The Xbox 360 HD-DVD Disaster - Oddware

[@danwood_uk]

The first 1000 people to use the link will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: skl.sh/danwood09201 (Please use to support the channel!).

[@Azz156]

I brought my hd dvd add on around 10th of Jan 2008, I remember my Boss Vito saying “porns backing hd dvd blue rays lost so get a hd DVD player” worst advice ever lol. Though after it flopped a few weeks later I remember jb hifi here in Australia sold off their stock for around $5 each. I still have my 50 plus collection and the most expensive Toshiba hd DVD player along with the add on stored down in my shed hoping one day it’ll become collectible.. 12 years on and nope still worth nothing 😩.

[@TerporFIN]

You can actually rip HD-DVD's with MakeMKV program

[@RetroGamerBB]

I still convert videos to HD-DVD complaint discs from time to time.

[@Sashko_Dee]

Screw skillshare. Where do I sign up for a free trial of the HD DVD player?

[@SeriousClassics]

One of the reasons for the 360's early success (and PS3's early failure) was that Microsoft could sell the 360 for a lot cheaper than the PS3 due to it only having a DVD optical drive.

[@FWDSUXARSE]

The format wars were interesting. Sony lost the VHS versus Beta War, and they weren't going to let that happen again with Blu Ray. They practically guaranteed that Blu Ray would win by including it in the Ps3.

[@fooflyz]

You can play back HD-DVD's on linux pretty easily using that drive.

[@danwood_uk]

Great, any software suggestions? I'll give it a try.

[@fooflyz]

@@danwood_uk VLC "should" work. apparently some studios used a different DRM that may not work. Thinking about it, It might be worth trying it on your mac.

[@danwood_uk]

@@fooflyz Yeah I tried it on the Mac, it did recognise the disc but wouldn't play the video.

[@LordPhan]

@@danwood_uk Hello, one sure way to play your movies is to use MakeMKV to rip the HDDVD to an MKV file. I have done so with Transformers. MakeMKV also works for ripping Blu-rays that are from other Regions. www.makemkv.com You can use MakeMKV on Windows or Linux.

[@wolvenar]

@@danwood_uk Have you tried VLC and the "forbidden" (at least in Linux) decoder packages?

[@Bin216]

Both HDDVD and Blu-ray supported the same video formats at launch, with the same encryption (Blu-ray has additional security mechanisms on top of the encryption). The major differences were the physical disc, and how the interactive features were implemented; HTML, JavaScript, and CSS called in the case of HDDVD, and a special form of embedded Java for Blu-ray (BD-J) A number of films released on both formats used exactly the same video stream for the main movie on both formats, so they were identical when played back.

[@GAMINGMATRIXXX]

Does the HD DVD Player add-on release a lot of heat from those vents while playing a movie?

[@bebobebo4407]

9:57 You're not supposed to bend the disc while taking the disc out because it's possible for that disc to break. You should press the center thing instead.

[@MuchWhittering]

I'd forgotten how barebones the OG 360 model was. No HDMI, no Wi-Fi, but I suppose that's 2005 for you.

[@4879daniel]

and the controller needed 2 AA batteries.

[@reactking7093]

@@4879daniel it depends on which version you got.

[@MuchWhittering]

@@4879daniel That's still the case, because Microsoft is 15 years behind everyone else.

[@syahminorizan8064]

And the XBOX 360 has a RROD

[@GumikoVT]

So glad KZbin recommended this video to me! I love videos about failed media formats, and not many people have covered HD DVD.

[@GumikoVT]

@Jessey Lawson I'm already subsribed to all of the channels you mentioned.

[@XanthosAcanthus]

I actually still use mine as a DVD and cd drive for my laptop. I got mine from kmart for literally $5. Included a copy of king Kong and the remote too. Best value ever for a brand new product.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I really like the fact that they didn't even bother to hide the fact that it's literally just a USB HD DVD drive

[@Loophole23742]

Thought the same thing😂

[@jackbollingmoore6113]

The Xbox 360 could've have a built-in HD-DVD player

[@Del129]

The Xbox Series S is around the same size as the HD DVD external drive, crazy how small the new box is.

