Xbox 360 HD DVD player now officially $129.99
It's already taken the plunge at a number of retailers, but Microsoft has just now gotten official with the new $129.99 price point for the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on (which still includes a copy of King Kong and the offer for five free HD DVDs by mail). Of course, that price is the MSRP, which means we could very well be seeing even bigger discounts on the drive at retailers, even if they aren't all as steep as Amazon's all too brief $80 bonanza.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
John B @ Feb 6th 2008 3:54PM
Hmm... I've been looking at building an HTPC. This wouldn't be a bad addition at all, especially if retailers can get it closer to the $100 mark.
anon @ Feb 6th 2008 4:43PM
I'll sell you mine for $100. I just got an A30 to replace it, and I was going to put the add-on on ebay this weekend.
John B @ Feb 6th 2008 7:26PM
Uh, right. So, you expect me to pay $100 for a used drive (and only the drive) whereas for $30 more I can get a brand new drive AND all of the free movies that are associated with it? What the hell are you smoking?
Make it $10 for just the drive and you have a deal.
anon @ Feb 7th 2008 8:56AM
Yes. Because I was totally serious. Sarcasm never comes across when you type. It was a joke.
anon @ Feb 7th 2008 8:56AM
Yes. Because I was totally serious. Sarcasm never comes across when you type. It was a joke.
John B @ Feb 7th 2008 10:17AM
This is EngadgetHD. When it comes to the whole BD/HD DVD issue, no one here apparently knows what humor is because everyone treats it like a f**king religious war. You should know better. :P
John Drinkwater @ Feb 6th 2008 3:58PM
Always nice to see the market being distorted by dumping.
stephenbratz2 @ Feb 7th 2008 4:10AM
Sony said that they are just about to start turning a profit on the PS3 - meaning they have been selling it below cost. Dumping, accoring to dictionary.com, is "To place (goods or stock, for example) on the market in large quantities and at a low price." So Sony have been dumping their players also. Being that a majority of the Blu-Ray players are PS3 systems, and not all PS3s are used as Blu-Ray players, Sony has been claiming that all PS3s sold is one more Blu-Ray player on the market; hence, skewing the numbers of players being used.
But that is OK, correct? Because it is Blu-Ray, so Sony dumping and distoring sales figures is OK, when Microsoft is selling their players around the same price of PC drives (you can buy a stand-alone PC drive from ASUS for the same price, meaning they are selling them at least at cost) that is dumping and trying to distort sales figures. If you want to complain about one side of the war, then you need to complain about the other side doing it - and possibly, even worse.
John Drinkwater @ Feb 7th 2008 6:28AM
To place (goods or stock, for example) on the market in large quantities and at a low price.
You must have missed the cost of the PS3 for the last year, because its not at a low price. The actual definition of dumping is predatory pricing, of which, this is.
(the same happened for XBox1+2, flood the market with substantially below-cost xbox products so everyone leaves the competitors)
stephenbratz2 @ Feb 7th 2008 1:49PM
You may wish to contact the authorities (FTC, DOJ, etc) and provide them with your evidence of predatory pricing. After all, you would not make claims such as dumping and predatory pricing unless you have proof such as Microsoft internal documentation to back up your position. You may also want to make a complaint against ASUS for selling a drive for the same price (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135161).
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 6th 2008 3:59PM
Even MS is starting to fire sell and clear their inventory... BD add-on coming right up!
What choice did they have? Toshiba is giving their players away, how does a "cost-effective" add-on compete with that? Nice partnership Tosh...
anon @ Feb 6th 2008 4:25PM
Wasn't Sharp giving Blu-ray players away if you bought a TV a few weeks ago? But the price drops on an HD DVD player and suddenly its a firesale and they're being cleared out for some mythical, non-existant Blu-ray add-on? How does that work? Somebody wake this guy up! I think he's dreaming!
But I agree with cheese head. Get an A3/A30/A35 instead.
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 6th 2008 4:49PM
@ anon,
I could give 2 shits if they release a BD add-on... I tried the HD-DVD one and thought it looked like crap, and returned it instead for a $99 A3.
