Microsoft has bowled Blu-ray a spin ball with its ‘pocket-money' (well, compared to the price of a PlayStation 3) HD DVD drive. It's given Toshiba's high-def format a shot in the arm just when it was needed. Okay, so you have to bring your own Xbox 360 to the party, but quite a few of us have one already, and anyway, that's still far less than even the cheapest standalone Blu-ray player.
Microsoft's add-on device is simply an external optical disc drive with a laser that can read high-density HD DVD discs. Plug it into any USB 2.0 compatible computer, not just the Xbox 360, and it will appear on the desktop as a regular drive and happily play a DVD. It even works with Mac OS X.
Ingeniously, it's the Xbox 360, which is effectively a very powerful PC, which does all the complicated video processing. The add-on drive is a relatively simple and inexpensive piece of hardware, something that Microsoft can have mass-produced in China very easily. Spare a thought at this point for Sony's engineers, as they have to assemble each massively complex and expensive PlayStation 3 themselves.
So Microsoft's add-on player is attractively cheap, but is it any good?
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Design and build
The plastic casing matches that of the 360 console, and is shaped to look like a book. You can stand it up, or lay it horizontally, and the only button is ‘eject'. It's a hefty weight and comes with an external power brick. It's fan-cooled and yes, it is noisy, but ask any 360 owner and they'll tell you that this really isn't an issue. The console has the noisiest fan in the business and will drown out any other component anyway.
The drive comes with an attractive remote control, which can be programmed to operate your other AV kit and a Media Centre PC, as well as your Xbox and HD DVD drive.
There are three USB sockets at the back of the drive and you just need one – the mini USB 2.0 – to connect with your main console. The other two are auxiliaries. All of the AV connections are made from the 360 itself.
Connectivity always has been a problem for Xbox 360 owners who want to integrate with their home cinemas, since Microsoft opted not to offer HDMI. Instead you will need to buy either a bespoke component video or VGA cable to connect to your display device (both can support 1080p), and an optical digital cable to carry digital audio to your amp.
Once you're set up though, the Xbox 360 interface is excellent and the on-screen graphics are most impressive. Select either 1080i, or if your display can handle it, 1080p on the console, and you're up and running with HD DVD!