[@seriousblurs7996]

Then again, take the disc drive out of the HDDVD and it will be 1/3 the size of the SS. :)

[@pdgable]

No it’s not. Even the series E is way bigger than the drive.

[@mrjones29]

no way, the Series X is much bigger and heavier than the HD DVD drive.

[@Aeduo]

Your copy of Serenity looks a lot like Blade Runner.

[@Clay3613]

That's worth a fortune, misprints are awesome.

[@antikommunistischaktion]

I remember my parents opting for a dual Blu-Ray HD-DVD player which skirted the issue entirely.

[@the_game_cartridge9187]

I bought one of these recently for £10 in cex haven't got any HD dvds yet but its pretty cool that it also works as a dvd drive and USB hub for a pc.

[@Omar_Mancini]

Can i use a normal DVD reader instead of that? I don't have ebay in this country.

[@samjiman]

I remember I got this cheap and was able to rent a handful of HD DVDs before the format was discontinued totally

[@feieralarm]

It's 6x more clarity because (1920*1080)/(720*480)=6. Tough, for PAL regions using 720*576, it should only be 5x.

[@Larry]

I got one at launch, then a second when GAME were selling them off for £15, I liked them, annoying you couldn't use them as a second disc drive for 360 games (especially if your main drive starts going funny). Also loved all the menus of HD-DVD, took Blu Ray 5-6 years to catch up with their level of complexity.

[@lister_of_smeg6545]

Being championed by Sony, the Blu Ray consortium naturally devoted it's resources trying to make sure you couldn't rip/copy them rather than puerile nonsense like 'usability' and 'features'.

[@doctorcrankyflaps1724]

Hello Larry!

[@danwood_uk]

Yeah I should have mentioned that it won't read game discs, that would have been a nice bonus.

[@traviscombs6947]

Back in the day I bought an early pre-HDMI 360 used from eBay and the disc drive was finicky. Half the time it read 360 games as DVD discs and would display a message to put them in an Xbox 360. I remember thinking "I wonder if the HD-DVD drive can be a workaround" but found out it wouldn't read 360 discs.

[@talibong9518]

If I ever find a cheap one of these I'm gonna try and put it inside my old 360 (I've had to make a few repairs here and there so the internals are all held together with rubber bands and sticky tape)

[@runabout76]

I had and still have both Blu-ray and HD-DVD players and use both on a regular basis. I have compared the same movies on both formats and find that the HD-DVD versions tend to be less clumsy in the menus and load a bit faster. I like that HD-DVD is hardware decoded rather than being handled by Java like Blu-ray. It's a shame it didn't last longer. Great video! It's fun to look back at great ideas that didn't make it.

[@inigomontoya68]

just tried to power up my hd dvd drive after having it in storage for over 10 years - it immediately started steaming / smoking so I quickly turned it off - anybody know what this could be ? - eg failed capacitor(s) for example ?

[@ULTRAWIDE.]

Would’ve been interesting to see how the war went if MS actually manufactured their 360s with the drive built in. Considering the console sold more than the PS3 did during its lifespan. The PS3 was definitely the deciding factor as to why Blu-Ray won.

[@orlandoalessandrini2505]

To me that always seemed like a cheating move on Sony's part.

[@ULTRAWIDE.]

Orlando Alessandrini Why’s that? Sony developed it along side BRDA. So why wouldn’t they use their own product in another one of their own products?

[@Soonjai]

​@@orlandoalessandrini2505 That's nonesense. The Dreamcast didn't have a DVD Drive and the X-Box forced you to buy additional Hardware to watch Movies. And don't get me started on the Gamecube. Did Sony Cheat back then too by making the DVD Movie Support on the PS2 a basic Feature?

