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[biga55]

I just got the HQV disc so I'm going to test the 360 with my 37 inch LCD.  I never thought the XBOXes (1 or 360) were any good with video output via component, almost unwatchable, even compared to my $50-60 DVD player.  My HTPC also kicks their asses, but it uses VGA.

I'd like to try out the 360 VGA cable though, to see what that gives.

[zombie4rave]

I really don't understand why people are getting so defensive about this topic.  First and foremost, the 360 is a game console. It was never designed to be a premium dvd player.  I've never been happy with it's dvd playback even after all the updates.  I have it connected through VGA to a 1080P Samsung DLP and out of the 7 or so devices I have that play dvds, it would be my near last pick to use for movie watching.  I think things might be better stated by saying that the 360 isn't a terrible dvd player, it's just not anywhere as good as it COULD be considering the level of hardware in the box.

[unclepauly]

The 360 IS horrible at playing dvd's. I'm surprised no one has said anything about the washed out colors too(or did they? I didn't read the article). I bought a cheapo $30 dvd player for my son and it gives better color reproduction than the 360. That's my main problem. Well, and it's slightly too bright compared to other dvd players but I think that comes back to the color problem. I haven't really noticed any interlacing problems or jaggies on my 51" sony.

[biga55]

So anyway I ran the test on a bunch of playback devices and I can say the 360 should score 40.  You know those tests with the scrolling texts?  There's no way it should look as bad as it did in the extremetech tests, giving it 20 points right there.  Maybe the difference comes from my 37 inch vs. their 59 inch.  According to the HQV tests, the 360, xbox 1, and my $50-60 DVD player are pretty equal (scores 35-40) while my HTPCs score 100+, which is consistent with what I've seen online.  Interestingly, the XBMC sucks for DVD playback (which is why I said it was unwatchable) but using another player like the dongleless one was much better and scored similarly to my stand-alone and the 360.

The 360 choked once during the test (which is just DVD playback lol) though.  Still, it's not as bad as the article claims it is.  They're a bit guilty of sensationalism.  It's good enough for most of us, and videophiles will have their Denons or cheaper HTPCs.  They probably could improve it though, given the 360's horsepower.