PC World High Definition Player Round Up...Blu-ray on Top

[marzetta7]

PC World High Definition Player Round Up...And looky where HD DVD stacked up?....Hmmm, last.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130058/article.html

[Shin-Ra]

They didn't have space in the checklist to mention ugly UI, chunky seperate hardware that doesn't fit together with console neatly, extra power brick, out of sync audio and lack of audio format support on the 360 player.

[theknub]

great news for hd-doa!

[GasCat]

I like the end results but these are the cons for the PS3?

"Pricey if Blu-ray movie playback not needed"
"HDMI or component cables not included"

odd for a Blu-Ray player review.

[baccusboy]

Ouch, they really ripped on the Xbox360 add-on:

Occasionally, the Xbox's output would slap us in the face with an ugly interlacing artifact. A brick wall in chapter 7 of Mission: Impossible 3, for example, looked especially annoying, vibrating in a way that brick walls most certainly shouldn't.

Video output was badly overscanned, meaning that movies were slightly cut off at the sides of the screen. And when I popped in a wide-screen standard-definition DVD, the image looked squeezed

The Xbox is also lacking in its audio support. Microsoft says the player can decode a variety of audio formats--Linear PCM, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution, DTS Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Plus--and it outputs audio only as Dolby Digital or PCM.

Based on our tests, if you don't already own an Xbox, you have no earthly reason to buy these two boxes just for next-generation video playback. A stand-alone HD DVD player (such as the inexpensive $500 Toshiba HD-A2) will give you better picture and sound, without the hassle of running two gadgets to do the job of one.

-- Lincoln Spector