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Xbox 360's Seriously Flawed DVD Playback

extremetech.com — Extreme Tech benchmarks the Xbox 360 as a DVD player....Results: not good..

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  • SEGA4life, on 10/12/2007, -11/+25Wow over a year since the 360 came out, and Now I hear the first bad review about the 360 "Video Game Console" DvD play back....

    The DvD's on a 360 play fine and look great.
    • Brereton55, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4Looks great to me same with HD-DvD
    • thesledman, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4I agree. Recently my DVD player broke. I started using the 360 to watch DVDs temporarily until I could replace the broken player. I found the 360 to play DVDs fine, so good actually that I decide not to invest in a new stand alone player. Of course once the HD DVD wars are over I'll most likely invest in the HD-DVD add-on for the 360. If it matters the TV I watch it on is a Sony 57" HD.
    • Moxxon, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Ya, Ive had 0 problems with the DVD player I really dont see whats wrong with it. I have played like 10 DVDs and each time its fine. Its nothing astounding but it works fine.
    • catalysis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Many people just can't pick up the quality problems with video. It also depends on the quality of the TV too. You won't see much of a difference if you use a crappy DVD player on a small CRT, but maybe on a 50'' 1080p set. A lot of people just don't care about great video quality and some are even quite happy with VHS. Nothing wrong with that.
    • Klisk, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3I still use VHS. Who wants to pay for tivo? It's crazy expensive.
    • Denver80203, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Not here. I have the 360 as my primary player and it's awful with the slightest smudge on the disc. I would disc doctor any rental. I hadn't noticed the quality issue but, I have nothing to compare to.

      Finally I bought the HD-DVD and the discs no longer skip. I wonder now how the regular DVDs compare? I'll be looking a little closer.

      -I should also mention that I'm using a 50" plamsa and there is a significant differance between DVD and HD-DVD
    • spankaccount, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2LOVE my 360, but compared to my normal home DVD player ($300 name brand model from 2004) the 360 looks very poor and is a huge disappointment on my 34" HD set. That said, most wont complain. It's only when you compare it that you see just how poor a job it does.
  • mrmeander, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16Did you look at the pictures in the review? DVD playback is clearly inferior, with staircasing and moire all over the place.
    • Thors1982, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13quoted from the article "We'll show comparison images from a Denon DVD-3910 DVD player."
      That is a $1200 dvd player. Denon DVD players blow away everything else on the market too.

      Granted the xbox360 DVD playback is not perfect, it does need work but.... that is not a fiar comparison
    • TheDeceiver, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4"...you can't expect a $400 game console to play DVDs as well as an $800 dedicated DVD player like the one we used." Enough said.
    • ForlornHope, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Don't worry, the DVD playback issue will be solved in a huge firmware update coming in March. Just in time for the European release.
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4Wow.. this site definitely is clueless on how to conduct a fair review. It would be much more appropriate to compare it to a $25 dvd player (like the one I own).
    • r0ck3tm4nn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yeah, the only thing I learned from that article is if I want the best DVD player I should get a Denon.
    • jmaynardg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@r0ck3tm4nn:

      If you can afford it, that's absolutely true. There's a reason why AVSForum regulars go ga-ga over Denon. The damn things are amazing. And amazingly expensive.
    • Denver80203, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3800$ for the player (not the cheapest site)

      http://www.crutchfield.com/S-d8iBMQECmxH/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?i=033DV3910B

      Still DVD is old enough and with the 360 scaler chip I would have expected better. The difference in the comparison shots are embarrassingly bad.
    • knyghtryda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You could get the same or better quality as the Denon with a moderately powerful computer (aka A64 3200+ or P4 3GHz) and FFDShow. I have a setup outputting to a 42" LCD and with just a little tweaking it looks amazing. That computer is probably worth no more than $400-500, so its priced on par with an Xbox 360.
  • Lefty06, on 10/12/2007, -8/+14This is stupid. The Xbox 360 DVD is no where near the best player on the market, but this article makes it look like a complete piece of crap. It gets the job done. Since when is DVD playback such a huge feature of the 360 considering most people already have some form of DVD player?
    • sinembarg0, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2This article seems to be unreliable. Since when does any DVD player get top marks in 2 categories and get nothing on all the rest? It seems as though they just did a pass-fail test, and possibly used too strict requirements for passing.
  • wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I'm bit of a MS fanboy, but, wow. This is terrible. The point that Extreme Tech makes is that these errors shouldn't be happening. The hardware is plenty powerful enough to give at least good DVD playback. The de-interlacing errors are unforgivable. MS should get up and update the firmware so the playback is at least as good as a $40 WalMart special.
    • Whackly, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I don't buy it. Faulty unit? I dunno. I have Monty Python The Meaning of Life. Just threw it in to check. I don't see any of the crap they showed in the last few shots. I also have several other DVD players in my collection of audio video crap and the 360 looks better than they do. I'm switching my TV back and forth between displaying 480p and up-converting to 1080i and in neither setting can I see anything like what's in those shots. Now I've tried the menu DVD menu for Serenity in my 360 AND my Sony DVD changer. I have to say that the 360 clearly looks better though there's very little difference. I originally tried with Harvey Birdman Season 2 with disc one in the 360 and disc 2 in the changer but, being a cartoon, I coudn't see a difference at all. I'd have to see a lot more data before I'd start to consider this as true and I'd have to be able to replicate it at home (which I haven't been able to do in the last 15 minutes of trying) before I'd be convinced.
    • Whackly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3P.S. Please bury me for having the WANG to actually check it out for myself rather than take the word of a website.
    • jdfalk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@whackly

