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Xbox 360 to PC: The $200 HD-DVD drive

Two Franklins might seem like a lot for an ordinary optical drive, but when that drive is a blue diode-using, next-generation disc reader, then a $200 price tag is a bargain. Most HD-DVD drives currently cost at least $400, but the enterprising nerds at tech site UNEASYsilence figured out how to get the $200 Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive to work with a PC. It was originally intended just to work with the Xbox 360, but a hacked device driver means the USB drive can read HD-DVDs for any PC. Granted, there isn't much HD-DVD material out on the shelves … Read more

PS3 launch list: 21 games, 4 accessories, and 1 average movie

With just under a month before the long-awaited PlayStation 3 video game console releases, we finally have firm information about what will join the system on store shelves during the holiday season. Courtesy of GameSpot, here are the 21 games (likely selling for $60 each) that will be available on or soon after the PS3's November 17 release:

Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII (Ubisoft) Call of Duty 3 (Activision) EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 (Electronic Arts) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks) F.E.A.R. (Vivendi Universal Games) Full Auto 2: Battlelines (Sega) Genji: Days of … Read more

Samsung's mysterious Blu-ray fixes

The folks over at Home Theater Blog report that Samsung has finally released a firmware update to its $1,000 Blu-ray player, the BD-P1000, which Samsung acknowledged had a problem with overzealous noise reduction that softened the picture. As CNET and others have reported, this wasn't the only issue with the player, and the BD-P1000 has taken its share of hits in the early going. That's the price you pay for being first to market with a new technology. (Toshiba, too, has had to update the firmware on its first-generation HD-DVD player, but it managed to put something … Read more