[@jimbob4372]

PS3 caught up and unsold 360 towards the end

[@anthonynewcome128]

xbox 84 million ps3 87.4 million,, sony had the upper hand, the drive was built in, the console had built in power supply and hdmi from launch.. hd dvd was doomed, sony has had failures too though ..minidisc just before mp3 launched killed that off, vhs beat sony betamax even though betamax was technically superior....had blu ray not appeared until 2010 that too would of died as a film service due to streaming and online..

[@tetsujin_144]

7:05 - so what you're saying is... it's a two-port USB hub for 5 GBP? Not too shabby!

[@bubba842]

And an external dvd drive for a PC.

[@Nostalgianerd]

I remember when these were being sold off for £5. I was very tempted to get one, but for some reason felt that £5 was too extravagant back then. Guess all those Pret lunches were taking a toll.

[@Dr_McKay]

That’s when I grabbed one too, all the films were going for £1 each

[@Whenitraveltheworld]

Bought mine for 5, boxed, all packaging and the full remote. Just sat in the box for countless years, I did power it up to see if it still worked and ton a smoke came out of it lol.

[@SiGoesRetro]

Great Video Dan! I have a fondness for HD-DVD and still actively collect them, a quick roundup of what I know for anyone looking to get into the format - Warner Brothers disks are well known to suffer from rot, pretty much all of them, most likely due to manufacturing defects. I have some that are play fine, some that are noticeably 'cloudy' looking as well as some that look fine and start to play then all of a sudden the player will stop and throw up an error. If you buy any untested, assume they're not working. The Toshiba HD-XE1 is the flagship player, it's a stunning looking machine and is not made to a price point, it's also a superb DVD upscaler (runs a Silicon Optix REON inside) so if you see one, pick it up. Be careful updating the firmware on toshiba machines, it's incredibly easy to brick them permanently, so if it's working how you want it, best to leave it alone. Another great machine is the HD-EP35 - super cheap to pick up and the latest generation flagship before they got discontinued. Random note: I'm from Cheltenham and visited that same HMV store many times, it sadly disappeared a few years ago!

[@The_Husband_of_Jane_Lane]

I actually got it for Christmas back in 2007 when I was supporting HD DVD at the time. Transformers is one of the first films I got for the format, followed by Goodfellas, Unforgiven and others.

[@Beta464Original]

Any clue what could cause one of these drive's eject button to rapidly blink green and refuse to read discs?

[@JessicaFEREM]

aw man back in the says when 23" was an extravagant size for a living room for most people, nowdays 32" is at the bottom end and you're expected to get a big ol' tv for the living room

[@idimidodjimi6760]

ill be that guy 7:13 that is Mini USB not Micro USB Ill let my self out...

[@bazahaza]

Actually to be correct it's Mini USB Type B.

[@thehootsforce4201]

Now the XB1 can play 4k Blu Ray yet the PS4 Pro can't (Sony want you to buy their 4k Blu Ray as well as the PS4)

[@alexatkin]

To be fair, I've always found the dedicated players are a sharper picture. Both Xbox Series X|S and PS5 will support 4K Bluray though.

[@lordeilluminati]

On blu ray, I dont think there is a difference in picture quality between consoles and standalone players, they even have the advantage of being more powerful so the viewing experience is more enjoyable (some standalone blu ray players, especially the cheaper ones are very slow). Even then, personally i dont use dvd or blu ray functionality on consoles because they wear off the laser quicker, especially on a modern console (movies have to read continuously, games only read at certain times or in modern consoles, only when you install the game)

[@MrVitalic85]

And the xbox 360 can play a whole bunch of digital format while the ps4 cant ( sony want you tu use their streaming service)

[@MASJYT]

The worst part of Blu Rays is the goddamn unskipable ads.

[@thatguyontheright1]

@@MASJYT Been like that since DVD. I did return a blu-ray because it had 20 minutes of un-skippable trailers. I didn't even want to watch the movie after that.

