just got the hdmi enabled 360 and i tried some standard dvd's and even the get gray disc. doesent seem to be any higher in resolution to the eye over component. on a 50" screen its still an eyesore. am i missing something here?

DVD is DVD. Upscaling doesn't really change anything. Also, if you have a fixed pixel display (LCD, plasma, DLP, etc), the TV automatically upscales all signals anyway. Some DVD players may do a better job than the TV, but they don't do anything essentially different.

Yes it sounds like perhaps you were expecting too much. 480i sucks. It sucks when upscaled to 720p or 1080p

just got the hdmi enabled 360 and i tried some standard dvd's and even the get gray disc. doesent seem to be any higher in resolution to the eye over component. on a 50" screen its still an eyesore. am i missing something here?

Yeah, you're missing GOOD 720p/1080p upscaling. The PS3 does that. The 360's...not so much.

DVD's look fantastic on the ps3 compared to the 360. Sometimes, I could swear DVD's were HD. Just try something like Aladdin on DVD upscaled via the ps3. Or Lion King.

DVD's (DVD's at its source are 720x480p, not 480i).

Yeah, you're missing GOOD 720p/1080p upscaling. The PS3 does that. The 360's...not so much.

DVD's look fantastic on the ps3 compared to the 360. Sometimes, I could swear DVD's were HD. Just try something like Aladdin on DVD upscaled via the ps3. Or Lion King.

DVD's (DVD's at its source are 720x480p, not 480i).

Uh, no. PS3 isn't that much better with standard DVDs than the 360.

Uh, yes it is. It BLOWS the 360's HDMI upscaling out of the water. I own both systems, and buy games more for the 360, so don't even think of calling me a ps3 fanboy, in case you are.

The way I see it:

360 wins video game upscaling, and PS3 wins video upscaling. End of story.

Go over to the other sections of the AVS forum and 99% of people will agree with me. The 360's HDMI upscaling blows. I haven't tested the HD-DVD add-on, which I heard is on par as the ps3, but who the hell owns that obsolete thing nowadays?

Good upscaling isn't HD, but it's far better than unscaled.

Think of good upscaling, as being able to watch DVD's comfortably on big HD sets. They'll look 'good enough'.

Uh, yes it is. It BLOWS the 360's HDMI upscaling out of the water. I own both systems, and buy games more for the 360, so don't even think of calling me a ps3 fanboy, in case you are.

The way I see it:

360 wins video game upscaling, and PS3 wins video upscaling. End of story.

Go over to the other sections of the AVS forum and 99% of people will agree with me. The 360's HDMI upscaling blows. I haven't tested the HD-DVD add-on, which I heard is on par as the ps3, but who the hell owns that obsolete thing nowadays?

Good upscaling isn't HD, but it's far better than unscaled.

Think of good upscaling, as being able to watch DVD's comfortably on big HD sets. They'll look 'good enough'.


There was a thread on here a few days ago, I can't remeber what is was in, I think of the HDMI Color space. Where some scientificly meassured the output of ps3 and xbox 360 for dvd playing. The results were the xbox 360 was the first game console worth watching DVD's on.

The ps3 did worse then cheap upscaling DVD's.
I'll try to find the post.

Here's the post
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=15096222&postcount=8

and heres the thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15102173

I don't know any scientific mumbo jumbo, but I'm sure most agree that the 360's dvd playback is garbage compared to the pq you get with the ps3. If you own both, try it yourself.

I would NEVER watch any DVD on my 360 unless I need to. This is only when I move my 360 to my room, since I have a spare HDMI and 360 power block. If not, I'd move the ps3 every time.

Oh, and someone posting some crap about how the 360 is better than the ps3 in the 360 forum? Why the nerve.

I don't know any scientific mumbo jumbo, but I'm sure most agree that the 360's dvd playback is garbage compared to the pq you get with the ps3. If you own both, try it yourself.

I would NEVER watch any DVD on my 360 unless I need to. This is only when I move my 360 to my room, since I have a spare HDMI and 360 power block. If not, I'd move the ps3 every time.

Oh, and someone posting some crap about how the 360 is better than the ps3 in the 360 forum? Why the nerve.

