XBox 360 HD Content [Archive]

gkarris

Jan 10, 2007, 07:34 PM

Has anybody bought some HD content on XBox Live? Is there really a difference between the HD content and the DVD?

I see that "Enterprise" is now available in HD (and it was shot in it). I'm watching the DVDs right now and just want to know if I'd be able to tell the difference (I was going to download one show to see).

Thanks.

Grimace

Jan 10, 2007, 07:52 PM

wwooden

Jan 10, 2007, 08:21 PM

I downloaded the movie Posideon in HD and it looked really good. I wouldn't say you're going to be blown away, but there is a very noticeable improvement from regular DVD's.

I say do what you said, try one episode. I think they are only $3, so you're not much if you're not satisfied.

gkarris

Jan 10, 2007, 08:48 PM

You need an HDTV to be able to see the difference.

I have an HD capable projector...

I downloaded the movie Posideon in HD and it looked really good. I wouldn't say you're going to be blown away, but there is a very noticeable improvement from regular DVD's.

I say do what you said, try one episode. I think they are only $3, so you're not much if you're not satisfied.

Yea but MS makes you buy "points" and $6.25 is the minimum buy....

wwooden

Jan 11, 2007, 09:38 AM

Yea but MS makes you buy "points" and $6.25 is the minimum buy....

True, but you can always use them for other stuff too, such as game downloads or arcade games.

The point system really is the most stupid thing about the marketplace. IT just doesn't make sense in any way. They should just get rid of it.

Haoshiro

Jan 11, 2007, 09:43 AM

Well if you've downloaded any of the 720p game/music videos they have for free you'd see the quality.

It is noticably better then the 480p content, but not enough for me to pay 150% more for it.

gkarris

Jan 13, 2007, 05:41 PM

I broke down and bought an episode of "Enterprise" in 720p, and "Star Trek Original Series" Updated in 720p.

"Enterprise" looked a little better than the DVD, but of course, not as good as, say, "King Kong" in 1080i. The DVD is only 480p but the show has a high bit rate, hence only looking a little better. It would be nice to see it in 1080i, but which format? (Bluray or HD-DVD, oh here we go again.)

"Star Trek" was sort of wierd, the updates are 16:9 but the original scenes are 4:3. It looks better, but I have a 4:3 projector so in 16:9 I have bars on top and bottom, and then you go to 4:3 within it so I now have a frame around the whole picture. Looks like I'll just stick to the DVDs. Why did they have to use both formats? They should have stuck with either 16:9 and crop the original footage, or just make the updated footage to match the original aspect ratio.

Looks like the best deal for me is just DVD (as long as the bit rate is high) or straight to HD 1080...