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Author Topic: Hdtv And The Xbox  (Read 38 times)

Mr Ed

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Hdtv And The Xbox
« on: October 21, 2003, 12:15:00 PM »
Ok, I thought now would be a good time to brief about XBOX and HDTV.  There's lot's more info. than I'm including, but this should get people started.

First, out of all the console games out there, the XBOX has the best HDTV support.  Unfortunately it's up to the game companies to support/enable HDTV quality output, and so far few have supported full resolution HDTV (i.e. 1080i  or 720p).

So first, let's talk about what makes a game HDTV resolution.

HDTV has several resolutions:
480i (that's the same as standard TV so that isn't any improved quality)
480p (progressive, so less flickery, a little nicer picture and better screen updates)
720p (this looks really nice, sometimes depending on the source, 720p can look better than 1080i, but the verdict is still out on which is better for gaming).
1080i (the highest resolution mode, so it looks great, but interlaced so it is somewhat flickery).

Lastly, for all those modes there is 4:3 (the "standard" TV shape) and 16:9 (widescreen).

Now many people disagree for what it takes for a game to support HDTV.  Personally, I figure, as long as the game supports both 480p AND 16:9 that's a huge improvement over standard TV and you'll see a big improvement making the investment in HDTV and component connections worth it.  Now obviously 720p or 1080i in 16:9 would be the best, but most games don't support that yet.

Now to find out which games support what modes, you can look here:
http://www.hometheat...threadid=100055

That lists every game (on every system actually) that supports anything above 480i and/or 16:9 widescreen.

Oh, and for the record, the PS2 only supports 480p and 16:9 at it's best, so uh, if you want any high resolution HDTV games, the XBOX is your only option.  tongue.gif
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Mr Ed

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Hdtv And The Xbox
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2003, 12:17:00 PM »
I haven't used this before but it is probably worth mentioning this tool....it is supposed to patch games (older ones mostly) and DVD playback as well as dashboards, to support at least 480p.  I haven't used it so I can't comment on it.
QUOTE

A PC hosted tool. It allows to patch xbe to make them ocmpatible with progressive scan displays (i.e. HDTV and true VGA converters). Tested on several XBox games, homebrew or MS (Dasboard and onlinedash). It allows progressive scan DVD playback if applied to DVD RegionX or MS Dashboard.

Hi All here is the first version of my patcher for game that do not support progressive scan mode. I tried it successfully on the Dashboard, The Thing and DVD RegionX. It's been reported to work on Hitman2 too You need a modded Xbox and the ability to make a backup of your game or running it from HD. Using te patcher on a file called Default.xbe will ouput a new file called Default.xbe.patched replace your game Default.xbe with that one (remove the ".patched" )and it should autodetect if progressive mode can be used. Enjoy. ProgressiveScan.


Download from here.
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MorfiusX

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Hdtv And The Xbox
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2003, 08:19:00 PM »
QUOTE (Mr Ed @ Oct 21 2003, 04:17 PM)
I haven't used this before but it is probably worth mentioning this tool....it is supposed to patch games (older ones mostly) and DVD playback as well as dashboards, to support at least 480p.  I haven't used it so I can't comment on it.
QUOTE

A PC hosted tool. It allows to patch xbe to make them ocmpatible with progressive scan displays (i.e. HDTV and true VGA converters). Tested on several XBox games, homebrew or MS (Dasboard and onlinedash). It allows progressive scan DVD playback if applied to DVD RegionX or MS Dashboard.

Hi All here is the first version of my patcher for game that do not support progressive scan mode. I tried it successfully on the Dashboard, The Thing and DVD RegionX. It's been reported to work on Hitman2 too You need a modded Xbox and the ability to make a backup of your game or running it from HD. Using te patcher on a file called Default.xbe will ouput a new file called Default.xbe.patched replace your game Default.xbe with that one (remove the ".patched" )and it should autodetect if progressive mode can be used. Enjoy. ProgressiveScan.


Download from here.

It should patch the dash so you could run higher res DVD movies if you have the dongle. Also it can patch the DVDx v2 so it can run higher res.
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DaShiZNiT

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Hdtv And The Xbox
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2003, 03:12:00 AM »
I just wanted to add this for anybody reading

High Definition Game Database
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boxorox

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Hdtv And The Xbox
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2003, 05:37:00 AM »
Great thread Mr ED. biggrin.gif

I wanted to add:
If you enable the HDTV settings in your Xbox(1080i or 720p) and play a game that supports those video signals, the game will display in the highest setting that you have enabled.  Which is good.  The bad part is...if you have a setting enabled and your TV or monitor is not capable of displaying that signal you will get a scambled picture or no picture.  So, my point is, if your TV does not support the particular HDTV modes that the xbox is capable of, do not enable them on the xbox.
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hessian

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Hdtv And The Xbox
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2003, 10:33:00 PM »
QUOTE (entermymatrix03 @ Oct 23 2003, 01:07 AM)
how do you install that patch once downloaded. do you have to insert into each game or just load it onto the system and its done?

1. copy the default.xbe from xbox to pc.
2. Patch it from within a DOS window.
3. Copy default.xbe back to xbox.
4. See if it works.

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