Yep, i agree as well. I own both systems and use the 360 for games and PS3 for movies. And on the rare occasion when a movie i want to see comes out that's not on Bluray and i actually have to watch a DVD, the PS3 definetly wins hands down. I'd never use my 360 to watch a DVD.

yep, i agree as well. I own both systems and use the 360 for games and ps3 for movies. And on the rare occasion when a movie i want to see comes out that's not on bluray and i actually have to watch a dvd, the ps3 definetly wins hands down. I'd never use my 360 to watch a dvd.


+1

I also have both and the PS3 does a better job upscaling DVD's, but it's still garbage. 480i is 480i no matter how you look at it. So if you must watch a DVD, the PS3 does do a better job.

There was a thread on here a few days ago, I can't remeber what is was in, I think of the HDMI Color space. Where some scientificly meassured the output of ps3 and xbox 360 for dvd playing. The results were the xbox 360 was the first game console worth watching DVD's on.

The ps3 did worse then cheap upscaling DVD's.
I'll try to find the post.

Here's the post
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=15096222&postcount=8

and heres the thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15102173

those results were with the initial PS3 firmware. they have no relevance at this point, as the dvd playback software on the ps3 has changed quite a bit. for instance, the ps3 definitely does pass blacker than black and it does do video black levels correctly, yet that post says it fails those areas.
Also, the only thing those test results tell you is how a player will deal with a disc that was encoded incorrectly, they tell you nothing about the picture quality of the dvd output or upscaling.
the last time i checked it, the 360 had the worst looking DVD playback i'd ever seen, from any device- but to be fair, that was a few dashboard revisions ago, and I haven't re-tested since the NXE came out. The ps3 (with current firmware) does a decent job with dvd, but i have a XA2 hd-dvd player, so i use that for upscaling dvds- I have to use it for SOMETHING! :)

I also have both and the PS3 does a better job upscaling DVD's, but it's still garbage. 480i is 480i no matter how you look at it. So if you must watch a DVD, the PS3 does do a better job.

Again, DVD at it's source is 720x480, not 480i. We viewed them at 480i because that was our TV's could handle at the time. DVD's are 480p, which was downrez'd to 480i.

just got the hdmi enabled 360 and i tried some standard dvd's and even the get gray disc. doesent seem to be any higher in resolution to the eye over component. on a 50" screen its still an eyesore. am i missing something here?

You've discovered your TV has a very good scaler, is all.
Or you have a very critical eye.
Maybe both.
Quality is in the eye of the beholder. And in his biases; I'm sure that if the Wii played DVDs some fanboy would swear it upscales better than the 360.
All meaningless noise.

The 360 upscales DVDs.
It is better than what's built-in to some displays and worse than whats built into others. MS has never said diffently. Its a bonus feature, not its reason for existing.

If you bought the 360 as an upscaling DVD player, take it back.
Get an Oppo or the funky Toshiba super-scaler or a standalone scaler box.

If you bought it to play games, go play.
Either way, the only thing that matters is what satisfies you, not what some shill somewhere out there thinks.

I also use the 360 for most of my gaming and the PS3 for most of my A/V. The PS3's DVD upconversion is pretty much on par with my Oppo, so I moved the Oppo into the bedroom and use the PS3 exclusively for DVD, Blu-ray, and A/V streaming from my NAS. The 360's DVD upconversion is trash compared to the Oppo and the PS3.

Uh, yes it is. It BLOWS the 360's HDMI upscaling out of the water. I own both systems, and buy games more for the 360, so don't even think of calling me a ps3 fanboy, in case you are.

The way I see it:

360 wins video game upscaling, and PS3 wins video upscaling. End of story.

Go over to the other sections of the AVS forum and 99% of people will agree with me. The 360's HDMI upscaling blows. I haven't tested the HD-DVD add-on, which I heard is on par as the ps3, but who the hell owns that obsolete thing nowadays?

Good upscaling isn't HD, but it's far better than unscaled.

Think of good upscaling, as being able to watch DVD's comfortably on big HD sets. They'll look 'good enough'.

it depends onn your TV my 720 native LCD has no discernible difference on SD DVDs upscaled ps3 xbox or other wise. But they do look better than a SD DVD player.

I've had 4 different LCD's

720p Insignia ( friend owns it now)
720p Samsung 2353H (which I still own)
1080p Samsung 4066F
1080p 120hz Samsung 4071F

All of them have come to the same conclusion: The PS3 trumps the 360 in terms of upscaling.

