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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Extreme Tech: 360 DVD, HD DVD playback still seriously flawed

Has MS ever actually advertised the 360 as a good DVD and HD-DVD player. If not then it doesn't matter how bad it is because they never said it was good. If however they did claim it to be a good DVD and HD-DVD player then they fail.



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Lair-Failed

Genji-Failed


I don't think Lair is too overhyped, I think most reviews were even far too harsh and before that many people already dissed the title. Has anyone actually tried the game? Good graphics overall, great sound and yes Sixaxis flight actually works, I'm sure there are plenty of people actually enjoying the game, just check the Sony forums. The more game diversity the better.

Genji 2 is an OK game I guess, the gameplay doesn't appeal to me much (was Genji 1 a killer game?), but the game's graphics look very fine especially considering the game doesn't even use any of the Cell's SPEs (confirmed in an interview).



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

Auron said:
Has MS ever actually advertised the 360 as a good DVD and HD-DVD player. If not then it doesn't matter how bad it is because they never said it was good. If however they did claim it to be a good DVD and HD-DVD player then they fail.

Have you heard that Microsoft is really trying to get digital downloads into effect?

Think about that and look up the article on google.com

Edit: Check this article out, its from blu-ray.com

Michael Bay: Microsoft is the Real Problem


Posted December 4, 2007 by Josh

Outspoken director Michael Bay has once again posted a note on his website in regards to the format war, this time calling out Microsoft. He pointed out, similar to what many insiders have been saying for a while, that Microsoft was only trying to destroy both formats in order to usher in digital downloads. Mr. Bay called Blu-ray the "superior" format and hinted that Microsoft was behind the now infamous Paramount payoff.

Below is the full post:
What you don't understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth.
 
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=722

 



The 360 HD-DVD drive addon doesn't make a good HD-DVD player. It's even missing key features required on other HD-DVD players, such as TrueHD support. There is no way to get high end audio output out of the 360 + HD-DVD addon. Microsoft even went inexplicably cheap on their HDMI Xbox 360s.

That add-on drive made sense when it was very cheap compared to other HD-DVD players. At this point, it makes a hell of a lot more sense to just get a standalone player, as you can still periodically find deals for the HD-A2 for less than $100 and the HD-A3 often has very good deals as well (~$150). Both score much higher on the HQV test, offer a full HD-DVD player feature set.



^^^ Wow I can't believe people are still regurgitating this nonsense.  Michalel Bay is so full of crap it's not even worth going into.  It's been proven time and time again the exact reason's why Microsoft is backing HD DVD and not Blu ray.  Anybody with a half hour of free time can look and find the real reasons.

 

EDIT: this was aimed at the people saying MS is wanting BD/HD to fail so they can push digital downloads.



Completed X360:
High Def Movie Collection
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Grimboyjr said:

  


Lair-Failed

Genji-Failed

PSN versus Xbox Live Arcade- I really don't follow Arcade games like that I'm more of purchasing the big title ($60) games.

 
I believe we were talking about (Over-hyped games), I wasn't aware that we were talking about Overhyped GREAT games, in fact, overhyped in it's self is a negative comment. And I generally follow the big titles also, however these titles are AMAZING and churn out some GREAT developers AND encourage independant developement, which in turn contributes to more 3rd party support. Also note, Warhakws is a GREAT game at $40 ;) probably one of the best online experiences I've had in years. 

 



From 0 to KICKASS in .stupid seconds.

jasonnc80 said:

^^^ Wow I can't believe people are still regurgitating this nonsense

 

EDIT: this was aimed at the people saying MS is wanting BD/HD to fail so they can push digital downloads.


I think people get this because they cling to every crazy thing MS execs say as if those statements would become company strategy.  I believe they're referring to Microsoft suggesting DVD or its successor would be the last phsyical media and everyone would move to digital distribution. There's a big disconnect between their management and reality, just like with many companies, but Microsoft does seem to have a small interest in seeing HD-DVD succeed.

At the moment, you don't need anyone interested in seeing BD/HD fail. Both are doing quite an admirable job of nothing all by themselves, and most consumers see no reason to choose either of those formats over DVD. Sony, Toshiba and the MPAA are being ridiculously greedy and assuming consumers will pay 3x as much for HD discs.

Digital distribution is a long, long way from becoming dominant.  Not only do you need to change the way the majority of your consumers think about purchasing your media, you need to make them feel comfortable doing it.  You need them to have the infrastructure in place necessary to deliver that kind of distribution to the vast majority of your consumers.  And right now, that's many years from reality.  Suggesting HD/BD will not have a successor is as good as a random guess at the moment.



Well if you read the full article, it's not as bad is MikeB makes it out to be:

Here's what I think is going on: The Xbox 360 is paying attention only to how content is "flagged" on a disc. If the disc flags a content as 24p film mode stuff, the 360 does a pretty good job deinterlacing. PC Magazine's HDTV analyst Robert Heron has a torture test of tough DVD movie scenes that the 360 actually performs pretty well on, contrary to the HQV benchmark score. The HQV disc is meant to test the ability of a player or TV to detect various interlacing cadence patterns, so this un-flagged content is just untouched by the Xbox 360.

So if you're playing a store-bought DVD movie, which often contain proper flags about the format, the 360 does a decent job. Not great, but decent. The same goes for HD DVDs—it fails miserably at the HQV tests, but those are judging noise reduction and deinterlacing. Most HD DVD movies are going to be progressive and not very noisy at all, so they look pretty darn good on the 360. Still, I saw some of the same issues with video during menus and other mixed-mode content on DVDs, so I'm not giving Microsoft a passing grade here. In fact, I'm terribly disappointed that the lame Xbox 360 DVD playback hasn't been addressed yet. That, and the fact that I still can't turn off "presence messages" (notifications about friends coming online) without turning off all notifications.

(emphasis mine) 

But seriosly. Who cares?  I don't know anyone who bought a 360 to play DVDs or HD-DVDs.  I do have a friend who bought a PS3 for BluRay.  I also have friends who bought an actual Toshiba HD-DVD player to play HD-DVDs.  This whole thread is smoke an mirrors.  The add-on is nothing more than a cheap alternative to a standalone player.



noslodecoy said:

But seriosly. Who cares? I don't know anyone who bought a 360 to play DVDs or HD-DVDs. I do have a friend who bought a PS3 for BluRay. I also have friends who bought an actual Toshiba HD-DVD player to play HD-DVDs. This whole thread is smoke an mirrors. The add-on is nothing more than a cheap alternative to a standalone player.


It *was* a cheap alternative to a stand-alone player.  Right now, the stand-alone players are cheaper than or comperable to the HD-DVD add-on, making it a poor purchase.

There is no techincal reason why the video output from the 360 *can't* look stellar for DVD and HD-DVD playback.  Microsoft just doesn't think it's worth pouring the resources into.  That said, it's discouraging that Microsoft went with an HDMI 1.2 port for it's new 360s and no other mechanism for getting TrueHD out of the box.  Especially since that's a requirement for all HD-DVD players.



You're right. There are cheaper discontinued units still on the market.  Also, there is no reason MS can't make playback better with a few updates.  But as you stated, you can get a stand-alone unit cheaper.

My post was meant to show how MikeB was missleading and emitted information which would inform the reader why it scored low on the tests and that it isn't as dismal as it is made out to be.