The fiance got me the HD-DVD add-on for the XBox 360 as my Christmas gift.  It was a breeze to set up — plug in the ac-adapter to an outlet, the usb cord with the XBox, and power up.  A few software updates later, and the drive was working flawlessly. 

I haven’t really had the chance to view HD content on the drive.  I briefly watched the included King Kong movie, and it did look great.  I just haven’t had the chance to really purchase some HD content that I wanted.

But what I have noticed is that standard DVD looks far better when played on the drive.  The upconverting really improves the quality, and while watching season two of Grey’s Anatomy last night, I thought I was watching it in high definition. 

It appears, brick-and-mortar wise, that Blu-ray content is more readily available.  Bestbuy and Target both carry more of a selection for Blu-ray than HD-DVD.  However, their HD-DVD racks were always empty compared to the Blu-ray racks.  We’ll see how this race plays out, but I think we have a year or two until something happens. 

Microsoft is deliberately feeding into the HD disc formwat wars to ensure that its own downloads succeed where physical copies fail. (electronista)

This is the feeling that a movie director, Michael Bay, is pushing throughout the community and is ultimately trying to stop.  Yet, how can you blame Microsoft for planning for the future?  Lets face it, HD content is our future.  And high speed available bandwidth is right there along side it.  So, how can you say that HD content, via high speed bandwidth, isn’t our future?  Physical movies are doomed to fail eventually, quite like physical music compact discs.  It’s enivatable. 

However, we are still a few years away from being an all-download society that pushes the HD content to our televisions and media centers.  Currently, under current broadband specs, it can take up to a few hours to download a full-length HD movie.  I’m sorry, but this wouldn’t be acceptable to my mom or dad — they want access right away. 

So until we’re presented with a high speed bandwidth option, we’re going to be using either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.  Deal with it, Michael Bay. 

I’ve yet to decide which route to take.  I love HD content, and I’m thinking of committing to an HD player add-on for my 360 (I’ve asked Santa to bring it).  I’m willing to purchase new movies on this format as well, but I’m quite excited for the day when I can purchase a movie, and download it almost instantly to my media center.