Well, this did not take long. According to EngadgetHD,
Utilizing Toshiba drivers, users have apparently been able to not only view the file contents of their HD DVD flicks directly within a Windows XP environment, but have been able to play back the film on PCs well-spec’d enough to handle the load. By enabling the computer to read the UDF (Universal Disc File system) v2.5 — which is currently used by Toshiba’s first generation HD DVD drives — you can avoid throwing down the coin required for an Xbox 360 if you so choose.
I guess the real question to ask is whether Microsoft made it intentionally easy to modify the drive. If people can easily modify it to work on a PC, shouldn’t Microsoft just release it for the PC themselves? This would definitely help adoption of the format in comparison to Blu-ray. By not officially sanctioning the use of the drive on the PC, the company can be “outraged” about the situation when in discussions with the MPAA and the studios. Interestingly, the drive can play on a Windows XP system. Such as system does not support HDCP as of now. $200 for an HD-DVD that works on on a Windows XP machine is pretty cheap if you ask me.
August 6th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
People like me that have a HDTV want to watch HD movies on our TV. We all know that a HD TV Player can cost you anywherez from $300 bux and up well as of 08.03.07 I heard you can use a XBOX external drive an hook it up to up to your PC. YOU DONT NEED THE XBOX CONSOLE!! Some of you may ya … ya right! So I did some some checking and decided to try it. Its No Big Deal and it works No hacking or any of that BS… Its a Plug And Play Setup! ….ya baby. I went to Walmart and picked up a XBOX External HD-DVD Drive just like in the link below for $169 bux. This is the only drive that I know of that will run at “1080p” most run that I have seen run only at “1080i” An added plus You get a Free HD-DVD Copy of King Kong lol
Check out this site:
http://legitreviews.com/article/532/1/
No hacking no BS. Its plug and play dude!
All I did was install the drive. It comes with its own USB connector. I pluged in the power supply and connected the USP connector to my computer and Vista saw the device but did not find any driver. No big deal…. I went to Windows Update and it installed the driver for my new XBOX External HD-Drive and it worked fine. It dont get any easier than that.
Special Note:
1. You must have a good Video Card. Im running a ATI X1950 Crossfire and it works great!
2. A 3.0 or faster machine!
3. Lotza Ram ( I run 4 gigs ) but Im sure 2 gigs will be plenty
4. Get a copy of CyberLink PowerDVD 7.0 HD-DVD Software. ( Im sure you can get it anywhere hehehehe )
5. Im running Vista Ultimate 64 bit.
Thats it! Im living proof it works and for $169 Bux I can now run HD-DVD movies on my computer yea baby
Enjoy