Xbox 360 HD DVD player stoops to $129

Not even six months after the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive fell to an oh-so-tempting $179, the unit has now reached an even lower low. That's right kids, the attachment has just plummeted to a juicy $129, which would honestly sound a whole lot sweeter if not for that sub-$100 HD DVD fiasco still lingering in our heads. Nevertheless, we've already noticed the player's new price tag over at Amazon and Toys R Us, but feel free to point out any other price slashings in comments below.

Read - $129.99 at Amazon
Read - $129.98 at Toys R Us

[Brett Day @ Dec 4th 2007 10:26PM]

quite interesting this gets posted after you just posted about michael bays dislike of microsoft and it's conspiracy! lol

[hexoDAT64 @ Dec 4th 2007 10:27PM]

Great! Now if they could only make it less ugly...

[fischju @ Dec 4th 2007 10:34PM]

I'll be looking at the HD picture, not the drive

[hexoDAT64 @ Dec 4th 2007 10:42PM]

Don't get me wrong, the picture is great. My friend has one and its nice. It just doesn't look very visually pleasing next to the 360. It just has an odd shape.

[Andrew @ Dec 4th 2007 11:20PM]

I'm also a stickler for aesthetics, but I've owned the drive for a few months now and totally forgot the lack of fung shui. Either way, +1 for the drive, works really well, picture is beautiful, way better than DVD upscaled, and lets me rip to DivX. :)

[will @ Dec 5th 2007 11:32AM]

Andrew,
I've been trying to figure out how to rip to divx. Can you throw me a link or email me at [e-mail]. Thanks!

[Nate @ Dec 4th 2007 10:30PM]

LOL

not

[Brett Day @ Dec 4th 2007 10:30PM]

and then right underneath the main article is a huge advertisment for Blu ray! haha the mind boggles (by the way i am a hd dvd fan and owner)

[Mark @ Dec 4th 2007 11:29PM]

And right under the iPod articles you get ads of the Zune. And right on the side of the Windows articles you get the I'm a Mac ads.

[Greg @ Dec 6th 2007 10:25AM]

Why are you an hddvd backer? Just curious

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Dec 4th 2007 10:34PM]

toys r us is a penny cheaper! Go to hell mazon...

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Dec 4th 2007 10:35PM]

correction: mazon=amazon

[kamandriat @ Dec 4th 2007 10:57PM]

i work at toysrus, i get a 10% discount too =D

[John @ Dec 4th 2007 10:35PM]

D*mmit! I haven't got my free HD DVD's yet either!

[Fruition @ Dec 4th 2007 10:41PM]

John, are you talking about the "buy a such-and-such player, get this many [insert hi def format here] movies" deals?

I did the same thing when I got my PS3 back in July. The movies came just a few weeks ago. Assuming it's the same deal for HD-DVD, the movies will come. It just takes freaking forever.

[John @ Dec 4th 2007 10:47PM]

Yea Fruition, that's the one. It's been so long, I forgot what I checked off.

[Zeus the God @ Dec 5th 2007 1:47AM]

Eh, you've probably seen them by now, anyway...

[Andrew @ Dec 5th 2007 10:09AM]

Me neither, they're "backordered". More like we're pulling mad interest on accounts payable.

[Moses @ Dec 4th 2007 10:35PM]

Firefox + Ad Block Plus = no Blu ray ads!

[dramamoose @ Dec 5th 2007 12:29AM]

Seconded.

[Jeremy @ Dec 5th 2007 12:47PM]

thirded
Ads? That's so last century.
Hurray firefox+ad block plus.

[Burrens @ Dec 4th 2007 10:40PM]

When are they going to bring this out in black to match my Elite? I bet they release a pink, or baby blue first.

[lysernix @ Dec 5th 2007 1:36AM]

When they make a black one, I'm in like Flynn. Until then... I'm a holdout on the format war. But the price keeps on dropping and my smile gets bigger... I know they'll make a black one someday... and if not well PS3 will be cheaper by then too.

[Carbonize @ Dec 4th 2007 10:52PM]

Now only £99.98 at Amazon.co.uk which is good but at the same time crap given that the $ is on the slippery slope to hell (£1 = $2.05).

Oh and get your damn comments system fixed. I fed up of posting comments and not have them appearing. I'm also not getting notification of replies.

[Steven @ Dec 4th 2007 10:57PM]

I would buy this in a heartbeat if they matched the price here in Canada.

Why is it still $199.99 CDN?

[Reader @ Dec 4th 2007 11:06PM]

For nostalgia's sake...

[andrew wilson @ Dec 5th 2007 1:20AM]

go to best buy they have an american price match promotion going on right now.

[Andrew @ Dec 5th 2007 1:21PM]

BestBuy.ca doesn't really have a US price match promotion. It's just advertising - "The hottest gifts are already priced at or below U.S. prices - In the last 30 days, we've dropped the prices on over a thousand of products you want.". HD-DVD addon is not one of them.

[thethirdmoose @ Dec 4th 2007 11:03PM]

Can you connect this via USB to a mac and have it work?

