XBox HD not working correctly!

[SacKen]

I am having a problem with XBox displaying pro scan capable games. I searched the forum and found nothing that helped my situation. Microsoft support has been no help so far so I figured I would try you smart folks.

I have a Sony KDF-60XS955 HDTV that supports 480p, 720p, and 1080i. I also have the Microsoft HD Video Pack for my XBox. I have the XBox Video settings to 'Widescreen' and all HD formats set to 'yes' in the dashboard. My problem is that the progressive scan settings are not working properly (I don't know about 1080i since I don't have any games that support it). All 480p Wide games show up as 4:3 instead of widescreen and I can't even get 720p games to display 720p correctly! Both widescreen and 4:3 work fine with 480i. Here are the things I have seen:

- When I change the Dashboard to be 480p (the "pull triggers and click thumbsticks" trick I read here somewhere), the screen switches from wide to 4:3 and the image looks squeezed down. The TV 'info' confirms that it thinks it is getting a 480p 4:3 signal rather that a 480p 16:9. When the dashboard is 480i, it comes through as 16:9 with no problems.

- 480p widescreen games such as Project Gotham Racing 2 produce the same properties as above. I have to turn off 480p to get widescreen or tell my TV to stretch the picture!!

- ESPN Basketball 2K4, which is a 720p game, Just produces colored 'streaks' of noise on the screen in 720p!! If I set 720p to 'no', then 480p works but is 4:3 instead of wide, like the above situations.

- ESPN Footbal 2K4, which is also a 720p game, runs in 480 no matter what I set. If I have all settings to yes, it displays 480p 4:3 like the others above. If I turn off 480p to try to force it to 720p, it displays 480i instead. So it never even tries 720p!

Please help!! I bought XBox because I heard the HD support made it amazing to play on HD TVs. This is really frustrating! By the way, the Digital Audio is working just fine and was still worth the $30 upgrade to the HD Video Pack.

 

[nick_danger]

OK, to me it sounds like your Xbox or your cable may be faulty. If your cables were plugged in wrong, you'd get no picture. If your TV didn't support all the ED/HD modes, you'd get no picture.

The Dashboard 480p trick (triggers/thumbsticks) has no bearing on actual gameplay, but that's odd that it's screwed up on yours. As time permits, I would recommend that you take your Xbox, your controller, and your cables with a game that supports 720p WS to a local retailer and just try plugging it into a demo HDTV. There is no reason that your TV would cause your Xbox not to display 480/720/1080 as there is no communication between devices, but just for the sake of troubleshooting, do it anyway. Be sure to go to a store that sells the HD pack, because you'll want to swap for a new one while you're there to troubleshoot.

Again, just go through and make sure all your cables are connected properly, and that all your Xbox settings are Ratio: WS, 480p: Yes, 720p: Yes, 1080i: Yes. The only problem I have ever encountered with HDTVs and the Xbox was with my friend's Samsung DLP (last year's model). Rather than having all progressive component inputs, it actually had seperate component inputs for progressive and interlaced devices. It didn't make sense to me, but it's also worth checking out. Like I said, you'd likely get no signal than the wrong signal...

Just one note, ESPN Football 2K4 does not support 720p, only 480p. 2K5, however, does.

 

[Vancouver]

Besides Nick I am one of the only other Xbox gamers on here that am interested in getting the most out of Xbox gaming. I agree with all he says, but will suggest something else. As simple as it seems make sure the aspect ratio of your TV is set to full. If all else fails get a new HD pack. Seems very wierd and i heve never hear dof your problem.

have you played The Punisher yet? great game.

 

[bhrvatin]

I have the Sony 60WF655 HDTV and I get the same results with the Xbox. I do not believe this is a problem with the Xbox, cables or TVs. (For the following comments, my Xbox video settings are 16:9, 480p y, 720p y, 1080i y.) I have found through experimentation that some titles actually output true 16:9 in progressive mode, but most do not. For the titles that do not, most seem to output a compressed 4:3 image that requires stretching to achieve the proper aspect ratio. I would theorize this may be due to a software limitation of the title, not the hardware.

I.E. Tony Hawk PS4 is spec'd as 720p and it produces a true 16:9 image in 720p(as the Sony reports, full mode.) Enter the Matrix in 1080i also produces a true 16:9 image. However, most other games that are spec'd 480p do not follow this behavior, i.e Project Gotham 2, ESPN NFL 2k5, Rallisport 2, Halo 2, Toca 2, etc. Unless the Xbox is set to 16:9, 480p n, 720p n, 1080i n, these games' output will be 4:3 (yet progressive as my Sony reports), needing to be stretched horizontally to fill 16:9 and display the correct aspect ratio.

