Buffalo announces "world's first" HD DVD drive for PCs: Xbox HD DVD drive sniggers

Hard to believe, but this HDV-ROM2.4FB drive from Buffalo (OEMed by Toshiba) marks a world's first HD DVD drive for PCs. Sure, the Toshiba Qosmio and other media savvy boxes already ship with integrated HD DVD, but you're not going to find any ATAPI HD DVD drives sold independently for PCs. It ships with the third party, PowerDVD HD DVD Edition software required to watch your MPAA-friendly high-def titles in XP or Vista and reads DVD±R/RW and DVD±R/R DL, DVD-ROM and CD-R/RW/ROM formats as you'd expect. At ¥38,850 (about $338) it's a pretty good deal when these ship at the end of the month in Japan, right? Sure, but the $199 Tosh-built Xbox 360 HD DVD player is already out and perfectly capable of pumping HD DVD vids natively under Vista (and even XP after some found driver magic) after installing the appropriate media application. Decisions, decisions.

[Via Impress]

[Keef @ Dec 6th 2006 8:54AM]

hmmmm tempting.... but im picking up a 360 HD-DVD player in a few hours, so i think ill stick with that.....

looking forward to see how it works on my copy of Vista too.

[Wonderboy @ Dec 6th 2006 9:07AM]

I'd rather pay the extra money to have an internal drive... except it's freakin' white... what the crap! Maybe I'm off here, but I would think that people with HTPCs are prime target market for this, well what HTPC wants a white drive glaring out from his/her most likely not-white PC?

[will @ Dec 6th 2006 9:38AM]

I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to crack the shell of the 360 HD DVD mount it and link up to the PC internally... In fact, i think someone already did.

[saboola @ Dec 6th 2006 9:24AM]

That's racist!!11!11

[Eddie @ Dec 6th 2006 9:36AM]

I think i'll wait for the black faceplate to roll in. kthnxbai

[schwal @ Dec 6th 2006 9:41AM]

just thought i'd point out that the 360 drive can read, but not burn. so for high density backup, this is the only option.

[Andy @ Dec 6th 2006 9:48AM]

Actually the article says nothing about this drive burning any format, It just "reads DVD�R/RW and DVD�R/R DL, DVD-ROM and CD-R/RW/ROM formats as you'd expect"

[Denis @ Dec 6th 2006 7:05PM]

Schwal -- that Buffalo drive can only read (not burn) HD-DVD, so it would still be better to just buy the XBox 360 HD-DVD drive.

[schwal @ Dec 6th 2006 9:41AM]

just thought i'd point out that the 360 drive can read, but not burn. so for high density backup, this is the only option.

[Chris @ Dec 6th 2006 10:21AM]

LOL it isnt a burner buddy its just a player, just like the hddvd drive... and lets see

its more expensive then the microsoft hddvd drive... and last i checked... this one wont work on my 360, only on my PC...

decisions decisions, a drive that works on my 360 and my vista/xp pc ... or a drive thats only on my pc... (and more expensive lol)

[Aaron @ Dec 6th 2006 10:23AM]

Question: Regarding the $199 Tosh-built Xbox 360 HD DVD player - Where can I find the magic driver for Win XP?

[Glenn @ Dec 6th 2006 11:04AM]

Go to dl.tv , go down to episode 15 and click the picture of the hddvd drive. Now click the hddvd drive on the right.

[Beth @ Dec 6th 2006 10:23AM]

It's snicker.

[Dimitri @ Dec 6th 2006 11:45AM]

No, it's snigger. Get an education before you try to correct someone's already-correct English.

[cjrenaud @ Dec 6th 2006 12:42PM]

If yer gonna correct somebody, at least make sure you're right first:

http://www.bartleby.com/62/80/S1408000.html

[Phillip @ Dec 6th 2006 10:30AM]

Ronnie's a little late with the Annie Defranco drop.

"Hey Earl, I'm starvin', do we got any buffalo back there?"

[Big Teebo @ Dec 6th 2006 11:01AM]

About that last word on the article title, did Michael Richards write that?

[Dave @ Dec 6th 2006 11:24AM]

What its ROM??? Thats ridicules! LOL!

[Greg Bogle @ Dec 6th 2006 12:07PM]

The Xbox HD drive sniggered because it's more appropriate for those who are niggling about the price of the equipment, because deep down they are niggards.

[apple_box @ Dec 6th 2006 1:09PM]

It's both snigger and snicker. Most would have used the later.

[hmurchison @ Dec 6th 2006 1:13PM]

You racists! Now repent and buy 10 of these along with 80 movies each.

[hydrogen_wv @ Dec 6th 2006 2:43PM]

Awesome!

If you have an Xbox360, get the add-on, but most of you fail to realize that not everyone HAS an Xbox 360 *gasp*. I'm not interested in HD-DVD content... yet, but I could easily pick up an external enclosure for my laptop and be set for HD content. Gotta use that 17" Widescreen on my laptop for something other than porn and games...

I think the more important thing here is that this is a lot cheaper than any method of playing Blu-Ray. $338 for hd-dvd vs. a minimum of $500 (ps3) for blu-ray.

[Bill @ Oct 22nd 2007 12:37AM]

Actually Blu-Ray is still cheaper. The Pioneer BDC-202 internal drive sells for $265.00 and has been out for months now. Do some research!

[aaron @ Dec 7th 2006 6:04PM]

So as a result of this article, I read through the 27 pages at AVS forum about how you can get an XBox 360 HD DVD drive to work on a PC.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=748426&page=1&pp=30

Here is the summary for those that don't want to read 27 pages...and all this is second-hand info:

The HD-DVD add on for the XBox with work with XP including MCE but the only playback software at this point is PowerDVD 6.5 (which is no longer available for purchase but available through bit...). Apparently, this software works but is sometimes stuttery and buggy (e.g., some have revealed annoyances such as difficulty removing PIP and subtitles, etc). The only other software for playback is a Japanese version of WinDVD 8.0 Platinum. No drivers are needed unless you want to browse the file structure.

I like a project as much as the next HD computer geek, but it may be worth waiting for a better playback solution before trying to save a few bucks by buying the XBox add on drive for a PC. According to Cyberlink, they will release a new Power DVD version that supports store bought HDDVD and BD content before Christmas.

[Mike @ Dec 10th 2006 2:35PM]

What about the NEC Drive for 120 a while back? How is that not the first HDDVD Drive? It was only 2x but still...