hd dissapointment, major

TheDoc

well i bought the hd drive in work ( argos) for 40 brick. Thought myself well chuffed i brought it home and ordered a few hd-dvds of ebay

well 300 came today loaded it up and couldnt wait to see the sexyness

and well, have to say its a load of bollox

its WORSE quality then dvd, i cannot believe it

the picture isnt crisper, nothing better looking about it.

if anything the picture in parts looks grainy, like you can visibly see the pixels

i have a 32 inch hd telly that supports 1080i and 720 p, have it on 720 p,

its a major dissapointment, think i might even ring microsoft 2moro to ask what the **** are they at?

anyone else think they can help me, am i doing something wrong

just have xbox display at 720 load disc and play, and it looks poor, id say dvd quality, no better

Doctor DooM

Have you got a hd cable?

TheDoc

hdmi? no

im using cable that came with xbox

its mad cause the games look amazing, crisp colourful and clear, but this movie, omg its woeful, more i look at it the less quality then a dvd it is

Kimbot

If you have the original cable that came with the xbox then its not HD... get a HD Composite cable or else a HDMI cable and your sorted.

Kinetic^

If your XBox 360 does not support HDMI, then get a VGA cable.

TheDoc

hold on are you telling me ive been playing my 360, not even on hd? im pretty sure i am

i have the cable that splits into two parts, one part is like yellow, red white other part is green, red, blue or the sort

the part connecting to the xbox says hdtv or tv

and its switched to hdtv, im pretty sure i am playing hd guys, dont tell me ive been a wally all this time

xbox ssetup to 720p , can display 1080i, and when i switch to 1080i the tv kinda goes funky splitting the screen into two or something

- HD AV Cable + scart adapter

thats what came in my box and ive been using for like 2 years

basically using the pro console, the connection that came with that

quinnd6

you need to have the blue green and red connected for video and the red and white for audio(blue green and red are for component which gives hd output).

If you've got them ones connected you have it set up correctly .

If you have yellow connected then you havent(because yellow is for composite).

TheDoc

nope yellow is sitting there unplugged

GrumPy

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

nope yellow is sitting there unplugged

Well somethings up! Cause 300 looks fanfúckingtastic on my hdtv.


Double check your cables. What tv you using? Theres not a hope in hell it's setup proper if dvd looks better

Kimbot

Its a weird one, I only got my hd cable a week ago and I used my HD-DVD player with standard cable and when I switched last week I noticed a huge difference in the quality.
I'm using 1080i.

Ciaran500

Can we start using the proper acronyms, it'd make this thread so much easier to read.

HD Drive = hard disc drive, where you store all your files. You mean HD-DVD drive
HD Composite cable doesn't exist
HD cable means nothing. Component, HDMI or VGA are the cables capable of carrying a HD picture.
Composite = yellow video connection, worst available.

Kimbot

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Can we start using the proper acronyms, it'd make this thread so much easier to read.

HD Drive = hard disc drive, where you store all your files. You mean HD-DVD drive
HD Composite cable doesn't exist
HD cable means nothing. Component, HDMI or VGA are the cables capable of carrying a HD picture.
Composite = yellow video connection, worst available.

Sorry I meant HD-Component cable....

TheDoc

i copied that term from the xbox.com website content packages

i have an acoustic solutions 26" that i got from argos, and ebfore anyone goes ranting about " thats a **** telly" i read tons of reviews beforehand that said it was a sterling telly for a 360, hence why i got it.

again cable im using is the one that came with my pro console package.

it connects into the corresponding ports on the telly.

i ran the xbox at 1080i and 720p to no difference

maybe it is hd and i was expecting so much, but it doesnt look great, at all, tbh looks like a pirate copy of good quality

im assuming i have hd component cable?

NunianVonFuch

Here's the component:
http://images.google.ie/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=xbox+component+cable&btnG=Search+Images

Don't have the HD-DVD, but running 720p wmv files through the Xbox is definitely much clearer than the standard def. Try playing some sample files available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/musicandvideo/hdvideo/contentshowcase.aspx

If you can connect your xbox to a laptop or load content via usb (or even DVD/CD) just plop one of the 720p (or 1080) files on there and load it up.

