Xbox 360 DVD playback

I'm very impressed with my 360 so far (using the Samsung LE32R41B) especially in HD via component- the graphics & menus look amazing in 720p but the DVD playback is awful. The dark areas are undetailed and low-res, and there are pixels everywhere.

It is not unwatchable but I expect better to be honest, quite why the machine's playback is lower quality then most £30 DVD players from Asda etc is beyond me- is there a possibility of this being updated over live to work better or are we stuck with this poor quality until the end of time?

I do have a VGA cable on the way so hopefully this will improve the picture... I'd like to hear other people's opinions on this, what do you think of the 360's DVD abilities?

I think it's crap personally.

Quality is very poor on my plasma with DVD playback (which is only done via 420p). Stick with my Denon for DVD playback, which is far superior.

There's been a lot of talk about this, and I have to agree completely. M$ didn't include 720p upscaling, which in my eyes is a major crime for such a latest piece of kit. Add to that the problems with 60Hz playback, and general poor quality of picture, and there's absolutely no reason to use the 360 as a DVD player.

To be fair, I'll bet MS didn't include 720p upscaling for DVD's in order to comply with DVDForum regulations.

I'm not sure why everyone was expecting wonders from the 360 playback though - it's pure software. It doesn't have any of the image processors that proper upscaling players usually sport. It was never going to be comparable to the average Denon, Oppo/BBK, Momitsu and the like because there's a reason these things cost (comparitively) high prices - dedicated deinterlacers/scalers, image enhancement processes to reduce the artifacts caused by the upscaling process etc... the 360 is only supposed to 'do the job'.

Originally Posted by Shakey_Jake33

To be fair, I'll bet MS didn't include 720p upscaling for DVD's in order to comply with DVDForum regulations.

I'm not sure why everyone was expecting wonders from the 360 playback though - it's pure software. It doesn't have any of the image processors that proper upscaling players usually sport. It was never going to be comparable to the average Denon, Oppo/BBK, Momitsu and the like because there's a reason these things cost (comparitively) high prices - dedicated deinterlacers/scalers, image enhancement processes to reduce the artifacts caused by the upscaling process etc... the 360 is only supposed to 'do the job'.

No one was expecting it to be as good as an expensive standalone, but they could of at least made it better than the PS2s playback , the orginal xbox's playback or even a cheapo £25 player from tesco.

Its an absolute sham, I seriously hope they improve the quality via a dashboard update. Not only does it have problems with actual picture quality but I have experienced sound syncing problems aswell.

I use the upscaling feature on my original XBOX.

Freakin Superb.

Don't see why they can't upgrade it in the future. Probably just slapped in some bog standard software implementation at the last minute. Doesn't bother me too much, it's not that bad.

It's horrendous, colour banding, noise, pixelisation. nasty nasty stuff

Have to agree, i recieved my joytech component lead today and was looking forward to watching a dvd on my Lt-32ds6 with 720p , one word CRAP!
My old JVC TH-55 looks 10x better through RGB.
Very dissapointed
But games do look superb still.

With the quality being so bad will the progressive scan make any difference?