[@msthalamus2172]

I have one of these drives too, but I could never stand the noise the Xbox made drowning out the movie's sound in quieter moments. I eventually transplanted its guts into a special Lian Li case, giving me an almost silent 360, and the HD-DVD drive became suddenly usable.

[@NoVoice71]

The clock sitting on your XBox One, where'd you get it? What's the brand? I still use my HDDVD drive as I have near 50 movies and to me, they have LESS advertising and the menu navigation is far above Blu-ray And I also have a new one in the box still but the original from '07 is still going strong. No issues

[@jamesgreen2495]

Trying to get mine to work with my Xbox 360 to play my Matrix HD DVD. And it's not detecting the drive :( HD DVD powers up and opens tray and I had the installation dvd which didn't get past the connect your HD DVD screen :( seems my Xbox does not detect anything. :(

[@bobdigi500]

Yeah i forgot how loud those fans were lol. Off topic but is there any chance you could tell me where you got that clock from? I really like it and it would go perfect in my room? Thank!

[@oldtechnology]

I didn't cared about any of those 2. At that time we were newly introduced to 6 in 1 dvds.

[@deathstrike]

I'm actually using an HD DVD player to create a working Android Media Box using the Pendoo T95 Max for the CPU and a micro SSD from PNY 480Gb for the storage and KODI for a front end. The HD DVD player I'm keeping to keep my one hooked to my X360 running. They make a great platform for a media box, or even a micro PC with a little work.

[@davarosmith1334]

I was in the same boat , I bought the X box 360 . Then I bought a HD TV 32 inch that was big back then! I got the HD DVD player to go with the Xbox. My Xbox 360 was not working properly when I got it. My TV was fine until I started playing my X box through it the HD part was having sound issue's. I didn't notice much playing games but when I got the HD DVD player it was loosing sound ever so often. So I had to take my TV back. When I got the TV replaced I watched Bourne Sopremacy all the way through this time with no unterupted sound! All in all I was chuffed until you guessed it , no more films to buy!

[@Crust2020]

Quick question? Does it work patched straight into a Windows 10 computer to view or copy HD DVD movies.

[@matthewgaines10]

You also can rip HD DVD to a full resolution digital file using your drive, a computer, and MakeMKV. That would make your movies playable on computers, TV boxes, and your TV.

[@doltBmB]

Red rings are a heat issue, as long as the console is well ventilated, like standing on an open desk it should be fine. The ones that red ringed would be the ones tucked inside TV furniture under a mountain of other devices.

[@melonademan5639]

R.I.P. HD DVD! I miss it. 😕 FYI, there’s still an HD DVD .ico file in Windows 10.

[@bubba842]

Just got a x box 360 HDDVD drive last week. Step son just gave me his old 360 since he has an X box one. Just bought a bunch of HDDVDs on E bay. I can't wait till they come. I'm like a child on Christmas Eve, can't wait for the mail man to deliver the first one. Although I have read that people should stay away from Warner Bros releases as they are prone to disk rot due to a dodgy adhesive used at the factory where they were made.

[@paulwelford4734]

did you put the installation disc into the xbox one

[@sethargue3445]

Got scammed with one of these on eBay as a kid. Saved up my money, gave it to my mom and we both thought we were buying me an Xbox 360 but this arrived instead. eBay back then was terrible for refunds

[@blackwolf9748]

With the right software, you can play HD-DVD movies with this drive under windows. Cyberlink PowerDVD used to support it, not sure if it still does in later versions.

