I’ll preface this by saying that I love my Xbox 360 HD DVD drive. I also love war movies so you can imagine my excitement when I found out that “Letters from Iwo Jima” was coming out on HD DVD.

So yesterday, I picked up a copy of the HD DVD version of “Letters from Iwo Jima” and tried it out on my home Xbox 360 Premium console. When I tried to play back the movie, I was informed that an update was available for the “game” (which they really meant “movie”) so I went ahead and downloaded the update.

After the update was applied, I proceeded to watch the movie. A few minutes into the movie, I noticed these strange artifacts on my television set. Here’s a shot of the movie ..

followed by a closeup shot of the face..

And an even closer shot of the hat.

Notice the red dots? These artifacts were appearing randomly during HD DVD playback. I thought perhaps my disc was faulty, so I tried another HD DVD disc. Nope.. same problem. red dots appeared randomly in the video stream. If I looked EVEN closer, I actually saw blue dot artifacts too – but they were nowhere near as noticeable as the red ones.

So what was the problem.. was it my HD DVD drive? Was it my console? Was it the last update? Was the VGA cable? Was it my LCD TV set???

I tried clearing out the cache on my Xbox 360 Premium – nope. Didn’t help. I tried disconnecting all the cables and reconnecting them.. nope.. no help there.

Luckily, I had a spare Xbox 360 Core system lying around so I connected the HD DVD drive to that console which was connected to another HDTV via component cables. Once I applied the latest Spring Update patch and rebooted, I began playback of “Letters from Iwo Jima”. Guess what? No red or blue artifacts. Hmm. OK, so that rules out the HD DVD drive.

So I disconnected my Xbox 360 Premium console and connected the Core system in it’s place. My Core box was now connected to my Samsung LCD via a VGA cable and it was also connected to the HD DVD drive. I played back “Letters from Iwo Jima” and what do you know – NO problems whatsoever. Here’s a snapshot of what I saw:

OK. So that rules out the VGA cable, the LCD TV, the USB cable, and the Power Supply too! It also means the problem is either the console OR the last update. I would bet that the problem is the last software update. Unfortunately, the clearing of the cache technique didn’t work for me, so I was forced to call Xbox customer support.

So I’m on the phone with this guy (who sounds like he’s over in Asia somewhere) and he’s running through all the things he’s trained to ask, and I basically tell him at the end – “Look..I know it’s NOT the HD DVD drive, and it’s NOT the cables, and it’s NOT my TV. I know it’s the console and/or the software update”.

The support guy puts me on hold, goes off, talks to some people, and eventually comes back to me and says – “Based on your information, we’ve determined it has to be your console”.  Isn’t that what I said? I shake my head…

Without sounding annoyed, I said, “Yes.. it’s my console.”  He proceeded to say that I could send the console in EXCEPT my warranty had expired SO I would need to pay $120+ to get it looked at and repaired. What?? You’re telling me because of a stupid Microsoft update, I have to pay money for them to just uninstall and reinstall the update?? OK.. so maybe it might be MORE than this but still!

The support guy then tries to broker a deal with me and tells me he can offer a 25% discount. Erum.. you’re brokering a discount now? Do you guys need my business??? After a few minutes of thought, I decided to hold off sending it in since I was contemplating anyhow to get an Xbox 360 Elite. Yes.. I agree that my warranty is UP but somehow there should be a different policy about retarded software updates that muck with a console. Don’t you think??

For now, I’m using my Xbox 360 Core system to watch HD DVDs. I love “Letters from Iwo Jima” and I think the picture quality is awesome. However, I wish my Xbox 360 Premium system would be fixed.

Microsoft – can you please have an “Uninstall” feature for the Xbox 360?

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