The Flawed DVD player: Xbox 360?
The Extreme Tech websites may love the 360, but if there’s something wrong with it, they won’t hesitate to mention it. Still, their analysis of the 360’s DVD playing capabilities do show that Microsoft needs a lot of work with if they really want to make the Xbox 360 a cutting-edge DVD player, as well as a gaming machine.
According to the site, they used a special benchmarking disc to see the capabilities of the player and compared it to a Denon DVD-3910 DVD player:
The HQV benchmark DVD is produced by Silicon Optix as a means for testing the video processors in many devices, from DVD players to the latest televisions. PCMagazine uses it regularly to test HDTVs, and it has become pretty widely known in the A/V industry. The series of tests are designed to stress de-interlacing algorithms, cadence detection, noise reduction, and detail enhancement.
Compared to a Denon DVD player on both benchmark disc tests and actual tests on actual DVDs, the 360 player seems to have a lot of outstanding issues. For instance, they compared a viewing of “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life” on the two players and found the 360 wanting:
We saved the best for last. In the lesser-known (but hilarious) “Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life,” the entire movie is completely unwatchable. There are absolutely ridiculous interlacing artifacts on every single frame of the entire film. Maybe those Microsoft engineers just don’t like Monty Python.
Interesting reading overall, and it begs the question of whether you find your Xbox 360 DVD player adequate.
The Extreme Tech websites may love the 360, but if there’s something wrong with it, they won’t hesitate to mention it. Still, their analysis of the 360’s DVD playing capabilities do show that Microsoft needs a lot of work with if they really want to make the Xbox 360 a cutting-edge DVD player, as well as a gaming machine.
According to the site, they used a special benchmarking disc to see the capabilities of the player and compared it to a Denon DVD-3910 DVD player:
The HQV benchmark DVD is produced by Silicon Optix as a means for testing the video processors in many devices, from DVD players to the latest televisions. PCMagazine uses it regularly to test HDTVs, and it has become pretty widely known in the A/V industry. The series of tests are designed to stress de-interlacing algorithms, cadence detection, noise reduction, and detail enhancement.
Compared to a Denon DVD player on both benchmark disc tests and actual tests on actual DVDs, the 360 player seems to have a lot of outstanding issues. For instance, they compared a viewing of “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life” on the two players and found the 360 wanting:
We saved the best for last. In the lesser-known (but hilarious) “Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life,” the entire movie is completely unwatchable. There are absolutely ridiculous interlacing artifacts on every single frame of the entire film. Maybe those Microsoft engineers just don’t like Monty Python.
Interesting reading overall, and it begs the question of whether you find your Xbox 360 DVD player adequate.
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