The xbox as a dvd palyer

So anyone know what the xbox dvd playback is like. I have seen it running at a friends house running T2 and the playback was on par with my sony standalone dvd player. Where my eyes playing tricks or what my sony cost a little packet so i was hoeing for superior playback compared to an xbox like. Anyone have an opion ?

[deckard]

In a word, terrible.

Of course it's better than no DVD player but compared to my Tosh SD100e on a 32" set there's blocking and pixellation with poor contrast levels.

Were you watching both Sony & X-box through the same connection eg RGB, on the same display? I'd be more than surprised if your Sony didn'y wipe the floor with it.

Yeah both through rgb scart and both on a 32" toshiba strata.

[MuFu]

Originally posted by mackemansj1
So anyone know what the xbox dvd playback is like. I have seen it running at a friends house running T2 and the playback was on par with my sony standalone dvd player. Where my eyes playing tricks or what my sony cost a little packet so i was hoeing for superior playback compared to an xbox like. Anyone have an opion ?

Better than PS2 playback by a long way. About that same as a £80 standalone player, I'd say.

MuFu.

[peasoup]

I agree the Xbox dvd player is crap. I've got a Tosh 220e and an xbox I've noticed the xbox has trouble playing alot of R3 discs, they just jerk along. One thing the xbox does do well though is run DivX movies and just about any other media you throw at it (when chipped of course).

The X Box is awful as a dvd player, stick to it for games and get yourself a standalone player like the Toshiba SD220 for movies etc.

Originally posted by mackemansj1
the playback was on par with my sony standalone dvd player. Where my eyes playing tricks or what my sony cost a little packet

It sounds like your Sony isn't connected up properly. For best picture quality use the RGB Scart input on your TV as it sounds like you may be using composite.

Your Sony is also miles better at sound reproduction which you won't notice if replaying through a TV

[bonzobanana]

Originally posted by mackemansj1
So anyone know what the xbox dvd playback is like. I have seen it running at a friends house running T2 and the playback was on par with my sony standalone dvd player. Where my eyes playing tricks or what my sony cost a little packet so i was hoeing for superior playback compared to an xbox like. Anyone have an opion ?

I'm not impressed with either the xbox or ps2's dvd playback but it gets the job done. I've only got a humble Sharp 28" widescreen set and comparing the dvd output of my Samsung HTM150 to the xbox shows the samsung to be far better and if I can see it on my Sharp then someone with a better set than mine will see a wider gap I would have thought. Basically the samsung picture has better colour, better resolution, looks more natural, seems smoother, doesn't seem to get artifacts on fast motion or a lot of detail. Just seems to hold together better so you forget completely your watching a dvd where as the xbox and ps2 always seem to remind you somehow. I'm sure the xbox is capable of being superior if a really good bit of dvd playing software was written for it but I think the dvd player code is pretty basic. I'd be interested to hear who wrote it for microsoft or what its based on as it doesn't seem to compare to something like windvd or powerdvd.

[Gary D]

Flamesuit on!!!

I have to disagree, my xbox DVD play back is ok, its not as good as my tosh played through component connections, but played through an RGB socket its fine. My tosh 220 recently did that "losing its multi region settings thing" and i had to watch a region 1 on my xbox and it wasn't that bad. i think describing it as terrible is a little strong.

IMO it acceptable if you need it and if you compere it with a PS2 it blows it out the water. the PS2 is worse than one of those £70 DVD players from Tescos.


Gary