360 - progressive scan dvd player - how does it look?

Does anyone play dvds in progressive scan on their 360? If so, how does it look? I'm getting an hdtv soon and am interested how much of a difference the dvds will play. My current tube tv actually has great picture - as far tube tvs go.

Also, do you have to do anything special to get it to play in 480p?

Hmmm..I'm confused. I can get a dvd to display in 1080i or 720p simply by using a VGA cable? I thought only HD-DVD and bluray discs could do that.

 Sidenote - I'm slightly stupid when it comes to this stuff, so please forgive my stupitude.

It looks fine.  There are probably better stand-alone players out there (some say the Oppo upconverting DVD player is the best) but for the money it looks good.  Some of the Xbox-live updates have improved video performance so it looks a bit better than it did originally.  If you use a VGA connection, you can upconvert the image to 720p / 1080i which looks really decent.  As a 480p player, I'd say it equals a $99 DVD player.  It definitely looks better than those cheap DVD players you can pick up for $50 or whatever.zidura

I did ultimately e-mail microsoft about the question regarding progressive and hd playback. They stated that it cannot upconvert to 720p/1080i - which makes sense because what would be the point of hd-dvd then? Anyway, here's the response I got. By the way, I'm not sure why they start out apologizing. I wasn't upset or anything, just asking them a question.

Hi, Tom!

Thank you for writing Xbox Customer Support!

I do apologize for the inconvenience. I understand that you want to know if the Xbox 360 console can play games in 1080p resolution, using the VGA HD AV Cable and a 1080p-enabled TV.  Yes, it will if the console has been update with the November 2006 Fall Dashboard Update and if the game disc format can support 1080p.

Below is a table for resolutions that the VGA HD AV cable supports. (I editied this out because it didn't format well on these boards).

The 1280x1024 resolution will be available in the auto-update to the console on launch day, and so is the 1080p option.

The disc drive supports progressive scan DVD playback at 480p but will not upscale DVD signal streams to high definition (720p or 1080i)

For further assistance, please don't hesitate to write back or call Xbox Phone Support at 1-800-4MYXBOX or 1-800-469-9269 (United States and Canada); or 425-635-7180 (International/direct dial to the US) at your earliest convenience. We are open everyday from 9am to 1am EST/ 6am to 10pm PST.

Hmmm..I'm confused. I can get a dvd to display in 1080i or 720p simply by using a VGA cable? I thought only HD-DVD and bluray discs could do that.

Sidenote - I'm slightly stupid when it comes to this stuff, so please forgive my stupitude.

slidet22

OK Allow me to explain.  Standard definition DVD's can be upconverted to 720p / 1080i via the VGA connection.  This does not look as detailed as an HD-DVD though.  Since standard DVD's only have the data for a 480p image, the image is simply being up-rezzed, or made sharper, without adding any extra content or details.  It looks sharper, but no extra visual content is added.  An HD-DVD actually contains much more visual data and therefore looks sharper AND contains more detail. 

And yes -- you CAN upconvert standard DVD's through the VGA connection WITHOUT the HD-DVD drive.  This will look nice and sharp, but not as detailed as an HD-DVD image.  If you want the ultimate in picture quality, you'll need to use the HD-DVD player with HD-DVD's for the greatest detail and clarity.