Great. Too bad retail stores still holding on to their HDDVDs won't drop their prices. MS can keep their player. I'll wait the bajillion years for BD players to get around $100.

While I understand that these HDDVD players are hopelessly obsolete. There are still more the 400 current HDDVD movies, including new released movies like "I am Legend".

So, what I am getting at, is that for 29.99 for the player and about 10.00 per movie... it seems worth it to me to have a few obsolete DVD lying around...

i'm sure people will find a way to justify the "great deal" they got on their hd-dvd..

oh well it's works great as an upconvertin gdvd player! whoop di damn doo

you never know. Sony might still fail. :)

Anyone tried to get this thing working with a PS3? Now that would be amusing.

lol obsolete fort...good one

kind of feel bad for MS, but what can be said? unless the playstation did as well as the ps2, the whole "rely on blu ray to eventually make the playstation 3 sell like hotcakes" plan was a strong plan B. damn if it isnt working either,

i dont even really play video games (never owned a ps2) and i'm probably going to wind up with a ps3 in a couple of years when my local library stocks up on blu ray discs and a ps3 can be bought relatively cheaply.

btw...completely off topic but...free library wireless internet FTW...now if only they would put up content filters so that i wouldnt have to see people surfing porn sites (shudders)

Sad. Very sad.

Mine was free. I purchased it through Amazon for $50, but then when HD-DVD went under, Amazon sent me a $50 gift certificate for my pain which I quickly used on HD-DVD movies which still work...

I would use it with a mac book air instead of that stupid $100 one that doesn't work with other computers.

@electrikecho:

Look online. Deals are plenty. I'd pick one up if I didn't already have one just for the deals on the discs... And with AnyDVDHD, rip'em to your Media Center.

tempted to pick one up this weekend. hi-def movies are hi-def movies, and the player itself is small enough to tuck away in a back corner of the tv stand when not in use.

besides, HD-DVD still has better features in terms of extra content and whatnot.

scratch that. Overstock already sold out of them. hah.

Damn, that isnt really a bad deal for then a shit-ton of HDDVD movies are floating aroudn not worth crap.

If they still sell HD-DVD recorder and blank discs, I'd still buy it.

Oh well. Maybe in a parallel universe...

Anyone who bought an XBox but never bought the HD DVD add on could do well with this anyway. Obsolete? For $30, I don't think that matters when there's lots of HD DVD's that can be had cheaply.

Found them at my local K-mart for 25.00.

Regardless of how "good" the deal seems, it just sounds a bit lame to buy a player for a format which will no longer have movies made for it, and can't even be used for data (they never made hd-dvd-r)

I still use mine as a dvd player. works great. Who cares if blueray won HDDVDs still look and sound amazing and are cheap. I got my $50 rebate from amazon for the player and now Im receiveing GTA4 for 9.99. Not a bad deal all around for the $70bucks i paid for it and free hddvds that came with it.

resembles laser disc

@CyRu5: Not really. If you're an avid movie collector like me, but don't do purchases on a regular basis (like me again), and then go on a spree (ditto), it's great. Not to mention the discs will prolly start ending up in trade-in shops and other low-budget shops.

(Of course, I'll freely admit that there might be a certain amount of bung hole hurt that I am trying to get over with the above reasoning (I paid full price for the player)).

@szrimaging - You found a local K-mart? Wow.

@James:

Except now you can rip'em to your HD.

DISCLAIMER: Of course, I'll freely admit that there might be a certain amount of bung hole hurt that I am trying to get over with the above reasoning (I paid full price for the player).

Even if you aren't into hd-dvd's; this price still makes it a worthwhile purchase if you use your 360 to watch DVD's. Less wear and tear on the internal drive can only be a good thing.

i'd buy one sicne it's cheap, and i love obsolete tech. for example my killer GTE mobilnet motorlla 1990 cell phone, complete with 10 digit display! and yes it still works, can even register on alltel's network.

"Obsolete," as defined by Merriam-Webster: No longer in use or no longer useful.

As far as I can tell, there are still HD DVDs out there for sale, the HD DVD player still plays and upscales old DVDs, and this thing is cheaper than most DVD players.

