I worked for an AV dealer around that time, convinced some guy to buy an expensive HD-DVD player because it was definitely going to beat out blu ray. Ooops.
If Xbox had updated the 360 to include HDDVD built in, I think the war would have dragged out longer. Blu-ray probably would have still prevailed in the end.
I bought alot of games/dvds/hardware from Canada around the time this drive was sold. There was an online retailer dvdboxoffice that sold to the UK with free shipping, no VAT and usually no duties
Hey, Pete, good to see that your 360 HD-DVD unit is working well. It will be a nice parallel drive for your main Toshiba one. Great that you got a working copy of Batman Begins, too!
First time I've actually seen a video on the hd dvd player for Xbox 360. Has it's place in history and is a great peripheral to have with the console. At that price as well....I think you're right...now's the time to jump on it
Totally mate. Really can't argue with the current price. Luckily HD DVD is still overlooked. I'm sure if collecting them becomes popular the 360 drive will shoot up 🙄
iv had both those drives since they came out,iv had disc work on 1 but not the other brand new discs too update both drives and it still did it ,also have the lg drive for pc that hd dvd and blu ray but i couldnt get the hd dvd to work as wasnt comp with win 10 , have dozen of hd dvds
It was cool back in the day to have an xbox 360 with a hd-dvd drive added...i think they did such a great job on the design of it. You got me wanting to set mine up and have a watch of some films with it-hoping it works fine via a gears of war slim 360 console now. Just set up a 360 to start going through my 360 collection to trim the fat so great timing! Nice one 😉👍
I've noticed a pattern with formats regarding movies and music. Successors by name Never seen to catch on and stay. Examples being DVDs > HDDVDs. CDs > mini CDs. While the precursors to them are still here today. It's always an entirely new name that has staying power From VHS to DVD to Blu Ray. Vinyl's to Tape cassetes to CDs and so on. HDDVD player's were definitely the Betamax players of the 00s. I always liked the idea of The HDDVD over Blu Ray. When it comes to overall format's I peaked with Blu Ray. Now I stick to exclusively with DVDS. They look good enough for me running on my Blu Ray player :).
I've never heard of Mini CDS. You've just given me anew rabbit hole lol. It is fascinating how some formats catch on but others just flop. I think HD DVD was so quick it probably completely passed by a lot of people.
@@Snestastic They certainly were an oddity in the early 00s. Lol. I remember seeing mini disc players for sale in places like Comet and Curry's then suddenly they just disappeared. Oh it's certainly fascinating indeed. I vaguely remember HDDVD player's when they were new but I kinda forgot about them quicker than I remembered. Still an interesting bit of tech though. Would of been interesting if it succeeded.
King Kong definitely did release here. Our family bought the 360 HD DVD player when it first released here and it came with King Kong too, complete with the UK age rating. I also remember the original 360 dashboard had the HD DVD player icon be underneath the game disc selection. They obviously moved it to a slightly different spot with later dashboard updates since the format was already long since dead and kinda niche.
Thanks mate, I wasn't sure if it got a release here. That's great to hear. It's a little annoying that they've moved the HD DVD App. But then again gotta be grateful that they even still have the app and updates lol.
I was a big supporter of HD-DVD, I still think with things like comedy movies that were colourful and vibrant, it had the edge on early Blu-Ray movies. 40 Year Old Virgin sticks in my mind for looking incredible on my LG HD TV and 360 HD drive. It's amazing how many films came out in the USA versus us here in the UK but was great the the players were region free! I've still got a sealed Asian market 360 HD-DVD drive stashed away, can't imagine there's many of those about.
That's a nice one to have stashed away mate. I had HD DVD when it came out. Then in 2006 I imported a PS3 and switched to Blu-Ray. So now looking back i'm finding so many films that I didn't know were on HD DVD.
@@Snestastic it’s crazy to think how expensive the films were to buy back then and how cheap they went around 2008-2009, now some of them seem to be coming around the other way. I remember being dead pleased to find I am Legend on HD-DVD which I think along with Twister was among the last movies to be released. Keep up the great work, your content is very interesting 😊
Prices have steadily risen. I got one a few years back with a decent pile of games for about £25. I added a few more and then trimmed the collection making a bit of profit on a portion of the pile. I still haven’t seen any in the wild, but see people picking the films up in charity shops.
