There's some hysterical outrage out there right now over the New Xbox Experience's HD Netflix HDCP restrictions -- apparently it only works with HDCP-compliant digital displays, which is prompting a lot of hand-wringing about copyright restrictions and whether older 360s will get "locked out." Well, we're here to make it all better -- that's our NXE-equipped 360 connected over component, happily playing back HD Netflix at 1080i. See? Works fine. The problem is that some older LCD monitors don't support HDCP over DVI, so if you're in the minority of people using an HDMI to DVI adapter to drive an older display that doesn't do HDCP, HD Netflix won't work, since it can't authenticate. That's not the best situation, but DVI isn't a default supported 360 output, so we wouldn't expect 100 percent compatibility -- and besides, you can
always run VGA. We're waiting on official confirmation from Microsoft of all this -- we want to get things absolutely right -- but in the meantime you can console yourself with another shot of HD
Heroes over component after the break.
Update: Yes, it works with movies too -- we just tried it with
The Orphanage (above), and it looked great.
posted October 30th 2008 12:37PM
Calibration discs?? those are a waste. Get an ISF calibration, or get a better TV.
ISF would be nice if they were easily attainable everywhere and didn't often charge per input. I looked into it once and found it to be too outrageous to consider. Since I couldn't find any local calibrator I would have had to pay for travel plus the ludicrously large fees. I would have been paying enough to have simply bought another TV. At least with a calibration video you can get your display looking far better than they typically come from the store and at a miniscule fraction of the cost of paying an ISF calibrator. No, it won't be as good, but it's better than nothing and you hit dimishing returns going with a professional calibration anyway.
just a question: why my regular roku box does not support Subtitles. i see in the posted pic that it has subtitles for Orphanage movie. is it xbox360 feature? hd movie only feature?
1080i? Are you joking? That's just a micro-step above 480p (highest resolution available from a standard DVD). That's not even close to 720p, which isn't even full HD (1080p). People sure are drinking the Kool-aid when it comes to High Definition and what that term actually constitutes.
1080i is high-def fucktard...i mean frickard.
There is nearly zero difference between 1080i and 1080p on a 1080p set when you are talking about 24fps sourced material assuming your display has proper pulldown detection. Now, if you were talking about 1080p60 vs 1080i60 you would have a point, but there are currently no sources that utilize it.
wow 720p, 1080i are MUCH better than 480p. You gotta be kiddin' me, if it is only a micro step why would you bother getting an HD cable box if most HD channels are only in 720p and 1080i? Why would it even take the TV networks so long to change from 480p??
720p is much better than 480p, never said it wasn't. 480p is equivalent to 960i, which means that 1080i isn't that much of an improvement (where as 720p is equivalent to 1440i). 1080i is considered high definition, I never said that it wasn't kempcross, learn to read more efficiently and maybe someday you'll be able to use words other than "fucktard" to back your point.
Your reasoning is faulty.
480p is not the same as 960i, you are completely wrong on that. Any 960i/p format would be 960 lines of resolution on a display, double that of 480p. 960i would transmit 480 per each refresh cycle of the connection, but the end result would still be twice the resolution as 480p provided there is sufficient bandwidth to transmit all the frames of the source material.
And that's where you hit the base problem of your understanding. Film material and most TV material is shot at 24fps or 30fps. 1080i60 output (what we are talking about here) has enough bandwidth for a 1080p24 source material (and 1080p30 source material). The frames may be sent in sequences of 540 lines interleaved, but since the source material is only 24fps, you don't lose any information and a 1080p display can reconstruct the frame sequence properly giving you a result that's pretty much identical from the source.
The math is a little goofy to understand for 24fps material since 3:2 pulldown is involved, but 30fps material makes it dead simple. The source only has 30fps. Those 30fps are being sent to a progressive display at a rate of 60fps, only half resolution. The progressive display simply buffers the first set of 540lines and then reassembles the full 1080p picture after it gets the second set of lines. No mess, no degradation in picture quality, full 1080p image.
