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Xbox 360's Seriously Flawed DVD Playback
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Setup and HQV Benchmark Scores
Before we get into some specific examples, here's a quick rundown of the setup we used: First, we plugged an Xbox 360 (premium SKU) with all software updates applied into a really gorgeous Sharp AQUOS LC-57D90U LCD HDTV via component cables. All the images you see here were taken with a digital camera pointed at this screen, with careful attention paid to shutter speed in order to minimize blurring and after-image as much as possible. A screen-capture device might mask some of the artifacts we're looking for. We'll show comparison images from a Denon DVD-3910 DVD player. That's an expensive piece of kit at around $800 to $1,000 but it's not like you need to spend that much to get better playback quality than you see on an Xbox 360. We have honestly seen the same exact problem we will highlight here on other TVs, and you can get better playback out of many other DVD players?even a PlayStation 2 doesn't have many of these issues!

We chose to use component cables to hook up the Xbox 360, since that is by far the most common connection for it. Because Microsoft values compliance with the DVD Forum's rules, component cable output of DVDs is limited to 480p resolution. If you buy the VGA cable, you can upscale DVDs to HD resolutions; we've tried this before, and it absolutely does not fix any of the problems we'll highlight here. To make sure we have a fair comparison, we set our Denon DVD player to output 480p as well.

Also, note that all our photos were taken with the video in motion. It is not uncommon for DVD players to display artifacts when paused, so though pausing the video makes for clearer photos, it's not a good representation of what you'll see in actual use.


First, let's take a look at the HQV benchmark disc. The HQV benchmark DVD is produced by Silicon Optix as a means for testing the video processors in many devices, from DVD players to the latest televisions. PCMagazine uses it regularly to test HDTVs, and it has become pretty widely known in the A/V industry. The series of tests are designed to stress de-interlacing algorithms, cadence detection, noise reduction, and detail enhancement.

If you want more specific information, check the HQV site. The HQV tests are often pass/fail?you earn the maximum points for that test if your DVD player (or TV) displays the correct image and zero points if it does not. Some tests have a partial score for getting some things right. Because our Xbox 360 was outputting a Progressive signal, the TV's video processing didn't kick in on most of these tests?just as it will be with nearly all Xbox 360 customers out there. There is one exception: We purposefully disabled the TV's noise reduction to make sure we got the raw Xbox 360 output.

HQV Test Xbox 360 Score Maximum Possible Score

Color bars/vertical detail 10 10

Jaggies pattern 1 0 5

Jaggies pattern 2 0 5

Waving flag test 0 10

Picture detail test 10 10

Noise reduction 0 10

Motion adaptive noise reduction 0 10

3:2 Detection 0 10

2:2 Film cadence 0 5

2:2:2:4 Film cadence 0 5

2:3:3:2 Film cadence 0 5

3:2:3:2:2 Film cadence 0 5

5:5 Film cadence 0 5

6:4 Film cadence 0 5

8:7 Film cadence 0 5

3:2 Film cadence 0 5

Mixed 3:2 Film with video titles (horizontal) 0 10

Mixed 3:2 Film with video titles (vertical) 0 10

Total: 20 130


As you can see, the Xbox 360 is basically a total failure at the HQV benchmark disc. Even a typical $50 DVD player usually has a score of 35 or better. A score over 100 is considered quite good, and few video processors score 120 or more. The latest ATI and Nvidia graphics cards (even the fairly inexpensive ones), with the latest drivers, score well over 100 in the HQV benchmark.

Of course, if we've learned anything about the HQV benchmark DVD, is it this: You have to take it in context. Some of the features on the disc are things you don't really need your DVD player to do. For example, while noise reduction is nice in a DVD player, that's really something you want the display to do. Some of those film cadence detection tests are really quite rare on DVDs, too. They're important for the video processors in TVs, because broadcast TV will often squash commercials to fit a certain length of time by stripping out frames and such, but you'll realistically only encounter DVDs with a few different cadence patterns.

Still, the 360 failed all of them, and failed some tests (the "jaggies" tests) that are critically important for DVD players. That doesn't mean all DVD movies look like junk. Our tests revealed many titles that worked well and others that had horrible image quality problems. We'll get to those real-world examples shortly. First, let's look at some specific HQV tests

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