LCD TV or Widescreen Monitor

[Busyman]

dont plan to watch dvd's on it, just play games with the 360 that is. are you saying it does that for the games as well?

Nah. My Xbox (1) upconvert my DVDs to 1080i and the picture is stunning. I used to be pissed after watching TV programs in HD and then popping in a DVD to be disappointed.

I STILL have not finished watching Batman Begins. I've been playing FarCry Instincts and Battlefield 2.

I still don't know if my Xbox is upconverting 'cause it's modded or if it normally does it.

[3RA1N1AC]

I still don't know if my Xbox is upconverting 'cause it's modded or if it normally does it.

you're usin' an add-on program, right? like xbox media center or whatever. cause as far as i can remember, the dvd-video program built into the MS dashboard doesn't even play movies in 480p (native resolution of dvd-video). so yeah, the modding would be the reason you're able to get 1080i.

there are some xbox games that support 720p or 1080i, but they're relatively rare and i'm not exactly sure what's going on in those. my guess would be that xbox doesn't have the horsepower to render very good 3D graphics in high-def, so those games might render at 480p and upconvert to high-def.

x360 won't upconvert dvd-video until MS offers a DVI or HDMI cable for it & decides to enable upconverting. component cable or vga cable = no upconvert 'cause they're not digital and can't be monitored & locked down. it's an orwellian hollywood thing.

[Busyman]

I still don't know if my Xbox is upconverting 'cause it's modded or if it normally does it.

you're usin' an add-on program, right? like xbox media center or whatever. cause as far as i can remember, the dvd-video program built into the MS dashboard doesn't even play movies in 480p (native resolution of dvd-video). so yeah, the modding would be the reason you're able to get 1080i.

there are some xbox games that support 720p or 1080i, but they're relatively rare and i'm not exactly sure what's going on in those. my guess would be that xbox doesn't have the horsepower to render very good 3D graphics in high-def, so those games might render at 480p and upconvert to high-def.

x360 won't upconvert dvd-video until MS offers a DVI or HDMI cable for it & decides to enable upconverting. component cable or vga cable = no upconvert 'cause they're not digital and can't be monitored & locked down. it's an orwellian hollywood thing.

Not true. DVI and HDMI are not neccessary for upconversion. There are many DVD player thats upconvert thru component.

Also the reason I question whether the upconversion is resident in the original Xbox is because the Xbox dashboard is where I chose 1080i. I accidently chose 720p ONLY and screwed up my screen (my screen doesn't do 720p,curiously). I then hooked up my Xbox through regular cables and went into the dash and this time under video it only game me the options of NORMAL, LETTERBOX, and WIDESCREEN. Hooked up to HD it gives 480P, 720P, 1080i.

I had to remember the proper button presses to remove 720p 'cause the I could see nothing.

[3RA1N1AC]

Not true. DVI and HDMI are not neccessary for upconversion. There are many DVD player thats upconvert thru component.

players currently being manufactured? and sold by mainstream u.s. retailers? my impression was that some manufacturers included this feature for a while, until h-wood started flexing its muscles on the issue and then these "upconversion only thru DVI or HDMI" players started coming out -- as the two-way communication of the digital formats make it harder to record the high-def signal.

as for the dashboard... the mod allows more features on the xbox, like upconversion, but your replacement dashboard, xbmc, emulators, etc still check the configuration file of the original MS dashboard to see what resolutions you enabled. on an unmodded xbox, the resolution options would only tell the console what resolutions it can use to display games on your tv -- it would have no effect on dvd movies.

[Busyman]

Not true. DVI and HDMI are not neccessary for upconversion. There are many DVD player thats upconvert thru component.

players currently being manufactured? and sold by mainstream u.s. retailers? my impression was that some manufacturers included this feature for a while, until h-wood started flexing its muscles on the issue and then these "upconversion only thru DVI or HDMI" players started coming out -- as the two-way communication of the digital formats make it harder to record the high-def signal.

as for the dashboard... the mod allows more features on the xbox, like upconversion, but your replacement dashboard, xbmc, emulators, etc still check the configuration file of the original MS dashboard to see what resolutions you enabled. on an unmodded xbox, the resolution options would only tell the console what resolutions it can use to display games on your tv -- it would have no effect on dvd movies.