Same can be said about my new 67" 1080p DLP.

I do agree that the 720p sets don't make SD sources look as bad as 1080p sets.

Go over to the other sections of the AVS forum and 99% of people will agree with me. The 360's HDMI upscaling blows. I haven't tested the HD-DVD add-on, which I heard is on par as the ps3, but who the hell owns that obsolete thing nowadays?


I do. It's the best DVD player I've ever used. If you can still find one (they should be dirt cheap) it might be worth the investment. I still rent a lot of DVDs, and the HD-DVD add-on powers through scratched disks that would stop my Pioneer Elite DVD player (which now gathers dust) cold.

Yeah, you're missing GOOD 720p/1080p upscaling. The PS3 does that. The 360's...not so much.

DVD's look fantastic on the ps3 compared to the 360. Sometimes, I could swear DVD's were HD. Just try something like Aladdin on DVD upscaled via the ps3. Or Lion King.

DVD's (DVD's at its source are 720x480p, not 480i).

I have a Ps3 and Xbox 360. Upscaling is really good with the Ps3. I only use the Ps3 for movies and all my gaming on XBL. I agree with Shin on the dvds. But I mainly watch Bluray

IMO, I wouldn't use either the PS3 or the 360 to watch DVD's. The 360 is bad and I read all the hype about the PS3's upscaling and was excited to try it. While the PS3 may be better than the 360, it is still bad. Get a decent scaler or if you can find one, a toshiba XA2 for upscaling. A lumagen works wonders for sd dvd. You have to see it to believe it.

You know the whole PS3 comparison depends on one thing. You have to have one to compare to. It seems pretty obvious that the OP probably doesn't have one. So it doesn't really matter how much better the PS3 upscales than the 360. I think the 360 does just a fine job on both of my 1080p sets.

My xbox 360 appears to do simple filtering when upscaling, it looks fine with games but DVDs suffer from severe aliasing (jagged edges).

i actually had to get a new one and it had hdmi. i got the get gray disc beause supposably the 360 upconverts sd rec. 601 to 709 and i wanted to use the correct color test patterns to calibrate. im not so sure i was using proper material after upconversion.

IMO, I wouldn't use either the PS3 or the 360 to watch DVD's. The 360 is bad and I read all the hype about the PS3's upscaling and was excited to try it. While the PS3 may be better than the 360, it is still bad. Get a decent scaler or if you can find one, a toshiba XA2 for upscaling. A lumagen works wonders for sd dvd. You have to see it to believe it.
Imo just watch Bluray unless you want a scaler for an old collection of dvd's. The Xbox and Ps3 play fine for dvd. Upscaling something to make it look better than it is?? Watch a HD/Bluray dvd is the best imo

Imo just watch Bluray unless you want a scaler for an old collection of dvd's. The Xbox and Ps3 play fine for dvd. Upscaling something to make it look better than it is?? Watch a HD/Bluray dvd is the best imo

Have you seen the difference between a 360/PS3 vs a good external scaler like a lumagen on a large screen (>100")? I agree that HD DVD/ Blu Ray is best, but the selection is still severely lacking and there are plenty of movies worth watching that are only available on DVD.

I never said the prupose of upscaling is to make it look better than it is. The simple fact is that viewing SD material on an HD display requires upscaling. That can be done poorly or it can be done well. The quality of upscaling makes a large difference on large displays.

Uh, yes it is. It BLOWS the 360's HDMI upscaling out of the water. I own both systems, and buy games more for the 360, so don't even think of calling me a ps3 fanboy, in case you are..

Sorry Shin.. you my boy but I gotta call bullshyt.

I have both. Played the SAME upscaled DVD at 720P from the PS3 & 360.. on a 720P 50" plasma. Other than slight colour differences they look EXACTLY the same.

just got the hdmi enabled 360 and i tried some standard dvd's and even the get gray disc. doesent seem to be any higher in resolution to the eye over component. on a 50" screen its still an eyesore. am i missing something here?

I may be stupid here, but I was under the impression that it upscaled on both component and HDMI, so there really wouldn't be much/any difference between the two anyways. Is that not correct? I have mine hooked up with VGA, so I've never really paid attention.

