I'm not a video snob. When I first got my big-ass high-def television I really wasn't that impressed. The non HD signal looked like crap and the HD stuff looked OK, but it didn't make my eyes bleed. I guess I heard one too many people tell me that an HD picture looks 3D.

But when I finally got a chance to check out an HD DVD I understood what everyone was talking about. The picture is beautiful, amazingly crisp. I didn't really care that much about the other features, the picture-in-picture commentary, the ability to access the menu without pausing the movie.

But if you own a high-def television you need to get a high-def movie player, otherwise what's the point.

The 360's HD-DVD player seems to do an admirable job of playing movies, but it's not the best design. It would have made a lot more sense for Microsoft to just build the thing into their console, something I'm sure they will be doing as a third SKU down the line.

As it exists the player connects to your console with a USB cable and has its own power supply and brick. While the USB cable takes up one of the plugs on the back of the console, it has two of its own. You can even attach the 360's WiFi dongle to the back of it, which is a cool little design feature.

Once you plug the two devices together you need to update your console with an included disc and then run a quick update so it recognizes the player.

Once updated, you can access the console by scrolling down on any of the blades to the option that typically is used to launch a game. Now that circle is divided in half, the top lets you play a game and the bottom an HD-DVD.

While I think the need for two separate pieces of hardware is unnecessarily unwieldy, Microsoft developed the interface in a way that allows you to access all of your neat 360 features while watching a movie. So you can still chat and get messages and alerts while watching a movie.

Unfortunately, there are also some missteps. For instance, the included remote control works fine, but I couldn't get the eject button to work. When I pushed it the 360's tray popped open instead of the HD-DVD player's. Not a huge deal, but a little annoying. Another annoying thing is that the neither the remote nor the 360 controller seem to let you access certain features, like zooming or pan.

It's also a little annoying that the HD-DVD doesn't seem to have a separate power button. Instead you just need to let it stay on whenever your console is on. Not only does this draw more power, it adds to the noise and heat of the console. This is completely unscientific, but I think that HD-DVD player, when it's playing a movie, is actually louder than the Xbox 360. Fortunately, while the HD-DVD player gets warm, it's no where as big a heat producer as the Xbox 360.

If you own an Xbox 360 and are looking for a less expensive way to get an HD-DVD player I'd say definetly pick this up. The inconvenience of having two devices instead of one and the increased noise is far, far outweighed by the low price for what is another wise fine player. Brian Crecente