Home audio & video forum: XBOX 360 HD-DVD Player Connectivity Help

H.D.M.I from X-box to t.v. and optical audio from X-b0x to amp YESS 1080P eyepopping where do you come up with v.g.a.? I own the stand alonge sony blue ray player hooked up this and its awsome but there is no v.g.a. stewee

I have a SXRD and the 360 HD-DVD add-on player and you are basically forced to use component and not VGA. First off, Sony is phasing out VGA support and you are right, VGA doesn't fill the whole screen. That right there is a deal breaker. Use component and set your 360 to 1080i, then let your SXRD deinterlace the signal to 1080p without any worries.

If you want to upconvert DVDs to whatever HD resolution you want, I would suggest getting a $100-$150 player that upconverts up to 1080i via HDMI and let your SXRD deinterlace it to 1080p. There is a nice Sony one available that is $120, I have it and like it alot.

You can't upconvert regular DVDs on the HD-DVD player, unfortunately.

There is a big difference in the interpolating calculations that a upconverter does between simply deinterlacing (i.e. 1080i to 1080p) and upconverting and deinterlacing (i.e. 480p to 1080p). Deinterlacing takes alot less effort on part of the video processor so trusting your SXRD to do that efficiently is fine and there is no need to spent extra money to get a DVD player that upconverts to 1080p instead of 1080i as the max.

On more modern DVDs that are made well they look almost like HD pictures when displayed on my SXRD via the Sony DVD player. Most people would be very pleased with the PQ that DVDs have on quality upconverting DVD players like the Sony. However, older DVDs that got poor to mediocre video transfers look not so good when upconverted.

The HD-DVD add-on performs well and HD-DVDs look great. I finally got a HD-DVD with DD TrueHD and the sound is really where HD-DVD shines over DVD. Less sound compression on HD-DVD equals better sound. Video looks better than HD content on cable/satellite.

Basically for $200, I would get it. It is a great HD player placeholder until the standalone HD players come down in price or a clean cut winner is crowned in the format war.

Other than sound, where you would really notice the difference between upconverting dvd players and the 360 hd-dvd is the spectrum of colors. I own a Sharp 1080p with a 10,000:1 contrast ratio and the hd-dvd through component really is amazing. I am also very seriously considering getting a PS3 for only BluRay exclusive movies. Wonder if there would be a difference between 1080i hd-dvd on Xbox through component and 1080p on PS3 through HDMI? I know the tv will automatically convert the 360's interlaced imagery to progressive. But what about color differnce when compared to a PS3 through HDMI?
How much better?