I watch all my movies on my PS3 anyways, but I have upscaling turned off because it causes my fan to turn on after about 15 minutes, which makes the PS3 sound like a 747 taking off inside a steel factory. Oddly enough it's whisper quiet playing BD, but the upscaling kicks the fan on.

[QUOTE=mproper;15165467...I was under the impression that it upscaled on both component and HDMI, so there really wouldn't be much/any difference between the two anyways. Is that not correct? [/QUOTE]

It shouldn't.
DVD licensing forbids upscaling over component.
(plenty of second and third tier DVD players ignore it, but I doubt a bigger company like MS could get away with it.)

Best DVD resolution over component = 480p
Best DVD resolution over HDMI = 720p, 1080i or 1080p.. all upscaled..

Have you seen the difference between a 360/PS3 vs a good external scaler like a lumagen on a large screen (>100")? I agree that HD DVD/ Blu Ray is best, but the selection is still severely lacking and there are plenty of movies worth watching that are only available on DVD.

I never said the prupose of upscaling is to make it look better than it is. The simple fact is that viewing SD material on an HD display requires upscaling. That can be done poorly or it can be done well. The quality of upscaling makes a large difference on large displays.

Unless you are watching all old moves most all new movies are on Bluray. Yes I've seen a Ps3 on 100" projector looks better than the Dvd not upscaled. All depends on your projector also.

Sorry Shin.. you my boy but I gotta call bullshyt.

I have both. Played the SAME upscaled DVD at 720P from the PS3 & 360.. on a 720P 50" plasma. Other than slight colour differences they look EXACTLY the same.

As you can tell by the various posts, it's purely subjective. No one's eyes are the same, but I think most can agree that there ARE differences.

There are many factors as well. The type of TV you have is one of them.

Unless you are watching all old moves most all new movies are on Bluray. Yes I've seen a Ps3 on 100" projector looks better than the Dvd not upscaled. All depends on your projector also.

Unless that projector was a 480p projector, the image was being scaled. It was just being scaled by the projector and not the PS3.

There is a thread in the blu ray software forum that talks about the movies people wish were released in HD but haven't been yet. Suffice to say, there are a ton of movies not on blu ray still worth watching.

Unless that projector was a 480p projector, the image was being scaled. It was just being scaled by the projector and not the PS3.

There is a thread in the blu ray software forum that talks about the movies people wish were released in HD but haven't been yet. Suffice to say, there are a ton of movies not on blu ray still worth watching.

Guess it depends on what you want to watch. All the new movies I watch are in Bluray. I rarely watch old movies. But when I do standard dvd is fine to me upscaled or not. My point is to me the Ps3 does fine in upscaling better than the Xbox. If you need something better I guess you can find it.This post is about the Xbox scaling which isn't very good. The Ps3 is pretty good for most ppl. But there always are going to be ppl who want better. But I've seen other dvd players. I think the Ps3 is par.

I haven't tested the HD-DVD add-on, which I heard is on par as the ps3, but who the hell owns that obsolete thing nowadays?


I do. It's the best DVD player I've ever used. If you can still find one (they should be dirt cheap) it might be worth the investment.

The 360 HD DVD add on reads the data on the disc and sends it to the console to decode and scale if necessary, nothing more. It doesn't do any video processing or scaling at all. So saying it makes DVDs look better is completely false.


For the record, I think the PS3 is the better DVD player.

Upgrading to 1080i is the best.

The 360 HD DVD add on reads the data on the disc and sends it to the console to decode and scale if necessary, nothing more. It doesn't do any video processing or scaling at all. So saying it makes DVDs look better is completely false.


For the record, I think the PS3 is the better DVD player.

Both of these units have so-so deinterlacers, although the PS3 seems to do a better on my "odd" material than the Xbox. Bad deinterlacing will still look bad after upscaling. For a torture test, put in the NTSC version of the 2005 or later series of Doctor Who. For those who think this like any other DVD, you're wrong, since it's shot on 576i50 video, filmized in post-production to 25p, then reprocessed to 60i for the NTSC release. Neither video nor 24p telecine, it's an odd beast. The Xbox enjoys combing when its stupid algorithms can't figure out that two fields don't belong together and you get a blurry mess. Trust me, upscaling to 1080p doesn't hide the combing on my set. The CGI also has interline twitter frequently when it blends the wrong fields (try episode 3, 2005 season--exterior space station shots). The PS3 doesn't comb and twitter is far less, but causes visible brief pausing/stuttering from apparently repeating frames in a row. I suspect forcing video mode in the PS3 settings would get more combing and less stuttering. (Turning on motion interpolation on my 120Hz set helps the stuttering with default playback settings.)

