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360 VGA Cable Users...

Zep

Banned
Since im not beat to spend $52352394938 on a 720p tv, i'am of course taking the cheap/smart way out.

My question is, while playing a game how much of the screen is gonna be cut off becuase of using 720p? And I have a 17" CRT monitor.
 
Demigod Mac said:
my HDTV has a VGA input on it. Wonder if I should use that for my 360....?

I can answer that for you and say yes...because if im not mistakin VGA cables have more clarity...
 
DaddyZ said:
Since im not beat to spend $52352394938 on a 720p tv, i'am of course taking the cheap/smart way out.

My question is, while playing a game how much of the screen is gonna be cut off becuase of using 720p? And I have a 17" CRT monitor.


First check and see if your monitor will support 1280x720 input. I don't see why it wouldn't.

If it does support it, it's going to be displayed in 4:3 mode (like if you switch a game or movie into 16:9 mode on a normal TV while playing), so you'll just have to shrink your screen verticaly.
 
Ecrofirt said:
First check and see if your monitor will support 1280x720 input. I don't see why it wouldn't.

If it does support it, it's going to be displayed in 4:3 mode (like if you switch a game or movie into 16:9 mode on a normal TV while playing), so you'll just have to shrink your screen verticaly.

So is it worth the buy for $40 if i dont have an HDTV?
 
The VGA cable is equivalent to the component one. Personally, I'm going that way since my all my TV's component inputs are full.

As far as how much will be cut off on your monitor goes, you should be enable to the 4:3 option along with the 720p or whatever. How else would they deal with 4:3 HDTVs?

Or, if you still want to know, you could play a widescreen DVD on your computer and see.
 
The following resolutions are available when playing through VGA with the X360: http://www.dreisechzig.net/wp/wp-content/vgakabel360.jpg (if the link doesn't work, copy & paste it in a new browser window).

Boris "Doc Bobo" Schneider-Johne, product manager Xbox platform at Microsoft Germany writes in his private blog about the VGA stuff:

The games render only in the "plain" resolutions (480, 720, 1080) even if you selected a VGA mode with a different resolution. This means that 720 is going to be upscaled to 768. He couldn't believe that at first because the image looks perfectly sharp and without borders, but the game runs in 720 becuase when grabbing an image using their internal screengrabber tool he gets an image of 960x720 pixel.
 
Minotauro said:
The VGA cable is equivalent to the component one. Personally, I'm going that way since my all my TV's component inputs are full.

As far as how much will be cut off on your monitor goes, you should be enable to the 4:3 option along with the 720p or whatever. How else would they deal with 4:3 HDTVs?

Or, if you still want to know, you could play a widescreen DVD on your computer and see.

They don't have to "deal" with HDTVs because HDTV resolutions are 16:9. It's the 4:3 HDTVs that have to deal with the 360.

The Walmart kiosks wont let you set the console to 4:3 if you're at 720p, there's no reason to think it will let you use 4:3 resolutions with the VGA cable.

If you have a 4:3 display you're going to have to deal with letterboxing.
 
johnjohnson said:
The following resolutions are available when playing through VGA with the X360: http://www.dreisechzig.net/wp/wp-content/vgakabel360.jpg (if the link doesn't work, copy & paste it in a new browser window).

Boris "Doc Bobo" Schneider-Johne, product manager Xbox platform at Microsoft Germany writes in his private blog about the VGA stuff:

The games render only in the "plain" resolutions (480, 720, 1080) even if you selected a VGA mode with a different resolution. This means that 720 is going to be upscaled to 768. He couldn't believe that at first because the image looks perfectly sharp and without borders, but the game runs in 720 becuase when grabbing an image using their internal screengrabber tool he gets an image of 960x720 pixel.

Ah, I was at least hoping it would let you select something like 1280x1024 and then letterbox it to 16:9. If I send my monitor a 16:9 resolution it'll just stretch it to fill the screen. They should at least support WUXGA (1920x1200).
 
I havent decided if Im going with component or VGA. If there is no difference would having a component selector decrease the quality? My hdtv only has one component thats hooked up to my cable box and one vga that goes to my pc.
 
So I have VGA, and a selection of monitors and more importantly, a 360. This will change depending on your monitor, but this is what I got.

1. Widescreen VGA/DVI monitor - perfect widescreen 720, 1080i and native 1280x768 - all of which looked great.

2. Shitty CRT SVGA monitor. 1024x768 - looked INCREDIBLY good, but obviously 4:3 squished. No way to force widescreen on that monitor.


3. HDTV with VGA in. Able to get 720p widescreen (blackbarred) and it looked astonishing.

PS, component and VGA have IDENTICAL image quality. Depending on your cables and connections of course.

PPS., VGA cable has optical audio out for 5.1 AND stereo RCA. I am surprised there's no "headphone" audio out for PC speakers, but a $2 adapter will fix that.
 
Abit of clarification please.