About those "free" BD players... not quite. They jack the price of the TV up that week and make up the difference anyway, so it's never really free. Proof you ask? Look at the sales numbers for that week and divide it by the number of players "sold". Average revenue per unit was over $300 for BD players that week, vs less than $120 for HD DVD.
LordZargon @ Feb 7th 2008 4:12AM
Wow dude, you must've been conned somehow; I've got both a PS3 and the HD DVD 360 add-on, and to be frank, the picture quality difference is non-existant. Both extremely high quality; and all the internet reviews seem to agree. The HD DVD drive is just a regular Toshiba HD DVD drive with a USB and external power supply. =]
andyj @ Feb 6th 2008 4:05PM
They should just recycle all of hose obsolete HD DVD players and do the environment a favor.
John B @ Feb 6th 2008 4:31PM
STFUAJWM. (Shut the f*ck up and just watch movies.)
Truth Teller @ Feb 6th 2008 4:15PM
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Truth Commenter @ Feb 7th 2008 12:17PM
Good to see you're adding
your two bits (or in this
case many more). Still I
think your arguement bytes.
cheese head @ Feb 6th 2008 4:20PM
360 is a terrible player anyways. Loud fans, HDMI 1.2, no 1080P/24 support, and no lossless audio codec support.
Spend a little more and get a A30/A35 if you want a HD DVD player.
John B @ Feb 6th 2008 4:30PM
As had been said time and time again, you don't *need* a 360. A PC with the latest PowerDVD will be able to utilize this. Yes, that's another purchase but for some a PC + HD DVD add-on + PowerDVD is still a better alternative than having two separate boxes. And since there are tools out there to rip HD DVDs to the hard drive, that makes it an even nicer alternative to a separate, set-top player.
andyj @ Feb 6th 2008 4:40PM
The 360 and HD DVD should be buried in a shallow grave together ... they're both junk.
okeygrak @ Feb 6th 2008 4:43PM
That's not necessarily true. My 5th replacement Xbox360 is working without a hitch.
andyj @ Feb 6th 2008 4:49PM
LOL!
Mike @ Feb 6th 2008 8:38PM
Get a life troll. You comment about BD better sales then HD DVD but the 360 sells beter then ps3 and some only buy it for movies. And then bd fan boys go off about content is king and bd sells more movies then hd dvd. So Harry Potter sells 55% bd to 45% hd dvd....but Call of duty 4 the 360 sold almost 4 to every 1 sold on ps3....LOL
maxpower @ Feb 7th 2008 1:56AM
@Mike
Actually the PS3 sells better globally than the 360. The US is the only market where 360 outsells the PS3, for the moment.
Raymond Luc @ Feb 6th 2008 5:40PM
I'll be getting one since I missed the Amazon deal.
DeadPlasmaCell @ Feb 6th 2008 5:40PM
On a slightly off topic note, Anybody elses Netflix Queue go from all "Long & Very long waits" to all "Short Waits" ? I actually got a movie shipped out to me today! maybe this is a turn around point!
Patrick @ Feb 6th 2008 7:18PM
I finally got "Next" on HD DVD sent to me, after like two months in my queue!
Raymond Luc @ Feb 6th 2008 5:40PM
.
Gus @ Feb 6th 2008 7:37PM
Now we all know the format war is over, apparently, because the blu brigade has been telling everyone that for over a year now.
It's just interesting that it appears consumers aren't listening to the blu rhetoric,wow, how dare the arrogant consumer be involved in the outcome of this war!!... or maybe they just don't want to spend $400+ for a DVD player, but the A3 and the Xbox 360 add on are selling at what, 4 or 5 times the volume of a BR player?
Xbox 360 add on up by... 51,200%(?!!!)according to Amazon, and the A3 now up to position 21 in ALL electronics.
Just keep screaming it's all over blu botz, lets see a few million more of these being sold and Toshiba waving the check book at studios to go purple, because the only gun you have is the PS3, the other CE cartel members have no interest in taking part in the war, they want the cream by overcharging consumers for a DVD player in this artificially created monopoly that is BR.
