Though Toshiba has joined other PC vendors and included Blu-ray drives on their laptops, Microsoft joins Apple on this Windows 7 release week in continuing to leave Blu-ray off their own machines.

In a Windows 7 launch day interview with gadget site Gizmodo, Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer made some statements that included the words “360″ and “Blu-ray” in the same sentence. Ballmer’s exact words were, “Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there — you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.” Ballmer stated that the future of movies was to view them on-demand, and not on physical media. There was enough ambiguity in his words to lead some to conclude that an external Blu-ray drive was in the 360’s future, even though Microsoft spokespeople denied a new Blu drive.

Much later in the day, there was an emphatic clarification from Major Nelson, the Director of Programming for Xbox Live, who was able to burst the 360/Blu-ray rumor immediately. Major Nelson explained that Steve Ballmer was referring to the fact that Blu-ray drives are available as add-ons and options for PCs in home theater setups, and that Microsoft’s focus is on instant streaming of HD movies on the Xbox 360, as they’re doing now with Netflix.

Is this enough to completely squash the short-lived story about a Blu-ray 360? Only time will tell. Is there going to be a Blu-ray add-on drive? Only time will tell.

• Original Gizmodo interview (includes video)
• Engadget reports on Major Nelson
• Major Nelson at his own site denies 360/Blu-ray drive

A lot of people were understandably upset when Toshiba pulled the plug on the format, and many skeptics felt that Toshiba would never live up to their word regarding continuing player support. But here’s some encouragement for the less pessimistic HD DVD fans.

I missed this when it officially came out earlier in the week, but every single Toshiba HD DVD player model now has a firmware update to version 4.0 available at the Toshiba site. Any model with a 1, 2, or 3 in its name (that’s all three generations, folks) can now be updated to version 4.

If your player is already hooked up to the internet, then you can perform the update right from your player itself. You can also download the update to CD and make an ISO file for your HD DVD player instead. This method is slightly faster, but some people end up having trouble making the discs (usually because they’re only unzipping the file and not using the ISO feature on the CD software). You can download the file by navigating to find your player model number at Toshiba’s support site: http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/customersupport/.

Over at the AVS forum’s version 4.0 thread, “papacoach” reports that 1080/24 jaggies are fixed in this update on his Transformers, and this has been seconded by other posters at that forum.

I wrote about picking up an Xbox 360 HD DVD Add-on drive at Fry’s for $39.99 the other day as my back-up HD DVD player. The limitation with that method is you need to have a 360 or a sufficiently capable PC (and software) to play back the movies. Many people meet these requirements, but there are plenty of others who’d prefer a more straightforward approach and just get a cheap HD DVD player instead.

Buy.com to the rescue! I’m not sure how long this lasts, but they’ve got two versions of the Venturer SHD7000 (essentially a Toshiba HD-A3) for $59.99. One comes with The Bourne Identity and 300, while the other comes with two of the following: Rumor Has It, Perfect Storm, or Firewall.

Lots of people got the last generation of Toshiba HD DVD players and there’s a resulting glut of Bourne and 300 discs in the wild, so I’m betting that most of you might opt for the second configuration where you get to find out which movies you get only when the box arrives.

• Venturer SHD7000 with The Bourne Identity and 300
• Venturer SHD7000 with two of: Rumor Has It, Perfect Storm, Firewall

There’s an Xbox 360 HD DVD update for you next time you log in to Xbox Live with your 360 and HD DVD add-on. This update mainly brings fixes for the web-enabled features on certain titles, and “additional support for network features” (whatever that means).

I never got a chance to get into programming HDi, but I’m guessing that these essentially amount to patches for certain titles (no names were mentioned) and possibly a few fixes to anything that needed updating on the HDi engine itself.

Reading around the web, some people have made snarky comments about this update being pointless. I’m guessing they’re made by people who never liked HD DVD or even own the add-on. The reality is that the comments about this being pointless are themselves pointless. If you have a 360 and HD DVD add-on, and this update fixes issues you’ve had on some discs, then Microsoft should be congratulated on letting you get more use from a peripheral they no longer make. It’s a lot better than being left completely on your own with no chance of getting these problems fixed at all.

Might there be other updates in the future? I’d guess that this is probably the last update of its kind for a very long time since the team that works on this product has probably started their transition to other technologies.

How about another Toshiba update? Toshiba said they’d support the products for 8 more years, but it’s not clear whether this mostly means hardware fixes or if they’ll still have an engineer or two working on firmware. Since there are no new models of HD DVD players coming out, I’d guess that there could be at least one final update that fixes some problems that came up in the most recent firmware updates. Beyond that, updates might only come if it turns out that the feature is somehow similar to another DVD player product, and maaaaaaaaybe they’re willing to let that engineer apply a quick fix to the equivalent lines of code in the HD DVD firmware. Slim chance for that, me thinks.

Just about a week after Toshiba formally announced the end of their HD DVD player production, Microsoft has followed suit and announced that the HD DVD add-on player for the Xbox 360 will be discontinued. There had been rumors that the drive would start selling for $50, and those came true today as all the major retailers updated their pricing overnight.

The “non-believers” (people who never supported HD DVD and still don’t) will say that this is $50 too much to pay for technology that’s going nowhere. If you’re a little more involved with HD DVD, for example you have a reasonable collection of discs, there’s a whole other angle to consider.

The HD DVD add-on drive is actually just a USB peripheral that can even be hooked up to a PC. With the right software and capable video card, you can watch HD DVD movies on your computer, or let your computer pass the signal along to an HDTV. $50 is much cheaper than any of the internal drives made for the PC for this same purpose (usually because those internal drives are combo drives that also play Blu-ray discs, and can burn DVDs).

If you already have a 360 to hook it up to, $50 is now the cheapest way to get into the fading world of HD DVD. This may be more important to people looking for a way to have some sort of back-up drive in case their primary HD DVD machine breaks down.

Another reason to get this drive right now (as commentor Bob points out) is because it comes with King Kong and qualifies for the 5 Free Movies offer (if you get it by the 28th). That’s 6 HD DVD movies for $50!

Whatever your reason for wanting the $50 add-on drive, the time is now. Amazon appears to have sold out and is now offering them through their partner vendors, some of whom had not updated their prices yet. Amazon could also get these back in stock in case you’re patient. We’ve also had at least a couple of visitors to the site report that Best Buy currently offers this same price, and I’m sure it’s available at Circuit City and elsewhere for $50 as well.

• $50 Xbox 360 add-on at Amazon.com
• $50 at Best Buy
• $50 at Circuit City

After the recent price changes on standalone HD DVD players, many people wondered when the Xbox 360’s HD DVD add-on would drop in price. After all, $149 for a standalone HD-A3 is cheaper than $179 for the 360’s add-on.

Wonder no more, because the 360’s HD DVD add-on is now listing for $129. Well, it’s supposed to be, any way. Earlier in the day, Amazon had sold these at $79 for a few hours and quickly ran out. When I first checked, these drives were out of stock and being sold through one of Amazon’s partners for a higher price. Upon checking just minutes ago, the drive is back at $79.

The add-on is intended for the Xbox 360, but it can also be attached to your PC via USB, thus allowing you to view HD DVD movies on your PC for a lot less than some of the other HD DVD internal drives available. The drawback to using this drive with a PC is that it will need to be plugged in separately, whereas an internal drive would just get its power from inside the PC. On the other hand, this 360 drive is eligible for the 5 free movie offer, and it also comes with King Kong in the box.

• Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on player at Amazon.com

If the price is not $129 or less, then it means Amazon is out of stock and you’re seeing a product from one of their partner vendors.

