Xbox 360 output options

TomDunne

I have been searching the web and unable to find any good opinions on this, so thought I'd consult Polycount for wisdom and guidance.

I bought a 360 a couple weeks ago and am currently using component cables. That's all good, except that my TV is now completely out of component jacks and I have to unplug my PS2 to use the Xbox (PS2 is also component.)

I could use a switch box, but my TV has a bunch of ports I don't currently use. I gather that MS isn't doing HDMI any time soon, but I also have a DV-15S input (basically a PC input) and the 360 does support that.

Does anyone know if the DV-15S cable is as good as the component connection, or if one is better than the other? Any input would roxor my boxorz. I'd want to use it both for gaming and DVD/HD-DVD, but am not sure what has higher image fidelity.

Joshua Stubbles

I've noticed that the VGA cable has a higher brightness, but seems to have a smoother framerate.
MS is doing a HDMI cable, but not in the very near future.

I used the VGA on my PC monitor and it looked great. But it seemed a little bright on my larger HDTV. The image was certainly smooth though, and looked a little better overall.
Basically you just need to test each output, and see which one you find better.

sonic

The VGA cable seems to have issues with colors, but the latest patch was supposed to fix that for the most part. Why don't you put the PS2 on S-video and leave the 360 on component? PS2 looks better on S-video IMO.

TomDunne

Thanks for the info, interesting thing about the color issue. I'd read elsewhere that the VGA input was better for the HD-DVD add-on, but no one has actually said why that might be.

With the PS2, I only have the component cable and the old skool a/v cable, so I'm a bit stuck there. I went through a phase in which I bought component everything (DVD, GameCube, cable box, etc) and haven't left myself any downgrade options. What sucks is that I still have a free HDMI jack and nothing to plug into it.

Justin Meisse

take it from me, 360 VGA sucks. On the plus side, the cheap Chinese counterfeit (Miorcsoft) ones you can get on eBay are just as good as the official Microsoft ones.

Xenobond

I'd actually recommend the vga cables. I haven't noticed any problems with it. Colors come out just fine, and as long as your tv can support any of the display resolutions it offers (quite a few), then I'd say go fer it.

Rick Stirling

The 360 VGA is superb - it is better than the component. FACT.

Oh, and if you really want to know, go to AVforums - they have all the technical answers for you.

Rick Stirling

Yes, it's an old thread, but over the last week I've had to discuss this issue with the man sent to fix my TV (who told me you can't get 60Hz to work in the UK until I showed him my Xbox360 and PS2 and Gamecube could all use 60hz on my TV).

VGA *IS* better than component, because VGA has an RGB signal like HDMI, but component does not.

Read all about it here:

http://www.rsart.co.uk/2006/12/31/console-to-tv-connection-cables/

Wahlgren

The vga and component discussion seems to continue even here. On a home theatre-forum m frequently visit they came to the conclusion that component and vga works "differently" on different screens.

Some got great results with VGA, Some got great results with component. It seems to vary alot.

I myself use the VGA though, I get aswesome quality with it. Using a projector myself.

eld

If you have a 720p with an actual amount of 768 pixels in height, and more in width, the vgacable will make the xbox actually use them for the game, while the component will do 720 and the tv will stretch.

Bort

[ QUOTE ]
If you have a 720p with an actual amount of 768 pixels in height, and more in width, the vgacable will make the xbox actually use them for the game, while the component will do 720 and the tv will stretch.

[/ QUOTE ]

As I understand it, that's not true.
On either cable the 360 will create a 720 frame. If you use a vga cable set to blah*768 then the 360's cheap internal scaler will scale the image. With component a 720 frame will be sent out clean and the screen will either show it with black borders or the tv's (hopefully decent) scaler would stretch it out to 768.

eld

I'm probably wrong then, but on my samsung I've had far better results with the vga-cable compared to the component, guess it varies from tv to tv.

Rick Stirling

That's probably because VGA is an RGB signal, and component is not, its black and white with two colour channels.

eld

yes, but colours aside, the image is much more crisp on my above-720p resolution.