TheDoc

ha da look at some demos, looks like dvd, n noticable difference tbh

Kinetic^

If you've been playing your 360 with HD for the past while then it's either the HD-DVD drive or the actual HD-DVD that's faulty.

TheDoc

hmm well its my first hd drive i think ill just wait for my others to arrive in post and check em out to see what is at fault.

but then when i played those hd trailers, they didnt look hd on the xbox

im assuming there should be a big differene ive watched bluray and hd before and seen it, i just think the 300 hd-dvd and the trailers ive downloaded seem very dvd like quality.

the 300 dvd is a dvd/hd-dvd combo, and before you ask yes im playing it right side up.

lafors

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

hmm well its my first hd drive i think ill just wait for my others to arrive in post and check em out to see what is at fault.

but then when i played those hd trailers, they didnt look hd on the xbox

im assuming there should be a big differene ive watched bluray and hd before and seen it, i just think the 300 hd-dvd and the trailers ive downloaded seem very dvd like quality.

the 300 dvd is a dvd/hd-dvd combo, and before you ask yes im playing it right side up.

Note to self read posts first

Doc, would you be able to take a few photos of your connections, on both sides (xbox & tv)
a few of the video setings of the 360 video options & and some of the tv's video settings.

BTW you said there was no difference between when you have it 720p or 1080i, there won't be.

It could be the TV settings, I've a bravia and it took me ages to get the settings right, and settings can make a huge difference to the picture quality.

Royale with Cheese

Haven't played a hd-dvd, but downloaded the hd version of 300. It didn't look any better than dvd. HD's mostly a load of bollix imo, that people get sucked in to way too easily. It improves the menus the most.

It's useful for gaming, but not the neccesity some people make it out to be. I've seen sky HD and it doesn't look much better than digital through a crt. The only reason you'd need it is cos lcd's can't do sd very well. Just look at ntl digital through any lcd. Looks sh*te.

lafors

Doc read this thread on avforums.
It seems there is 2 versions of that TV the "dual" and the "as" (or ac os something like that).
Loads say the dual not good, the other is better.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=674930&highlight=acoustic+solutions+26%26quot%3B%26quot%3B

the corpo

also, 300 is the wrong film to test it with. there were a lot of negative reviews that that particular film suffered in HD, as the deliberate 'grain' effect is hugely exaggerated in HD and does look pretty poor.

TheDoc

thanks lafors. Well i read through those posts myself through google, and i have a slightly older model, but at the time i read reviews and it was agreed to be a great bargain telly that performs well.

i noticed o nthe back of the 300 box that it says 1080p, my tell doesnt have that, says nothing about 720p, could that be it?

but then again the hd videos i downloaded, the samples, dont look hd either.

i have some more movis in the post ill try them out, just majorly dissapointed with it

ill get some pics up of my tv, connections etc and see what you guys can figure out from that, thanks for the help

also the tv doesnt have any settings to really change picture quality, if fiddled everything and nothing.

TV is definatly HD, and ive definatly being playng HD xbox gaming now for some time.

dave oc

Danny, 300 is the up there with the worst hd dvds i have. Its always grainy and is only good in some scenes, its supposed to be like that. Trust me when you see any most other hd dvd's you wont be disappointed.

TheDoc

a davey baby, was gna give youa ring last night and start crying.

well ive enter the dragon coming today i think, hopefully its aright

still confused why the hd trialers downlaoded dont work at all either

sure ill just have to wait for the others to arrive

davey where do you buy your hd dvds? hmv is a rip man, you know any good little places for cheap?

cheers man

johnnyflav

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

davey where do you buy your hd dvds? hmv is a rip man, you know any good little places for cheap?

cheers man

dvd crave, an aussie site is very cheap for HD DVD's. delivery is cheap but takes about 2-3 weeks, which I think is alright since you're paying less than a tenner a disc

johnnyflav

This site has saved me a fortune for HD DVD's(you could say it cost me a fortune too), only thing is you've gotta be quick with buying cos all the best offers sell out fairly quickly.

dave oc

I got all mine from amazon usa. I signed up with them a year or more ago when they were offering 10% off all hd dvds. Delivery was fairly slow, but it worked out pretty cheap with the exchange rate. There might be cheaper around now with all hd dvd stuff going for nothing these days....

