360 question (Movie viewing)

[Kane Knight]

Is there a setting specifically for watching movies? I ask because I decided to check out th e upscaling on the 360 today, so I popped a DVD in, and it like, letterboxing within letterboxing. I had black bars on the side as one might expect from a "Standard" picture on an HD TV, and then within that, the widescreen movie was presented as though it were letterboxed on said "Standard" TV.

This normal?

[Silent]

The Xbox 360 has upscaling? I didn't even know that. Do you have the HDDVD drive? I've put movies in my 360 and haven't been able to upscale em. :-\

[G]

what amazed me one time, i was watching a movie, then stopped it to play a game, then put the movie back in, and it started where i left off.

[Kane Knight]

The Xbox 360 has upscaling? I didn't even know that. Do you have the HDDVD drive? I've put movies in my 360 and haven't been able to upscale em. :-\

Supposedly.

I don't entirely know. I mean, you keep in mind how tiny a viewable area I had (comparably), and it would look better, simply because it's tiny. I never got a chance to really compare to a normal signal, because of it.

[Extreme Angle]

what amazed me one time, i was watching a movie, then stopped it to play a game, then put the movie back in, and it started where i left off.
Yeah

[Kane Knight]

Errr...Is that really amazing? Every DVD player in like the last 5 years has a multiple resume feature.

[G]

Errr...Is that really amazing? Every DVD player in like the last 5 years has a multiple resume feature.



well first, i'm talking about resume feature after switching disks....


second, none of the ones i purchased within the last 5 years do it. 1 doesn't do it at all.

[Kane Knight]

well first, i'm talking about resume feature after switching disks....

Hence, the "multiple" part. Admittedly, I meant to say "Multiple Disc" resume, not multiple resume, but still. I know what you're talking about. Mine's a 5 Disc changer, and it remembers 5 discs per disc slot. My last one remembered ten, and my first one remembered five.

I regret getting a 5 disc changer, though. I would have grabbed an upscaling one, had I planned on replacing my TV so soon. My old TV died, and the estimates came in at like 350 to replace it.

Oh, long story.

[Silent]

Supposedly.

I don't entirely know. I mean, you keep in mind how tiny a viewable area I had (comparably), and it would look better, simply because it's tiny. I never got a chance to really compare to a normal signal, because of it.

Yeah. I googled upscaling for the 360 and could only find some older articles from September-ish 2006, saying it was coming soon.

So I'm not really sure.. I will plug my 360 in when I get home from school and see if I can find something. If it's a feature of the HD-DVD drive though, I can't test that.

[Kane Knight]

Yeah, I don't have an HD DVD Drive.

I'm not upgrading until either A) The format war is over, or B) An AFFORDABLE combo drive exists.

[Kane Knight]

And does anyone know about this letter box within a letter box" thing?

[alvarado52]

HDDVD....what about.......




BLU-RAY!?

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/a1Y73sPHKxw"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a1Y73sPHKxw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

[#BROKEN Hasney]

I seen on one of the updates that "PAL DVD upsacaling" was now enabled but I honestly can't see it. They look nowhere near as good as on my PS3.

As for letterbox in letterbox, I've never seen that myself so I have no idea.

[Kane Knight]

I'm thinking there has to be a setting I'm missing. I just don't know where.

[Kane Knight]

HDDVD....what about.......




BLU-RAY!?

<object height="350" width="425">

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a1Y73sPHKxw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object>

When there's a 360 Blue Ray add-On, we'll talk.

Actually, we won't, because I'm still only getting hi def when there's a unified format and/or a combo player that's not over a thousand bucks.

[G]

i was strongly into getting the hd dvd add on until a couple days ago. then i came to my senses.

[Kane Knight]

It's retarded to get either this early, honestly. It'd be retarded at this point even if there was only one format.

[TapOut]

You can only upconvert over VGA (same as a comuter monitor input) (on the regular 360) or HDMI (on the Elite). If you have component, there is no upscaling of DVDs. You'll only get 480p.

As for the letterboxing, you have to sometimes change your settings on both the TV AND the 360. Bring up the little on-screen menu on the 360 and go to "Advanced" and change the settings, then use your TVs remote to play around a bit until you get it right.

As an example, if you have your TV settings set to display "standard sized (letterboxed) and you have your 360 set to output widescreen, you're going to get the "letterbox within letterbox" effect. In this scenario, you'd switch your TV settings to "full screen" so the letterboxed 360 image would "fill" the screen. If the video is standard sized for regular TVs, then you'd go back to the standard sized setting on the TV. A tad confusing, but just play with the settings on both and you'll get it right.

[Kane Knight]

Well, that explains the lack of difference in picture quality. I don't have HDMI or VGA, just component video cables. I'd buy the Elite, but I don't really plan on using it to view movies much anyway, so it hardly seems worth it. If I could do HDMI with my regular 360, I'd just swap the cables around.

I tried messing with my TV's settings, and it didn't seem to help at all. Best I did was stretch the screen in horrible ways. Clipped pictures and distorted images galore.