So you are saying that the 1080i option IS there on the Xbox dash or not?

I don't know about when HDMI/DVI doohickys were started for upconversion or not. I just know there are players that will do it thru component....if it even has that connection.

My main point was that component does not automatically equal no high-def.

[3RA1N1AC]

So you are saying that the 1080i option IS there on the Xbox dash or not?

the ability to run all kinds of programs in high-def, and to upconvert dvd movies... it's in the xbox hardware and the kernel (the operating system). the dashboard is little more than a menu (and dvd player) sitting on top of that, dictating what you can & can't do with the machine. the dash doesn't really DO anything, except hide the nuts & bolts of the system. the MS dashboard says "no, 1080i is only allowed for official xbox games, not allowed for dvd movies."

using an alternate dashboard just gets rid of a lot of the restrictions that MS places on the user; it's a new menu for the exact same operating system, just with fewer restrictions on what you're allowed to do.

[Busyman]

So you are saying that the 1080i option IS there on the Xbox dash or not?

the ability to run all kinds of programs in high-def, and to upconvert dvd movies... it's in the xbox hardware and the kernel (the operating system). the dashboard is little more than a menu (and dvd player) sitting on top of that, dictating what you can & can't do with the machine. the dash doesn't really DO anything, except hide the nuts & bolts of the system. the MS dashboard says "no, 1080i is only allowed for official xbox games, not allowed for dvd movies."

using an alternate dashboard just gets rid of a lot of the restrictions that MS places on the user; it's a new menu for the exact same operating system, just with fewer restrictions on what you're allowed to do.

I'm gonna test this on my friend's unmodded Xbox. He has an HDTV.

[3RA1N1AC]

I'm gonna test this on my friend's unmodded Xbox. He has an HDTV.

i hope you don't mean you're gonna check to see whether the MS dashboard literally says "no 1080i for dvd movies." cause it doesn't.

i just mean that them's the restrictions. unmodded xbox restricts dvd movies to standard 480i resolution. not even 480p (dvd's true resolution). sucks, man. i was pretty surprised to learn this, when i first got my xbox and hadn't modded it yet. was expecting that i could just unplug my stand-alone dvd player and watch dvds on the xbox, but nope. 480i. same resolution as a fugglin' vhs deck. until you get it modded, anyway.

[Busyman]

I'm gonna test this on my friend's unmodded Xbox. He has an HDTV.

i hope you don't mean you're gonna check to see whether the MS dashboard literally says "no 1080i for dvd movies." cause it doesn't.

i just mean that them's the restrictions. unmodded xbox restricts dvd movies to standard 480i resolution. not even 480p (dvd's true resolution). sucks, man. i was pretty surprised to learn this, when i first got my xbox and hadn't modded it yet. was expecting that i could just unplug my stand-alone dvd player and watch dvds on the xbox, but nope. 480i. same resolution as a fugglin' vhs deck. until you get it modded, anyway.

I read that if you pressed both triggers at any time on the dash, it'd change to progressive scan but who knows.

I'll just simply hook up his Xbox thru component, change the settings, pop in a movie, and check the TV's resolution while the movie's on.

If that isn't a resident feature then I just became one lucky fella since my only expense for modded Xbox was the cost ($70) for a 200GB drive.

Fuck, my coworker's friend gave me the modchip free. It says XECUTER2 (or was it 3) on startup and has a blue Xbox logo.

Not am I playing games free when I wasn't games at all but I saved $200 'cause I didn't buy that Oppo DVD player.

Life is quite noice sometimes.

[cpt_azad]

Some LCD tv's are fucked up, don't ask me why I don't know, but at this point I couldn't care less cuz mine works like a charm.

Brought over my friends 360 the other day, put in PGR3, w/ component HD cables....i was blown away by the quality. no pixalation what so ever, quality was even better than the ones that EBgames has on display (Panasonic i believe). My point is the price difference between an LCD Monitor and an LCD TV (if u can find the right one) is not that much, so why not just go for the bigger one?

edit: ill try to get my neighbours digital cam, ill upload a pic of the TV online, but pictures won't do it justice , i love this TV