Things in my Netflix instant queue right now:
Heroes
CSI
30 Rock
Of course, I don't have cable/satellite service at all, so I'm sure I get more bang for my buck than most. But it's pretty awesome having a backlog of a CRAZY amount of TV (a lot of it pretty decent) for only $9 a month ($10 for me since I chose the Blu-ray option too). Can't wait to start streaming it to my TV instead of viewing it on my PC. $60 for a year of Xbox Gold means I'm paying only ~$14 a month for my TV viewing. Assuming that's all I was doing (which I'm not) since it's actually just a bonus when I don't have a Blu-ray movie sitting around to watch.
For movies? I happen to like that I can grab an old classic or someting off the wall on a whim. For movies I've got:
Steamboy
A Clockwork Orange
The Omega Man
Rushmore
None of those I'd buy, but now I don't have to. :)
No, you don't have to buy them, unless you want to actually be able to watch them when you want.
Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was available for streaming/renting online at one time. It is not now available. This is one of the problems with streaming, assuming just because something is available today means you can watch it any time you want is often incorrect.
Oh definitely, I don't think that Netflix is a replacement for owning copies of movies you love and want access to 24/7, ad infinitum (see: Ironman, The Big Lebowski, Star Wars: A New Hope for examples for me). But at less than the cost of one DVD per month, I get a huge amount of content as a compliment to my existing library. Obviously someone else's mileage on how useful that is might vary.
Nope used genuine Microsoft VGA cable for xbox360 on Sony XBR2. I noticed right away when I turned it on using the VGA cable. The Orange background looked really washed out and the games and HD-DVD (what a waste that add on was) looked even worse. I could not manipulate the TV screen settings when using that cable, the Sony TV was very limited when it came to using the VGA interface, there was no way to tell if you were getting actual 1080p, on the other inputs it tells you what the current resolution is but not on VGA. So I bought an Elite with Falcon motherboard since the other one kept breaking anyway and was thrilled with the HDMI pic quality. In my case the component looked better than the VGA on my original XBox360.
re: iee
No, you adjust the settings on the Xbox360, under the [what is now] System Tab. I suspect your Xbox was not set up correctly to output via RGb (VGA).
I only consider 720p and 1080p HD. I hate 1080i.
We loves 1080i, but we hates hobbitses.
I'm interested to see how these types of services are going to affect Blu-ray. there's no question that it's biggest competitor in the future is going to be digital downloads and while this streaming hd isn't anywhere near blu-ray's level in terms of A/V quality, it's a great start. I've actually been working with Warner Home Video on some blu-ray projects and they're following the progression of downloadable HD content closely.
Down with DRM!
Bilbo, 1080i is, by NTSC and ATSC standards, High Definition.
Just watch some Discovery HD and tell me that's not HD. DiscHD is displayed in 1080i.
i have found that the 360 can run 1080p through component wires. now before you guys bash me let me explain.... i have a first run 360 and last summer i picked up a new samsung 61" dlp. i dont remember the model number but it was the best one at the time. so naturally i wanted a 1080p signal for my new toy.
i went out and bought the vga cable immediately and hooked it up. worked like a charm. well after a couple months i wanted to hook my pc up to the tv so i went back to the component wires for the 360.
well when i was in back of the tv making the connections i realized i never switched the 360 back to 1080i/720p. well i took a peek anyways and it was still coming up ! I checked the 360 and tv and they were both at 1080p.I have heard one tv that could run 1080p through component but it was a HP brand. and a damn expensive one at that. in my experience the vga and components were identical in every way. damn shame too, the cable was 80 beans !
I have just tried to watch content that is shown to be in HD, but my 360 doesn't get that quality. I have one of the original 360 boxes (I bought it around the time it first came out), and so I have it connected to my TV (a 37" Sony plasma from about 3 years ago) via component. I thought that I would be able to get it in HD. Is this actually stopping it from getting the HD quality?