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 6th 2008 8:23PM
QUOTE: "the A3 and the Xbox 360 add on are selling at what, 4 or 5 times the volume of a BR player?"
You must suck at math. BD continues to trounce HD DVD players. And don't even say that the NPD numbers don't include the 360 add-on cause then you better include the PS3, which would make those weekly pie charts look utterly sad for HD DVD.
You fail.
Gus @ Feb 6th 2008 9:38PM
@Deeznutz
I'm talking current figures, not history, today.
Maybe 4 or 5 times is to strong, but HD DVD SA players have always out sold BR SA players, up until BR started giving away the very popular profile 1.0 models for free that is, and with the current 360 add on pricing, today, BR is getting a bath, not bad for a dead format!
And please, the 360 add on can ONLY be used for watching HD movies, NOTHING ELSE, so yes, it does qualify as a SA player as would a BR drive if one was available.
Personally, I would be very happy for all studios to be purple, but I know you would not be, and if as a result HD DVD dies, so be it, this is all about consumer choice, why wouldn't you want that???... because you and I both know, if the consumer had been allowed to choose, your precious little overpriced blu ray monopoly would be long dead.
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 6th 2008 11:30PM
@ Gus
HD DVD had a head start. THey both battled it out in the market. HD DVD, despite the price cuts over the holiday, and the paramount shift, still couldn't surpass Blu sales.
I don't write this to gloat, that's just what happened. I don't know why you want another year of this crap but I don't. I am not emotionally invested in either format for me to start speculating whether Blu won with massive payoffs and what not... despite what many claim, there's no proof.I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that BD is anti-consumer but I guess you can label me what you like. At the end of it all, I care about watching movies in HD and having all studios available on one format.
Yeah, I'll continue to poke fun at certain HD DVD supporters cause it's fun, and I find it amusing how emotionally invested folks can be in a format. Shoe on the other foot, I would be doing the exact same thing to BD supporters.
Gus @ Feb 7th 2008 12:15AM
You have declared you are purple, so you HAVE all HD movie content available, you should be happy, (not bitching) HD DVD is alive and well with a 30% market share, because the day HD DVD dies is the day you start paying through the nose for HD media and BR becomes /remains niche market only.
Hell, I don't buy many HD movies now and neither do the masses because they are to expensive, not because there is consumer confusion with HD competition, I'd hate to imagine what HD discs are going to be once the BR cartel has their way, good bye competition, good bye cheap anything.
If HD media was a few $ more than DVD instead of 2 or 3 times more, DVD would die off overnight, studio greed is stopping mass market adoption, nothing else!
And please don't say BR is going to keep driving prices down to compete with DVD, they are not, that is just brain washed nonsense.
It is public knowledge that sony contrived this entire scenario to return the control of hardware manufacturing away from the Chinese (cheap), and back to the Japanese(expensive) so they can retain the profit instead, and in sonys case, control content and manufacturing.
That means much higher prices, no matter which way you cut it, so it's cheap Chinese DVD V Expensive Japanese blu ray, BR can never win that battle, i doubt they even want to, IMO they will be very content with a profitable small share of the overall disc market.
If BR kills off HD DVD it will be several years at least of consolidation, with a vast debt to be returned back to sony as a result of the format war, then they will want a fat Japanese profit.
BR will never beat DVD, they don't want to IMO, a profitable share is what they want, a nice fat niche will do them nicely, and if the consumer gets a tooling along the way by BR, so be it.
Gus @ Feb 6th 2008 7:56PM
**$129.99 is good in USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Truth Teller @ Feb 6th 2008 8:06PM
Mmmmmm, I recently sold my 1yr old XBox 360 HD DVD add-on (for 70/$140) and bought the HD A/EP 35 (a superb spec'd player btw).
If they carry across this sort of pricing to the UK market soon I'd snap up another in a heartbeat.
(especially if it got me another 6 HD DVD movies = top result!)
