[caylem]

I am considering purchasing a modded x box, one of the main reasons is that I don't have a multi region dvd player.

Whats the quality like on playback of Region 1 DVDs, and can it handle RCE??

I'm currently thinking of the xecuter 2.3 pro chip.

Would it do a good enough job, or should I just buy a cheap multi region player instead??

Standard playback isn't great quality, but using DVD-X or similar software quality can match a £200 player.

Do not get the 2.3 pro chip as it will be overkill for your needs, a 2.1-2.3 lite chip will do (If you are purchasing a new XBox you will probably need to use a 2.3 chip).

Rich

[james.miller]

the xbox dvd player isnt good at all, and theres no way it can match a £200 standalone player. I have used dvd-x and that cant match an sd-210e which you can buy for under £50 now (which i also own)

[Synchronicity]

Ive read hugely conflicting reports regarding the pq of the xbox,some slating it and some swearing by it,claiming it be far superior to their top of the range prg scan player(Cybereater springs to mind,I think thats his name anyway ).

I imagine the reasons for this vary from the cables being used to the actual dvd player which is in the xbox.At the moment I am using my xbox for dvd playback via component using the hi def pack purely because it is better than my old Toshiba.The picture quality is fine and obviously the sound is spot on.I still havent implemented the prog scan patch which is supposed to improve it vastly;if it isnt up to scratch I will obviously get a stand alone but at the moment it is doing the job admirably

[james.miller]

the problem i have is decoder noise. i did a side by side comparison of my xbox and tosh dvd player, both uising rgb, and there was a lot of pixelation and noise in places on the xbox where there was none on my tosh.

[andy572]

For what it's worth, I can back up james on this one.

Whilst I found the Xbox an improvement over a friend's PS2 that I'd previously used, blocking/pixellation and colour-banding was apparent with dark or scenes of graduated colour (such as a sunrise).

It is fair to say that I was stunned at the differences that a Pioneer player brought - and I'm running that by the supposedly 'inferior' s-video. The only problems* these days can be put down to the encoding or a faulty disc.

P.S. *Oh, and the fact that I'm still viewing via a 29" CRT

[james.miller]

woohoo! somebody else can see it lol

[caylem]

Thanks for all the input. I will only be connecting the xbox to a 29" CRT via RGB, so won't be using hi def or prog scan.

I was hoping the quality would be as good as my region 2 sony player, and would tidy me over until I go prog scan

It seems the player comes with DVDX2 - is this an improvement? Does it also handle RCE discs?

[supersonic87]

The XBox can match a £200 player (not all though), but ny modding it. A standard of the shelf XBox with DVD playback kit will be killed by a £100 player, but by modding the xbox and using superior decoding methods, the picture can be imroved and even scaled better (very good with PJs, or plasmas'), with a CRT however, you'll be better off with another player (Tosh 520 would be excellent dor about £100, with DVD-A).

I find that the xbox hard drive and fan makes it a noisy dvd player. It hums far too much on quiet scenes.

[james.miller]

that depends on what version xbox you have. the v1.1's i think have an aditional fan instead which apparently makes quite a racket. The others (mine is a v1.3) aren't quite so bad.

[Desmo]

Have to agree with rhys. Mine is also a 1.3 but I still find it quite noisy. Might have to mod the fan and keep an eye on the temps.

[james.miller]

i really woudn't. the xbox's suffer enough from bad temps without making it worse.

Have to say that i tried a few films on the panny AE200 using my xBox with DVDX in Progressive and the image is'nt bad at all.