this from the AVSFORUM. man these dudes are hardcore! http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=726038&page=74&pp=30 Originally Posted by watsonusn Hi, My setup: Samsung HL-S 5688 (overscan off), 360,360 hd-dvd player,Logitech Z-2300 speakers. Here are my observations in no particular order: 1. The hd-dvd drive does make some noise, but its nothing compared to the 360 itself. 2. Over Component, games are 1080P, HD-DVD are 1080i. DVD's are 720X480. 3. Over VGA, games, HD-DVD & DVD are ALL displayed at 1080P. 4. Cars (standard dvd) is in the hd drive via vga right now, & info displays 1920X1080 @60Hz. 5. I have to turn the volume a lot for the hd-dvd's, if i swap over to say, gears of war, its way too loud, much louder than the movie that was just playing. 6. VGA is noticeably sharper than component, HOWEVER, i do suffer some screen size loss when viewing either dvd,hd-dvd, or playing games. Watching Cars on component i would have the top/bottom black bars, but on VGA, i have 3/4 inch bars on the sides as well. So on a 56 inch screen, i have a 51 inch viewable picture.(measured top left to bottom right), compared to a 54 inch viewable picture via component. Gears of War on VGA was a 53 1/2 inch picture over VGA, while Gears of War over component fills the entire 56" screen. 7. On component the picture is softer overall, easiest place to see the difference is on the Dashboard. Oh and of course the hd-dvd picture has top & bottom black bars, but none on the sides. I wouldnt say its a big huge deal, but if you have good eyes & sit close (im at 7ft), you will notice the softness of component, vs the sharper,smaller VGA image. 8. In the service menu, with PC (VGA) as the source, overscan is greyed out. 9. Either way the PQ for hd-dvd is AWESOME, and upconverted dvd's look good. (comp or vga) 10. In my opinion, the differences arent worth the $40.00 bucks for the VGA cable to me, but im sure some people will think it is. 11. For the LAST frickin time please please understand that the only reason everything isnt 1080P via component is because of copyright concerns, NOT because its analog. Yes digital looks better, but its not required for 1080P. Oh & for the 720P crowd & a few others, remember that the less the signal is messed with the better it will look. So if you take a 480P dvd & play it over VGA with the xbox360 upconverting to 1080, and lastly your tv downconverting it to 720 (or 768), the picture wont look as good as if you just had the 360 set to 720, unless you think your tv upconverts better than your dvd player (or 360 if thats your dvd player), then you could just leave it at 480 for dvd playback. & for the record, i have a 26" 720P samsung LCD & love it, high definition looks awesome on it. The reason i have a 1080P big screen is for the upgraded color wheel,brightness & processing, not simply because its 1080. For the Samsung 1080P guys, i didnt really notice a difference in games whether the 360 was outputting via 720p or 1080i (over component), but i noticed a difference with the November Update that allows us to select 1080P. Oh & i have zero stuttering or lip sync issues. I hope this helps somebody somewhere.
Congrats tinman on joining the HD-DVD club! If you need me to recommend any titles you should pick up, let me know. I've got 31 HD-DVDs and the lone major disappointment thus far has been Spartacus.
i have 3. King Kong (came with the thing) Batman Begins Training Day HD DVD is superior ALL BOW DOWN TO US!!!
M:I-3 is supposed to look great although I wouldn't know since I'm still waiting for it arrive in the mail. Other great transfers are Seabiscuit, Serenity, and The Chronicles of Riddick. If you want to see how incredible older films can look in HD, check out The Searchers and The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Really? Such a great flick! Do they have Lawrence of Arabia, yet? The Fifth Element? Blade Runner? Just so the above post. The last 2 flicks you mentioned are such classics! So they did a great job with them?
Lawrence of Arabia and The Fifth Element are Sony titles, so they'll be exclusive to Blu-ray. The Fifth Element is already out and looks terrible according to reviews. Some people have even argued that the upconverted Superbit DVD looks superior to the Blu-ray release. Lawrence of Arabia will probably be released soon. Robert Harris, the guy who helped restore the film, claims to have seen footage of it in HD and said the Blu-ray disc will look incredible. Blade Runner is a Warner title, so it should be released next year on both HD formats. Whether the HD releases include all the extras and various cuts of the movie rumored to be on the SD-DVD version remains to be seen. As for Spartacus, I agree that it's a great flick. But Universal really dropped the ball with this title. It looks at best marginally better than the Criterion 2-disc DVD. Even HD-DVDs for low budget flicks like Army of Darkness and Dazed and Confused have looked notically superior to their SD-DVD counterparts.
Wow. I have the Superbit Fifth Element, and it looks incredible upconverted. I figured in HD format it would be even more amazing. Why can't they agree on a freakin' format?? (yes, I know... we're stuck for now. )
FYI. HD-DVD Drive works with PC's without a 360 http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/12232/Legal-Hack-Makes-Xbox-360-HD-DVD-Drive-Work-on-PCs/ A known by the name of BluePrint has figured out a way to use the Xbox 360 HD DVD player on a personal computer without the need of an Xbox 360. In a statement included in a .nfo file, BluePrint says: We're now able to read the UDF (Universal Disc Filesystem) v2.5 which is currently used by the Toshiba Corp with there first generation HD-DVDRom drives. You can see the entire contents of the HD-DVD Media when in the drive. Again, these are litterally Toshiba Corp drivers for the file system used with HD-DVD. Obviously, the hardware required to playback a HD DVD movie is way more expensive than an Xbox 360 console but for those who already own such computer and don't want to get an Xbox 360 in order to watch HD DVD movies, this is definitely an option. The following image shows how the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive appears on a personal computer running Windows XP:
i got one online at circuitcity a couple days ago but haven't picked it up yet. i'll probably get it this afternoon...
what's the hurry? almost all the movies out in HD DVD are old, except for MI:III. damned if i'm going to sit through movies i've already seen just to see it in hi-def. given that...i may pick one up next time I'm in Best Buy or something.
its way nicer than hi-def (cable/satellite)! plus u get these cool extra features and better sound. ..ok, anyone know if you can use the xbox360 vga to a vga/dvi adapter to connect dvi?
tinman!! I got the Xbox 360 HD DVD player about a week ago. I also added another screen to the collection. I got the Sony KDF42E2000 rear projection LCD a week and a half ago. WOW! OMFG! It's so beautiful. and for $200...really 144.99 if you don't include the remote and the free King Kong HD DVD. This whole week I have been buying HD DVD's like crazy. I'm up to 5. King Kong, Syriana, M:I:3, Batman Begins, Meet the Parents.. I'm looking to purchase a PS3 just because of Blu Ray. I don't get into the whole format war thing, but I will say this. They both look nice...errrrr GREAT! and I cannot wait until May 22. The MATRIX Trilogy in HD DVD... Whoa.