[Reader @ Dec 4th 2007 11:05PM]

Not sure about a Mac, but it works (without drivers, I believe) perfectly on a PC. All you Mac people boot up to Windows anyways so I would assume so.

[dramamoose @ Dec 5th 2007 12:31AM]

Yes. The thing works perfectly on a Mac. All you need to make sure is that you have the software to play HD-DVDs.

[Keith Sheehan @ Dec 5th 2007 1:10PM]

Is this something that is supported out-of-the-box with Leopard? I've read elsewhere that it it's recognized by 10.4 but that there were no drivers available for movie playback.

[Reader @ Dec 4th 2007 11:03PM]

Oh man, when we replace our 480p with a 1080 I'm definitely getting this. 130 bucks is practically the same price as a DVD player and I already got the 360.

[DrXym @ Dec 5th 2007 8:09AM]

Don't forget this thing is an ugly dongle and the 360 is an extremely noisy machine. You might be better off to buy a dedicated player.

[superfresh @ Dec 5th 2007 11:56AM]

It's not loud when operating this drive.

[Squirrels @ Dec 4th 2007 11:06PM]

Anyone know if this thing has been hacked to work properly on a mac yet?

[Wayne @ Dec 5th 2007 1:08PM]

Anyone know if Squirrels learned to read?

[ogvor @ Dec 4th 2007 11:20PM]

I still can't believe I got this thing over a year ago for 99$ by price matching at a Best Buy with a misprinted ad.

[boulderhorn @ Dec 5th 2007 9:41AM]

Me too. I did the same thing and have been enjoying my 720p (limited by my tv) goodness ever since!!!

[Robert @ Dec 4th 2007 11:38PM]

Hmm...can't help but wonder why all the sudden HD-DVD price cuts. Seems like it has become a weekly thing. $129 and 5 or 6 free movies still seems steep, given a stand-alone player is $169 or so with 7-10 free movies through some retailers. The value they are slowly chipping the players down to seems like a bit of desperation.

[BigDaddyM @ Dec 5th 2007 1:16AM]

There is a format war going on and HD DVDs are cheaper to manufacture which is one of their early selling points. Of course I do agree it is coming very fast but wouldn’t you do so to make a killing in the holiday season? Microsoft, a backer of HD DVD has to compete with a PS3 which comes with Blu-ray as part of the bundle (more expensive yes) but also PS3 plays games on Blu0ray which means in number of discs and over all business, Blu-ray has better numbers, but to the consumer, HD DVDs are slightly cheaper. (If only they could make the combo discs the same prices as their blu-ray counter parts and we have a winner!)
M

[Jkswiss @ Dec 4th 2007 11:42PM]

Console movie players are too damn noisy. I have the PS3 and I only watch Blu Rays on it. I thought I'd watch both DVD's and Blu Rays on it but I ended up reattaching my 5 year old 480i non progressive, component cable only Panasonic DVD player to it because its so damn loud(for movies). Fan noise isn't so bad when playing games but when watching a movie, very noticeable.
Just get the dedicated $200 HDDVD player.
(I could care less about HD wars, I just happen to have a PS3 so I get it on Netflix)

[Robert @ Dec 5th 2007 12:30AM]

Weird. I have a PS3 for Blu-Ray watching and I only have the occasional noise. I have never had a problem with the PS3 taking away from the movie as it only makes loud scanning noises when the disc is starting or when manually changing chapters. Plus, there is no way the PS3's drive, even at its loudest, could be heard over a decent surround system.

[NovaLand @ Dec 5th 2007 1:01AM]

Go watch an Ingmar Bergman-movie and you'll find out what silence sounds like. We dont want a noisy player there, do we?

[Jkswiss @ Dec 5th 2007 4:29AM]

Not drive noise, fan noise for the PS3. It's not as loud as the Xbox, but its definitely not whisper quiet. I know when the fan runs, I know when it kicks into medium speed, and I definitely know when it kicks into high gear. My 5 year old Panasonic DVD player, dead quiet. Not a peep. There are no fans for there to be fan noise. PS3 is quite audible during the quiet parts of the movie. My PS3 is in my room, which isn't too big and in which surround sound would be overkill.

[Mindfeeld @ Dec 5th 2007 7:54PM]

Just a correction, you must mean "480i Composite cable only"

[Denver_80203 @ Dec 4th 2007 11:58PM]

I have one and I have 2 complaints:
1. 360 is a jet engine during quiet parts of a movie
2. the heck with the price of the device... call me again when the price of HDDVDs drop t 17$ rather than 25 or 30.

[RD @ Dec 4th 2007 11:58PM]

Not cheap enough.

[Clayj @ Dec 5th 2007 12:03AM]

I just ordered a second one of these for my bedroom 360... already had one in the living room. Comes with 5 free movies + "King Kong", so the drive is practically free.

This is REALLY gonna mess with Sony and the Blu-ray camp. I LOVE it.

[Robert @ Dec 5th 2007 12:31AM]

riiiiiiiight.