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Xbox 360--Still a Crummy DVD Player

 
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garyfritz



Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO

Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:21 pm    Post subject: Xbox 360--Still a Crummy DVD Player
ExtremeTech says even with the new firmware update, the 360 fails every single test on the HQV HD test disk:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2228134,00.asp
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ecrabb
Forum Moderator


Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 15909
Location: Utah

TV/Projector: JVC RS40, Epson 5010
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:44 pm    Post subject:
That sucks - sounds like MS needs to get their asses in gear on some of that stuff. However, make sure you read down the bottom of the article where it says:
Quote:
The same goes for HD DVDs—it fails miserably at the HQV tests, but those are judging noise reduction and deinterlacing. Most HD DVD movies are going to be progressive and not very noisy at all, so they look pretty darn good on the 360. Still, I saw some of the same issues with video during menus and other mixed-mode content on DVDs, so I'm not giving Microsoft a passing grade here.

What I take from that, is that the 360 still a great way to play film-based (progressive) HD-DVDs because there's no de-interlacing in that case. If you're using it at 1080i, there'd be no deinterlacing at all watching HD-DVDs, so there's no issue, there. The serious issue then is really with upscaling SD-DVD's to 720p or 1080p. Personally, I don't care, much. I won't use my 360 to play SD DVDs and I don't watch many of my SD-DVD's, anyway. Time to get a bunch of them on ebay, actually.

I'm golden in my case, because I'll be using the 360 at 1080i, so everything should look just fine.

SC
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garyfritz



Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO

Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:50 pm    Post subject:
The article also says the SD HQV disk tests the player's ability to detect cadence &etc on unflagged material. Most SD DVDs are going to have proper flagging, so that's less of a concern. Even then, though, ET says "the 360 does a decent job. Not great, but decent."

So even after several firmware releases, the Xbox360 is still a mediocre player. Gee, crap software from Microsoft. Whoda thunkit.
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ecrabb
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Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 15909
Location: Utah

TV/Projector: JVC RS40, Epson 5010
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:12 pm    Post subject:
garyfritz wrote:
Gee, crap software from Microsoft. Whoda thunkit.

Bingo!!!

SC
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HD-DAVE



Joined: 16 Feb 2007
Posts: 225
Location: Delta, BC

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:12 pm    Post subject:
I disagree with the posts about the Xbox 360 HD-DVD being "Crummy". I run the output of mine straight into my NEC XG LC at 1080i (thru Petr's HDC1 compnenet to RGB transcoder) and to me the image quality is superb. I have never had it lock up, nor have I seen any pixelation, jaggies or whatever, during viewing of the dozen or so HD-DVD's I own. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ! I run the audio into my Sony ES 7.1 and although its not Dolby Plus or TrueHD it still holds its own...no sign of any sync problems or glitches.

...Dave
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ecrabb
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Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 15909
Location: Utah

TV/Projector: JVC RS40, Epson 5010
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:14 pm    Post subject:
The "crummy" comment referred to the xbox as a *DVD player*.

You run HD-DVD at 1080i - so, interlaced. There's no question the xbox/HD-DVD player combo are excellent in that situation. However, that's not what the "crummy" comment referred to. The test(s) that the reviewer did specifically had to do with *DVD* (as in good old standard-def DVD), and how Microsoft software could rarely properly de-interlace any of the test material on the HQV test DVD to display it on a progressive display. But, for some of us (including you and me), it doesn't matter. Either we run interlaced, we don't watch much SD DVD, or both. See my first post.

SC
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garyfritz



Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:39 pm    Post subject:
ecrabb wrote:
The test(s) that the reviewer did specifically had to do with *DVD* (as in good old standard-def DVD),

Not entirely. Remember he said "HQV makes a hi-def test disc for HD DVD and Blu-ray players, and the 360 scores a zero (out of 100)." Most of those tests involve de-interlacing and noise reduction, which aren't much of an issue if you run 1080i. But the 360 *is* still doing a pretty crummy job with any kind of challenging input.
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