Xbox 360 HD DVD player price dropped to $130

Has anyone considered this to be a cleanout not because of HD-DVD "losing" the HD wars, but instead because Microsoft is set to announce a new 360 SKU at GDC?

Rumor has it that it is coming in a couple of weeks. There were also rumblings that thise announcement was orginally going to happen during CES, but due to Warner's bomb of an announcement the day before the show Microsoft had to change their keynote along with Toshiba canceling their press conference.

If that is indeed the case, these consoles have already been manufactured. Perhaps a more subdued announcement in the dead time of the year will slip in a new 360 with HD-DVD built in without all of the hype normally surrounding CES.

It's super funny watching all the Microsoft trolls try to spin so hard. Nobody has hd tv's, dvd will be king for another 5 years, bluray movies cost $40 dollar. Just make shit up left and right. Still won't bring HD-DVD back to life asshats.

"the blu-ray spec has twice the DRM as HD-DVD's spec, and has players that can phone home and be disabled remotely. Studio's preferred blu-ray over HD-DVD because it gave THEM more control over content YOU have purchased."

DING DING DING... We have a WINNER people!!!! Yes, you are all about to be led down the path (before you're shot)...lol - fools (or sheep - depending)

In regards to BD or HD-DVD, I just bought ANOTHER HD tv (first a 65" sony, now a 61" Sammy LED DLP - Yes I own 2).. No offense, but you people touting the differences are just blowing smoke. My upconverting DVD player is almost as nice as a BD or HD player (have both kiddies - nice to have lots of disposable $$$)..

As for digital distribution, just look at X264 and what its done.. MKV anyone? Yeh, thought so..

Guess I should torrent or newsgroup ANOTHER BD movie in a few hours (its only 8GB now, play it out the DVI port of laptop and use a Soundblaster LIVE USB audio device to my SS).. FULL HD with SS... FREE....LOLOLOLOL...

Sony's been trying to get a proprietary format for music OR video for DECADES.. They just WONT give up until that dream is realized.

GO GO inspector Torrent..lol...

Don't give em facts Ken, they'd rather just make shit up. Like when they all try to say digital downloads are gonna take out bluray. Guess they didn't notice that Time Warner Cable is already experimenting with charging people based on bandwidth used. Talk about expensive bluray disks, just wait until your internet charges go through the roof. Not to mention it takes about a week to download an HD movie.

I'll get an HD player when the studios start releasing movies that aren't garbage. Saw III, Transformers, Spiderman 3, etc? No thanks. When the Criterion Collection (http://www.criterion.com/asp/) makes the jump, I'll follow them. And for the record, their DVDs look amazing on an HDTV...

You guys give it up already, HDDVD is done. Its HDDVD fanboy tards that keep the stupid format war burning. At the end of summer you were all touting how Bourne Ultimatum and Transformers were going to put HDDVD back in the race. Didnt happen. Then it was the $120 HDDVD players that were going to put HDDVD on top. Didnt happen. So what, we miss a few exclusive HDDVD titles that will inevitably be on Blu-Ray once Paramount and Universals contracts run out. As with the PS3, people are willing to wait. Nobody is going to buy a cheap player for a dying format. Dont even bother bringing up the "superiority" of the HDDVD format because of web features on the disc. Nobobody cares about a web blog about a movie as a special feature, or picture in picture commentary, hell I never even hit the special features on some of my movies. Its dead, let it go, move on with our lives.

the Amazon sale wasn't a firesale--it was their DealoftheDay. although unfortunately I think BluRay will win.

I just wish MS had packed in a HD-DVD player as the standard drive on the x360. that would've given Sony a run for their money. unfortunately, the disc read times (on both formats) is slower than the standard DVD read time.

the other thing that sucks is the prices of HDDVD's and BD's. $30 per movie?? outrageous. $20 for a new release DVD? outrageous. congrats to the dumb average consumer who keeps buying these things at the higher prices, which tells the companies they can get away with charging the higher prices. and those 5 free HD-DVDs that come with a HDDVD player?? they all suck/are old/don't want them. pass.

This won't forstall anything.

You can get standalone HD-DVD players for

This won't forstall anything.

You can get standalone HD-DVD players for below $120 on Amazon right now. And even in the month where HD-DVD players were sold for $99 at Wal-Mart, BluRay standalone player sales outsold HD-DVD standalone player sales (not even counting PS3).

(joystiq didn't like my less than sign, sorry about the post above)

That's about fifty dollars too little of a price cut, and about twelve months too late.

I bought the 360 HD player when they were giving you Heroes season 1 plus 2 free in store and the 5 mail ins. I do know that sooner rather than later Blueray will with the fight. However, I would rather use the add on to play either DVDs or HD-DVDs and not wear out my 360 drive that much faster. FYI Transformers is the bomb on HD!!!

Darth,

Tell your mom I want in.

This is ether a sign that HD DVD has had a major breakthrough in technology meaning a major price drop or ... is getting epically owned by Blu Ray. I'm going with the epic ownage on this one.

I ordered a Dell XPS with Bluray 2 days ago :]. It added quite a bit to the cost but im only trying to be future proof ;)

ok, yes, dvd is a format that will stick around for at least another 3-5 years, but then, so will Blu Ray (HDDVD is no longer in a legitimate HD conversation). No, Bluray will not "replace" DVDs, but rather, will carve out a significant niche for those of us who do want to make full use of the HD tvs, nice sound systems, etc. Personally, I will continue to buy most shows and movies on dvd format, but for some particular items that I want to see in their full HD glory, i'll shell out for the bluray version to play on my PS3 (like Planet Earth, Transformers, Lost). Bluray will not completely replace Dvds, but then, I don't really think anyone with a realistic perspective really did, not even Sony execs.

And Firesale it is!

Thank you for playing everybody.