Meh...If I want to play games, I'll use my 360, if I want to watch HD movies, I'll get a standalone HD player, if I want to watch HDTV, I'll use my DirecTV HD DVR.

Just a heads-up for those interested : Even though I don't recommend the 360's HD-DVD drive, if you were to buy one, do it next week at Best Buy. They're including with purchase Heroes Season 1 HD-DVD that goes for $100. That makes it a tremendous deal, no doubt. If you have to watch Transformers in HD (and it is truly spectacular, truth be told), this would be the week to get on board.

I'll be picking up the HD player next week as an early XMas present from my parents. I already own Heroes on SD and most of the ones available for free, but I can easily sell my SD versions to get a few bucks.

I just got the "3 Day Weekend Sale" email from JR.com, and they are also bundling Heroes HD-DVD in with the 360 HD-DVD drive. $180 I think it said, not sure what BB gets for it.

If anyone wants the player but not Heroes, let me know how much you want for Heroes, I'm interested in it but already have the HD-DVD drive.

I just finished watching Heroes on HD... on the 360 drive. :) Awesome set, and that is a HELL of a deal.

Is there any word on when the fall updated will be? Also any final word on what we are getting?

No.

I have a buddy who refuses to buy the HD-DVD add-on because he read somewhere that the upconvert sucks on it and it is inferior to the upconversion on the stand-alone players. Is this true?

I have no idea where he read this but he won't budge.

That's total BS. I've heard many counts that the up-conversion on the add-on is very good. Keep in mind you must be using the HDMI or VGA connections to have this functionality.

It upconverts phenomenally on hdmi and VGA.

Doesn't upconvert w/ Component (HD-DVDs will still play at 720p/1080i tho).

As far as I know it does still does flag-reading deinterlacing which isn't pretty on tricky material. Still, the Secrets of Home Theater folks gave it an 84 - that's pretty respectable and a cut above cheap stand-alone DVD players...probably onpar with what the PS3 would score now.

I think (I haven't seen a comprehensive test, but based on the HD-A1 tests) the HD-A2 handles some trickier deinterlacing better.

Keep in mind you're not going to get upscaled DVD anyway without going the VGA route or with an HDMI-equipped 360.

Normally I would say - $199 for the HD-A2 (popping up in a few places at that price lately) or $179 for the add-on makes the A2 a no-brainer, but the Heroes deal makes it a bit sweeter.

I'd still suggest a standalone, it's what, an extra $0 to $100? Not even discussing the subjectivity of which will upscale better, the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive will never be able pass HD audio. Even if you can't use that now, you don't want to be forced into a new player when you upgrade your sound system.

Of course you could factor in the 6 free movies and $100 Heroes set, you are paying next to nothing to begin with. Then you factor in Time. How long before upgrading to HD audio? Different for everyone, but by then players could be $100, or dual-format players will be out.

I'd save the scratch now, get the extras and save space on your A/V rack, especially since the format war is far from over.

There aren't six free movies any more, right? That promo ended 9/30/07, Only the King Kong disc now, AFAIK.

Extended to Feb. 28, 2008. Here's the PDF.

There are now better selections on this extension, just like the new BD offer.

So for $180 you get:

• Xbox 360 HD-DVD Drive
• Xbox 360 Media Remote
• King Kong HD-DVD
• 5 free HD-DVDs
• Heroes HD-DVD

Even if you take a minimum of $10 for each of the discs on half.com, you're looking at paying $120 for the drive. Don't want Heroes?, ditch it for $65 and in the process dropping your player cost to about $55.

With all the freebies, I think this is pretty hard to pass up. I got 300 free with mine and paid $65 for Heroes. :(

Yeah, that's an awesome deal. I am actually thinking about getting it and that way I have an HD player for both my HDTVs.

Question: I have already sent off for the old "Get 5 free" offer when I bought my A2 from Amazon in September. It states at the bottom that the offer is limited to one per household. Would this new selection grouping count as a different offer or would I have to give a different address? Has anyone tried doing multiple 'Get 5 free" offers?

Actually it's a completely different offer, so you should be able to take advantage of it.

My 1 year non-RROD warranty will be up early November. Unit was replaced in like April, the one I have now has a manufacture date of 12/05, and seems to be just fine (though it's louder than hell).

Do you think I should just say that this one is acting up, order a coffin, and get a new one (hopefully a newer HDMI system)? If they get my old one, and test it and find nothing wrong (I've no idea if they test them or not? I'd think they would?), will they just ship it back to me? Or do you think they'll just send me a known working system no questions asked?

From about April until early November, I probably play it 3 hours a week. During the winter months I'll bet it's 4 or 5 times that. I'd much rather be without it for the next few weeks than the middle of January. And the fact that the 3 year warranty only covers RROD issues has me worried that it'll be my drive that acts up (which is why I sent my first unit in), and I'll be SOL and have to pay for it to be fixed.

I hate to have to play games with them like this, but it's kind of their own fault.

If you bought it on 07 get a 3-year-from-time-of-purchase warranty at squaretrade.com for 10% of purchase price. $53 and I don't have to worry about it until 09/2010.

How much of the 360 hard-drive does the add-on HD player use...if any? Does it use the HDMI/Component hook-ups that the 360 uses or do you have to use an additional hook-up?

I don't think it uses any hard drive space. It hooks up via USB to the back of the 360. Whatever cables you are using with the 360 is what the signal goes through.

Hooks up to the back if you're not already using that USB port for the wireless adapter. Looks like I'll have to have mine plugged in to the front when I pick it up tomorrow /w BB's deal. I'll just have to unplug it when I want to play GH2 or Rock Band, I guess. No biggie.

One other question...when you are watching an HD-DVD, are you constantly bombarded with friends signing on, inviting you to play, etc. or does it automatically log you out of that stuff?

In your options there is a setting you can change to turn notifications off when watching a movie.