD DVD may not have been officially killed off but it is living on borrowed time.

As for the 360 add-on, the only use I see for it now is to rip HD DVD content using BackupHDDVD or similar. I think you would have to be completely insane to buy the add-on and earnestly think the format has a future. As a backup device and with 6 discs, $80 probably is a bargain.

Neutral

anon @ Feb 6th 2008 11:54AM

I think that is probably the biggest mistake MS/Toshiba made. They should have put the HD DVD drive in the 360 to begin with since they both have so much vested in the format. I think this little war would look a lot different. But do you really think that "there is no question when you buy it that you are buying a blu-ray viewing device"? Really? People like us that make usless posts on the interweb sure will. But I think there is still a pretty big majority out there that will buy it to play games, because that's what the main function of it really is, and the Blu-Ray player is secondary, if they even know about it. The average person doesn't know as much about technology like we do. They see the name "Playstation" on the box and think "I had the last 2 and I liked them a lot. It had some pretty good games. I'll get this one to because the games will look even better." And that's not even bringing up the people who have it hooked up to an SDTV that would get no benefit from buying and watching Blu-Ray movies. I think you're right. There is no question that people buying the 40 GB PS3 are buying it just as a Blu-ray device because it's not a question that should even come up. That isn't the main reason they're being bought. Seriously, where do people come up with this stuff? Just because some of you think it and want it to happen doesn't mean in anyway that everyone thinks and does that.
JimC, off topic, what are the numbers in your pic? Do you update that every week with the new numbers? I just ask because I thought I remembered seeing numbers in there at one time. Serious question, not trying to be a dick.

Neutral

anon @ Feb 6th 2008 12:04PM

@ DrXym,
Where did I say I was dismissing the PS3? I was disputing your number of 10 million Blu-ray players. I even came up with a bigger percentage than you did by saying 30%. I have one. Did you know that? I have 5 more BR movies than I have HD movies. Did you know that? I know it's having an impact in this little war here, I never said it didn't. It just isn't as big as a lot of people want to think it is. That's all I was saying.
And as for the 360 add-on, you should probably know that it can be hooked up to an Xbox 360 or to a PC via the USB port, and it allows you to watch HD DVD movies on your TV or PC through said Xbox or PC that it's hooked up to. That's it's main use. Since you couldn't see any other use for the add-on. Oh, and I was being sarcastic... And I meant to say that in my best Homer voice like that one episode.

Neutral

1stGreg @ Feb 6th 2008 10:11AM

Next $49.99, then $29.99, then they'll give you money to take it along with 6 HD DVDs ;)

Maybe then finally resellers won't be left with those unsold stocks hehe. As long as people know what they're getting into (a dying format), I see no problem in getting a good deal out of desperate pricing...

Neutral

Spanbauer @ Feb 6th 2008 10:40AM

I wonder if this was Microsoft getting aggressive about HD DVD support, or just liquidating inventory and throwing in the towel. I'm guessing the latter.

Neutral

andy @ Feb 6th 2008 11:18AM

If it was Microsoft, it would be free with xbox purchase.

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