Of course, this is what you get when you use a videogame console to do a video processor's work. But to get back to the subject at hand, for my system, I prefer the PS3 to the Xbox as the combing & twittering really irks me off and you cannot upscale your way around that. Perhaps somebody can find a counterexample where the Xbox looks less crappy than the PS3...

i do. It's the best dvd player i've ever used. If you can still find one (they should be dirt cheap) it might be worth the investment. I still rent a lot of dvds, and the hd-dvd add-on powers through scratched disks that would stop my pioneer elite dvd player (which now gathers dust) cold.

problem with the addon when i had it is that calibrating using dve hd yielded different results than upconversion through the disc drive. And i have to say the upconverison results were much closer to being accurate. You can calibrate for your movies but your games will be noticably off.

First, I am not using my 360's HDMI because to my eye, I could not tell a difference between component and HDMI on a Toshiba 65" H83 CRT (circa 2004, TV converts all HD signals to 1080i).

I don't play DVDs using the 360's drive bay, but instead stream ripped DVDs from my Vista HTPC using the 360's Media Center interface. HD it is not, but damn, it looks real good.

-T

Again, DVD at it's source is 720x480, not 480i. We viewed them at 480i because that was our TV's could handle at the time. DVD's are 480p, which was downrez'd to 480i.

I do believe DVD is 720*480i at 60fps.

If the material were stored progressive, then every Progressive scan DVD player would play with no deinterlacing artifacts...not many do.

I do believe DVD is 720*480i at 60fps.

If the material were stored progressive, then every Progressive scan DVD player would play with no deinterlacing artifacts...not many do.

Many DVDs are essentially stored progressively and can be played back easily by almost any progressive DVD player without any issue. Unfortunately many are not and are not flagged properly. That's where lesser players have problems.

Man... I just read a couple of the first posts in this thread and I have to say I agree with Shin. DVDs look a lot better to me on the PS3 than they do on the 360. Maybe it's my TV or setup but damn I can notice a difference. (I do like the posts saying "no way man 360 is scientifically better for DVDs" or "the 360 is the first game console worth watching DVDs on".... lmfao! Fanboy anyone?) My 360 will continue to be used solely for gaming.

Also, I hooked my 360 up to my TV using both component (MS brand) and HDMI (monoprice) and wow component sucks compared to HDMI. I don't understand how people don't notice a difference....

I will try to clear a couple of things up here for some people that are reading this thread.

1) In 99% of setups, there should be no discernable difference between HDMI and component if they are both displaying the same resolution. If there is, your monitoring gear is to blame.

2) All NTSC DVD's are 720x480. That is the MPEG-2 spec for resolution. After that, it is a toss of the dice. Some can be 480i, some can be 480p. Some can be strictly 4x3, some can be anamorphic 16:9. Yes.. you can have 720x480 video and it can be either interlaced or progressive. Some are going to be 24p (23.976fps) and some will be 30i (29.97fps). How your consoles output these resolutions and how your monitoring gear process the source signals palys a significant role in the visual quality... i.e. some are not going to properly handle pulldowns, scaling, interpolation, etc.

3) I encode video for a living (at the current time, anyway... :) ). In my opinion (which is just as subjective as everyone else's), the PS3 does a much better job of upscaling SD video to my sets 1080p inputs. I have the consoles do all of the scaling... not my receiver or my set. There is other hardware out there that does a much better job of it, (my Toshiba HD-XA2, for example... or an ImagePro, etc.) however for the most part the PS3 does an excellent job.

I understand the various reasons why someone would need to use their video game system for watching dvd's, but if you don't have to why would you? You're putting unnecessary stress on the optical drive in your (relatively) expensive game system, and you can buy a decent dedicated dvd player with high quality scaling for less than the price of dinner and a movie for two.