Hi-Def @ Feb 6th 2008 9:27PM
Dont do it its a trap! Blu-ray one and Ps3 should beat 360 world wide sales in 2008! To winners because of quality!
Gus @ Feb 6th 2008 11:10PM
PS3 to beat 360 in 08, hahahahahahahahaha, what have you been smoking?
Mike @ Feb 7th 2008 3:30AM
@ hi def and maxpower,
Don't care how sales are in russia or china etc...I live in the states and thats the sales I look at. America sets the lead..the rest follow. We are the superpower btw.
maxpower @ Feb 7th 2008 5:00AM
@Mike
Misinformed, patriotic, flag waving BS..... Weak.
Your statement that 360 outsells ps3 is still incorrect. Sales of PS3 are picking up in the US, following the trend in Japan and Europe. Likewise, blu-ray was dominating very strongly in Japan and Europe, with HD-DVD only holding it's ground for a while in the US. The US is catching up with the global trend and HD-DVD is losing market share to blu. Can you explain to me exactly how the US is the trend setter in all of this?
Mike @ Feb 7th 2008 9:44AM
@Max, You said I was incorrect in the statement of saying the 360 outsells the ps3... well here is the NPD figures for dec and the year. As you can see ps3 fails to outsell even the ps2 in dec much less the 360...so no I was correct.
December Hardware Sales
DS - 2.47 million
Wii - 1.35 million
Xbox 360 - 1.26 million
PS2 - 1.10 million
PSP - 1.06 million
PS3 - 797.6K
2007 Hardware Sales
DS - 8.50 million
Wii - 6.29 million
Xbox 360 - 4.62 million
PS2 - 3.97 million
PSP - 3.82 million
PS3 - 2.56 million
Lifetime Hardware Sales
PS2 - 41.12 million
DS - 17.65 million
PSP - 10.47 million
Xbox 360 - 9.15 million
Wii - 7.38 million
PS3 - 3.25 million
joe @ Feb 7th 2008 12:55PM
Mike- Those are US numbers only. The whole gaming industry would be in trouble if those were worldwide.
The PS3 did manage to win world wide for the holiday season '07. The margin was however small enough to call it a tie.
It does seem like 08 will be a good year for PS3 gaming and the console. Sony games is finally turning a profit and did so without bleeding to much money. With BD picking up steam and several "launch titles" shipping in '08 this is going to be Sony's "Halo Year."
N-Style @ Feb 6th 2008 11:28PM
This is a great deal! If only I win an Xbox, I will be all set!
LordZargon @ Feb 7th 2008 4:05AM
As long as your PC is HD-Ready (get Cyberlink's Advisor to test if you're not sure), you have Vista and you have PowerDVD Ultra you can just whack the drive into your PC and watch movies that way. You don't "need" a 360. =]
D@n @ Feb 7th 2008 6:12AM
@Gus
"the day HD DVD dies is the day you start paying through the nose for HD media and BR becomes /remains niche market only."
Oh please! How exactly would HD DVD winning NOT make it a niche product aswell by your reasoning? Do yourself a favour and don't repeat the same old weak arguments that Truth Teller and Nfinity constantly whine about on here about HD DVD being more consumer friendly, blah blah. It's blatantly obvious that super cheap players do not equal success as sales have shown that Blu-ray SA's are currently outselling HD DVD SA's.
"It is public knowledge that sony contrived this entire scenario to return the control of hardware manufacturing away from the Chinese (cheap), and back to the Japanese(expensive) so they can retain the profit instead, and in sonys case, control content and manufacturing."
Really? Please provide some proof of this "public knowledge" or is it another conspiracy theory to add to the long list that HD DVD fudsters are spreading round the net. Sony don't control the Japanese hardware, content, and manufacturing market....though it seems they do....in your head! Oh and last time I checked, Toshiba were a Japanese CE! Oops!
"If HD media was a few $ more than DVD instead of 2 or 3 times more, DVD would die off overnight, studio greed is stopping mass market adoption, nothing else!"
So now it's the studios stopping mass adoption? I thought it was Blu-ray doing that. So by your reasoning, even if HD DVD won then mass adoption would be impossible....because of the studios! Damn them!