Now, this all may seem strange up to this point, but what is really odd and also what I believe to be proof that this is a software issue is that FIFA 2004 outputs 4:3 480p and does not require the image to be stretched to maintain the correct aspect ratio. In other words, it is a true 4:3 480p game, whereas there are a few true 16:9 720p/1080i games out there and the vast majority of games are pseudo-16:9 with stretching, yet 480p.

I wish I could draw a better conclusion. I thought at first it was my TV or the Xbox itself, but then it should be "broken" for all 480p games, which is not the case with FIFA. This is precisely why I believe the issue to be hardware-related.

I have played games in 16:9 in 480P stretched to fit the screen and they look like crap. So I have been setting the Xbox to not produce any progressive output, because it qualitatively seems that a 16:9 interlaced picture is superior to a stretched progressive one.

Needless to say I am dissappointed with the Xbox when it comes to ED/HDTV output...

WAAAAY too long of a post!

Bart

 

[bhrvatin]

Just one note, ESPN Football 2K4 does not support 720p, only 480p. 2K5, however, does.

Nick, if you are referring to NFL(not NCAA) 2k5, my game is spec'd on the back of the box as 480p. Is yours? I definitely do not get 720p with NFL 2k5.

Bart

 

[bhrvatin]

BTW, I did a little research and found these comments on another forum, which you may all find interesting...

http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/history/topic/407798-1.html

 

[SacKen]

Thanks all. Your comments and the info on the link bhrvatin provided pretty much confirm what I have experienced. It looks like me having to set the TV to "full" so that it stretches the "squished" 4:3 image is what I have to keep doing. Sucks and is a pain, but everything works fine and looks/sounds great otherwise... with the exception of the ESPN Basketball 2K4 issue.

 

[bhrvatin]

Thanks all. Your comments and the info on the link bhrvatin provided pretty much confirm what I have experienced. It looks like me having to set the TV to "full" so that it stretches the "squished" 4:3 image is what I have to keep doing. Sucks and is a pain, but everything works fine and looks/sounds great otherwise... with the exception of the ESPN Basketball 2K4 issue.

I forgot to mention: Nice TV btw, the XS! I had decided on it until Crutchfield was giving away the matching $800 Sony stand with purchase of the WF series. I hope you are using the HDMI input!

Bart

 

[SacKen]

I forgot to mention: Nice TV btw, the XS! I had decided on it until Crutchfield was giving away the matching $800 Sony stand with purchase of the WF series. I hope you are using the HDMI input!

Bart

Yes, sort-of. I have a Dual-Tuner HD PVR from Comcast Cable that has DVI out rather than HDMI. So I have the DVI out plugged into the TV HDMI and still have to run the digital audio out separately directly to the receiver.

Yeah, if there was a free stand offer, I probably would have gone the other way too. I had my nerves ready for the $4100 TV but was floored when the stand cost me another $800! Unfortunately, WAF came into effect and I had to get the matching stand rather than a cheaper third-party one. Oh well, definitely looks cleaner with the matching stand!

My problem now is that my 400 CD changer is too tall for the bottom shelf of this stand by about 1cm. Another person on the board removed the middle shelf for a similar reason. I think I'm going to pull it all apart this weekend and remove the middle shelf.

Typical me... I have wandered off topic and rambled on... blah...

 

[bhrvatin]

My problem now is that my 400 CD changer is too tall for the bottom shelf of this stand by about 1cm. Another person on the board removed the middle shelf for a similar reason. I think I'm going to pull it all apart this weekend and remove the middle shelf.

Yep, this is putting a damper on my receiver choice. I was all set on the Pioneer Elite 54tx but it's too big. HK7300, too big. Denon 3805, just right! I need the two shelves, otherwise I'd never had put it in there in the first place. Is your CD changer heavy? The glass appears strong, but then again it is glass...

 

[SacKen]

It's not heavy. My receiver is probably the heaviest thing I have. But there is a very sturdy steel frame under the glass, so the glass isn't really supporting much weight directly.

I personally would like to keep and really do need the second shelf. But unless I want to spend another $200+ to get a nice component rack to sit on the side for the CD changer, I will just have to settle with setting things on top of each other (in a safe manner, that is... nothing on top of the receiver or DVR!!) Oh well... nothing I do is ever easy or goes "as planned"