XBOX 360 Attachment:Did I do something wrong?
 

Okay, I have an HD-DVD attachment for my XBOX 360 and my DVD collection for HD is as follows:

-Superman Returns
-Troy
-Miami Vice
-King Kong

While the whole interactiveness aspect is neat, I just don't seem to be getting the superior picture quality that I get when I watch programs through my cable box in HD. Does it have to do with the fact that the attachment has to go through the XBOX 360 cables to get the picture? While I will not buy another HD DVD player, I am considering a Blu-Ray and am curious as to whether or not that picture might look better if it goes directly from the player into the TV. Or is there something on the attachment I still need to tinker with to get it to look better?
Sorry if this has been discussed time and again, but I just need some quick answers and don't feel like scrolling through pages and pages in the HD debates threads. Thanks!

How is your 360 hooked up to the TV? What kind of TV do you have?

Your connection through the 360 has absolutely nothing to do with the degraded picture quality you may be seeing. Which model 360 do you have? What type of TV do you have. What does it display natively? How do you have it connected? We need to know the answer to try an help you. I have the 360 add on as one of my players and it delivers an superb picture. Don't give up on your 360 addon. It's the best value in HD DVD right now and you may just have it connected/output wrong. The feature set and problems are non existent after the May update also.

^^^beat me to the punch :)

Check your XBOX 360 component cable and make sure it's set to HD and not SD. Then go into your setup menu on the 360 and make sure that it's set to output to 1080i.

You will simply not get a picture on Blu Ray than King Kong on HD DVD.

Agreed! Make sure that little 'switch' is on HD and not SD!

Oops! Didn't have it set to 1080i. Pic does look a bit better.

just a little? :/

Had it set to the 680 one for some reason. Didn't know that could make that much of a difference. I just went with the default setting.

680?

Whateve the default is on the system. It wasn't 1080i, I know that much.

Ah, that would be 480. The picture you are getting now should be much better than just "a little." What kind of tv do you have?

A 42" Sony LCD Projector. Manufactured in May of 2005 for the record. :)

The 42A10, the Rear-Projection LCD model? I have that, and it's an excellent TV... once you calibrate it through the service menu. Too much red push push from the factory, blech.

I believe that tv's native resolution is 720p, not 1080i, as all fixed pixel displays are progressive. Changing it to 720p instead of 1080i in your 360's dashboard may clean up the picture a little, since it will eliminate your tv taking that 1080i output and downscaling it to 720p. Shouldn't be a big difference either way, but just something else you may want to compare and contrast.

/\ I'll give it a shot, though I don't think 720p is one of the offerings on my dashboard.

Nevertheless the picture is a lot better on bot Miami Vice and Superman Returns. King Kong looked okay for its night scenes but its daytime scenes are superb. You can see everything on Kong, even the dirt specs on his fur!

The 360's 720p scaler isn't that hot, so he's probably better off outputting in 1080i and letting the TV scale to 720p.

What scenes from King Kong are the best example of HD? Just curious so I can compare it with another player that does the regular version. Thanks!

Ok, but isn't 720p what most 360 games natively display at?

I would go with some of the day time scenes from the island, like you said, but really, that whole movie is gorgeous. That is an awesome transfer.

Yes

It should be set to 720p in the dashboard for a 720p device.

Yeah, but my dashboard doesn't seem to offer 720p, or maybe that's what it was before I set it to 1080i and saw a good change in picture quality.

Like I said, when I first got the add-on I compared one scene, the nighttime sacrifice, and they looked pretty much the same. But that was under the default setting.

It has 720p. That is the correct setting for a 720p or 768p device. By default when you flip the button on the video output, it should have been set on 480p (from 480i).

Games should be 720p. Otherwise you're likely upscaling the game, and then downscaling it again.

HD-DVDs, well, the scaler could suck ass in your set, and not handling 720p->768p properly. So 1080i could be a tiny bit better; but most of the time, 720p is better.

How far are you sitting away from your 42"?

How do I get it up to 720p? I don't think I saw it on my dashboard. It was all 480 or 1080.

Also, I am sitting about ten feet away from the set.

It should be under the Video settings in the far right blade of the dashboard. Does your TV accept 720p?

10 feet away from a 42" explains why you aren't seeing much of a difference. Historically most folks couldn't tell the difference between an ED and HD plasma at that range. To be honest I don't think you'll find HD-DVD much different sitting that far away.

Where do I find if my TV accepts 720p? Your argument that being so close to the TV making the difference seem negligible seems plausible. However, the difference between HD cable and regular cable is astounding to say the least. Don't know why the channel contrast is so great, but it is so much more noticeable than on DVD. In fact, my regular DVD of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith looks about the same as the HD they air.

Your tv accepts 720p. Not only accepts it, but that is the native resolution of it. You bought it too long ago for it to be a native 1080p set, so I guarantee it's 720p (768p if you want to be super technical about it). The 360's dashboard absolutely has a 720p setting available.

The difference between SD and HD cable is so noticeable because your SD channels likely aren't even digital and probably have a ton of noise and artifacts. The jump from DVD at 480 to HD at 720p/1080i/p is noticeable too, but sometimes not as much because it is a real clean 480 lines of resolution on the DVD. Sitting 10 feet away doesn't help matters, as far as distinguishing the differences, which for HD is all about the detail of the picture. Compare some stuff while sitting a few feet away and you should see how big the difference really can be.

I found the 720p setting, and I think I like 1080i better. Don't know if it downscaled it or not.

In terms of scenes to compare, I did so and noticed a difference. Ironically, the scene in King Kong that let me know my HD was indeed giving better picture was the scene entitled "Beautiful," where Kong takes Ann to his lair and they watch the sunset. It was was the scene says, no more questions from me. Going a distance from the set helps make it noticeable as well.
So...is the Matrix Trilogy worth getting? :D
FWIW, I am sure that until that set came out for HD-DVD, the best one out there was the one they chose to sell with the 360 package (Kong of course).

Also, if you're using a cable box (which is sounds like you are), keep in mind that your cable is being compressed. SD cable is probably mpeg-2. That's why a lot of people have said a clean analog cable signal is likely better than the signal from a cable box (analog cable has no compression in the mix).

Oh, also, the back of my TV does indeed have 1080i listed as an option.

That just means it will accept a 1080i signal and downconvert it to 720p (768p to be technical) as it can only display things in it's native resolution.

But buy all means use which ever setting looks better to you. On my TV I've noticed that my HD cable and my upconverted DVDs look better in 720p vs. 1080i, but I've seen others post on AVS that they think 1080i looks better on this exact set, so it's in the eye/mind of the beholder.

FWIW, and this isn't really a 360 HD add on question as much as HD, I seem to notice that made for TV programs (The Sopranos, Rome, any ball game, and especially Planet Earth) look better in HD than say a movie that played in the theater and then is showing on a cable channel that is in HD. Make sense? Just curious.

Cable and satellite HD material is compressed, for starters. Unless you watch your HD tv stuff via an OTA antenna, you aren't getting the full bandwidth. Compare something like the Sopranos on cable or satellite with the HD-DVD/Blu-ray version and you will see the difference. On top of that, there is also a difference between material shot on video versus stuff shot on film. Material shot on video often looks a bit cleaner. That is why most of the programming on Discovery HD looks so incredible, even if you're watching a compressed cable/sat version.