I select "Play HD DVD", and it attempts to load the disc and then says "Can't Read Disc". No scratches on the disc. (All other HD DVDs work perfectly on the 360 add-on).
Just wanted to see if anyone else has encountered this.

No problems on a netflix rental and my personal 'bought' copy on my xbox360.

happened to me. turned XBOX off. unplugged. re-plugged. turned on. worked fine.

I select "Play HD DVD", and it attempts to load the disc and then says "Can't Read Disc". No scratches on the disc. (All other HD DVDs work perfectly on the 360 add-on).
Just wanted to see if anyone else has encountered this.

My first copy of The Departed on HDDVD would not play correctly. The disc was defective althought the defects were not visible to the naked eye. The failure was repeatable and always at the same point in the movie. I got the disc replaced and have not had another problem playing The Departed. The first disc was just a bad pressing.

No problem here. My copy works fine.

Mine also played perfectly on the 360 add-on.

Worked fine for me, as well...

I have had sporadic luck with The Departed and my 360 add-on. If I powered off and then on, that sometimes works...but not all the time. But once on, if I get the "Can't Read Disc" error, no amount of trying to "Play HD-DVD" from the dashboard works. Just luck of the draw on which power up allows me to watch.
I even traded the disc fearing a bad pressing. Same performance regardless.

For some reason I think that 360 add-ons are ULTRA sensitive to scratches on HD DVDs. I got Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift from Blockbuster Online. It only had a few minor scratches on it and it would play half the movie and would just freeze. I ended up just buying the movie and it worked fine.

I haven't had any issue's with The Departed on my add on. I first watched the Netflix version to see if I wanted to keep the copy I bought and then watched my copy a few weeks ago with a friend who had yet to see it and it played flawlessly. I have yet to have a disc that didn't work on my 360 except for the making of on the Wolf Creek HD DVD. I even rented some HD DVD's from Netflix and had not had any issues(knock on wood).

I havent had a problem with any of the HD DVDs I have played (including The Departed)

Okay, make sure you've connected to xbox live, make sure you have all the updates for xbox live, all the updates for the HD DVD player.

Insert another DVD or HD DVD just to make sure things are working correctly, check the usb connection.

Now, assuming you have all the updates; departed will work. It works perfectly fine on my xbox HD DVD Drive, and I haven't had any disc not play using this drive.

One other problem that could effect this is the heat of the xbox 360, if it's been on for along time; it has potential to make things run a little funny, so to speak.

The picture quality is so good on the 360 HD DVD Drive.

I just figured I'd chime in here. I too have had one minor issue with The Departed. I had already watched the movie twice without issue. I was going to watch it a third time today and the disc was already in the drive from yesterday. I powered on the 360 only to have the disc read error come up. I ejected the drive, closed the drive and it worked fine again. I checked the disc after I watched the movie and it didn't even have speck of dust on it. I have tested it 3 more times, powering down the 360 and then powering it up with the disc already inserted and it hasn't happened again.

For informative purposes, I just installed the player yesterday and I haven't watched any other movies on the drive. My son is currently watching an SD DVD on it without issue.

I also wanted to echo the sentiments above. The picture quality is stunning.

I'm having the same problem. Sometimes I get the "Disc unreadable" message and others I just get the "Reading" message for a long time. Touching the drive, I can tell it stops spinning after about 10 seconds.

The funny thing is that I got it to play once.

Is there a link to microsoft support so that I can ask about getting my drive replaced? What's the warranty on that thing anyway?

worked fine on mine

I havent had a problem with any of the HD DVDs I have played (including The Departed)

Same here and I normally have the worst luck when it comes to electronic stuff.

Can anyone confirm whether Discovery Atlas: Australia works on 360 addon? I heard that disc has problem even playing on some settop players.

Don't mean to sound like an ass, but make sure you put it in right side up since the departed is one of the combo disks.

Don't mean to sound like an ass, but make sure you put it in right side up since the departed is one of the combo disks.

That shouldn't matter since the addon should play regular DVD as well. Something is definitely not right if error message popping up.

Can anyone confirm whether Discovery Atlas: Australia works on 360 addon? I heard that disc has problem even playing on some settop players.

Yes, there is a known issue for that disc. Here's a nice thread I found about it, from the experts too:

I can't post URLs, so search google for '360 hd dvd problems' (without the quotes) and there's a thread at the msdn forums

I tried both sides, the DVD side works, the HD side doesn't.

I know its not the disc too because i've tried it in a Toshiba A1 stand alone player and it worked no problem.

For some reason I think that 360 add-ons are ULTRA sensitive to scratches on HD DVDs. I got Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift from Blockbuster Online. It only had a few minor scratches on it and it would play half the movie and would just freeze. I ended up just buying the movie and it worked fine.

i had the same promblem with my block buster copy kept getting CAN;T READ DISC.when i first got clerks 2 that would not play i did the update and it played fine i have not had any other promblems including the departed.

i had the same promblem with my block buster copy kept getting CAN;T READ DISC.when i first got clerks 2 that would not play i did the update and it played fine i have not had any other promblems including the departed.

of what update do you speak?

I also get the "Can't read disc"-message with Hulk. I even got a replacement disc because I thought the disc was damaged. But no luck. The message still appears. I use the 360 Add-On with my PC via USB and PowerDVD Ultra and every other disc works just fine. I thought it was a problem with PowerDVD and that it would work when a new version of PowerDVD comes out. Do you guys really think it could be a problem with th Add-On?

of what update do you speak?


I'd like to know this as well. I'm not on x-box live, but the last update that is listed on the web site is from Nov. 2006.

I just got The Departed from Netflix yesterday, and haven't tried it yet. But, I am having some problems playing my imported Rambo: First Blood.

Well of course the peeps at M$ said that my drive was out of warranty and that it would cost $59.95 + shipping to get a replacement drive. Clearly its the drive since I took the disc back and got another (both didn't work) and played the disc perfectly fine on a Toshiba A1 (the xbox drive is the same as the A2).

I have the same issue with the error message and disc not being recognised. It began with a few discs but now my whole collection of HD DVD's do not work. Those things were not cheap either!!! Will Microsoft issue a replacement as im hardly going to spend more money on a stand alone HD player that is now officially redundant?

A frustrated XBOX HDVD ADD ON OWNER!!

Try a cleaning disc. I had a disc read error with Xbox360 games ages ago so before panicking I popped in my cleaning disc and I've never had a problem since. If the add-on does break though I'm sure you can pick up another one dirt cheap. They're £30 here in the UK now, lol! (And some places are selling them for £50 and including a bundle of HD DVDs.)