[@obsoletepowercorrupts]

The HD-DVD was a good idea but they half baked it. It was good idea because it wasn't the single company (in this case Sony with Blu-Ray) holding all of the one format. However, the 16GB size of HD-DVD versus 25GB was bound to fail in impressing people and if only they'd mention bigger sizes later would come out, there would have been hope. The Xbox360's mistake was to fail to make that drive a ReWriter. It would have been a great way to backup one xboxHDD to another (with the HD-DVDRW being the intermediate medium), and it also would have been good for creativity software like music applications (as psone had music) and video recording with the kinect camera. Also, the internet was not always broadband in those days (if people could even afford it) so using the postal service to send a DVD to a friend was a viable option. It would also be a cool way to transfer content to a PC, especially as microsoft games would come out on both XBox360 and PC to the point where the usb xbox360 controller could be plugged into a PC and would work with many games. A PC gamer should have been able to (for example) link their PC to an xbox360 so it would record like FRAPS to the xbox360 (a known quantity) which would create a 720p or 1080p let's play video on HD-DVD or DVDRW. It would have been an avenue to encourage their MediaPlayer and WMV formats. That in turn could have helped their smartphones and silverlight. Mini games can be played in Java on a BluRay so the xbox360 HD-DVD should have been able to play games in silverlight. An example might be say Elite2Frontier, like Freelancer but better as a dynamic economy and merely basic graphics like the amiga a4000 or better. Creation of audio CDs in music software on the xbox360 would have been cool because the fact the xbox360 had a DVD drive was a blatant nod to the fact that everybody still used a DVD movie player in their lounge. There all such lounge DVD players play an Audio CD. Not only that but the xbox360 remote control has audio play pause buttons etc. on it. The xbox360 had decent RAM and it would alo have been cool to allow a RAM upgrade cartridge on the side somewhere.

[@HAGSLAB]

I still have my Toshiba HD-DVD player right next to my BD player in my home cinema. I think I have ~30 HD-DVDs in my collection still. I also use the HD-DVD player as a region free DVD player through a patched firmware for it.

[@ironmaiden5658]

The colour of the disc cases are the colour of the laser used to read the disc.

[@MrHandss]

got a ps3 for christmas 2006 and it came bundled with a blu-ray movie (talladega nights) after that, i started buying movies on blu-ray over dvd whenever possible, but i was tempted to try getting or asking for an hd dvd player or the 360 add-on for at least the first year or so. as time went on though, more and more people left it so i just never cared. figured that everyone would eventually put the movies they put onto hd dvd discs onto blu-ray discs in time

That was a fantastic console generation all around. Xbox 360, PS3, Wii. It was the last unique generation before everything adopted X86 and just became gaming PCs with custom firmware. (Not that I really complaining too much)

[@TheRatlord74]

The red ring issue was heat related. Any 360 that went into a cupboard in a working condition "should" not have a red ring of death issue on "first" boot with the exception of battery or capacitor issues.

[@Rockythefishman]

The first time I saw a film in “HD” was using this. I picked up all the films I could on HD DVD they looked very good at the time. The writing was on the wall almost from the start and Blu Ray was always going to win. Its an interesting thing to have and as you said they can still be had very cheap

[@notmyrealname1526]

Got one of those bundled with two movies for 15 bucks a couple of years ago. I've tried to watch the HD DVD of Blazing Saddles, but scrapped that plan the moment I realized how fucking loud that damn thing gets.

[@trebornewo3354]

The big plus for HD-DVD at the time.......it was region free. I imported a few discs from around the world to watch movies that hadn't been hacked to bits by UK censorship. After the format died i hooked my XBox360 HD-DVD drive to my PC and was able to rip most movies to mkv/mp4.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I remember years ago looking in multiple different stores for a Blu-ray player that would have the good yellow white and red connections to hook into my crappy CRT, because we had the option at the rental store to buy the disc if we liked it, and we would only get the one disc and that's it.

[@yjk_ch]

Have you tried inserting HD DVD installation disc into the Xbox One? I don’t think it will add “HD DVD” app, but I’m still curious about what would happen. Though I think it will simply refuse to boot the disc, claiming that it is not in the supported 360 title list.

[@lordeilluminati]

It will probably show a message "This disk is not supported, check on the website for compatible games". The 360 compatibility is not 100% perfect on the Xbox One, it is on a game by game basis.

