XBox + HDTV = Picture Quality?

[techie]

Hi everyone,

This question is for anyone using a XBox and the HD-AV pak on a HDTV. How is the XBox picture quality on your HDTV?

The reason I'm asking is I feel like the picture quality I'm getting is not quite what it should be. It may possibly be correct since I have nothing to compare it with but I'm curious as to the quality of others. I have a 36" RCA Digital HDTV, the same as the one used in OXM issue #1 for the dream setup, I purchased this set 3 months ago just before buying an XBox. I have played DVD movies on a progressive scan DVD player and the picture quality is incredible to say the least, but when playing the XBox using the HD-AV pak and high quality component cables, I get a lot of digital artifacts that are normally associated with regular interlaced signals going through an HDTV monitor. Overall it's nothing I can't live with, I just expected quality closer to a progressive scan DVD player. I have all three connectors for the XBox, Standard, Advanced and the HD-AV pak. I also have all modes enabled on the XBox, 480p, 720p, and 1080i since my tv will support all modes. I can definitely tell a difference between the Advanced pak with s-video and the HD-AV pak using component input. I am using the best quality RCA brand of cables (I tried Monster Cable and got the same thing). So, is anyone else seeing the same thing I am?

Here is what I'm seeing so far:

DOA3: characters are smooth and clean except for small jagged edges around the edge of the characters, clothing, etc, backgrounds seem to suffer from jagged edges, dot crawling, barber pole effects, stair stepping (a straight line slanted at any angle except straight vertical or horizontal will appear to step down/up instead of being a clean smooth line) shimmering (lines close together will appear to be moving or jittering back and forth) and some things (rocks, buildings, ground or floors) will appear to have a sparkling effect when the camera moves around.

PGR: Car's are mainly clean except for small jagged lines around the edges, things like bumpers, grill's, and tail pipes, etc that have horizontal lines will appear to shimmer or move and may have the sparkling effect, buildings and roads have jagged edges and painted lines will appear to shimmer also.

Halo: Best of the bunch, seems to suffer the least from what I've been talking about, mostly small jagged edges on characters and objects, some dot crawling and shimmering in the backgrounds.