360's DVD player powered by Intervideo WinDVD
We heard complaints early on that the Xbox 360's DVD player is less than stellar, with reports of "very apparent dithering and artifacts in the black areas of the screen." Our subsequent poll contained a not insignificant percentage of users who responded that DVD playback looked "terrible."
On Wednesday, nearly three months after the November launch of the Xbox 360, "InterVideo announced... that the new Xbox 360 includes the award-winning DVD engine from InterVideo's WinDVD for video playback." Great. Considering the licensing agreement was announced last May, the need for a press release is a little dubious. Regardless, I have not heard similar complaints about WinDVD's other iterations. Hopefully, the software will be updated to remedy the problems that an, admittedly small, percentage of users are experiencing.