[@bubba842]

@@lordeilluminati It does not have any backwards compatibilty nativly built in. It will recognize a 360 disk and the game, but will not be able to play the disc. You get a download of the game onto your hard drive. Its basically emulation. The thing is only "backwards compatible" until the servers remain up and running. Once they are eventually taken down, you will never be able to play 360 games ever again on the XB1.

[@diablosv36]

Back in my HTPC days I use to play both formats via the same drive (LG Combo), their were versions of PowerDVD and Total Media Theatre that would play both formats.

[@danielson9579]

I didn't know that you could get a vga cable for the xbox 360 is the picture clearer than composite?

[@nathanielgilliland9939]

VGA is way better than composite. It's roughly on par with component in terms of image clarity.

[@macstar8317]

Is there any software & hardware available to burn HD DVDs?

[@zero9112]

This works on Windows Vista and up just fine with drivers. In fact this is the only way you can get HD audio playback with this player since the Xbox 360 only had compressed surround sound or uncompressed stereo.

[@gioescamilla5187]

What song is he playing @7:40 ?

[@山田ちゃん]

10:16 : "Being carefull no to touch it" 10:30 : **Touches it with his thumb**

[@millar876]

you can watch HD-DVD disco on a mac with a modern mac and an xbox HD-DVD drive. you just need to use VLC to open the disc. i watched my HD-DVD copy of Batman Begins on my mac mini 2018 last week.

[@Crlarl]

Can you daisy chain HD DVD drives together? If so, how many?

[@seriousblurs7996]

127

[@h.b.5577]

@@seriousblurs7996 Say what now!?!

[@rootbeer666]

Heh, I have one on my desk at work, actually. I use it as a USB CD/DVD drive for my laptop that lacks one. I also have all of the HD-DVD films, I think. I do like me some The Thing in HD.

[@SkuldChan42]

You're right - I don't think any console addons have ever faired all that well. I remember when the hd-dvd addon came out I kinda passed on it, because I didn't have the TV to go with it. I suspect if the Xbox 360 had one out of the box it would have saved the format.

[@prizegotti]

HDDVD wasn't a proprietary format to the XBOX, there were many stand alone HD DVD drives available before and after the release of the X360, it's just the format MSoft went with as Sony are the rival in the console world and didn't want to use their tech at the time.

[@SMASHINGblargharghar]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you bought a Samsung 32" LCD back in the day. To my knowledge, there were only 2 manufacturers that offered a 32" Plasma and both of them had their panel's made by Hitachi: Fujitsu, and Vizio. Despite Hitachi & Fujitsu's joint venture producing amazing panels in general, those 32" sets were both terrible.

[@IntyMichael]

Did your HD-DVD drive not come with the King Kong movie? The best about HD-DVD was, that Warner took all of them back and changed them to Blu-rays.

[@TomGreen99]

Why didn't you try putting the setup DVD in the Xbone???!

[@otakujhp]

With all the noise Microsoft makes about backward compatibility, you'd think someone would sneak the player software in there. You say it would be tons of effort, but I'm not so sure. A competent developer could probably port the player software from the 360 in a couple of days.

[@welshtechie6832]

I dug out mine to connect to my PC. I bought it new at £25 years ago. Good shout on the CeX deals. Got the Bourne Series (first 3) for £1 today, Superman Returns for 50p, and Mercury Rising for 75p. I can rip them and convert to Blu Ray too! Movie only but good enough! Shame really as these were nowhere near as DRM prevalent as Blu Ray!

[@xboxnangable]

Have a box of over 120 movies somewhere....... along with a Toshiba EP35 Player. Will have to find and sell at some point. There are some good movies in there though like the Blade Runner Ultimate Collection (in suitcase) and Forbidden Planet 50th Anniversary steel tin edition.

[@jwoody8815]

The drive and the Dongle will work with PC, though the dongle only works with Windows XP and 7 as far as I know.