      Totally dugg you up for mentioning Harvey Birdman one of the coolest shows ever.
  • kenvsryu, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Ixne on the e603ey, Vista is out!
  • strum40, on 10/12/2007, -18/+1Get ready for all the Sony Fanboys to come and bash Microsoft while all the Microsoft Fanboys defend themselves. They're both giant corporations, they both SUCK and they don't care about you.
  • Philoushka, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Tested, no doubt, on a high def television.
    • Klisk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Exactly. I have an Xbox 360, and I don't plan to buy an HD television for a long, lonnnnng time. These errors just aren't noticable on a SDTV.
  • joshman5k, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4I blame SONY!!!!
  • rolandde, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2No need to worry. Just buy a $20 DVD player that will do the trick. And just to sound like a real conspiracy nut, maybe MS did it intentionally so people would buy the HD-DVD extension. Did I just blow your mind :D.
  • Araxen, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Blame George Bush!
  • TehKid, on 10/12/2007, -13/+3HAHAHAHA SONY > MIXROSOFT
    • mc7winkie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4HAHAHAHAHA YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPELL. CAPS LOCK!!!!
  • TheNik, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Could a simple firmware upgrade fix this or would this be a hardware problem? :O
  • DESX, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0Microsoft= 36x bigger then sony.
  • kingatrock, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I've had my 360 for 6 months, it plays all my backup dvds and retail dvds absolutely flawlessly. I actually prefer it to my $100 dvd player i bought a year ago, since it loads faster and saves the position i stop dvds in.

    But if a random ass site says otherwise, forget what all the actual real people say about their experiences.
    • beerunifies, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Because "actual real people" don't run websites, right?

      Just sayin'...
  • sedo1800, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I am sorry but to compare a 360 to a Denon HD-DVD is retarded. Denon costs thousands of dollars and they are among the best in the world when it comes to audio and video. MS made a game console not a $3K HD-DVD player. Check out the link, Denon dvd players are worth more then most peoples cars
    BURIED: Lame
    • jmaynardg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2That was not a Denon HD-DVD player, but a Denon DVD player which supports upconverting to 1080i. However, it's a *very* good DVD player. And it should be no surprise that a DVD player with top of the line electronics beats a game machine seconding as a DVD player. However, it should also be said that the 360 really does suck for playing DVDs. The authors here are right. Even a cheap progessive scan DVD player will beat the 360.

      OTOH: a cheap DVD player doesn't also play games. The 360 does. And does it well.
  • jmaynardg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2This is spot on. I've got an old JVC XV-S502 progressive scan DVD player which *definitely* beats the 360 in DVD playback. Both are connected to a Hitachi F5150 RPTV (480p, 720p, 1080i). That Denon listed in TFA is absolutely top notch, though. Of course the 360 couldn't beat that. Just the same, I don't even bother using the 360 to play movies any longer. It sucks.

    But the games rock!
    • yournamehere, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2so basically you just wanted everyone to know what DVD player you have. woooohooooooo for you!!! happy? now go home.
    • jmaynardg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@yournamehere:

      Look that guy up. It's almost five years old and wasn't top of the line even when it was new. My point is not to brag about my DVD player (it's nothing to brag about), but to point out that the authors are *right*. The 360 is *NOT* a good DVD player.

