Poor Dvd Playback, haven't bought a 360 yet... Options

[m00nstone]

I haven't bought an xbox 360 yet but I will be getting one in the near future.

I was very sceptical of reading about poor dvd playback on the xbox 360... until I read it on firingsquad.com (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/xbox_360_mistakes/page9.asp).

This is a real tragedy. I currently run Xbox Media Center and media playback of any kind is very important to me.

Having said that.. it would be interesting to hear some fellow xbox-scener testimonials.

What do you think of the DVD playback quality? Are you using a High Def setup?
Do you think this is a hardware issue, or software(driver) issue?
If the 360 is (fully) modded, do think this community will be able to improve the playback?

[skierdb526]

I think it looks fine. personal opinion

[Sir Auros]

Firing Squad is full of shit and the DVD playback looks fine. I'm running it on a 50" HD set and it looks as good as any other nice DVD player I've had with progressive scan.

[gdestiny]

I haven't bought an xbox 360 yet but I will be getting one in the near future.

I was very sceptical of reading about poor dvd playback on the xbox 360... until I read it on firingsquad.com (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/xbox_360_mistakes/page9.asp).

This is a real tragedy. I currently run Xbox Media Center and media playback of any kind is very important to me.

Having said that.. it would be interesting to hear some fellow xbox-scener testimonials.

What do you think of the DVD playback quality? Are you using a High Def setup?
Do you think this is a hardware issue, or software(driver) issue?
If the 360 is (fully) modded, do think this community will be able to improve the playback?

yeah, dvd playback does kinda look bad. i have a samsung 26" LCD HDTV set @ 1080i and games and videos on the xbox HDD looks great. but when i try to do dvd, the pic looks "grainy." i'd say dvd looks better on my PC (sony 21" + 6800GT) using powerDVD. i'd probably end up getting a dvd player w/ HDMI and sitting that next to the xbox360. YMMV...

[hardcandy]

Depends on your resolution, 480P and 720P look good with component cables, 1080i will not look the best for dvd's due to the upconverting is probably set at 480P or 720P. Now if you route any kind of video from a media center PC through an xbox to a TV, it will probably have some degradation of quality.

[Malenko]

I honestly cant tell the difference between the picture coming from my JVC surround's DVD , my XBOX DVD, or my XBOX360 DVD (My PS2 barely reads anything so I didnt bother comparing that), with the sheer number of DVD players I own it isnt a factor (multiple PCs including a laptop,2 XBOXs, XBOX360, PS2, and the home theater's DVD player) and minor image quality issues during DVD playback wouldnt stop me from buying a 360 anyway.


Basically if you have a good TV the video looks fine. Im sure any playback issues are from upscaling/downscaling the picture format and not the XBOX360 itself

[Hyp3rion]

DVD playback is ok but nothing to get excited about. It does the job but doesn't touch a decent standalone DVD player. Its not bad though.
My setup is 37" Sharp Aquos and comparing 360 vs Denon 2900

[twistedsymphony]

It plays DVDs about as well as you'd expect any cheep DVD player to play them...

If you're not the kind of person who notices minor defects and things then it will work just dandy but it's certainly no where near the best DVD player I've ever used.

-it produces a noticeable pause when changing layers
-it occasionally drops the digital audio signal when changing chapters causing my receiver to fall out of whatever digital mode it's in and redetermine what mode to be in when it starts back up again.
-blacks come out a grainy blue
-the picture over all is a little washed out

And contrary to what some people might tell you you CANNOT play DVDs in anything but 480i or 480p. It's illegal (per the regulations set by the DVD consortium) for any DVD player to output in HDTV without the use of an HDCP capable output such as HDMI or DVI.

Which is why an Xbox with XBMC is the only upscaling DVD player capable of outputting over component in HD resolutions.

Those are just the things I noticed the few times I used it before I switched back to my XBMC box.

I have no idea what "firing squad" said but I've been saying the above for weeks now.

