Microsoft Xbox DVD Playback Kit X Box Accessories Review

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5,
3 votes

Price Paid:  $260.00 from funcoland

Summary:
This message is for anyone like me who is using their x-box for DVD and game play. Be sure to clean discs and the lens, my XBOX is starting to go on me. Take extreme caution when the system is failing to read discs upon insertion and accessing the hard drive when in DVD playback. I don't know if anyone else is having the same problems that I am but im probably gonna just trade mine in for a new one before it dies on me. I bought mine used and it has been performing admirably but its on its last legs.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Price Paid:  $25.00 from Fry's Electronics

Summary:
i bought this DVD controller about a weak ago. i thought it was kinda lame that microsoft made me buy another controller when my xbox already comes with one, but as i think about it, its a really cool controller. its infrared so u can take it anywhere and still control the movie, and the options and buttons that come with it make it worthwhile. i wish though microsoft had made the xbos playable without having to buy the kit though, cause some of us gamers are poor, and its hard to support this habit. they should have done the same with Steel Battalion, and made a version you could just buy the game and not that 150$ controller! overall this is a worthwhile purchase but it seems somewhat un-needed.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Price Paid:  $20.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
I would not have bought this if it weren't for the price (on sale). I originally said that if it cost $10 more I would pass, but now I say it's worth even paying full price for. I'm glad I got it. This is just a great accessory to the awesome Xbox.
I didn't think it could be the primary or sole DVD player in the household because of the lack of DVD features - but I was wrong, they're there. Pressing the big green "Display" button at the top of the remote will bring up the options you might be looking for: subtitles, sound and settings, camera angles, and most importantly zoom! The zoom's(?) are from 2x to 10x - in increments of 2x. And yes you can play movies while zoomed in. I have to pause here and comment on the previous reviews: I don't know what they're talking about when they're knocking the picture quality - the quality is the same as it is on virtually every other DVD player; it's fine, it's great.
The other features that you look for in a DVD player are here too. Scan and review in 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 x (not as great as some DVD players but comparable). Step (where you pause the movie, then step forward (or back) frame by frame (here by using the skip button(s) after it's paused). Slow motion: watching the movie in the 3 variables of scan and review. And the kicker - not available on all DVD players - but HERE it is: manually centering the zoom AND playing (scanning) the movie in slow-mo while in zoom!
Now most DVD players have more feature-friendly remotes - that is, separate buttons for the zoom, the step, the subtitles, etc. - but this ain't bad believe me; it's not difficult to figure out, clumsy, or unresponsive, at all. My only real knock is that my Xbox is not the quietest machine in the world (if you know what I mean). It is quieter than my friends when playing games, so in that I am happy; but I just wonder then how bad his might sound when playing a DVD - louder, quieter, the same? Or maybe my ears are just overly sensitive to such things.
While you could do a lot worse with your $30, I don't think you can do any better with your $20.

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Price Paid:  $40.00 from HN

Summary:
I agree with Junior. The Xbox DVD player looks superb with some DVDs, but many titles suffer from poor color gradients. Pale greens and blues aren't shown properly and suffer from very blocky artifacts. It's not hard to pick and anyone with a 26"+ TV will spot the defect easily. Even my PC's Hollywood+ MPEG card outperforms the Xbox for DVD picture quality.

The layer changes are quite good with only a slight pause in the audio on most occasions. The menu system is a bit clumsy but does the job. The zoom feature is excellent and scanning is very smooth.

On the whole, it's impossible to recommend the Xbox as a dedicated DVD player.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Price Paid:  $29.00 from Wal-Mart

Summary:
I have had DVD for several years, my current is high end Dolby 5.1 with (of course) optical cabling. In my computer room, I have a 26" TV for the XBox or Watching News. We bought our daughter a nice DVD player for her birthday and she gave me her XBOX DVD remote. I set the XBOX to play in letter box mode, threw on a good flick and... Well, I was impressed. If you have an XBOX in a seperate room (like a lab or radio shack etc) throw in this DVD controller. The quality will only be limited by the TV and SOund system you play it back on. The XBOX will nto be the limiting factor.