HD-DVD Playback - On the Xbox 360 & on NVIDIA GPUs

Final Words

From what we are seeing, there are many more stressful H.264 movies currently available on Blu-ray than HD-DVD. The VC-1 titles are definitely less of a problem for modern hardware, but it wouldn't be a good idea to build a system for playing video without building for the worst case scenario.

While H.264 under The Interpreter did provide a good amount of CPU utilization, there just weren't any huge bitrate scenes to test worst case scenarios. As more action packed and intricate movies are released on HD-DVD with H.264, we would be willing to bet that HD-DVD movies could be as stressful as X-Men III.

Right now the format with the highest potential for pushing hardware beyond its limits is Blu-ray. With 50GB disks possible today, we could see 2+ hour movies with sustained bitrates of 45 Mbps under H.264 which would really push even an X6800 system with an 8800 GTX running the display. Of course, bitrates that high aren't really necessary most of the time, so it won't likely be an issue. But HD-DVD is currently limited to 30GB disks which decreases the potential for high bitrate video (which translates to large file size).

Generally, graphics hardware performed as expected based on our previous testing. It would have been nice to test ATI hardware as well, and we will test it as soon as Cyberlink or Intervideo can get us a player that is up to the task.

As far as the Xbox 360 drive goes, it makes an excellent addition for those interested in HD-DVD playback on a PC. The price is right, it's easy to use and set up, and it won't take up room inside a crowded case. It may be a good idea for most people to wait until the dust settles before throwing their lot in with either HD-DVD or Blu-ray, as the market doesn't seem robust enough to handle two competing formats. On the other hand, those who don't mind potentially purchasing dead-end hardware take a much smaller risk by spending $200 on the XBox 360 HD-DVD drive. Getting a Blu-ray player right now is a much more expensive proposition. typically running over $500 (though with the ability to record as well as play back content).

Those who don't want to take a chance on their PC being able to play HD-DVDs can at least rely on their Xbox 360 for that. The drive combined with the remote provided a very simple and easy to use experience. The Xbox 360 handled playing back HD-DVD movies as well as any consumer electronics device could be expected. Of course at a price of around $200 you can't find standalone HD-DVD players for less money, so if you have a 360 or PC that you'd like to use for HD-DVD playback you can get both for less than a set-top player.