DVD playback in consoles

C

crazygambit

Regular
There's this article from Extremetech called "Xbox 360's Seriously Flawed DVD Playback" which I haven't seen posted anywhere else on this forum that I found very interesting.

They basically use the HQV benchmark disc to show that the 360's DVD playback scores a lot lower than even $50 DVD players. I had no clue it was that bad, I assumed it was at least decent. Now this begs the question of how the other consoles fare, so I thought I would ask anyone that has the HQV disc to test the PS2/PS3 the original Xbox and the GC/Wii (they do play DVDs right?). The results should be interesting.
 
I disagree to a certain extent. My 360 is hooked up to my 1080p lcd television via VGA connection. I use my 360 as an upscaling dvd player to my tv's native 1920x1080 and I think it looks great, on a high quality dvd it approaches broadcast quality HD (on some scenes). Better than my HTPC imo (yes I've tried all the post processing codecs). It seemed with my htpc I was constantly tweaking the post processing and trying different contrast/brightness settings. My 360 looks great everytime and on every DVD.
 
Umm, what the hell was the point of comparing it with an $800 player as they admitted?

They should have compared it with $50 players to give me a true idea where it sits.

They made some text claims about $50 players being better, but those seem unspecific at best.
 
For what its worth…

crazygambit said:
There's this article from Extremetech called "Xbox 360's Seriously Flawed DVD Playback" which I haven't seen posted anywhere else on this forum that I found very interesting.

They basically use the HQV benchmark disc to show that the 360's DVD playback scores a lot lower than even $50 DVD players. I had no clue it was that bad, I assumed it was at least decent. Now this begs the question of how the other consoles fare, so I thought I would ask anyone that has the HQV disc to test the PS2/PS3 the original Xbox and the GC/Wii (they do play DVDs right?). The results should be interesting.
Click to expand...

In the latest EGM issue there's an article on Xbox 360 HD-DVD playback Vs PS3 Blu-ray playback. They stated the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on had the worst HD-playback of any HD-DVD player on the market. And that PS3 had the best playback of any Blu-ray player on the market.
 
I too must disagree with that article and anyone who has spent time on AVSForums or with the unit itself knows that its arguably the best console DVD player on the market. Much better than the original XBox, PS2, and <$50 stand alone devices. HQV focuses on video based material and poorly authored film content, not the normal discs people play.
 
Rockster, the PS2 actually has as good DVD playback as my $800 Pioneer Elite dedicated DVD player. Through component. Through S-Video, the PS2's output looked like butt due to a serious dot-clock problem creating a constant checker-board shimmer, kind of like some early-90's Mitsubishi SVHS VCRs.

Phat
 
Agreed - The original article is a joke.

Big Surprise that an $800+ dedicated DVD (not hd-dvd or Bluray) Player outclasses a machine which gaming is the primary function and happens to play movies too ... and at half that cost.:rolleyes:

The people that are "concerned with how much space their components are taking up" or "how many inputs they have on their TV" are not the same ones that would judge the xbox360's playback performance as unexceptable.
 
I don't think it was unfair. They just said it scored 20 out of a maximum 130 using the HQV test suite. Then they say a typical $50 player scores 35 or better.

For screenshot purposes they do compare against the $800 Denon player for striking results. They weren't just saying the more expensive DVD player is better. They are trying to point out significant visual flaws (that MS can probably fix) in the 360's output.

If this causes more user awareness on the issue which in turn forces MS to fix it, then it is a good article.


0,1425,i=163665,00.jpg


0,1425,i=163666,00.jpg
 
TheChefO said:
Agreed - The original article is a joke.

Big Surprise that an $800+ dedicated DVD (not hd-dvd or Bluray) Player outclasses a machine which gaming is the primary function and happens to play movies too ... and at half that cost.:rolleyes:

The people that are "concerned with how much space their components are taking up" or "how many inputs they have on their TV" are not the same ones that would judge the xbox360's playback performance as unexceptable.
Click to expand...