D3UC3 J3

In my experience DOC you can't do the HD-DVD player or the HD-DVDs any justice on anything that's less than a 37" LCD TV.

It's just because the native resolution of TV's lower than that size don't have enough pixels and also both the xbox 360 and LCD tv will scale (increase or decrease the source video) the crap out of the image and make it look pants.

If you don't have at least 1280×1024 on your VDU (Monitor or LCD TV) then you shouldn't bother with HD DVD cos as you've found out it makes you feel hard done by.

If you don't know what i mean about native resolution or 1280x1024, think of taking the image on your PC screen and stretching it up to the size of your TV.

Thats basically what your trying to do with the HD-DVD player.

Don't get me wrong i'm not knocking your TV by any amount. It's just you need proper bank to get the best out of your Xbox 360 image quality wise when you use it with a HD TV and MS don't tell people that.

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Can we start using the proper acronyms, it'd make this thread so much easier to read.

HD Drive = hard disc drive, where you store all your files. You mean HD-DVD drive
HD Composite cable doesn't exist
HD cable means nothing. Component, HDMI or VGA are the cables capable of carrying a HD picture.
Composite = yellow video connection, worst available.

ZOMG your havin' a giraffe...not everyone can be an expert

Apologies in advance though, i'm not trying to TTP...just LOL'd heartily.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

HD TV resolutions are 1280 x 720 (720p) or 1920 x 1080 (1080p), if your tv res. ends in 7XX the you can display 720p and 1080i, anything over 1080 and you can display 1080p.

so at 1280x1024 you can watch 720p or 1080i, there is pretty much no differance between this and 1080p on any screen smaller than 37'

Ciaran500

D3UC3 J3 wrote: »

It's just because the native resolution of TV's lower than that size don't have enough pixels and also both the xbox 360 and LCD tv will scale (increase or decrease the source video) the crap out of the image and make it look pants.

The native resolution of my 100" projector, 26" TV and my friends 42" TV are all 720p. They all have exactly the same amount of pixels...

D3UC3 J3

720p isn't a native resolution. 1366x768 is a native resolution.

Your 26" has the same resolution as your 100" projector...so you've stretched the image 4 times more for the same pixels???

Anyway i said 37"+ or bust...i probably should have qulified it and said 37" is where true HD comes in and HD DVD is useless without it.

brav

D3UC3 J3 wrote: »

720p isn't a native resolution. 1366x768 is a native resolution.

Yes it is, I have 4 screens, my projector(ax100e) is 1280x720 native. My pc monitor is 1440x900, I have a 1280x1024 laptop screen, and a dell screen with 1680 x 1050.
These are all their native resolutions, none which are 1366x768, however of course some tv's have 1366x768 as a native resolution, not all do.

D3UC3 J3 wrote: »

Your 26" has the same resolution as your 100" projector...so you've stretched the image 4 times more for the same pixels???

By that logic then the bigger the screen the worse the picture, so why not just use a 17" 1280x720 screen and the pixels will be finer.
Of course at 100" the screen will be stretched(my projector screen is about 90") however doesn't mean you will be sitting the same distance from it.
I much prefer playing games/watching films on my projector than watching on the 42"tv.

mathias

i probably should have qulified it and said 37" is where true HD comes in and HD DVD is useless without it.

An you'd have been wrong either way ,

There is a lot of guff spread around the net about what size screen you'd notice the benefit of HD on , with a lot of baseless calculations ,

The truth of the matter is that on any screen you will notice an improvement due to HD , it gets more noticable as the screen size goes up , but to say its not noticable on a 26 inch is rubbish , it most definitely is !

Regarding LCD TV's , 1366 x 768 is very very common , all the way up to 40 inch plus screens , the next res up is 1920 x 1080.
Plasma TV's have a wider range of native resolutions , as do computer monitors.

HD " content " on the other hand , generally comes in two flavours , 1280 x 720 ( 720 p ) , and 1920 x 1080 ( 1080p or 1080i) , it is not correct to call either of these a " native resolution" as that term applies to the hardware and not the software or content.
In that sense , a TV can be said to accept 720p , or 1080p , but unless the TV has a native resolution exactly matching on of the content types , then it is not correct to call it a 720p set or a 1080p set.