[@jamesgreen2495]

Wow! Thanks for that! I didn't know the back of the HDDVD was a DVD! My HDDVD drive did not work but at least I can still watch The Matrix on DVD :)

[@bubba842]

only on combo discs. Most HD DVD releases were not on combo discs.

[@nneeerrrd]

VLC may help with playing HDDVD movies on your laptop

[@danwood_uk]

Yeah I tried that, unfortunately no joy. It should work on Windows Vista or 7 though I think, as I'm sure Microsoft bundled an HD-DVD driver.

[@nneeerrrd]

@@danwood_uk good point. should it worked with Windows 7 then you can try to bring its driver to Windows 10, just make sure it's of the same x86/x64 flavor

[@corty1980]

Dan Wood Question regarding video capture, what do you use to capture Amiga gameplay and older consoles like the PS1? I want to start creating content so need to capture from my Amiga 2000 which has the individual Computers scandouble with VGA out, which I have a converter to convert it to HDMI. I also have a PS1 which I wish to capture, which is stock and no converter with that. Thanks and love your content - Robert.

[@kei_nishimaru]

In my opinion, HD-DVD’s not a bad format. Why? The vast majority of movies are so cheap, they can be sometimes cheaper than the Blu-Rays. I even watched Heroes S1 and a few movies on it, looks and sounds great still.

[@snethss]

I see your little Vector back there. Play around with the DDL subscription at all?

[@blazedyoda8608]

try launching a xbox 360 game on the xbox one to bring up the old 360 menu and then attempt to launch the hd dvd maybe?

[@KevKlopper]

2:59 in 2021 this would be a family in 2016 these were friends

[@zzoinks]

Wow, I think it would've been cool if the HD DVDs came with a mini poster of the movie instead of the advert for HD DVD.

[@bifcomeyer146]

If you put the DVD driver in the Xbox one maybe you will have the HDDVD player working like a 360 games ??? If you have the Xbox series S it would be great to try out 360 games and movies too

[@mrjones29]

Why is your Serenity disc playing Blade Runner?

[@johnabbitt690]

There was one sole reason that sometimes I wish that HD-DVD format had won the war. Someone once told me, or I read somewhere that HD-DVD had no specifications for region protection. If that's true, you could import films from any part of the world at not worry about it.

[@ccateni28]

Nah... 4k Blu-ray ate region protection. Not to mention makemkv is amazing for putting movies on computers and media servers, along with removing protection to watch with VLC.

[@MarkyDSahdd]

That was true. The wife and I bought disks from England, Germany, and Japan of films whose studios did not support HD-DVD in the US.

[@johnabbitt690]

@@ccateni28 That's fine if you have a Blu-ray drive in a computer. I have a stand alone machine and a PS3 locked to region B.

[@johnabbitt690]

@@MarkyDSahdd See, this is what I wanted. Now I see amazing limited edition films being released in the US that I can't play in the UK. Although this has sparked my interest in a BD drive for my PC and I'm currently scouring eBay for one.

[@ccateni28]

@@johnabbitt690 Your missing out...

[@BlaineEvans]

Not sure if you misused the "infamous" or if you called it that because the first-gen 360s were infamous for the red ring of death.

[@rabidguineapig]

I think the only reason Blu ray won is because it's blue. As far as I can tell both formats are functionally identical but HD-dvd's color scheme was maroon. I mean which one are you gonna pick up in the store seeing them side by side, weird maroon or pretty blue?

[@HoldandModify]

The LADD Company logo. Either Police Academy or Bladerunner.....aaaaand...yes...Bladerunner. ;)

[@SolidMGSnake]

It was sad selling my Xbox HD DVD and movies on eBay.

[@plattcriceta1719]

I've got one of those too. Do you know any use for the builtin memory slot? apart from storing settings or so? BTW care to share your wallpaper from the background Mac? :-)

[@danwood_uk]

You can apparently format it and use it as a 512mb disk. Sure, will upload it.