How is it a joke? I think you either misread the article or didn't fully read it. They are not comparing a $800 DVD with the 360. What they are doing is applying the HQV benchmark to the 360. They should you in one picture a passing grade for that test and what the 360 is doing (they only show the failures). They say that the score of 20 is very low, even lower than that of $50 DVD players nothing more. It's just a benchmark, so how useful in real life is debatable which is what the rest of the article focuses on.

Now I'd really like to apply the same impartial benchmark to the other consoles, I think it'd be interesting. Unfortunaly I don't own that DVD, so if anyone wanna go ahead and do the test I'd appreciate it.

Edit: Too slow as usual.
 
I wonder how the PS3 does considering it doesnt upscale DVD's yet (which is coming in march firmware I think).

edit: ah, just saw inefficient's post.
 
crazygambit said:
How is it a joke? I think you either misread the article or didn't fully read it. They are not comparing a $800 DVD with the 360. What they are doing is applying the HQV benchmark to the 360. They should you in one picture a passing grade for that test and what the 360 is doing (they only show the failures). They say that the score of 20 is very low, even lower than that of $50 DVD players nothing more. It's just a benchmark, so how useful in real life is debatable which is what the rest of the article focuses on.

Now I'd really like to apply the same impartial benchmark to the other consoles, I think it'd be interesting. Unfortunaly I don't own that DVD, so if anyone wanna go ahead and do the test I'd appreciate it.

Edit: Too slow as usual.
Click to expand...

The comparison to $50 dvd players was in many comments but no benchmark numbers or side by side pictures to prove anything. Instead we get benchmarks and pictures comparing a game console to a hi-end dvd player.

Could 360 do better at playing movies? sure. But who's going to notice? People that care (that much) about image quality are not going to be playing their movies through a games console in the first place.

The only real market for games consoles to be used as movie players is in the kids bedroom/playroom and college dorms/apartments.

Audio/videophiles will purchase a dedicated player for their needs.
 
The funny thing is $50 DVD players are actually the nice ones nowdays (okay, I'm sure a videophile can disagree just a bit).

When I went Christmas shopping for a DVD player I noticed there are many $29 ones, and then for $50 you can get nice brand name players, a Toshiba in my case. I'm sure you could have had any brand name you wanted including the mighty sony for $70 tops.

Personally I wish ms would drop the cash and improve the playback. Why not, it's not my money. Although I dont really use my 360 for DVD's much anyway.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
TheChefO said:
The comparison to $50 dvd players was in many comments but no benchmark numbers or side by side pictures to prove anything. Instead we get benchmarks and pictures comparing a game console to a hi-end dvd player.

Could 360 do better at playing movies? sure. But who's going to notice? People that care (that much) about image quality are not going to be playing their movies through a games console in the first place.

The only real market for games consoles to be used as movie players is in the kids bedroom/playroom and college dorms/apartments.

Audio/videophiles will purchase a dedicated player for their needs.
Click to expand...

But the PS3 (another game console) got 120 points in that same benchmark which is comparable to the high end DVD players (thanks for the link inefficient). And once again the article wasn't comparing the 360 to a high end DVD player, just showing that it's score of 20 is well below even average players. I'd love to see scores for PS2 and the original Xbox.
 
DeathKnight said:
Secrets' test isn't as harsh (click on link and scroll down, past the add-on):

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-...yer&manufacturer=31&maxprice=0&deInt=0&mpeg=0
Click to expand...

The reviewer says that the 360 HD-DVD add-on is limited to 480p output b/c it's only got analog outputs. True or false? I'd be surprised if that were the case, as I haven't heard of this before, and HD-DVD's biggest feature is resolution.

inefficient said:
I wonder what the Wii would score...
Click to expand...
Apparently Wii doesn't support DVD playback (and neither did the GC).
 
Pete said:
The reviewer says that the 360 HD-DVD add-on is limited to 480p output b/c it's only got analog outputs. True or false? I'd be surprised if that were the case, as I haven't heard of this before, and HD-DVD's biggest feature is resolution.
Click to expand...

False.

"The performance of the add-on is very similar to the 360 as a standard DVD player. Like the main console, the resolution is limited to 480p. The console supports resolutions of up to 1080p, but the DVD forum mandates that all DVD players limit their analog video outputs to 480p, so I guess we’re stuck with that for awhile."
 
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