D3UC3 J3

Well there's not many TV sets that have 1920 x 1080 that come in under 37".

I never said it wasn't an improvement over SD, just that IMO...IMO!...Xbox 360 HD DVD looks pants on anything less than 1280 x 1024.

And i was right to say 720p isn't a native resolution, cos as you rightly point out it's not.

This whole thread is about why an xbox makes HD DVDs look crap and all i was doing was pointing out why in DOCs case it does.

brav wrote: »

By that logic then the bigger the screen the worse the picture, so why not just use a 17" 1280x720 screen and the pixels will be finer.

Thats exactly my point.

Bigger isn't neccisarily better!

mathias

Well there's not many TV sets that have 1920 x 1080 that come in under 37".

They can be had at 23 inch or less in some cases , Im typing this on a Screen that has a tuner , is 24 inch with a native res of 1920 x 1200 no less , they are very very common.

As for straight out TV's , full HD 32 inch sets are not exactly thin on the ground either ...

http://www.cheaptv.org.uk/sharp-lc32x20e-32-inch-aquos-hd-ready-1080p-lcd-tv/

This whole thread is about why an xbox makes HD DVDs look crap

Thats not the way I read it , The OP is asking why it looks bad on his set on the offchance that maybe something isnt set up right , and/or if everyone has the same opinion of HD from the xbox , which they obviously dont !

The Xbox does not make HD DVD's look crap , and answering threads like this , with sweeping inaccurate statements like " your TV is too small " , or " The xbox is crap at HD " is far from helpful.

D3UC3 J3

FFS, do all you hombres try and poke holes in everyones posts??? :rolleyes:

The chap asked if he was doing something wrong ad said what the image dvd etc looked like and was going to ring MS and ask what the **ck the were at.

All i said was the hd dvd player for 360 doesn't do itself justice unless you've got relitively high set of equipment plugged into the 360!

Take that as you wish but i wasn't knocking small tvs and people trying to play their HD dvd through thjem.

Just explaining that MS market the player and don't bother telling people "btw if you don't have a nice high res tv, don't bother cos you'll be dissapointed."

As for me saying "not many under 37" are 1920 x 1080" and you giving one example as a rebuttle thats just petty. "not many" wow you googled 1!

TBH i don't give a toss what you guys think about my posts after the original post i made, cos thats what i think doc should be told.

I won't bother next time!

Ciaran500

D3UC3 J3 wrote: »

And i was right to say 720p isn't a native resolution, cos as you rightly point out it's not.

No you're not. 720p refers to 1280*720 which is a native resolution to some screens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_resolution

D3UC3 J3

Ciaran500 wrote: »

No you're not. 720p refers to 1280*720 which is a native resolution to some screens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_resolution

Guu huuuhh (chokes on laughter!!!), why yes yes i am.

1280x720 is in fact a native resolution as you quite rightly point out.

However! ... .. . the "P" in 720p means "Progressive Scan".

720p means: 720 lines of pixels refreshed at the same rate per second fomr line 1 to line 720. Thus 720p is not a native resolution.

Thats like saying "as fast as speed of light" or "as heavy as a kilometre" ya big butt head ya!

JEEZ! :eek:

btw, on topic : DOC i hope your getting some enjoyment out of this forum at this stage because i'm sure your query has well and truly been fleshed out to it's end!

My advice to you Doc is get a VGA cable, 1st party (official MS) and try that. You'll notice a much better resolution and sharpness but the colours will be a bit washed out.

mathias

As for me saying "not many under 37" are 1920 x 1080" and you giving one example as a rebuttle thats just petty. "not many" wow you googled 1!

Actually I just picked one as an example , heres the google ...Sharp , Sony , Toshiba , JVC , ...it goes on ...and on .....


http://www.google.ie/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=full+hd+32+inch&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

D3UC3 J3

Alright man,

I'll agree to disagree, if thats cool with you. I suppose your as right as I am when it comes to an argument! :cool: (Oh yes, of course i'm not 100% right)

We could be arguing over worse things!

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

D3UC3 J3 wrote: »

...Xbox 360 HD DVD looks pants on anything less than 1280 x 1024.

