While this is not an Xbox site, It is possible to use the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive on your PC, And for £114.99 for the drive now is the best time to buy one. HMV also are giving away a free Superman HD DVD that must make the HD DVD drive for free when used with the five free movies offer.

Microsoft today announces a major promotion with Hollywood’s leading film studios that will offer five blockbuster movie HD-DVDs completely free when you buy the Xbox 360™ HD-DVD player at an ERP* of £114.99.

From now until the 31st January 2008, anyone who purchases the state-of-the-art HD-DVD player for their Xbox 360 will be able to choose from 13 major film titles from studios including Warner Brothers, Universal, Dreamworks and Paramount. To receive their movies, customers simply send in a form, along with the barcode of their new HD-DVD player and Microsoft will ensure they are sent their HD-DVDs within 28 working days.

Commenting on the deal, Stephen McGill, Head of Gaming and Entertainment for Microsoft UK said: “The HD-DVD player for Xbox 360 gives customers a high quality and affordable way to enjoy state-of-the-art HD-DVD movies. We’re delighted to enable everyone to enjoy the technology to the full and offer some fantastic movie releases, completely free.”

The titles on offer are: Serenity, The Chronicles of Riddick, Hulk, Children of Men, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Troy, Full Metal Jacket, Corpse Bride, The Prestige, Swordfish, Black Rain, Dreamgirls, Word Trade Centre.

More information here PDF

At the end of September Buffalo and I-O Data will both start selling drives that add the ability to write Blu-ray disks to the above hardware. BD-RE rewritable disks can be burned at 2x speed and BD-R write-once disks at double that. HD DVD functionality is limited to playback only in both cases and all models can handle DVDs and CDs.

Pricing for the top-end kit is ¥74,800 (£328) for the Buffalo USB drive. There's no word on availability outside Japan from either company.

News Via Tech.co.uk

Microsoft has apparently decided to release some updates for Windows Vista x86 and x64 versions to the testers.

Updates are:
Windows6.0-KB938194-x64.msu @ 3.65mb
Windows6.0-KB938194-x86.msu @ 2.13 mb
Windows6.0-KB938979-x64.msu @ 14.15mb
Windows6.0-KB938979-x86.msu @ 9.86mb

938979 Vista Performance and Reliability Pack
This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the performance and responsiveness for some scenarios and improves reliability of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios. Some examples of the improvements contained in this update are:

• Improves performance in resuming back to the desktop from the Photo and Windows Energy screensaver.
• Resolves an issue where some secured web pages using advanced security technologies may not get displayed in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista.
• Resolves an issue where a shared printer may not get installed if the printer is connected to a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 system and User Access Control is disabled on the Vista client.
• Resolves an issue where creating AVI files on Vista may get corrupted.
• Improves the performance in calculating the ‘estimated time remaining’ when copying/moving large files.
• Improves performance in bringing up Login Screen after resuming from Hibernate.
• Resolves an issue where synchronization of offline files to a server can get corrupted.
• Resolves a compatibility issue with RAW images created by Canon EOS 1D/1DS Digital SLR Camera which can lead to data loss. This only affects RAW images created by these two specific camera models.
• Resolves an issue where a computer can lose its default Gateway address when resuming from sleep mode.
• Improves the performance when copying or moving entire directories containing large amounts of data or files.
• Improves the performance of Vista’s Memory Manager in specific customer scenarios and prevents some issues which may lead to memory corruption.

938194 Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack

• Improved reliability and compatibility of Vista when used with newer graphics cards in several specific scenarios and configurations.
• Improved reliability when working with external displays on a laptop.
• Increased compatibility with many video drivers.
• Improved visual appearance of games with high intensity graphics.
• Improved quality of playback for HD-DVD and Blue-Ray disks on large monitors.
• Improved reliability for Internet Explorer when some third party toolbars are installed on Vista.
• Improved Vista reliability in networking configuration scenarios.
• Improved the reliability of Windows Calendar in Vista.
• Improved reliability of systems that were upgraded from XP to Vista.
• Increased compatibility with many printer drivers.
• Increased reliability and performance of Vista when entering sleep and resuming from sleep.

Albatron to the rescue with their new Blu-Ray decoder card.

Actually it's an Nvidia 8500GT graphics card with full HD video acceleration for Blu-Ray & HD DVD (H264) playback, This should fit very nicely inside the XL series of media centres. Full list of features after the click. (nb. Albatron call it Blue Ray)

[ Read the rest ... ]

GeForce 6, 7, and 8 series BETA driver 162.22 for Vista 32bit and 64bit.
This driver supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI™ technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and OpenGL. Improved compatibility for Lost Planet. Added "Resize the HDTV desktop" underscan compensation option. Numerous game and application compatibility fixes. Please read the release notes for more information on product support, feature limitations, driver fixes and known compatibility issues.

Download 32bit Drivers
Download 64bit Drivers

If component-style PCs are your thing, you'll wanna check out Sony's new XL3 announced at CES. It has built-in ATSC and NTSC tuners along with a CableCard slot that lets the XL3 double as your DVR. The XL3 has a built-in Blu-ray drive complimenting its HDMI port. Liquid cooling keeps the Core 2 Duo CPU and GeForce 7600 graphics card from overheating while Sony's own Sound Reality technology promises high-quality audio. Personally, we wish the XL3 had a meaner graphics card and more than just 500GB of storage space, especially considering its $3,300 price tag. Otherwise, you'll be able to find it online come March.

news via Gizmodo

* The definitive Digital Media Center now features Blu-ray Disc™
* Digital (DVB-T) and analogue TV tuner for complete versatility
* One cable connection to HD TV with HDMI™
* Intel® ViiV™ technology for easy home multimedia networks

Weybridge, 13th September 2006 - Following the success of the original VGX-XL100 Digital Media Center – the first of its kind to have HDMI™ - VAIO has created the XL200-Series. In anticipation of increasing demand for sophisticated HD-capable home entertainment systems, the new range will now be available in Italy, Germany and Austria as well as in France and the UK.

