The Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive is finally available in Norway! When I was in London in January I dropped by all the gaming stores trying to get my hands on the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive. With no luck, they where all constantly out of stock.

The drive is officially releasing in Norway tomorrow, however some online stores have had them in stock a few days already. I pre-ordered mine a few weeks ago, and it arrived today! I've all ready hooked it up to the 360, and it works PERFECTLY! The pricing in Norway is between 1799,- and 1999,- NOK. I got mine at 1699,- since I pre-ordered.

A pleasant surprise was the fact that it was up scaling my regular DVDs over component! By default the 360 is capable of up scaling your DVDs, but if you don't have the HD-DRIVE you need the VGA cable. The reason is some DVD "rules" saying that you can't upscale via analog cable. How ever, a PC is allowed to upscale over VGA, so if you have the 360 VGA cable you get 720P up scaling of your DVDs. With the HD-DVD drive you don't the VGA cable! (In general the component cable gives a better picture and better colors than the VGA cable).

I only got one HD-DVD move at the moment: The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift. I ordered the movie because of a review in Gizmodo, saying this was an excellent HD-DVD showcasing some of the new interactive features of the format. I've also ordered a few more movies on PlayX.no, which has a decent library available for 199,- NOK. Hopefully they will be arriving before the weekend.

In other news the Xbox 360 wireless USB connector is also available in Norway. This little, cheap, dongle allows you to connect all wireless 360 accessories to your computer. I'll write a post later on my impression of this device.