I'd highly recommend 'Underworld' it looks incredible. It's a shame HD failed to Blu-ray I always found HD DVD to be superior picture quality. It was down to Sony's obsession with capacity of a disc, over quality. I've been really tempted to invest in one of these again (had one back in the day) still have a 360 your video has stirred some memories! Just subbed😁
"I'd highly recommend 'Underworld' it looks incredible. It's a shame HD failed to Blu-ray I always found HD DVD to be superior picture quality. It was down to Sony's obsession with capacity of a disc, over quality. I've been really tempted to invest in one of these again (had one back in the day) still have a 360 your video has stirred some memories!"-@markmaisy4858 Controversial and contrarian take. I'm pretty sure that most HD DVDs only went up to 1080i or at least that's how most would have experienced them, some players didn't even go beyond 1080i like Toshiba's earlier models. Blu-ray was more successful because of its larger storage capacity, which allowed for higher quality video compression and ultimately resulted in a superior picture quality. I think it's cool to have both HD DVD and Blu-ray but like most people the only reason I see any interest in HD DVD is because it's rare, it's novel. Blu-ray would always be my media of choice even if I had the same movie for both formats. Also we can't forget the disc rot issue thst most movies on HD DVD had. So Yeah! Blu-ray was always gonna be the clear winner. All my movies from 2007 still work flawlessly on my ps3. I'm calling placebo effect for anyone believing video transfer looked better on HD DVD for reasons I stated above. HD DVD is a novelty. You have a 360, why not, get a add on player just to get more use from the 360, they would be pretty much obsolete otherwise since most titles run on the Xbox one and newer consoles from that ecosystem.
Do all of the Warner releases not work? I’ve seen most succumb to disc rot and I’ve come across some and I’d rather save myself the trouble of putting them in and not working 😅
Nearly all of the Warner discs I've got don't work. Even films that I bought sealed. For instance I picked dip a sealed Swordfish. My standalone Toshiba won't even boot the disc. It just freezes the player. However I have 2 copies of batman begins. 1 US and 1 UK. US stutters and freezes. UK works perfect. So I think it's very hot n miss with Warner unfortunately 😕
That was interesting. Certainly a great way to get into hd dvd Remember looking at buying one back in the day. Real shame about the Warner problem, certainly not worth buying multiple discs to get a good one 👍
Thanks Mate, glad you liked it 👍 Yeah definitely agree. It's never-ending if I try to find working copies of WB films. Just glad that Batman and I Am Legend work tbh.
that i got be fair i did not like like come one why did xbox wanted u to buy a drive to play a hd movie like u should already have that! inside the console like the sony ps3 did on there console
i don't know how but i ended up with 3 copies of training day on dvd in my collection back in the mid 2000s, and i think that film stinks. I love the actors, director etc it just didnt click with me.
Hi @Snestastic , I have been slowly building up my hd DVD collection after buying my hd DVD player for the 360 last year, I sometimes have a job finding them in different CeX stores, so far I have 4 at the moment, got Backdraft on its way in the post, plus thanks to your video i didn’t know that the player part was on a different tab, by the way I am a fellow UA-camr Welsh Ant-Man . I tried looking you up on social media and found and followed you on Instagram , I wasn’t sure it was your profile on X since there was no photo. Hope to hear from you soon, I am hoping to get 3 more HD DVDs from a different CeX store.
Nice one mate. HD DVD is a fun format to collect for. That's not me on X btw lol. I've not been on Twitter since 2019. I know there is a German guy that uses the same name on socials though.
I worked for an AV dealer around that time, convinced some guy to buy an expensive HD-DVD player because it was definitely going to beat out blu ray. Ooops.
😂
It probably would have if it wasn't for that pesky PlayStation 3 😂
If Xbox had updated the 360 to include HDDVD built in, I think the war would have dragged out longer. Blu-ray probably would have still prevailed in the end.
I use mine as an external drive for my PC now!
I bought alot of games/dvds/hardware from Canada around the time this drive was sold. There was an online retailer dvdboxoffice that sold to the UK with free shipping, no VAT and usually no duties
Blast from the past. I’d forgotten about that site 😊
Cheers Eric. I'd forgotten about that site. That will explain the UK plug. I assume the drive ass a universal power supply built into it.
Great video. I’ve got an HD-DVD in the box I need to break out and give it a go. Thanks for the inspiration!
