AccessoryOptical drive2006
Xbox 360 HD DVD Player
The Xbox 360 HD DVD Player is a discontinued accessory for the Xbox 360 console that enables the playback of movies on HD DVD discs. Microsoft offered the drive for sale between November 2006 and February 2008.
- First released
- 2006
- Made by
- Microsoft
- Generation
- 7
- Units sold
- 316,000 in the US (as of December 31, 20
Overview
The Xbox 360 HD DVD Player is a discontinued accessory for the Xbox 360 console that enables the playback of movies on HD DVD discs. Microsoft offered the drive for sale between November 2006 and February 2008. It was initially sold for $199.
Bill Gates announced during his keynote speech at CES 2006 that an external HD DVD drive would be released for the Xbox 360 during 2006. At E3 2006, Microsoft officially presented the external HD DVD drive. According to Japan's chief of Xbox operations, Yoshihiro Maruyama, Microsoft would not release Xbox 360 games in the new disc formats.
On February 23, 2008, the Xbox 360 HD DVD player was discontinued by Microsoft. This decision came just days after Toshiba's announcement to discontinue all HD DVD players and effectively end the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. Two days later, the price of the HD DVD Player was reduced to a clearance price of $49.99. Peter Moore had stated that if HD DVD loses the format war, Microsoft may also release an external Blu-ray drive. This was later denied by Microsoft. All future iterations of the Xbox 360 console and dashboard maintained compatibility with the HD DVD player.
Details
- Developer
- Microsoft
- Type
- High-density optical disc player
- Generation
- Seventh generation
- Discontinued
- February 23, 2008
- Launch price
- US$199
- Units sold
- 316,000 in the US (as of December 31, 2007)
- Media
- HD DVD, DVD
- Video output
- 1080p (via Xbox 360)
- Sound
- Analog stereo, stereo LPCM, Dolby Digital, DTS
- Connectivity
- USB 2.0
- Manufacturer
- Microsoft
- Works with
- XBOX 360
Works with
More from Xbox
- Xbox controller 2001
- Xbox DVD Movie Playback Kit 2001
- Xbox Communicator 2002
- Xbox Controller S 2002
- Xbox 360 controller 2005
- Xbox 360 Hard Drive 2005
- Xbox 360 Memory Unit 2005
- Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit 2005
- Xbox 360 Wired Headset 2005
- Xbox 360 Wireless Networking Adapter 2005
- Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver 2006
- Xbox 360 Wireless Headset 2006
- Xbox Live Vision 2006
- Xbox 360 Chatpad 2007
- Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel 2007
- Kinect 2010
- Kinect for Xbox One 2013
- Xbox Elite Wireless Controller 2013
- Xbox One Chat Headset 2013
- Xbox Wireless Controller 2013
- Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows 2015
- Xbox Adaptive Controller 2018
- Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 2019
Sources
- Wikipedia overview and specifications
- Microsoft-Xbox-360-HD-DVD-Drive-Front.jpg
- Microsoft-Xbox-360-HD-DVD-Drive-Back.jpg Evan-Amos Public domain
The overview is adapted from Wikipedia and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.
Checked October 2026.
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