I've got a generic 19 inch PC monitor I bought in 2001. Looking at the adjustable resolutions I can choose I'm not sure what to make of them.

I see no 720,the nearest setting is 768.
Also-my monitor's resolution only goes as high as 1024.

So what's the deal? If I wanted to play in 720 would the games upscale to 768 then?

What about the monitor's 1024 setting? If the monitor doesn't go to 1080 then what,I'm only able to go to 768? Or would it just upscale to the nearerst setting closest to 1080,which would be 1024 on my monitor.(?)
 
I'm worried that most games will look quite jaggy on a PC monitor compared to a proper HDTV (running at same resolution), something about VGA monitors being too sharp totally killed VGA on current gen consoles for me... Sure next gen runs in higher resolution, but I bet it'll look better on an HDTV for games without FSAA.
 
If you want to play 360 on a PC monitor, I'd suggest trying it out on the one you've got come Nov. 22. Then, if you aren't happy, try new ones with a return policy.

Likewise, if you already have an HDTV in 1080i, you might want to see how it looks first before dropping cash on a new set. I was seriously considering picking up an SXRD this month, but even by waiting a few months, prices will drop, the sets will probably get better (reliability, panel convergence, etc), and we'll learn more about any potential issues.
 
Stinkles said:
2. Shitty CRT SVGA monitor. 1024x768 - looked INCREDIBLY good, but obviously 4:3 squished. No way to force widescreen on that monitor.

ok, wait
are you saying that the 4:3 mode isn't standard in the 360 games?
because I'm planning to use a shitty CRT SVGA monitor
 
If the scaler is worth a damn it can do aspect ratio correction (including adding black bars) itself with a simple menu option. If the dashboard designers left out such a feature by omission, they need to get an update out.
 
FiRez said:
ok, wait
are you saying that the 4:3 mode isn't standard in the 360 games?
because I'm planning to use a shitty CRT SVGA monitor
...

You know HDTV resolutions aren't in 4:3, right?

1280x720 is 16:9.

where have you been for the past few months?
 
Ecrofirt said:
...

You know HDTV resolutions aren't in 4:3, right?

1280x720 is 16:9.

where have you been for the past few months?

ok, I stand corrected, I thought that that the 360 games could be displayed in 4:3 but at higher resolutions like the PC games (1024*768, 1280*1024, 1600*1200)
 
Sounds like I'm going to be screwed with my 1280x1024 LCD monitor.. It stretches widescreen resolutions to fill the screen. :|

If the system can't do a 1280x768 16:9 letterbox, with black top and bottom bars on a 1280x1024 monitor, somebody at Microsoft is either incompetent or stupid.

Alas, that is probably the case.
 
Ecrofirt said:
What's the point of 1280x1024? It's such a weird resolution.

Lots of the higher resolutions are weird aspect ratios. 1280x1024 is 5:4 and is from the SXGA standard. I'm currently using a 23" WUXGA monitor, wich is 16:10 and has a resolution of 1920x1200.
 
hmmm I was looking to use my 19' LCD monitor for HD.

my best res is 1280x1024, will their not be 4:3 HD ? :\
 
packagingxbox360VGAHDcable.jpg



Where would i hook the red/white cables up too? Or are they for sound?
 
DaddyZ said:
packagingxbox360VGAHDcable.jpg



Where would i hook the red/white cables up too? Or are they for sound?

Correct, they are for sound.

Am I right in saying that apart from maybe 640x480, it will be widescreen with black borders top and bottom when using this cable?
 
PG2G said:
red and white are for sound on every other cable, so I'd assume they are for sound here too :)

I hate to sound clueless, but i'am...

Where would they plug into? my speakers? Because i dont know if thats possible w/ mine.
 
DaddyZ said:
I hate to sound clueless, but i'am...

Where would they plug into? my speakers? Because i dont know if thats possible w/ mine.

A television of receiver. For connection to your speakers, you'd probably need to buy a small convertor from the red and white cables to a headphone sized one.
 
PG2G said:
A television of receiver. For connection to your speakers, you'd probably need to buy a small convertor from the red and white cables to a headphone sized one.

Ok, i understand....how much do they cost?

or if you could please show me a website where?
 
No, because it actually supports future technologies instead of ancient ones. HDMI ftw.

Yeah, DVI is going to do the Rev a lot of good when it only supports 480p.
 
I just noticed the back of my monitor doesnt have a VGA output...so does that mean I need a female to female VGA adaptor to make it work?
 
Birbo said:
Doesn't the male end of that need to be female instead so you can plug your computer speaker cable into it?


Oh, right, sorry.

You can get the other one I mentioned, and then one of these and you're set, if I'm not mistaken again:

35-581.jpg
3.5mm female to 3.5mm female stereo coupler

Get it here for $1.90.

Or get a female to female version of the first adapter I mentioned, if you can find it :)

Edit: Here is the right adapter.
SDMT-AP170.gif
 
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