I just bought the HD-DVD attachment to the Xbox 360 and popped in King Kong. I really am not noticing much of a difference at all.
I have a 52 inch Toshiba HDTV, though I believe it only supports 1080i and 540. Is this going to cause a problem? Anything I can do to make it look better?
HD movies look great when broadcast through T.V., and the 360 games look astonishing too. So why is the HD-DVD add on, looking so crappy?
Might just have to take it back..

Defective add-on? Is it connected via component cables? I'm not sure but I do know that the reviews for the King Kong disc have been terrific. Haven't watched my copy yet though.

I've noticed that HD movies arent't leaps and bounds better on my HDTV, but they still are better with the 360 attachment. I have a Rear Projection HD unit (55" Mitsubishi), and I think it handled DVD pretty good, so HDDVD looks great, but not WOWOW like some people think. I'm not complaining, but it's sometimes hard to see. I've only watched a few HDDVD's though.

I think I also have got used to HD programming on Comcast, so the difference is not that noticeable, since I already expect a great picture.

Mine is connected via Component also, 1080i only.

Is it possible that the 360 is set for 720p, but the TV can't accept it so it's downconverting it to 540 or 480p?

You said the games look great, so I'm thinking that may not be the problem since they should be affected as well, but I'll throw it out there anyway.

If HD DVD only looks like a marginal improvement over DVD on a 50"+ TV then something is configured incorrectly. I'd even go as far to say that HD DVD is much larger than a marginal improvement over Comcast HD.

Make sure the switch on your xbox cable is set to HDTV

I guess I'll have to do more of a side-by-side comparison with HD and DVD. I know I have everything set up correctly on my end...TV is configured fine. Maybe I just don't notice things too much. I know RPTV's are still considered "better" than LCD and Plasma, so maybe it just handles the 1080i picture better.

As I said though...HD-DVD looks better. For OP, does HD-DVD look WORSE than normal DVD?

Just to reiterate, there is a switch on the actual component cable that has to be flipped to HDTV.

Just for clarification, did you mean RPTV as in rear projection TV? If so, LCD monitors can also be RPTV. Perhaps you meant CRT RPTV's in which case I would agree with you.

joshtown,
I suggest you try an A-B comparison. This would work if you had the DVD and HD-DVD of the same movie.

some HD-DVDs are better than others. Its widely accepted that King Kong is one of the better ones.

You hit the nail on the head, man. I can't believe I've owned the 360 system for cose to a year, and have had the settings set for a standard television. I never noticed that little switch on the component cables. I also did not have the resolution set to 1080i. They seem like such ovbvious mistakes, but some how it flew right over my head.
It's like night and day, now. Games and movies!!
Thanks for the all the response!

They look a lot better now, right?

That little switch on the cord was a pretty bad idea

I noticed this when my buddy brought his 360 over during a poker night. He has SD, I have HD. He knew about the switch, but couldn't answer my "WTF!?" inquiry. Does anyone know why they did this?

Yes, I have a CRT RPTV....I'll doublecheck my settings also, but I know I switched the HD switch.

I know HDDVD looks better, but I have to do more A-B comparison. I only compared Training Day, and found both similiar. Of course, I paused and compared, which people say when you pause a HDDVD it downconverts the still image.


Anyways, glad OP is fixed....

You also mentioned that HD broadcasts look great. Are you saying that in your setup they look better than HD DVD? If so, then something is DEFINITELY misconfigured.

possibly to prevent 3rd parties from developing their own replacement cord? Or as a copyright protection?

I work at best buy and you have no idea how many returns on those HD-DVD drives we get and most of the time the complaint is that it doesn't look any better. I'm willing to bet 98 percent of those folks don't know about the switch, let alone the settings on their TV/Xbox

I wonder if it has something to do with keeping people from having problems where they can't switch it back because they can't see the image. Let's say a common person has an SD TV; if he sets it for HD he may not get a picture so he might think the console is defective. By making it a switch, they don't have an issue where someone could set it to HD in the dashboard and then not be able to change it back because he can't see the interface. It could be a safety device, like when you have to confirm your monitor's resolution/refresh rate settings within ten seconds to make it permanent.

I don't have a 360 yet so I don't know if it works that way, but that's my guess.

AFAIK, this is exactly why the switch is on the cord.

But that example kind of contradicts your reasoning. The confirmation dialog when changing the resolution on your monitor is there so that if you accidentally change to an unsupported resolution, and therefore CAN'T see the display, it will automatically revert to the previous settings. Why couldn't the 360 use that model instead of a mostly-unnoticed hardwired switch? It would have gone a long way to reducing product returns.

Well, it looks like HD just got a whole lot better for ya huh?

He hit the "Beyond High Definition" switch.