[@LelouchLamperouge235]

7:15 that is a miniUSB

[@LelouchLamperouge235]

If you were to use this drive and in its usb-hub a newer Wifi-N adapter .. would it then be possible that the usb.2.0 speed is actually a bottleneck ? :D Maybe if you were downloading a game to the hard drive via wi-fi and playing an hd-dvd movie at the same time ?

[@Uigiflips-MiSTer]

I had combi bluray hd dvd player LG bh200 sold it last year with bluray and hd dvd set lol

[@LordPhan]

I still have an LG Blu-ray/HDDVD combo optical drive in one of my computers.

[@MazharulAlam]

Imagine a Xbox 360 mini that comes in this form factor!

[@FuZZbaLLbee]

Would be cool, but I already have two Xbox 360s. One original and a slim in case the original does a red ring of death

[@zzoinks]

Great idea! That could be lan Xbox 360 Classic in the future. It would be so neat if we didn't have so many licensing issues. Then Microsoft could have us can register all our 360 games to the Classic. It will also have Xbox Live and can connect to WiFi, plus a cool display adapter to use phones as a TV screen. You can even prop your phone on the Xbox Classic like a phone stand.

[@thatguyontheright1]

Crazy that the HD-DVD drive has a CD laser and a DVD laser when it's intended purpose was just HD-DVD. When you mentioned rotting HD-DVDs, it's mostly just the warner releases. Dunno if the UK releases are affected but the US ones are effed. I backed Blu-ray early because I got a PS3 first, mostly because I nabbed one after hearing they were removing backwards compatibility. Loved playing PS2 games through it, and each game having it's own dedicated virtual memory card. Thought about getting an HD-DVD drive after the format died because at the time, it was the only way to get Star Trek TOS Season 1 in HD. After I decided to get a drive, they announced the Blu-ray version which had both HD and Original effects so I didn't get a drive. Plus the BD version was cheaper than the HD-DVD version, and less discs and had all the special features rendering the HD-DVD version obsolete.

[@bubba842]

All 3 lasers have different size light spectrums. 405nm for HD DVD (Ultraviolet) about 600nm infrared for DVD and 700nm for CD infrared.

[@bstoppel1]

I got one of these on clearance back in the day. I always had issues with the wifi adapter when it was hooked up, but one day I decided to put it away and never had wifi issues after that.

[@TheJeremyHolloway]

If only the media remotes for the Xbox One were half as good as the official Xbox360 Media Remote. I swear, the black one I bought at Best Buy could use micro switches installed under those mushy buttons. It's really annoying to have to press the edges of those buttons to make contact... I swear, they shouldn't be using leftover 1982 carbon dot tech from the CX52 Atari 5200 joystick in these things.

[@fdsdh1]

I think it must have been something of a hollow victory for Sony given streaming took off fairly quickly after Blu Ray was introduced. In addition the old DVD format never really went away, probably because Blu Ray were/are more expensive- perhaps some bad licencing arrangements were in place.

[@bubba842]

Yes it was. Sony spent a fortune, some say as much as $10 billion in paying off studios and promoting Blu Ray. To this day they have never made any money with Blu Ray. The system, PS3, that one them the format war never made them any money for a few years after release. With every PS3 sold Sony were losing money. It was a big gamble that never paid off. Also flash drives really hurt Blu rays chances. In the 2000s people would burn a lot of movies and software onto DVDs. But cheap flash memory really hurt the blank DVD market. Something I'm sure Sony wanted to capitalize on with Blu Ray but were just too late to the game. All In all HDDVD may have lost the war but Sony lost considerably more money in the long run than Toshiba did. Blu ray was supposed to supercede DVD. It never did. DVD movies still outsell Blu Rays 4 to 1. Add streaming services to the mix and the death of movie rental companies like Blockbuster, Blu Ray has been a colossal failure for Sony.

[@nicwilson89]

Does your Mac recognise things plugged into the drive's USB ports?

[@alexatkin]

It will, its just a standard USB hub.