Besides I'm not using my Xbox360 as a DVD player, I'm using it as a game machine...

Though the DVD functionality is completely software based, I think someone said it was made by the same people who make a PC dvd player, maybe PowerDVD? I'm not sure. Which means they could very easily upgrade it down the line through a dash update.

This post has been edited by twistedsymphony: Dec 26 2005, 03:08 PM

[redwolf]

XBMC dvd player is so much better, the upscaling to 720p/1080i is mint (specially in 1080i).

i only played (for test) one DVD in my X360. after about 2 to 3 minutes i turned it off. even my 3 year old standalone DVD player is better in term of quality.

This post has been edited by redwolf: Dec 26 2005, 08:43 PM

[mathias]

Who cares.... because if you can notice the difference or really care in 6-12 months your going to buy a hd dvd player anyway



I know I am

[dkkev]

what I did notice was that the quality of the picture is way less than what i had expected.

to me it looks like this is a low-grade bamboo dvd-player from the 90's - the picture isnt as crisp and clear as on my regular dvd player - or even as on my xbox. what further annoys me is that the subtitles are horrid looking.. no soft edges on letters.. just very pixelated..

im hoping there will be an update of the dvd-software.. cuz this is useless.. *sigh*

MS doesnt market this just as a gaming machine - but as an entertainment system - where media playback is a big part of it... how they managed to fuck up something as simple as dvd-playback is beyond me.. but they better fkin improve it. soon!

[tskraggs]

I only skimmed the above posts, but I didn't notice that anyone mentioned the letterboxing when a DVD is played back on an HDTV.

How do you guys avoid this, except telling the TV to stretch the screen????

I get black bars on all 4 sides of the screen. I have not had this problem with any other source or setup, nor do I have this problem when I play XBox 360 games.

[Joergen]

First, the 360 dvd player has as good an image quality as any quality player with no special image "enhancements".

Second, DVD uses low resolution bitmaps with 3 colors and optional levels of alpha for the subtitles and if you think they should have smooth edges, you're wrong. They can be semi-smooth but the pixels are twice the size of the mpeg2 image itself so forget smooth. If you see the pixels the image is sharper than on the player you thought was great.

Third it has a pathetic PAL60 bug so that it doesnt switch to PAL50 when you insert your DVD. I cannot believe they left such an obvious bug in there.

Fourth if you exit the dvd player and stay in the dashboard the dvd spins at something like 4x for infinity. They need to spin it down ffs, or do they want the drives to fail?

And of course not having upscaling is very odd.

I've experienced nothing but smooth playback, fast menu operation (infact menus are loaded into ram for instant access) and of course having the media remote makes it so much easier.

[Chancer]

First, the 360 dvd player has as good an image quality as any quality player with no special image "enhancements".

I have to disagree with that. I am afraid my standalone DVD wipes the floor with the 360 for quality. Same hook up same Tv, and the difference is very noticeable.

Third it has a pathetic PAL60 bug so that it doesnt switch to PAL50 when you insert your DVD.

I completely agree with that. You have to go into the settings and alter it back manually

[Joergen]

I dont know I have an el cheapo dvd standalone, a sony one that cost 250 a couple years back and a panasonic older one (really large form factor like an old vcr) and the x360 through RGB gives a nice and sharp image with perhaps a little flatter colors.

Now I tested it with the composite cable where my TV doesnt show colors with PAL60 so I know exactly that it must be PAL50 when colored and it does infact go into PAL50 BUT it stutters and judders despite this. Only way to not have it judder is by turning it onto PAL50 from the setup menu THEN starting the DVD.

So there is a bug in the automatic PAL60 to PAL50 switching that leaves the dvd player perhaps thinking its in PAL60 even though the output is 50. Could be even more complicated requiring a complete restart of the system to get rid of the judder but at least there is a bug there.

This is also noteworthy for PAL HD users where their discs will go into 576p but the image will stutter aswell.

This post has been edited by Joergen: Dec 31 2005, 12:51 AM