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TwizTID
11-12-2001, 05:53 PM
I had heard somewhere that the XBOX will allow u to use all the features of the DVD, including all the special effects and everything on the main menu, just like a real DVD player. I also pretty much know that u can use the DVD remote for the XBOX for ur TV, all you have to do is use ur TV remote to put the TV on Video (The chanel where u play ur XBOX games) and then have the IR thing in the controller slot and u can flip chanels with ur XBOX DVD remote.

I do however have a question, and that is: Will the XBOX support every single ENGLISH (USA) DVD movie?

I heard many say yes adn that it only won't support Japanes movies and some have said the popular ones only, but then if it's exactly like a DVD player then it should be able to play all DVD movies.

Hugh_Jass
11-12-2001, 09:03 PM
The XBox will be able to play all region 1 and region 0 DVDs.
Some Japanese DVDs fall into this category but not all.
Thank the MPAA for this restriction. It isn't the fault of Microsoft.

So don't worry. If the DVD is sold in the USA it is almost certainly compatible with XBox.

(BTW--I'm sure XBox in other countries will support the local region encoding and NOT region 1.)

kiz10
11-12-2001, 10:17 PM
But cause the Xbox is just a gaming console, doesnt that mean the dvd's wont be of the highest quality?????

TwizTID
11-12-2001, 10:38 PM
Originally posted by kiz10
But cause the Xbox is just a gaming console, doesnt that mean the dvd's wont be of the highest quality?????

U'd think so..........but I heard that the DVD feature is made by Phillips!

eLoup
11-12-2001, 11:22 PM
DVD media uses MPEG2 compression codec. There is no "standard" encoding or decoding measure from which you can really evaluate a DVD player. That is, my hardware decoder DVD (video card support) on my PC looks blocky, and shuddery. On my friends PC (Creative Labs DVD decoder), it looks smooth, crisp, and not blocky. Another example is the ATI line of video cards. While I do not recommend ATI for PC gaming because of flimsy drivers (with the EXCEPTION of GameCube), ATI is by far the best hardware decoder on the PC platform.

So everything will look a little different on each player.

We'll just have to see what "the box" will look like. And to be quite honest - even though, by comparison, my hardware DVD decoder lacks compared to having an ATI card, I still enjoy watching DVDs on my computer immensely - since it still is 100x better than watching a VHS tape on a TV. DVDs provide black blacks, red reds, white whites, and the colors do not wash into each other. DVD is great. Only drawback really is motion compression, an artifact found when using MPEG2, only noticeable when there is a lot of movement on the screen.

~

eLoup
Seattle

Hugh_Jass
11-13-2001, 12:37 PM
Will the DVD playback be as good as a $1000+ top-of-the-line DVD player? Doubtful. Will it be at least as good as every other DVD player under $300? Probably.

BTW--Not all DVD movies are created equal. The publisher has a choice of bit rates to use with MPEG2. The higher the compression rate the lower the quality. It's the same reason why 64K MP3s sound much worse than 320K MP3s. If you really want to evaluate the XBox DVD player you should choose your reference discs carefully. Superbit discs are a good bet, for example.

l Maximus l
11-13-2001, 12:42 PM
I read that the DVD player on the XBox is of considerably high quality and will operate just as efficient, and even more efficient than some cheap DVD players, than the vast majority of DVD players on the market. This is a huge value...the magazine I read this in was in the only (and recent) XBox magazine that I bought at an EB store. It says the top 70 reasons to buy an XBox. Cool mag :D