How Does XBox Stand Up as a DVD Player?

Posted by Cliff on Tuesday November 20, 2001 @04:17AM from the user-reactions dept.

Luddite Joe asks: "I'm planning on buying myself a DVD player for Christmas, spending maybe 200 bucks or so. I've also considered that I might buy an Xbox a couple of months down the road - but that's less certain. So I think to myself, the Xbox is a DVD player, right? If I hold off a couple of months and just buy the Xbox, I won't be wasting money on a DVD player that is almost immediately redundant. Keeping in mind that I'm buying more or less a low end, single disc DVD - how do the capabilities and quality of the Xbox as a DVD player compare? I don't want to sacrifice quality or features (or level of DVD compatibility), as I can get a pretty decent DVD for what I'm planning on spending."

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Re:Computer DVD. by pete-classic · 2001-11-20 06:41 · Score: 3, Interesting

I went the PC-DVD route. It has its advantages, such as pretty easy region hacking, pretty easy macrovision hacking, really good quality (to my eyes software decoding looks good), less $$.

OTOH, I bought a macrovison/region hacked standalone because I couldn't cope with the pain-in-the-ass side effects of using the PC. The biggest ones were having something happen on the PC (oops, forgot to close my mail client, and I got new mail) and having the movie pop back into windowed mode, and trying to use a wireless (RF) keyboard for a remote. Having to listen to the PC while watching a movie (frankly, I don't watch movies turned up real loud, and the sound of the disc spinning in the standalone bugs me sometimes.) was a drag, too.

So, I don't recommend the PC method.

-Peter