I understand the various reasons why someone would need to use their video game system for watching dvd's, but if you don't have to why would you? You're putting unnecessary stress on the optical drive in your (relatively) expensive game system, and you can buy a decent dedicated dvd player with high quality scaling for less than the price of dinner and a movie for two.

These systems were designed with this specific funtion in mind. If the optical drive fails from simply watching movies, it was going to fail anyway. Before the latest NXE patch, the 360's drive was spun up all of the time while you were playing a game. I never had one fail.

As far as buying a dedicated upscaling DVD player goes... why would you want to spend money on one (even $60 or so) when you have a device (360 or PS3) that does this already? It is yet another component you need to have space for, inputs in your A/V reciever for, add space on your remotes for, blah blah blah.

I happen to own a Toshiba HD-XA2 HD-DVD player, since I got a good deal on one awhile back. It has one of the best upscaling chips to date. It serves as my "dedicated SD-DVD upscaler" now... however I do not have room in my A/V receiver for all of my devices. If I could take the upscaling chip in my XA2 out and pop it in my 360, I would do it in a heart beat just to eliminate one more device from my overall entertainment system.

Space issues/input issues were exactly what I was thinking of when I said I understand the reasons why someone would be forced to use your 360 for watching dvd's.

I disagree about the drive failing, though. Especially in the 360 we are not talking about high quality drives. They're the cheapest drives that Microsoft could get away with that still did the job. As with all electronics, especially those with moving parts, it is going to fail sooner or later, and with spooling the drive continuously to watch movies it's probably going to be the former rather than the latter. My point was if you're not constrained by technical reasons why hasten the job?

Prior to the NXE not all games spun the drive continuously. In many instances I believe the drive loaded whatever info it needed to the cache where the 360 used that data until it needed to load another segment, at which time the sequence repeated ad infinitum. The games that do access the drive continuously (Dead Rising comes to mind) were notorious for being associated with drive failures. Not to mention the noise some of those drives produce!

Why would I want to spend $60 on a dedicated player? A couple reasons. In the event that it breaks at that price I'll chuck it out the window and buy another one and not be too angry about it. If my 360 drive fails I either pay Microsoft $99 to repair it or towel trick it into oblivion, at which point I get to enjoy the luxury of dealing with an MS service rep + downtime of my system for a couple weeks. If I can avoid that aggravation I'll gladly do so. Plus many people seem to agree that both the PS3 and 360 have only so-so scaling at best. If it's good enough for you by all means have at it, but like you I use a Tosh HD-DVD player and after being spoiled by it I could never go to using my 360 and be satisfied. To each their own I guess. :D

To each their own, exactly. Now if I had a better reciever (using a Denon AVR-2307CI right now), unlimited rack space and budget, I would be putting in a dedicated SD DVD player with a much better scaler than any unit has in it right now. However I don't... so the XA2 works for me. On certain types of movies (i.e. animation) the PS3 works just fine as well. Your average $60 upconverting DVD player is not going to touch the quality of the PS3's upscaler or something along the lines of an ImagePro.

Every game I have on the 360 (not many, admittedly) has had the drive constantly spun up until the latest NXE update when I have installed the game to the hard drive. Hence the 360's reputation of being so noisy. The drive has never failed. I watch a huge amount of Blu-Ray's on my PS3, and the drive has never failed. Yes, every electronic device has their own MTBF, but saying you shouldn't use an electronic device for one of its inteded purposes because it might fail just doesn't make sense.

You know I would have to agree that the PS3/Blu-Ray players in general are probably better at upscaling. I specifically would point to my experience watching Traitor on DVD on a BD-35 and being shocked at how good it looked. Since then I've watched some DVDs on my 360 HD-DVD player after upgrading to an HDMI 360 and being rather disappointed as it didn't appear to add to the PQ at all.

I'll throw my findings in here...

The PS3, once upgraded from launch firmware, is a pretty nice movie player for both Blu-ray and upscalling standard-def DVDs. As someone mentioned, a well-mastered DVD can, at times, almost appear HD.

The Xbox360 and my Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray player don't upscale nearly as well. Playing DVDs on both my Sony 60" rear projection HDTV and Samsung 46" A650 1080p LCD, the PS3 is noticeably better.

Everyone's setup and eyes are different, so YMMV.