Just one question, as your output device is 1280x1024 wouldn't that taking the input at 720p and scaling it for the screen? So surly anything above 720 pixels verticle would pretty much look that same at the same screen sizes? With maybe the further from 720 you got the worse the image?

D3UC3 J3

Proabaly yes on a TV unless your downscaling from 1080i/p (THough i think a lot of HD-DVDs are only 720p).

I use a vga cable and a monitor. The xbox outputs at the same res as the screen. But like you said if the film on dvd is 720 then yeah it'd be upscaling it.

My monitor is 4:3 also so i can't reduce the vertical res on the xbox as it would then stretch it up to the monitor and that would be proper pants.

NunianVonFuch

D3UC3 J3 wrote: »

Proabaly yes on a TV unless your downscaling from 1080i/p (THough i think a lot of HD-DVDs are only 720p).

All HD-DVDs so far have been released in 1080p.
http://www.bitburners.com/high-definition-dvd-faq/#faq406

TheDoc

stopped reading this thread cause i didnt ask about resolutions and tech jargon, thanks for those that tried

D3UC3 J3

NunianVonFuch wrote: »

All HD-DVDs so far have been released in 1080p.
http://www.bitburners.com/high-definition-dvd-faq/#faq406

Rockin, i might actually get one in that case. For €50 why not!

See ya DOC. Hope you got sorted!

gazzer

Could somebody tell me what the difference (if any) there is between the XBox 360 Component HD AV Cable and an XBox 360 HDMI Cable?

I decided to buy one of the HD DVD players and I have just connected it to my XBox console. I thought I would be able to connect a HDMI cable from my X-BOX HD DVD player to my tv but there are only USB slots on the HD DVD. There is what appears to be a HDMI slot on my XBox 360 console but I have to use that to connect it to the HD DVD.

So I have connected the XBox 360 Component HD AV Cable to my LG 42" LCD TV, I changed the display settings on the console to 720p (that is what the tv is set at) and I put in the HD DVD of Transformers into my HD DVD player.

To be honest I cant see much difference. I have a DVD of Transformers also so I put that into my normal dvd player and have been switching from the DVD version to the HD DVD version. I cant see any difference to be honest. Is there a way I can connect the X-BOX to the HDMI slot on my tv??

Thanks

thebman

gazzer wrote: »

Could somebody tell me what the difference (if any) there is between the XBox 360 Component HD AV Cable and an XBox 360 HDMI Cable?

I decided to buy one of the HD DVD players and I have just connected it to my XBox console. I thought I would be able to connect a HDMI cable from my X-BOX HD DVD player to my tv but there are only USB slots on the HD DVD. There is what appears to be a HDMI slot on my XBox 360 console but I have to use that to connect it to the HD DVD.

So I have connected the XBox 360 Component HD AV Cable to my LG 42" LCD TV, I changed the display settings on the console to 720p (that is what the tv is set at) and I put in the HD DVD of Transformers into my HD DVD player.

To be honest I cant see much difference. I have a DVD of Transformers also so I put that into my normal dvd player and have been switching from the DVD version to the HD DVD version. I cant see any difference to be honest. Is there a way I can connect the X-BOX to the HDMI slot on my tv??

Thanks

Well if your 360 has a HDMI slot then use a HDMI cable. If not use the VGA cable. Personally I found that either the Component cable that comes with the 360 is crap or my component cable on my tv is crap.

I would use any other available connection if I were you as I noticed a huge difference going from Component to VGA on my 360, a significant difference although not as huge as going from Scart to Component in the first place but I would recommend the cable to you.

Ciaran500

Never had a problem with the 360 component output, ideally there is very little difference between the component, VGA and HDMI but TV's handle each of the signals differently so some TV's will get better quality from different connections.

GrumPy

I have no way of testing 1080p over vga, but on my particular tv HDMI is quite a good bit better than component anyway

thebman

Well my logic was that most HDTV's would cheap out on the component connection and just take whatever was going around cheapest and put it in since the connection type isn't commonly used anymore and is dying out.

I imagine most budget HDTV's at least would have poor component inputs but I could be way off.

gazzer

Thanks guys for the replies. I will head up to Blanch SC later on and get one of the VGA cables as I have checked the back of my tv and there are tons of different connections and a VGA one is one of them. Hopefully I will notice a difference in the picture quality.