360 HD-DVD can be plugged into a PC but…

Microsoft and Toshiba did a demo recently about their respective HD DVD players. Microsoft had a production sample Xbox 360 attachment and Toshiba had their HD-A2 and HD-XA2 second generation HD DVD players. Gizmodo reader Pete was able to attend the demo and here’s some of the interesting bits that he noticed.

We’re going to skip over the picture quality of the HD-DVD titles they viewed as everything was shown on a 50inch Pioneer Elite 1080p plasma, which is, as Pete said, a little close to cheating, because anything looks good on that screen.

There’s nothing really new on the Toshiba drives that you guys wouldn’t be able to gather if you’ve read the spec sheets of both the HD-A2 and the HD-XA2. The HD-A2 is supposed to be available next week. The HD-XA2 should hit around November or December.

So back we go to the 360. Pete found out that the 360 HD-DVD drive can be plugged into a PC and it will be recognized as an optical drive, but as a security measure will not be able to play HD-DVD movies.

Pete was quick to ask if the drive will work if you had the proper HD-DVD software on your PC, and the answer he got was pretty close to a “we don’t know.”

So maybe that drive to PC connection could be something that you guys could play around with. We’ll update you if we find more details.

Microsoft and Toshiba did a demo recently about their respective HD DVD players. Microsoft had a production sample Xbox 360 attachment and Toshiba had their HD-A2 and HD-XA2 second generation HD DVD players. Gizmodo reader Pete was able to attend the demo and here’s some of the interesting bits that he noticed.

We’re going to skip over the picture quality of the HD-DVD titles they viewed as everything was shown on a 50inch Pioneer Elite 1080p plasma, which is, as Pete said, a little close to cheating, because anything looks good on that screen.

There’s nothing really new on the Toshiba drives that you guys wouldn’t be able to gather if you’ve read the spec sheets of both the HD-A2 and the HD-XA2. The HD-A2 is supposed to be available next week. The HD-XA2 should hit around November or December.

So back we go to the 360. Pete found out that the 360 HD-DVD drive can be plugged into a PC and it will be recognized as an optical drive, but as a security measure will not be able to play HD-DVD movies.

Pete was quick to ask if the drive will work if you had the proper HD-DVD software on your PC, and the answer he got was pretty close to a “we don’t know.”

So maybe that drive to PC connection could be something that you guys could play around with. We’ll update you if we find more details.