Important tip for Xbox 360 owners with native 1080p HDTVs

One error I see Xbox 360 owners making all the time is choosing to output 1080p with their Xbox 360. The problem is that the Xbox 360 does a substandard up scaling pictures up. This can result in subpar picture quality and picture artifacts. Much of the source material on the Xbox 360 is below 1080p so scaling is often required in order to achieve a 1080p picture. If you have a native 1080p HDTV, you will always see a 1080p picture, whether it be native 1080p or upscaled 1080p.The only time you won't is if you set your HDTV to do 1:1 pixel mapping. Chances are however, your HDTV's internal scaler is much better than the Xbox 360's scaler. If you have a receiver, it most likely has a high quality internal video scaler and you can choose to let your receiver's scaler upscale the picture instead. So here is what you do

1. Make sure your HDTV has 1:1 pixel mapping set to OFF. If it is on, you will get a black border around a 720p picture.
2. Set your Xbox 360 to output 720p, which will often be the source material's native resolution. If you are watching DVDs, set it to 480p
3. Plug your Xbox 360 into your receiver and set your receiver to upscale all sources to 1080p. Then plug your receiver into your HDTV
4. If you do not have a receiver, plug your Xbox 360 straight into your HDTV

By doing this, you are minimizing the video processing of the Xbox 360 and letting something else which does a better job of scaling do the scaling instead. What you end up with is a far better upscaled 1080p picture, compared to if you set the Xbox 360 to 1080p.

*If you are watching HD-DVDs on your Xbox 360, set it to 1080p, since the source material on HD-DVDs is 1080p.

One error I see Xbox 360 owners making all the time is choosing to output 1080p with their Xbox 360. The problem is that the Xbox 360 does a substandard up scaling pictures up. This can result in subpar picture quality and picture artifacts. Much of the source material on the Xbox 360 is below 1080p so scaling is often required in order to achieve a 1080p picture. If you have a native 1080p HDTV, you will always see a 1080p picture, whether it be native 1080p or upscaled 1080p.The only time you won't is if you set your HDTV to do 1:1 pixel mapping. Chances are however, your HDTV's internal scaler is much better than the Xbox 360's scaler. If you have a receiver, it most likely has a high quality internal video scaler and you can choose to let your receiver's scaler upscale the picture instead. So here is what you do

1. Make sure your HDTV has 1:1 pixel mapping set to OFF. If it is on, you will get a black border around a 720p picture.
2. Set your Xbox 360 to output 720p, which will often be the source material's native resolution. If you are watching DVDs, set it to 480p
3. Plug your Xbox 360 into your receiver and set your receiver to upscale all sources to 1080p. Then plug your receiver into your HDTV
4. If you do not have a receiver, plug your Xbox 360 straight into your HDTV

By doing this, you are minimizing the video processing of the Xbox 360 and letting something else which does a better job of scaling do the scaling instead. What you end up with is a far better upscaled 1080p picture, compared to if you set the Xbox 360 to 1080p.

*If you are watching HD-DVDs on your Xbox 360, set it to 1080p, since the source material on HD-DVDs is 1080p.

GordonRamsay23

I can do without all the switching, honestly. Also, people seem to forget that most games aren't always 720p either, and for some odd reason, most "720p" tvs are actually "768p" tvs. There's always going to be some scaling going on.

[QUOTE="GordonRamsay23"]

One error I see Xbox 360 owners making all the time is choosing to output 1080p with their Xbox 360. The problem is that the Xbox 360 does a substandard up scaling pictures up. This can result in subpar picture quality and picture artifacts. Much of the source material on the Xbox 360 is below 1080p so scaling is often required in order to achieve a 1080p picture. If you have a native 1080p HDTV, you will always see a 1080p picture, whether it be native 1080p or upscaled 1080p.The only time you won't is if you set your HDTV to do 1:1 pixel mapping. Chances are however, your HDTV's internal scaler is much better than the Xbox 360's scaler. If you have a receiver, it most likely has a high quality internal video scaler and you can choose to let your receiver's scaler upscale the picture instead. So here is what you do

1. Make sure your HDTV has 1:1 pixel mapping set to OFF. If it is on, you will get a black border around a 720p picture.
2. Set your Xbox 360 to output 720p, which will often be the source material's native resolution. If you are watching DVDs, set it to 480p
3. Plug your Xbox 360 into your receiver and set your receiver to upscale all sources to 1080p. Then plug your receiver into your HDTV
4. If you do not have a receiver, plug your Xbox 360 straight into your HDTV

By doing this, you are minimizing the video processing of the Xbox 360 and letting something else which does a better job of scaling do the scaling instead. What you end up with is a far better upscaled 1080p picture, compared to if you set the Xbox 360 to 1080p.

*If you are watching HD-DVDs on your Xbox 360, set it to 1080p, since the source material on HD-DVDs is 1080p.

Heirren

I can do without all the switching, honestly. Also, people seem to forget that most games aren't always 720p either, and for some odd reason, most "720p" tvs are actually "768p" tvs. There's always going to be some scaling going on.

This is true, so the Xbox 360 is going to have to do a little scaling in the cases where games are between 480p and 720p. However it's best to keep it at a minimum by only asking it to scale to 720p.

Will thisreduce aliasingif i put 720p instead of 1080p on?

gamespot is messing with my text^

aliasing*

One error I see Xbox 360 owners making all the time is choosing to output 1080p with their Xbox 360. The problem is that the Xbox 360 does a substandard up scaling pictures up. This can result in subpar picture quality and picture artifacts. Much of the source material on the Xbox 360 is below 1080p so scaling is often required in order to achieve a 1080p picture. If you have a native 1080p HDTV, you will always see a 1080p picture, whether it be native 1080p or upscaled 1080p.The only time you won't is if you set your HDTV to do 1:1 pixel mapping. Chances are however, your HDTV's internal scaler is much better than the Xbox 360's scaler. If you have a receiver, it most likely has a high quality internal video scaler and you can choose to let your receiver's scaler upscale the picture instead. So here is what you do

1. Make sure your HDTV has 1:1 pixel mapping set to OFF. If it is on, you will get a black border around a 720p picture.
2. Set your Xbox 360 to output 720p, which will often be the source material's native resolution. If you are watching DVDs, set it to 480p
3. Plug your Xbox 360 into your receiver and set your receiver to upscale all sources to 1080p. Then plug your receiver into your HDTV
4. If you do not have a receiver, plug your Xbox 360 straight into your HDTV

By doing this, you are minimizing the video processing of the Xbox 360 and letting something else which does a better job of scaling do the scaling instead. What you end up with is a far better upscaled 1080p picture, compared to if you set the Xbox 360 to 1080p.

*If you are watching HD-DVDs on your Xbox 360, set it to 1080p, since the source material on HD-DVDs is 1080p.

GordonRamsay23

I always wondered about that. Good post!