JennJoy's Full Review: Microsoft DVD Movie Playback Kit for Xbox
A few months ago my fiancé and I found ourselves at the local Best Buy with some money to spend toward the new TV and a DVD player we had been saving up for. We happened to walk past the Xbox section and the console caught our attention as both of us have been interested in getting a new gaming system, but figured that purchase would come a few months down the road. The, we realized if we bought the Xbox DVD movie playback kit we wouldn’t need a separate DVD player and we would get games and DVD’s in one unit.
The “kit” is really two items: the infrared receiver and the remote. The receiver is a small plug in that goes into one of the Xbox’s controller slots. This is all the setup that is required to start watching DVD’s with your Xbox, so it couldn’t be simpler. Once you’ve plugged in the receiver you can play DVD’s in your Xbox immediately. The infrared receiver obviously takes up one of the controller slots, so it will need to be removed if you frequently have all four possible controllers hooked up. We only ever have two controllers hooked up so there has been no need to remove the unit, which has been very convenient.
The remote that comes with the DVD playback kit is a straightforward one. It has a slight curve to it and is made of lightweight plastic much like the Xbox’s controllers. All the expected buttons are here (play, reverse, forward, skip, stop, pause, title, menu, etc). You can control the speed at which you want to fast-forward or rewind and you can even pause the DVD and hit forward or reverse for a kind of slow-motion effect. The remote also has a display button with slightly more advanced controls where you can select subtitle languages, viewing angles, audio tracks, looping playback, picture magnification and language options for the audio and video. The remote also has numbered buttons on it like a standard TV remote and these are used to select a chapter from the DVD. These are really unnecessary as you can always select a chapter via the DVD’s main menu and I have never had occasion to actually use them. The directional arrows are used to maneuver between the various options on the DVD. The remote’s buttons also glow in the dark, which is another unnecessary feature. You have to hold the remote up to bright light to charge the glow and even if the room is completely dark other than the TV the buttons are hard to see anyway.
The only problem I’ve encountered with the remote is that once the DVD’s main screen is pulled up with the menu button it sometimes seems to stick and doesn’t want to move through the DVD options easily. This is a little aggravating, but not enough to make me wish we had just bought a separate DVD player. I do wish the remote were a bit more substantial, but it’s held up just fine after being dropped repeatedly. Unlike some complaints I’ve heard about the remote not having a power/eject button, this doesn’t concern me. When playing a game on the Xbox there isn’t a remote to eject or turn the power on/off so I didn’t expect one with the DVD playback kit. Plus, I don’t have a problem reaching across our coffee table to put a new disc in or turn the console off.
Purchasing the Xbox with the DVD playback kit was the perfect solution for us since we did not already own a DVD player. We were able to afford a new game console and a DVD player by paying an extra $30.00 for the DVD kit. I think this kit is a great solution for anyone who wants both items and doesn’t want to pay too much extra to have them. If you already have a DVD player and get an Xbox, I can’t see any reason to buy the playback kit unless you intend to get rid of your DVD player. Overall, the playback kit was a great purchase and well worth the cost.
The large-button remote features all the standard DVD commands, plus a 32X reverse & fast-forward User-friendly menus walk you through more advanced f...More at Amazon
The large-button remote features all the standard DVD commands, plus a 32X reverse & fast-forward User-friendly menus walk you through more advanced f...More at Amazon Marketplace
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