Well I'm going to have to try watching a DVD in my 360 then the PS3. I should be able to simple swap out.

I have several movies where from various reasons I have 2 copies ( HD DVD combo, buying out a friends collection or simply forgetting at the store that I already have it)

A good test to run is to use the exact same copy of a movie for viewing in all your machines that you wish to see upscale. Different movies are encoded at different bit rates, and if there is one thing that is crucial to how a SD movie will look upscaled it is the bit rate (in general).

For example, if you look at the copy I have of "Revenge of the Sith" played through either my PS3 or XA2, it looks incredible. If I had your average movie viewer looking at it, they would not know it was SD being upscaled.

Now, you throw in the copy I have of "Flyboys", and you will see how craptastic it looks. Differences in bit rates and how it was encoded to MPEG-2 make a huge difference in how the film will look when upscaled by any device.

I do believe DVD is 720*480i at 60fps.

If the material were stored progressive, then every Progressive scan DVD player would play with no deinterlacing artifacts...not many do.

How it's stored is only part of the processing chain. The real question is, was it ever interlaced anywhere in the processing chain from photons striking the camera sensor thru to final display? If the answer is yes, then there is deinterlacing trouble and it may not be correctable.

As for what pixel format is used to store video on DVDs, there are numerous possibilities such as: 352 x 480, 704 x 480, 720 x 480, not to mention quite a few PAL compatible formats like 720 x 576, etc. Whether video is interlaced or not on disk, is entirely at the producer's whim. Major movie studios always encode movies originally shot on 24 fps film, in 24 fps progressive format and include RFF (repeat field flags) to allow a DVD player connected to a legacy interlaced display, to recreate 30 interlaced fps. Progressive scan players ignore the RFFs and simply repeat whole frames in a 1112211122 pattern to convert the 24 fps video to 60 fps. Some folks bitch about the slight uneven-ness of that and so was born 120hz displays, where the repeat pattern is simply 11111222221111122222. There, it's perfectly even with none of the alleged judder. For PAL region DVDs 24 fps film is actually sped up to the 25 fps native PAL frame rate and simply interlaced without any need for RFFs, though the sound track has to be pitch-shifted back to normal, to account for the 4% speed up.

For material that originates as 30 fps interlaced video, the situation is more difficult, as there is no way to avoid the dreaded deinterlacing step. If video is retained as 30 fps interlaced all the way onto the disk, then the deinterlacing step is left to the DVD player or TV depending on how you have things setup. All too often, in the production chain, 30 fps video will get deinterlaced before it gets to disk and this can be very problematic. At that point, there may be nothing your player or TV can do, to prevent deinterlacing artifacts from appearing.

There are even some TV shows that are shot in 30 fps progressive.

P.J.

Alright
Alright my setup
PS3 60GB HDMI
Xbox 360 HDMI
To a
Yamaha HTR-6140B
http://www.yamaha.ca/av/Receivers/HTR6140B.jsp
Both Systems have been set to 720p
The receiver (as far as I know) does a straight 720p pass through
To a Benq w500 720p Projector projecting around 96 inch’s
http://benq.com/products/Projector/?product=1055&page=specifications

Through I have the HD DVD “box” I will be using the xbox 360’s own optical drive.

With both systems turned on I used the receiver to switch between HDMI inputs from both consoles. My tripod is MIA and my ability to hold a camera steady in the dark is not good enough to get anything less then blur and out of focus.

So choose I to use the movie Transporter as I had two copies on DVD
I chose this as it was the second duplicate movie I found in my collection, breach being the first.
I could barely tell the difference between the two. Going to one jumping to a chapter and pausing, switching between the two. Watching a bit. Pausing, jumping back to the other copy.

As for picture Maybe a TINY bit darker on the ps3 in a dark scene.
I was going to compare more movies, but not being able to see any difference through intro and multiple clips/chapters so I can’t see a reason to continue.

I’ll probably keep playing movies on my 360 as I like the remote more (light up being a big one) and the 360 menus are a lot easier to navigate, though it was really cool how the ps3 gives you movie info (bit rate and rate)

I was hoping the ps3 would be better so I could watch my SD DVD’s better.

Of course each to there own, but I can sould see no difference. If I looked at one and then had some switch and they didn’t I wouldn’t know.