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So, looking around ebay for some cheap Bluray movie deals I noticed that there really aren't any decent deals at all. I'd do just as well buying from a store for the kind money that people are asking. However I've noticed much of what I'm chasing is on HDDVD and I can get it for like a third of the price, Except I don't have a player. No worries I think to myself, I'll just buy the xbox360 add on. So I set out looking for one of those and all of them here in Australia are way to overpriced but overseas the prices get much more reasonable.

So my questions are:
1:Is this a good idea or should I just stick with Bluray.
2:Can a 360 add on drive from the UK work with discs I buy from Australia.
3:Is the 360 addon drive any good,ie can it output 1080p,etc.
4:Should I look at an actual hddvd player instead.

Or any other experiences you guys may have.

HDDVD is region free so you're fine in that regard all though here in the UK it's the same standard as AUS any way (Region 2 for DVD and PAL output)

Yes they're cheap but it's also a dead format, it won't hold any value. honestly. go with Bluray. the 360 add on drives are £12 in stores second hand here, they're pretty much worthless.

I've seen a lot of HD-DVD titles on Torrent and "sharing" sites. Maybe you can go there instead of getting dead end hardware.

There's something to be said for dead media formats; sometimes they're just fun to check out. I recommend checking the list of released HDDVDs to see if there are movies you want. If so, by all means, go ahead. It's a very cheap way to watch high definition video.

The HDDVD addon for the XB360 cant send the new "high def" audio codecs (i.e. DTSHD and DD True HD) because the unit is connected using USB2.0 and it doesnt have enough through put. It can do 1080p ONLY if you have your system hooked up using a VGA cable.

If you dont care about the audio part and can settle on 1080i then I say go ahead and buy HDDVD. IMHO the picture quality is better than Bluray.

If you were going to invest in HDDVD I would suggest just buying the actual player because of the audio options. Toshiba required EVERY HDDVD to have BOTH DTSHD and Dolby Digital True HD. Sony doesnt actually require either. I think that the sound and video quality is superior on HDDVD, but that is just my opinion.

The only reason Sony won the format war was because it was able to pay companies for exclusivity. When Sony started to pay the major movie studios to deal exclusively with Bluray, Toshiba had nothing to hold on to.

A VGA cable? So, HDMI audio is worse than optical audio?

lisalover1 wrote:A VGA cable? So, HDMI audio is worse than optical audio?

No, its just a matter of the amount of data each cable can transfer. The reason that the XB360 HDDVD addon cant transfer the new audio codecs is because USB2.0 can only transfer at 1.5Mbps and the new audio codecs need 36 ~ 48Mbps. So that obstacle boils down to the limitation of the connection between the player and the xbox. HDMI has a much higher throughput @ 4.95Gbit/s.

As far as 1080p is concerned, at the time of the HDDVD player release the XB360 only had 2 ways to get a HD resolution that was VGA and Component. Toshiba mandated that 1080p on HDDVD's cannot be transferred over component because it didnt have the necessary ability to prevent ripping of the discs to HDDs. Thus, they originally only allowed it to be transferred via HDMI because it can prevent the discs being ripped and pirated.

HDMI is a far more capable connection.

lisalover1 wrote:There's something to be said for dead media formats; sometimes they're just fun to check out.

I like this statement. Some people love their collections of records or laser discs. I've actually toyed around with the idea of collecting movies on UMD, just because you don't see any of them anymore. Sometimes that's what really makes something collectible

Gamerforlife wrote:

lisalover1 wrote:There's something to be said for dead media formats; sometimes they're just fun to check out.

I like this statement. Some people love their collections of records or laser discs. I've actually toyed around with the idea of collecting movies on UMD, just because you don't see any of them anymore. Sometimes that's what really makes something collectible

Yeah, I guess a large part of this is that I'm A bit of a tragic for dead formats. I still use MD's and Records sometimes instead of my Ipod and yet never touch my cd's. I even still use zip drives.

Hell, another thing I'm looking at right now is a Laserdisc player.

As far as a stand alone unit goes I found one of these on ebay. http://www.cnet.com.au/toshiba-hd-e1-339272053.htm

Only complaint that I have is that it doesn't support 1080p and the tv I wish to hook it too is fullhd.