XBox 360 Question - HDMI, Composite, and Component...

[Haggis and tatties]

Good stuff, a second hand official cable is a great idea, that's exactly what i did when i got mine.

 

[Thelin]

Got myself the wire and WOW. With my 1600x900 native resolution, I'm sporting the 1440x900 on the XBox 360 and, well, it's just absolutely unbelievable. Worth every penny. I don't think I'll ever be able to look at a standard TV again!

 

[Trubinator]

Get HDMI if you have a good 1080p LCD TV (40 inches or better). Otherwise just go VGA. I'm using the dongle adapter for the 360 on my 20" Samsung monitor and it works fine.

 

[Jim Steele]

I can scarcely believe that there was even the smallest of debates about whether it was worth $50 to upgrade from composite, lucifer's video connector, to VGA.

I'm so glad you went for VGA, 'cos the thought that there are people out there playing current gen games in smear-o-vision makes me cry myself to sleep.

 

[Messianni]

I suppose I'll jump on it with a little question: I have a 360, original non-HDMI capable, on a 42" HDTV with component. Looks awesome. If I were to get a 360 with HDMI is it all that much of a jump? It doesn't seem like it really would be.

 

[Rii]

Yeah, unfortunately, no HDMI on my comp at all.

If your monitor offers DVI input in addition to its D-SUB VGA input, HDMI and DVI* are compatible with each other via a simple adaptor. No clue what the situation regarding HDCP/ICT transport (relevant only for Blu-Ray/HD DVD) over such a connection is, though.

* -I/D only, which encompasses 99.9% of all DVI connections. It's possible to find monitors that support DVI-A (i.e. analogue over DVI) input only, but you have to work at it.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I suppose I'll jump on it with a little question: I have a 360, original non-HDMI capable, on a 42" HDTV with component. Looks awesome. If I were to get a 360 with HDMI is it all that much of a jump? It doesn't seem like it really would be.

HDMI is the best picture but not to the extent and cost of buying a HDMI 360, if your TV has a VGA input get yourself the 360 VGA cable, it will offer your the best possible picture for your present 360 and at a fraction of the cost, and you will see a difference in sharpness and Rich vivid colours with VGA.

HDMI is the best picture but VGA is right behind it in quality, the difference is negligible at best......i ran my old Prem quite happily on my 42in LCD via VGA right up until last year, when it RROD on me, and seeing as it was the 4Th refurbish i decided to part exchange it for a 60gig with a HDMI.

 

[Messianni]

It does have VGA as a matter of fact. I'm just wondering how audio would come in, since my TV calls it "PC" and takes in audio from the 1/8 speaker jack it has. There might be some setting to move it over to a different audio source for all I know.

 

[DarkHelmet]

I suppose I'll jump on it with a little question: I have a 360, original non-HDMI capable, on a 42" HDTV with component. Looks awesome. If I were to get a 360 with HDMI is it all that much of a jump? It doesn't seem like it really would be.

For me, and my setup, it did - noticeable for sure. Both in Tiger '09 and Gears of War 2, the HDMI image was sharper, not as "soft" as components, the colors "popped" more and the blacks were a bit darker.

Also, running HDMI at 1080 allows for my TV to turn the Overscan off - i.e. 1:1 pixel mapping, which increased my visable image on all four sides at least 8-10%.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

It does have VGA as a matter of fact. I'm just wondering how audio would come in, since my TV calls it "PC" and takes in audio from the 1/8 speaker jack it has. There might be some setting to move it over to a different audio source for all I know.

The VGA cable should look like this, your VGA connection and your two audio connections, plug your VGA, then plug in your audio connection which are usually next to the VGA connection, and away your go.

Now my TV did not come with the correct connections for those audio connections, i had the smaller RCA jack type connection, bit i bought one of these small adapter for a few quid and i was sorted.