I wouldn't necessarily call it "obsolete." People use that term way too loosely. Irrelevant, maybe. Out of production, yes. Obsolete...not until DVDs are out of production too.

@James: WOW! I forgot all about laser discs! That was (I think) even shorter lived than HD-DVD. I keep thinking of the VHS vs Beta wars. Would you have bought a Beta tape player after you found out that they weren't going to be supported anymore?

If they weren't limiting these to 12 per customer, I might buy a palette of them to finish up the walkway I'm laying in my backyard. I'll bet they make great stepping stones! :)

@darthweef:
Agreed, I dont care is half my collection is HD-DVD, and the other half is Blu Ray, its not like I'm losing anything by saving all this money.

LOL at everone that dosnt see that this is a deal. hd-dvd looks just as good as blue-ray, and there are over 400hd movies and still more comming out.

this will hold me over till blue comes down to a normal price.

You can hack it and hook it up to a PC. I may get it. Works great as an upconverting DVD player too.

@CaptainCynic: I heard K-marts have recently been reduced to $50 each. A pretty good deal, if you don't mind that they're obsolete now.

This guy is obviously a douche.. you can see it in his eyes. He's all like, 'Come on friend, you know you want it. It's all white and shiny. It'll be a collectors item some day kid. It's signed by Bill Gates. I'll even throw in an 8-track player, beta camcorder, and beautiful 5", black and white, analog, television to watch it on.'

He looks like he's having fun with it... why wouldn't I say yes?

@CaptainCynic: K-marts are all over the Midwest, esspecially Michigan. Besides, I am one of those Wally World haters. Ex-employee, and seen too many local businesses die to their crappy service.

Dammit. This inflated the $1.25 price on eBay. You can still get them for around $18.

huh the price of a paperweight is $29 these days... or $25 t my local K-mart... man inflation is a bitch.

@SgtMac02: Actually LaserDisc kept going until just a few years ago, but they were only available in specialty shops, for about $50 per movie.
But yeah, you don't see anybody clamoring to buy LaserDisc players and movies, just to get them cheap. wtf....

I'm happy and do not regret buying the HD DVD add on for $50. I mailed in (and will shortly receive) the 5 free movies, I bought Transformers today for $9.99, I got numerous other movies for $9.99 to $14.99, and I'm happy with the choices. It worked out well, and some of those have the DVD as well.

@phatnacky: "LOL at everone that dosnt see that this is a deal. hd-dvd looks just as good as blue-ray, and there are over 400hd movies and still more comming out."

Yeah, for another two months...and then no one will be releasing HD DVDs anymore. I have to shake my head at anyone who thinks it's a good idea to buy into a technology whose content catalog will be permanently capped at fewer than 500 titles.

@Barion: For $29 and the nominal cost of clearanced movies, it's not a bad deal, actually.

Beats paying $400 for a PS3, plus a remote (or $55 to integrate into your current remote setup), only to pay $25 for the same movie you could get on HD-DVD for $10 on sale.

Though, the best deal are clearanced standalone HD-DVD players, which have kickass upscalers (HD-A3/A30 notably) for watching DVDs. Beats the PS3 upscaler. On the order of things, my TV has the worst (great for 480i, but 480p/720p, could be better), PS3 is around average (probably around the same as the $100 upscaling DVD players), followed by the HD-DVD players.

Funny how the likes of Oppo's upscaling players have the same chips, but cost $400.

well hopefully if Microsoft realize people spent money on them and integrated there drive for listening to cd's and playing media from, it would prob expand the lifetime of the console for miner problems like if the consoles drive burns out,

@robinandtami: That's what I've been doing with mine. With the RROD always on the horizon, I do whatever I can to take some of the burden off of the 360.

@Worf: I understand why some people think it's a good deal, but the reason I won't follow suit is because I know someday any HD DVD player I buy will break down and then I'll be stuck having to rebuy those HD DVD movies again on Blu-ray. I already got the PS3 for both games and movies, so why bother? And for me, since I rarely buy movies in the first place (I have one of the smallest DVD collections of anyone who claims to be a cinephile because while I love watching movies, I'm *really* picky about what I want to actually own), I'm totally willing to pay Blu-ray prices for those few movies I do choose to buy.