Why Stream DVD Movies to Xbox 360?

By The Manolith Team on October 15th, 2008

With the development of high definition DVDs many people are left confused as to why streaming their favorite DVDs to an Xbox 360 console can make their viewing experience even better. While HD has become a standard term that everyone has heard quite frequently, few people understand exactly what it means or why it is a benefit to movie watchers.

When a movie is filmed on location it is shot in 24 frames per second, and this includes when special digital cameras are used to create highly graphic films. When a DVD player takes that original, or also called “native,” video stream, translates and projects it onto your television screen it causes it be displayed at different resolutions than were initially filmed on location. Basically, you are not seeing the film as it was meant to be seen, but through distorted resolutions caused by your DVD player.

What high definition (HD) DVDs do is allow you to see those films in the same resolutions that they were originally taped in. Without a distorted resolution, you see crisper, clearer imagery and are viewing the movie as it was intended to be seen!

This is exciting for many movie buffs who want the best picture quality possible. Some people are happy just watching a DVD however it comes out as long as it is pleasing to the eye, but technology buffs know that watching DVDs as the film was actually intended to appear makes for a much more enjoyable and visually stimulating viewing experience.

When Microsoft first released the Xbox 360 HD DVD player version of their popular gaming console it was widely sought after and became a standard in many homes. With over 500 HD DVD titles on the market viewers had quite a selection of movies that could be streamed into their Xbox 360, and then transferred to any other screen in their home to view wherever they pleased.

This of course included the ability to stream these high definition movies into their Xbox 360 and take it into other people’s homes, which is where Microsoft caught a lot of heat from the Hollywood film makers who of course feared taking drastic cuts in the number of DVDs purchased on the open market.

Microsoft ended up discontinuing the HD DVD player version of the Xbox 360 though many people of course still own them. The supply of HD DVDs made to operate on the players has dwindled down since it is no longer being made.