Been looking at picking one up also!! Great vid pal
GREAT VIDEO BRO. I PICKED ONE UP LAST YEAR I HAVE BLURAYS AND 4KS AS WELL
Hey, Pete, good to see that your 360 HD-DVD unit is working well. It will be a nice parallel drive for your main Toshiba one. Great that you got a working copy of Batman Begins, too!
Thanks Mate. Yeah it's great to have a backup drive. Much easier to store than having multiple Toshibas lol.
First time I've actually seen a video on the hd dvd player for Xbox 360. Has it's place in history and is a great peripheral to have with the console. At that price as well....I think you're right...now's the time to jump on it
Totally mate. Really can't argue with the current price. Luckily HD DVD is still overlooked. I'm sure if collecting them becomes popular the 360 drive will shoot up 🙄
I have 2 --- trouble is half my discs (the Warner Bros ones) no longer work.
I also have the Planet Earth Box Set --- but disc 1 has gone bad
iv had both those drives since they came out,iv had disc work on 1 but not the other brand new discs too update both drives and it still did it ,also have the lg drive for pc that hd dvd and blu ray but i couldnt get the hd dvd to work as wasnt comp with win 10 , have dozen of hd dvds
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching Lance, hope you're well 👍
It was cool back in the day to have an xbox 360 with a hd-dvd drive added...i think they did such a great job on the design of it.
You got me wanting to set mine up and have a watch of some films with it-hoping it works fine via a gears of war slim 360 console now.
Just set up a 360 to start going through my 360 collection to trim the fat so great timing!
Nice one 😉👍
Nice one mate, let me know you get on with the HD DVD drive 👍
Thanks for watching 😀
I've noticed a pattern with formats regarding movies and music. Successors by name Never seen to catch on and stay. Examples being DVDs > HDDVDs. CDs > mini CDs. While the precursors to them are still here today. It's always an entirely new name that has staying power From VHS to DVD to Blu Ray. Vinyl's to Tape cassetes to CDs and so on.
HDDVD player's were definitely the Betamax players of the 00s. I always liked the idea of The HDDVD over Blu Ray. When it comes to overall format's I peaked with Blu Ray. Now I stick to exclusively with DVDS. They look good enough for me running on my Blu Ray player :).
I've never heard of Mini CDS. You've just given me anew rabbit hole lol.
It is fascinating how some formats catch on but others just flop. I think HD DVD was so quick it probably completely passed by a lot of people.
@@Snestastic They certainly were an oddity in the early 00s. Lol. I remember seeing mini disc players for sale in places like Comet and Curry's then suddenly they just disappeared.
Oh it's certainly fascinating indeed. I vaguely remember HDDVD player's when they were new but I kinda forgot about them quicker than I remembered. Still an interesting bit of tech though. Would of been interesting if it succeeded.
King Kong definitely did release here. Our family bought the 360 HD DVD player when it first released here and it came with King Kong too, complete with the UK age rating.
I also remember the original 360 dashboard had the HD DVD player icon be underneath the game disc selection. They obviously moved it to a slightly different spot with later dashboard updates since the format was already long since dead and kinda niche.
Thanks mate, I wasn't sure if it got a release here. That's great to hear.
It's a little annoying that they've moved the HD DVD App. But then again gotta be grateful that they even still have the app and updates lol.
I was a big supporter of HD-DVD, I still think with things like comedy movies that were colourful and vibrant, it had the edge on early Blu-Ray movies. 40 Year Old Virgin sticks in my mind for looking incredible on my LG HD TV and 360 HD drive.
It's amazing how many films came out in the USA versus us here in the UK but was great the the players were region free!
I've still got a sealed Asian market 360 HD-DVD drive stashed away, can't imagine there's many of those about.
That's a nice one to have stashed away mate. I had HD DVD when it came out. Then in 2006 I imported a PS3 and switched to Blu-Ray. So now looking back i'm finding so many films that I didn't know were on HD DVD.
@@Snestastic it’s crazy to think how expensive the films were to buy back then and how cheap they went around 2008-2009, now some of them seem to be coming around the other way. I remember being dead pleased to find I am Legend on HD-DVD which I think along with Twister was among the last movies to be released.
Keep up the great work, your content is very interesting 😊
@@retrooutput Thanks Mate,glad you're enjoying my content 👍
I didn't know I am legend was a late release. The PQ is fantastic.
Do you think this still will work ?
Prices have steadily risen. I got one a few years back with a decent pile of games for about £25. I added a few more and then trimmed the collection making a bit of profit on a portion of the pile. I still haven’t seen any in the wild, but see people picking the films up in charity shops.
