Double the value of your xbox! (Xbox Official DVD Movie Playback Controller)

Member Name: esthersmile

Product:	Xbox Official DVD Movie Playback Controller
Date:	04/12/03 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plays DVD's well, saves money on having to buy a separate DVD player

Disadvantages: Cheap quality remote, Could be considered expensive for what it is, Package is near-impossible to open

I got an xbox for my birthday last year and was pretty pleased with it (Halo being in my opinion the best game ever invented). However, my main quibble was the price, given that it was, at the end of the day, just a pc in a box.

I then spotted the DVD movie playback controller in HMV for £19.99. I thought this was very steep for a small thingy that plugged into one of the controller ports and a remote so I didn't get it (as well as the fact that i owned no DVDs at that point).

The two things happened:
1) a friend explained to me that Microsoft weren't allowed to package the xbox with the DVD playing gadget since each DVD player must have a licence and that they needed to be sold separately for this purpose.
2) I won a DVD in a competition.

Obviously the second one was the most important factor in making my decision, since a quick chat with a friend is unlikely to convince anyone that microsoft would avoid an opportunity to screw people out of money, but i digress...

So, to cut a short story even shorter i bought one.

Packaging:
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The packaging contains a small black thing with a infra-red reciever which picks up signals from the remote, and the remote itself.
It's a horrid green colour, but fits with the xbox.
It's impossible to open without scissors and a lot of patience/strength.

Product:
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The small dongle thingy is fairly sturdy, although if you don't keep it attatched to the xbox it's easily lost since it's about the size of a bourbon biscuit! I tseems ot pick up infra-red signals fairly well, just like any other reciever built into a tv or other such device.

The remote could be better though, although a good shape to hold, it feels very light and cheap. It has all the regular functions of a normal DVD remote though, and I've never had any trouble with it. The buttons are shapes relevant to their functio
ns and are all easy to press without catching the others (handy for someone with long fingernails like me). They also glow in the dark, so the remote is very easy to use if you've turned the lights off to make your own home cinema! Oh, and it only takes one AAA battery.

Picture and sound:
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Using the RF adapter I've got for my xbox, the picture is slightly fuzzy, but I reckon that's due to a crap TV (which is over 10 years old) rather than the player. I've tried it with the RF cable and sound and picture quality are good. they aren't what you'd get with some sort of swanky new SONY DVD player for £300, but they aren't £280 worse.


Overall
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The only problem i've had with this is the choice of films to play on it! I seem to have hit a bad spot with my choices from Blockbuster of late, and as such the poor xbox has been subjected to such horror as "Just Married", although i did make up for it with the astounding "Equlibrum".

I would recommend that anyone with an xbox on a budget, that doesn't already have a DVD player buy this, since it is a very standard DVD player for very cheap. It saves money on buying a separate DVD player, saves space and confusing wires due to the lack of having a separate machine, and therefore can be a very tidy addition to anyone's entertainment equipment.

If anyone is thinking of buying an xbox, some of the packages in places like HMV offer a movie package with the concole, this DVD controller, a DVD and a movie tie-in game. While this may sound attractive, most tie-in games are pretty bad (e.g. spiderman) so i wouldn't bother unless you have convinced yourself that the game on offer is any good. Go for halo all the way!

Summary: