The Xbox 360’s HD DVD features have been in the news a lot these last few days. It’s going to be at least another year before a 360 model comes out with an HD DVD drive built right in, so let’s put that conjecture to rest. There’s no need for Microsoft to bump up the cost of the 360 and slow down sales momentum on the game console.

Increasing HD DVD’s momentum seems to be at the heart of the other big international news about the 360’s HD DVD add-on player, however.

The big news in the USA is that Best Buy’s advertisement for October 21 leaked to the internet and they’re offering the Heroes, Season 1 box set with the purchase of the 360’s HD DVD player. This player already comes with King Kong and it also qualifies for the “5 Free HD DVD Movies” offer. In the end, this deal pays for the player with just the movies alone because the Heroes seven-disc box set goes for $70 at Amazon, and it would cost over $100 to get the other movies.

If you were planning on picking up the 360 HD DVD player, it’s definitely worth waiting for October 21 to get this sweet deal at Best Buy. Unless you aren’t interested in Heroes, I suppose. But then you could always e-bay the disc set or pass it along as a gift, right?

In the international news, the “5 Free Movies” offer on the 360’s HD DVD add-on player has now started appearing in Canada and in the UK. It’s the same offer that we get in the USA, and I hope they get their discs mailed to them a lot faster than we’ve been getting them over here.