I've only come across 1 film in a chairty shop so far. Unfortunately it was before I started buying them so I passed on it 🙄
Someone on Facebook marketplace has one up for sale for £40 complete in box with 20 film but was sold 😭
I'd highly recommend 'Underworld' it looks incredible. It's a shame HD failed to Blu-ray I always found HD DVD to be superior picture quality. It was down to Sony's obsession with capacity of a disc, over quality. I've been really tempted to invest in one of these again (had one back in the day) still have a 360 your video has stirred some memories! Just subbed😁
Cheers Mark. I've not watched Underworld for years. Good shout 👍
Thanks for the sub as well, appreciate it 👊
"I'd highly recommend 'Underworld' it looks incredible. It's a shame HD failed to Blu-ray I always found HD DVD to be superior picture quality. It was down to Sony's obsession with capacity of a disc, over quality. I've been really tempted to invest in one of these again (had one back in the day) still have a 360 your video has stirred some memories!"-@markmaisy4858
Controversial and contrarian take. I'm pretty sure that most HD DVDs only went up to 1080i or at least that's how most would have experienced them, some players didn't even go beyond 1080i like Toshiba's earlier models. Blu-ray was more successful because of its larger storage capacity, which allowed for higher quality video compression and ultimately resulted in a superior picture quality. I think it's cool to have both HD DVD and Blu-ray but like most people the only reason I see any interest in HD DVD is because it's rare, it's novel. Blu-ray would always be my media of choice even if I had the same movie for both formats. Also we can't forget the disc rot issue thst most movies on HD DVD had. So Yeah! Blu-ray was always gonna be the clear winner. All my movies from 2007 still work flawlessly on my ps3. I'm calling placebo effect for anyone believing video transfer looked better on HD DVD for reasons I stated above. HD DVD is a novelty. You have a 360, why not, get a add on player just to get more use from the 360, they would be pretty much obsolete otherwise since most titles run on the Xbox one and newer consoles from that ecosystem.
I was so naive, I really did think MS could compete with Blu-ray 😂
Do all of the Warner releases not work? I’ve seen most succumb to disc rot and I’ve come across some and I’d rather save myself the trouble of putting them in and not working 😅
Nearly all of the Warner discs I've got don't work. Even films that I bought sealed. For instance I picked dip a sealed Swordfish. My standalone Toshiba won't even boot the disc. It just freezes the player.
However I have 2 copies of batman begins. 1 US and 1 UK. US stutters and freezes. UK works perfect.
So I think it's very hot n miss with Warner unfortunately 😕
I still have mine. Lol
That was interesting. Certainly a great way to get into hd dvd
Remember looking at buying one back in the day. Real shame about the Warner problem, certainly not worth buying multiple discs to get a good one 👍
Thanks Mate, glad you liked it 👍
Yeah definitely agree. It's never-ending if I try to find working copies of WB films. Just glad that Batman and I Am Legend work tbh.
I've got a stack of hd dvds and the vast majority of my wb discs don't work. Thankfully I got them for free.
What’s the problem with Warner Bros discs?! 😝
I bought one of these last year nice item . iv just subbed 👍👍
Thanks for the sub 👍
that i got be fair i did not like like come one why did xbox wanted u to buy a drive to play a hd movie like u should already have that! inside the console like the sony ps3 did on there console
i don't know how but i ended up with 3 copies of training day on dvd in my collection back in the mid 2000s, and i think that film stinks. I love the actors, director etc it just didnt click with me.
why are you wasting your life doing this?
why are you wasting yours commenting?
God forbid people have hobbies huh
Useless device
Hi @Snestastic , I have been slowly building up my hd DVD collection after buying my hd DVD player for the 360 last year, I sometimes have a job finding them in different CeX stores, so far I have 4 at the moment, got Backdraft on its way in the post, plus thanks to your video i didn’t know that the player part was on a different tab, by the way I am a fellow UA-camr Welsh Ant-Man . I tried looking you up on social media and found and followed you on Instagram , I wasn’t sure it was your profile on X since there was no photo. Hope to hear from you soon, I am hoping to get 3 more HD DVDs from a different CeX store.
Nice one mate. HD DVD is a fun format to collect for. That's not me on X btw lol. I've not been on Twitter since 2019. I know there is a German guy that uses the same name on socials though.