      So what? It's a great game machine.
    • yournamehere, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1you miss the point. oh, and i can digg you down too.
    • jmaynardg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@yournamehere:

      Well, I will not digg you down. I will instead ask: what's your point?
  • naden, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2@kingatrock

    Yer im going to take your 'experience' over a respectable site like ExtremeTech.
    Especially looking at your digg history of bashing Sony.
    • Whackly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Um... Kingatrock and I disagree but at least he took a second to run his own tests and come up with his own opinion. So yeah, maybe you should take his word. Sounds like he did more legwork than you. Of course you could take my word too, since I disagree with Kingatrock and am wondering if his screenname is a misunderstanding of a Beastie Boys lyric in which Ad-Rock refers to himself as the "The King Ad-Rock."
  • scabbers, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Extreme Ads. I have ad blocking up the wazoo, and it's still a ***** spamfestival.
  • MackPrime, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3no one would buy the 360 for a DVD player. If the jaggies bother you, step back from the freaking TV.
  • SyDIGG, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1No need to compare the xbox360 to anything. It sucks on its own. Every xbox360 owner that I know have sent in for a replacement at least once. Enough said.
    • Whackly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hey! We have one in the lobby at work. My co-worker Huge E has one. I have one (my name is Kyle... now we're friends). My friend McLimps has one, as does Mezzo and MetallicO. Also included about 8 other aquaintences with which I a very little contact. Mezzo is the only one who has had problems. So, now you know some people who haven't had problems. I mean, if everyone you know has had to send it in then you must know one person. Good for you. The other option is that you are exagerating/full of crap.
  • Nickboxer7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0I had to send mine in too, but it came back even better. Works fine and is a great system.

    BTW, I think DVD's look better on it than most of the DVD players I've seen, and not just cheap ones. A high quality Toshiba, and medium quality RCA, etc. It looks great, IDC wut specs say.
  • KMartSheriff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Wow I was unaware of all this. Any good review sites that can tell me what's a good DVD player?
  • Joystik, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Maybe if they used VGA and upscaled it to 720p/1080i it wouldn't look as ***** as they've showcased!
    • Agent124, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2When the firmware update came out for VGA upscaling, I went and bought a cable. It is no better.

      IMHO, the best way to go is to get a used Xbox, soft-mod it and use that as your front end. It plays DVDs flawlessly.
  • manicbomber, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Buried as inaccurate, as many people in here have already commented.
    • KMartSheriff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It's not inaccurate. MS needs to do something about it. Not all of us have ***** 20" CRT's, some of us went and got a nice HDTV with the 360 because we wanted to see the craziness the console can do (which it can. Gears of War on an HDTV = amazing). I really hope the next update fixes this issue. It's not like the 360 is underpowered or anything.
    • Whackly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0P.S. CRT HDTVs actually look better and deliever unchallenged picture improvements over LCD and Plasma tvs that can't even display a full 1080i picture because they have a max resolution of 1366x768. That's not to say there aren't 1920x1080 LCD tvs out there but people who have those don't comment on digg.. cause they are out working hard.. to get money.. to afford an expensive ass tv that STILL doesn't deliver an HD picture quality (along with a contrast ratio that's crap on toast) as good as my nice, fairly inexpensive, CRT.
  • scabbers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This "article" is clearly just a grenade-toss to get ad revenue. Why else use that Denon player for the comparison?
    • Whackly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wholeheartedly agree.... well maybe not wholeheartedly. You might have overstated it a tiny bit. Your point, however, is valid. I mean, my Pontiac Grand Prix SE doesn't stack up, performance-wise, to a Bimmer M3 but if you were to compare the stats on the website and fail to really cop to the fact that one is a nice all around reliable machine and the other is an uber expensive luxury bad-ass then you'd kinda have what this article is... slanted..
  • rufo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The point is that a $400 game console with enough processing power to make DVDs look as good or better than that Denon DVD player doesn't play DVDs as well as my $100 Sony player, which gets ~50 on the HQV test, or a $200 Oppo player (~75 on HQV).

    No, you're not going to notice a difference unless you have an HDTV, but it seems rather pathetic that it doesn't do a better job.
  • rmeyers, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0skilled AV people using quality testing software aren't wrong. whether or not your eyesight is bad enough to think that the 360 is a good DVD player, that's your problem. but i can guarantee that no well respected AV site on the Internet will agree with the idiots here who say it is a good DVD player. because frankly it isn't.

    and for the guy who said this is the first article that brings attention to this issue since the release, you are also wrong. as soon as it came out people, including myself, said that the playback is terrible. even worse than my $30 Magnasonic 480p p.o.s.
    • magik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There's a difference in reporting results as you see them and distorting the tests to get the results the way you want to see them.

      In this case, they obviously did not use VGA output on the 360. Any "AV person" that knows anything about the 360 would tell you that there is a significant improvement in using VGA out as opposed to Component out on the 360 since the 360 enables DVD-upscaling when using VGA. There is NO upscaling when using Component.

      This 'benchmark' is terribly flawed.
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