Xbox360 HD-DVD drive works in PC

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jebo_4jc

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - April 2011
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http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4920

Well, at least, Dailytech was able to "read" from HD-DVD discs, but none of their DVD player programs were able to play the movies correctly.

$199 USB 2.0 HD-DVD here we come?

Interestingly, in another article, they discovered the drive uses the mini-IDE interface, and has some sort of controller board on the back of it which will make it more difficult to mount in a traditional 5.25" drive bay.
 
FWIW: I heard that if you have Nero 7 installed you can get the HD-DVD's to play (some codec it installs does it).

I can't wait to find out for sure that it works and have a nice cheap HD-DVD add on for my HTPC.
 
if you can find them there are $40 off coupons circiling around for Circuit city. I picked up the hd dvd drive for $170 after tax.

Got it up and running and works great.

- Josh
 
So why don't you be a hero (aka guinea pig) and try to put it in your pc. Takes lots of pictures too, so we can ALL have HD goodness on the cheap.
 
belmicah said:
So why don't you be a hero (aka guinea pig) and try to put it in your pc. Takes lots of pictures too, so we can ALL have HD goodness on the cheap.
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Why would I want it in my PC? I like the fact that its external. My HTPC sits in a closet. I just set the HD DVD drive on my av rack and run a usb exension cable and I am set.

Also the only down side right now is the Japanese ver. of Windvd that is able to play the hd dvd's down scales the video to 540p. some belive that is due to AACS resctricitons. Many are hoping this will be fixed in next releases of the software.

- Josh
 
UMDivX said:
Why would I want it in my PC? I like the fact that its external. My HTPC sits in a closet. I just set the HD DVD drive on my av rack and run a usb exension cable and I am set.

Also the only down side right now is the Japanese ver. of Windvd that is able to play the hd dvd's down scales the video to 540p. some belive that is due to AACS resctricitons. Many are hoping this will be fixed in next releases of the software.

- Josh
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The software issues need to be resolved before I buy one. Even though it is only $199.

Come on software companies.
 
jebo_4jc said:
The software issues need to be resolved before I buy one. Even though it is only $199.

Come on software companies.
Click to expand...

Yea I would like to see some better software. Still might pick one up for my xbox just because it is a lot cheaper then a standalone. If I could hook it up to my 23 inch lcd to watch movies in my computer room I would be set.
 
Just so you know the english version of WinDVD8 is out, not sure if it's has any bug fixes though.

I want to get one sometime after Thanksgiving, hopefully by then the codec issue has worked itself out alittle bit.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Just so you know the english version of WinDVD8 is out, not sure if it's has any bug fixes though.

I want to get one sometime after Thanksgiving, hopefully by then the codec issue has worked itself out alittle bit.
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The english windvd8 doesn't have the nessary program to do HD. When you get the japanese windvd8 and install it, it basically installs a whole other version of windvd, its windvd8 HD (or BR for blue ray). The US version is 8.0 xxxxx, where as the JPN version is 7.5 xxxxx, its kinda weird but thats how it works.

- Josh
 
Thanks for the heads up OP

Will keep an eye peeled on this one, hopefully there'll be some updates soon...
 
UMDivX said:
The english windvd8 doesn't have the nessary program to do HD. When you get the japanese windvd8 and install it, it basically installs a whole other version of windvd, its windvd8 HD (or BR for blue ray). The US version is 8.0 xxxxx, where as the JPN version is 7.5 xxxxx, its kinda weird but thats how it works.

- Josh
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Their website says it "Plays All Formats - HD Ready" (Altho that's just files, BR and HD support sold separately)


Also, these drivers are available from another article with a lot more pictures.
 
If you've been following AVSforums at all, it has been determined that the US version of WinDVD8 does play HD DVD's but only Non AACS encrypted HD DVD's. So basically it'll play home made HD DVD's and thats it.

The BD and HD dvd abilities are an addon to Windvd, basically a sperate applicaiton. A few of us called Intervideo and the tech support informed us that the HD addon to WinDVD won't be released until feb. some time.

As far as WinDVD8 saying it supports HD content, what it does is it'll support h.264 and WMVHD playback, but not BD or HD DVD's yet. Also on that same site if you scroll down a little farther it say
trianlg_red_w.gif
HD DVD and Blu-ray Playback Support ***Can be purchased separately
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- Josh
 
TType85 said:
FWIW: I heard that if you have Nero 7 installed you can get the HD-DVD's to play (some codec it installs does it).

I can't wait to find out for sure that it works and have a nice cheap HD-DVD add on for my HTPC.
Click to expand...
Yup, nero 7 does indeed have a bluray hd capability, as you can make bluray hd dvds if you have the actual dvdrw to burn discs in, as my version of nero 7 will allow me to burn a bluray hd dvd if I had a bluray dvd drive installed, and I think i am not sure but I think nero showtime would play those filetypes if no other media player can...

Also what about cyberlink power dvd7 ? that plays hd stuff, or claims to i think and also has the nvidia purevideo decoder built in, I have it but very rarely use it so I cant say exactly what it plays and what it dont play, but I would think it should handle hd no problem ?
 
There are Beta (OEM) Versions of Powerdvd 6.6 for BD dvd's, and 6.5 for HD DVD. The unfortunate fact is that its beta and only comes with OEM drives when you buy them. You can't currently get them retail.

I will have to check out nero showtime, though I can't seem to find it online at all.

- Josh
 
UMDivX said:
I will have to check out nero showtime, though I can't seem to find it online at all.
- Josh
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It's part of the nero suite. I think the latest verion is Nero 7 Ultra Edition.
 
don't think you'll ever see FFDshow and HD DVD in the same mix. Not for a while atleast. But yes if you can get the plyaback software its easy as pie.

If you read that article, that person has a PC based HD DVD drive he is reviewing, and he got a copy of Power DVD 6.5 HD which is exactly what we need but isn't retail yet so its hard to get a hold of it.

- Josh
 
Well, you can't use FFDShow with HD-DVDs. That would drop it into software mode and it would drop frames like crazy even on the most highend of systems. You really need that hardware acceleration that modern video cards offer.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Well, you can't use FFDShow with HD-DVDs. That would drop it into software mode and it would drop frames like crazy even on the most highend of systems. You really need that hardware acceleration that modern video cards offer.
Click to expand...

Well, the current working version we're using runs fine in software mode. Admittedly that's in 960x540 res, but I'm only seeing 30-40% cpu usage ([email protected]).
 
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