HD-DVD still not dead?

It is just over a year since in February 2008 Toshiba officially abandoned the HD-DVD format for Sony’s Blu-Ray to take pole position and become the next generation digital format of choice.  Now I got the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player back in January 2008, yes I know I was gutted when I heard the news, and admittedly I haven’t played as many High Definition DVDs on it as I would have liked but every time I go to the shops there is still stock there.  For many it may show that the format was a massive flop but there are some amazing deals out there right now! Not only for early adopters like me but also people who’ve never considered it before. Yesterday I picked up Apollo 13 (great film) on HD-DVD for only £3.99 -- even cheaper than bog standard DVD so I thought I’d take a moment to assess the situation and share it with you.

Now the defunct format isn’t going to last forever but HD-DVDs will be knocking around stores and online like eBay for at least a couple of years.  With this in mind why not pick one up? I’m not talking about the separate HD-DVD players because they’re damn rare and expensive. No, I’m talking about the Xbox 360 addon device that will also play your regular DVDs on the system so you have that extra ability to leave your “gaming discs” in the console internal drive thus less time wasted fiddling with discs. Less time changing discs = more time gaming!  So obviously you’ll need an Xbox 360 for this and because it’s HD-DVD you’d need it connected up to your HD TV either via HDMI, VGA or the high definition composite cables.

Now there are so many good deals around with the one which caught my eye being at Gamestation.  Here you could get the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive + 5 HD-DVDs for only £34.99. Now with five HD-DVDs at £3.99 each that comes to about £20.00 which for some of the films out there isn’t bad bringing the play itself to £15. Now that might be a bit steep for something which is technically obsolete and will be worth little in a couple of years time but then that’s the price of a meal out. Why not stay home and get this baby as even though it’s £15 you’ll make that up in extra enjoyment of the films. Trust me, you will.  What’s great about the HD-DVDs is they’re cheaper than their normal DVD counterparts but have way better image quality and some have better sound as well.

So are you going to take the risk? In my opinion it’s not that much of a risk, and the benefits of a greater picture even if only for a couple of decent films, is worth it.  It all depends on your choice of films and if they are available on HD-DVD or not but you have the opporuntity, then treat yourself and enjoy the remnants of HD-DVD.