• $119 at Best Buy

Talk about lower pricing on HD DVD players had already been surfacing at internet forums, and late Sunday night, Toshiba formally announced new prices on the third-generation of players:

• HD-A3 at $149.99
• HD-A30 at $199.99
• HD-A35 at $299.99

According to the press release, the new pricing will be accompanied by major initiatives including joint advertising campaigns with studios. They’ll also start highlighting the benefits of HD DVD along with the benefits that HD DVD players bring to consumers’ current DVD libraries via upconversion of standard DVDs to provide near-high definition picture quality. Though it’s not mentioned specifically, I’m sure the free movie offer is likely to be extended for some more months too, but let’s see.

Jodi Sally, VP of Marketing for Toshiba’s Digital A/V Group is quoted as saying:

Our HD DVD players not only play back approximately 800 HD DVD titles available worldwide and deliver an entirely new level of entertainment but also enhance the picture quality to near high definition on legacy DVD titles by all studios. In short, we added high def to DVD which already is the de facto standard format created and approved by the DVD Forum that consists of more than two hundred companies.

The press release touts low prices as crucial for mainstream adoption, with Yoshi Uchiyama, Group Vice President Digital A/V Group saying:

Consumer sales this holiday season have proven that the consumer awareness of the HD DVD format has been elevated and pricing is the most critical determinant in consumers’ purchase decision of the next generation HD DVD technology. The value HD DVD provides to the consumer simply cannot be ignored.

These prices are already being discounted at Amazon and elsewhere, and appear to have gone into effect as early as last Friday. Some will describe it as a fire sale, but it’s definitely the logical step for HD DVD in the format war. In fact, it’s probable that these price reductions were planned all along for the post-holiday season.

These actions will certainly get more players out into the wild, and further increase awareness of the format and its various features. I hope that they’ve got some really good commercials and print ads lined up to go along with all of this.

I’m sure many people will have strong reactions to the news that HD DVD is still fighting in the format war. Some will be cheering while others are jeering. What I really want to learn more about is the much bigger strategy from all of these supporting companies. A crystal ball would come in really handy right about now…

Amazon’s 10-day promotion on video game deals featuring a new deal each day, ended today (Monday) with a PS3 promotion. A bonus eleventh day has been added that’s particularly interesting to HD DVD because, according to an email Amazon has sent to customers interested in Xbox 360 games and accessories, the extra offer is on the Xbox 360 HD DVD player, and makes it part of a 9-movie deal. Amazon will thrown in The Bourne Trilogy, and the add-on already comes with King Kong in the box. The remaining 5 movies are from the same mail-in offer that applies to the conventional HD DVD players.

Note that December 17 is the last day that Amazon and most online retailers can guarantee delivery by Christmas. If you’re thinking of picking this up as a gift, then definitely put in a few extra bucks for some kind of expedited shipping.

• Xbox 360 HD DVD Player: 9 HD DVDs at Amazon

Visiting the page on Monday will bring up the PS3 deal, but visit it on Tuesday for the Xbox deal. By the way, if you’re going to go purple (meaning you support both high-def formats), do it via a PS3 simply because it’s practically infinitely upgradeable to all the various features they come out with as they catch up to many HD DVD features next year, whereas other players are going to be stuck at certain levels of features.

• Previous posting about deals, some of which are still going on

Months ago, a lot of HD DVD haters gleefully quoted from a Los Angeles Times article which seemed to imply that Walmart was ready to “boot stand-alone HD DVD players from its shelves in favor of Blu-ray.”

Or so it seemed.

Instead, Walmart got November off to a big start with a $99 deal on Toshiba’s HD-A2 player, helping to put several tens of thousands of units into people’s homes. So what comes next? As November draws to a close, Walmart has started offering Venturer’s SHD7000 HD DVD player for $199 in the USA, just a short while after it first went on sale in their Canadian stores. This player debuted at Target a couple of months ago for $249 (and it’s still $249), but Walmart is cranking up the competition and selling the same player for 50 bucks less.

This, again, completely contradicts what many people thought Walmart’s HD DVD plans were for the holidays. Walmart execs had been quoted as saying they would only sell a major brand name player, but here they are offering a second or third-tier brand.

Pretty sneaky of Walmart to misguide their competitors, huh?
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