Re: XBOX 360 as a DVD player
 

[ QUOTE ]
Well I picked one up, cause hey, why not? DVD's look good (not as good as TV though [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img])

[/ QUOTE ]

What sort of connection to the TV does it have (component, composite, s-video, etc...)? The reason I ask is that most people find that 480p DVDs played on an HDTV look almost as good as true HD content (especially if the TV and/or DVD player has a good upscaler). I didn't realize until recently that 480p is actually significantly more pixels than 480i (720x480, instead of 640x480). If you find that your DVDs look worse than *non-HD* TV channels, then something is definitely wrong.

Re: XBOX 360 as a DVD player
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well I picked one up, cause hey, why not? DVD's look good (not as good as TV though [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img])

[/ QUOTE ]

What sort of connection to the TV does it have (component, composite, s-video, etc...)?

[/ QUOTE ]

Roughly 75 component cable thingies. Okay maybe more like six, but whatever. I've thrown in a couple dvd's, and they look fine, but not as good as the HD feed from cable. My tv has 1080i, so thats what I set the xbox at, is that the way to go?

Re: XBOX 360 as a DVD player
 

Yeah if your tv is 1080i then that works. The reason your HD channels look better is because you are seeing those in 1080i. When watching a dvd you are getting 480p which is considered EDTV, not HD...I think ED is Enhanced Def. So HD channels are going to look better, but your dvds should look better than your normal digital cable channels (or sat).

Re: XBOX 360 as a DVD player
 

I haven't used my 360 in awhile, but I was using it recently and sounded pretty loud, which I didnt remember it doing before. Is it loud for others, or is it a problem that could be caused by nonuse?

Re: XBOX 360 as a DVD player
 

[ QUOTE ]
I haven't used my 360 in awhile, but I was using it recently and sounded pretty loud, which I didnt remember it doing before. Is it loud for others, or is it a problem that could be caused by nonuse?

[/ QUOTE ]

My brand new 360 is also pretty damn loud.

Re: XBOX 360 as a DVD player
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well I picked one up, cause hey, why not? DVD's look good (not as good as TV though [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img])

[/ QUOTE ]

What sort of connection to the TV does it have (component, composite, s-video, etc...)?

[/ QUOTE ]

Roughly 75 component cable thingies. Okay maybe more like six, but whatever. I've thrown in a couple dvd's, and they look fine, but not as good as the HD feed from cable. My tv has 1080i, so thats what I set the xbox at, is that the way to go?

[/ QUOTE ]

If it's 5 RCA cables (red, green, blue in one clump, then red and white in another) then that's component, which should look pretty damn good.

As to what resolution to use, this [censored] gets really complicated really fast - the reason is the up and down scaling. I've heard that some TVs actually support 1080i by scaling it down to 960x540 and then scaling back up, so you may actually find that it looks better to have the Xbox to 720p instead (you'll find that virtually no games will support 1080i natively, so all you are doing is letting your TV scale up the 720p signal, instead of using the XBox's internal scaler). I'd recommend just trying both and seeing which looks better.

Likewise with your DVD player. Some TVs have crappy up-scalers, so it's worth it to get an upscaling DVD player that will scale up the 480p image and send it to your TV closer to it's native resolution (either 720p or 1080i). Some of the nicer TVs have really good upscalers, so if your DVD player only outputs 480p then it's fine. I found that with my sony TV and sony DVD player, the quality is about the same whether I have the DVD player output 480p or 720p, but having the DVD output set to 720p gives a little bit less overscan (parts of the image that are lost because they are outside the screen).

Then, of course, you have to make sure that your widescreen settings are correct. If you are watching a non-widescreen DVD, but the TV (or DVD player) is strethching it to fill the screen (instead of the black bars on the sides), then it's gonna look real crappy.

I've found that the XBox dvd player looks as good as all but the best DVD players, so you could try watching movies on the xbox and see how they look - if it's substantially better than with your DVD player, then you'll know something is wrong.

this [censored] gets complicated, huh?

Re: XBOX 360 as a DVD player
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I haven't used my 360 in awhile, but I was using it recently and sounded pretty loud, which I didnt remember it doing before. Is it loud for others, or is it a problem that could be caused by nonuse?

[/ QUOTE ]

My brand new 360 is also pretty damn loud.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is interesting. My brother loaned me his 360 for a week, and the thing was loud as hell. Then I got one, and it doesn't seem to be half as loud (I barely notice it). Hmm.