Created to stand at the heart of the digital home, the XL200-Series includes two models, the VGX-XL201 and the VGX-XL202. The VGX-XL201 is the next generation of the original, now powered by an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor and offering outstandingly smooth SD and HD video playback quality. This key enhancement is driven by NVIDIA® PureVideo™ technology: hardware acceleration, optimised for HD (H.264, MPEG2 and WMV9) decoding, is present on the NVIDIA® GeForce® 7600 GTL graphics cards used in both systems.


The VGX-XL202 goes a step further by incorporating the High Definition technology of the future, Blu-ray Disc™. This means users can save and share their personal HD content and enormous volumes of pictures and music, and even be the first to watch the forthcoming wave of BD-format movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The XL200-Series is designed to be used with the TV as its display, bringing digital TV, video recording, the Web, email, games and music into the living room. An HDMI™ output provides a simple, one-cable HD connection to an HD-Ready TV. The stylish and visually versatile case is perfectly at ease with any décor and makes itself at home below the TV. In addition, the virtually silent sub-25dB operation means no irritating distractions.


This supremely media-friendly machine features a hybrid tuner for both digital (DVB-T) and analogue TV. Whichever you view or record, Microsoft® Windows® Media Center Edition makes it easy to use the XL200-Series’ many features. The XL200-Series also showcases the next-generation convenience of Intel® ViiV™ 1.5 – a technology powerful enough to make creating a home multimedia network easy. Other ViiV™-certified devices around the home are recognised automatically by the setup Wizard, allowing the XL200 to stream your video and music content to them as you wish.

The VGX-XL202 model offers a massive 500GB of hard disk space, ideal for DVR (Digital Video Recorder) use, with the added bonus of being able to archive favourite programmes using the enormous capacity of Blu-ray Disc™. A wireless keyboard with integrated touchpad and a remote control come as standard, so surfing the Web from the sofa is as easy as changing channels.


When the time comes for some interactive entertainment, gamers can tap the power of the partnership between the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor and 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 7600 GTL graphics. The same muscle will make light work of photo and video editing too, helping you get the best from your digital camera or camcorder before sharing pictures and video with family and friends in the comfort of the living room.

“The new generation of XL200-Series shows where the entertainment PC is heading,” says Jun Koyama, Marketing Director of VAIO Of Europe (VOE). “It anticipates the trend towards HD, both in television and personal video, which is of vital importance and great interest to our customers. The XL200-Series also embraces the move towards really powerful home multimedia networking. It is a true VAIO product: something that explores the potential where AV and IT merge.”

Thanks to TonyVaio for the tip.

Original site link

PureVideo HD Beta driver with support for the following features:
* Hardware acceleration of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 HD movie formats.
* Video post-processing image enhancements.
* Built-in support for HDCP content protection protocol via DVI or HDMI connectors.
* Integration with movie player software.
ForceWare Release 90

I have tested these new drivers myself and They only seem to work correctly if you are using HDMI output, I use component and the highest res I can select is 1024x768, useless on a HDTV. So if like me your not using the HDMI output we may have to wait for Sony to release a special version.

I did notice some speed improvements with some of the more demanding HD content especially the H264 stuff which now seems to be very smooth. and the problem I had with tombraider legend's sound is now fixed too.

To make full use of the hardware decoding functions you will also need to "BUY" and install Nvidia's PureVideo Codec I find this far better than the one that came installed on the Xl100.

Recommended if you use HDMI

Download the new drivers Here.

Download the PureVideo Codec 30 day trial here

MSI NX7600GT Diamond Plus is the first VGA card equipped with the HDMI technology. Along with this simple connectivity, the audio/video signals on PC will be correspondingly transmitted to LCD or Plasma TV for users. In addition, MSI NX7600GT Diamond Plus has the solid and powerful 3D engine technology that is smoothly complaint to the most 3D games available on the market nowadays. By the exclusive D.O.T. II over clocking technology, MSI NX7600GT Diamond Plus will dynamically adjust the accordance of power-consumption and performance. Users will also enjoy the astonishing visual reality and HD-audio contributed from MSI’s 3D performance and HDMI technology through a home theater PC. The MSI NX7600GT Diamond Plus is powered by a NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT GPU and includes 256MB of memory.

News Via New Launches

Tul has become the latest graphics card maker to launch a board supporting HDMI. The company's PowerColor-branded board is based on an ATI Radeon X1600-class GPU and incorporates an HDCP anti-piracy crypto chip for full HD readiness.

The PowerColor X1600 Pro HDMI has a 500MHz core connected across a 128-bit bus to 256MB of GDDR 3 running at 450MHz (900MHz effective). The GPU has 12 pixel-shader pipelines fed by five vertex-shader engines.

The low-profile board is CrossFire ready for multi-card set-ups. ATI's Avivo technology is on hand to accelerate HD video decoding and enhance the picture quality.

Tul said the board would ship next week, but it didn't provide pricing information.

News Via The Register