"they will want a fat Japanese profit."
Ummm yes they do.....but so does everyone else! Toshiba wants fat Japanese profit too! Didn't you know? That is the name of the game. Don't be so nieve to think that they don't.
Toshiba for years have had a nice revenue stream due to royalties pulled in from their DVD format. With HD DVD, they woud have a win-win scenario in place. Whatever revenue they lose from DVD royalties, they get back from HD DVD! easy! But hang on, now they have the awkward situation with Blu-ray being more popular than their format then as the HD market matures, their DVD profits will go down.
Not good for Toshiba!
So you see, It is Toshiba's greed which caused this war in the first place when they walked out to develop their own format against the other CE manufacturers who had backed Blu-ray.
"that is just brain washed nonsense."
You're right and you have been!
Jim Todd @ Feb 7th 2008 8:27AM
As a former owner of four 360s (and one of these drives), I can't tell you how great it will be for customers to have their movie player get the RROD, not just their console. After all four had the RROD, and two had it twice, I'm now the owner of multiple PS3s, and I've gone Blu-Ray - - Microsoft is responsible for my switch from red to blu. With this drive, the red has multiple meanings.
Gus @ Feb 7th 2008 5:48PM
At least MS had the balls to admit the problem and allocate over $1 Billion for warranty and fix the issue!
Hard to imagine sony doing the same if the situation was reversed.
regeya @ Feb 7th 2008 1:28PM
OK, my comment got eaten, but here goes again:
Meh...if it goes down a bit more, I might buy it as an external HD DVD drive, as I don't own an XBox nor do I plan to (or any other console.)
I'm still amazed at the level of douchebaggery seen in every HD DVD story, how every price drop is seen as the complete and total proof of the immediat demise of the format, while ignoring all deep Blu discounts as just darn good business sense.
Guys...they're movie players. The "software" is movies. It's not that big of a deal. Since dual-format players are coming out, it won't be that big of a deal if HD DVD hangs on for a while. Well, it'll be a big deal to those of us who already have players for one format, but not really to people who'll be holding off until, say, 2010 (which isn't that far away, y'know?)
On a similar note, the lack of immediate death of HD DVD is also not a sign of consumer idiocy any more than early adopters of ANY format, be it Blu-Ray, or people who bought into SACD, DVD-A, MiniDisc, or even, say, DVD players 10 years ago. Notice any difference between DVDs that came out 10 years ago vs. new releases? Any difference in the players?
So consumers may have interest in HD DVD after all if the price is good. Y'all have been screaming about how HD DVD is inferior for so long that maybe the consumers will only be interested in buying an "inferior" format at "inferior" prices. And if it dies off anyway, y'all will get all self-righteous again. Over tech gear. Yeah.
anon @ Feb 7th 2008 3:46PM
Thank you. Finally someone who sees all this b*tching back and forth for what it really is. Thank you for that. I've noticed too that every time there is a sale on a HD player or movie, it's suddenly a fire sale and they're clearing out the stock before they raise the white flag. But if there's a sale on a BR player or movie, it's just a good deal. I've never understood how that made any sense to all the people that type it. And how many nails does the HD DVD coffin need? It's been the final nail in to coffin for so long, and it's still going along. I also never understood why people like to get in some e-pissing match about which type of optical disc gives them more wood. And no one can say any of my comments have been part of that e-pissing match. I just point out asinine comments people make and ask if they really truly believe them or if they just try and spreading lies to make them selves feel better or make HD DVD look bad. The last part of your post was the best. "And if it dies off anyway, y'all will get all self-righteous again. Over tech gear. Yeah." That sums it up perfectly. Post of the year on Engadget HD in my book, and it's only February.
1stGreg @ Feb 7th 2008 3:40PM
No need for that piece of junk (unless you happen to already have a library of HD DVD discs).
Get 1080p picture, and for $179 you have a Blu Ray player in your PC !
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106227
For $399 you can even burn your own movies in high Def in Blu Ray ! :)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106037