[HeartsOfFire]

So I've finished my experiment. In this experiment, I tested the ability of the Xbox 360 to output a video file in 1080p resolution. However, I must concede that my experiment may not be very accurate given the source I used.

The source, in this case, was a DVD of Ice Age.

Let it be known that my XBox 360 doubles as my DVD player when streaming from my PC or AppleTV is not an option. My Xbox 360 is connected to my media receiver via HDMI cable, so I get HD upscaling on DVDs. The Ice Age DVD does not look any different than an Ice Age Blu-Ray, with the exception of slower framerate (the usual 30 fps).

First, I converted Ice Age using Videora AppleTV converter. It took the ripped source file and converted it into MP4 using maximized quality conversion.

Source file size: 3.1 Gigabytes
Converted file size for AppleTV: 2.3 Gigabytes, presumably 720p HD

Visually, it was exactly the same as the DVD upscaled to HD. It looked superb.
Audibly, it retained the Dolby ProLogic II encoding and played in 5.1, but the bass was noticably quieter than the DVD source file version. This was remedied by increasing the gain on the Subwoofer

Next, I converted the same source file using Videora XBox 360 converter.

Converted file size for XBox 360: 2.8 gigabytes, presumably 1080p HD

A myriad of problems assaulted me.

First, Windows Media Player -- the software which streams video to your 360 -- wouldn't recognize the MP4 file. A simple google search told me that barebones Windows Media 11 doesn't support MP4, that you would have to download a 3rd party plugin in order for it to work. All 3rd party plugins from the Microsoft website cost money, so I said 'nay' to that option. Alternatively, there was also a suggestion to change the file extension from *.mp4 to *.avi. Naturally, Windows warned me this may corrupt the file, but I did it anyway. Windows Media Player accepted the new Avi file as valid and put it into the library, but naturally it wouldn't play the file. On the other hand, the XBox 360 would. But first...

The XBox 360 would not allow me to play the video without first downloading the optional media update, which allows it to play videos off an iPod as well as MPEG-4 videos. I downloaded the update, turned the 360 off and on again, and tried to play the video. Again, it wouldn't let me. Again, it said I needed to download the media update. Curious, I logged into Live, and then tried to play the video. It worked. I signed out of Live and tried to play the video from start again. It worked.

For giggles, I turned the 360 off, then on again, and tried to play the video. It didn't work. Said I had to log in to Live to download the media update. I logged in to Live, logged out, tried to play the video. It worked. I suspect that the media update will not run unless the user logs in to Live first, possibly to receive an 'Okay' code from Microsoft authorizing the box to play MP4 files.

Visually, again, no different. Though when pressing the 'info' button on my TV remote, it acknowledged the signal that it was getting was 1080p, compared to the signal it was getting from AppleTV at 720p

Audibly however, things went ugly. The Xbox 360 would only play the video in Stereo, so the surround speakers and subwoofer were not used at all.

I offer no conclusions aside from Videora XBox 360 converter is no better than Videora AppleTV converter, despite proclaiming being able to convert files in 1080p resolution. However, I acknowledge that because my source was a DVD and not an actual Blu-Ray, my conclusion may very well be flawed.