Connecting Sky+/X-box 360 to an LCD Monitor

Trojan

Trojan

Trojan

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I'm looking at getting a new monitor following my old one dying, and am considering the Samsung SM225BW. My question then is would I be able to connect a Sky+ box or an X-box 360 to it? If so, what cables/convertors etc would I need to do so?

Cheers.
 
You'd need a vga cable for the x-box 360.

The sky+ box I believe has an s-video out ?
if so then you'd need a vga box to convert the signal, or if youre also attaching the monitor to a pc you might want to consider poking around and seeing if you have an s-video in on your graphics card (may be on a breakout box) and using something like media player classic or X(the program I can never remember the name of) as long as you dont mind running your pc whenever you watch Sky.

I have a 215TW which has s-video and component inputs, however I cant give you a fair assesment of them as Ive only attached a ps2 to them so far for about ten minutes.
I do however have a dvd player with an s-video out lying around somewhere in my consumer electronics graveyard under my second desk, ill have to rig that up and try it out this evening.

(This all assumes you already have seperate audio)
 
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If I decided to go for the 215TW instead because of the s-video, would that display Sky+ ok? The reason I ask is that from what I can see the monitor only supports down to 30khz refresh rate. Isn't Sky going to be 15Khz? Or have totally got the wrong end of the stick?
 
Trojan said:
If I decided to go for the 215TW instead because of the s-video, would that display Sky+ ok? The reason I ask is that from what I can see the monitor only supports down to 30khz refresh rate. Isn't Sky going to be 15Khz? Or have totally got the wrong end of the stick?
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I don't know about sky boxes but I've tried my 215TW with DVD / PS2 / NTL(cable) via s-video & composite inputs and it made my 32" crt TV look pants :(
 
Obviously depends on model then because I've tried my xbox via s-video, gamecube via composite, and dvd player via s-video on my Dell 2007WFP and they all looked terrible.
 
mrgubby said:
I don't know about sky boxes but I've tried my 215TW with DVD / PS2 / NTL(cable) via s-video & composite inputs and it made my 32" crt TV look pants :(
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Sounds good :)

fish99 said:
Obviously depends on model then because I've tried my xbox via s-video, gamecube via composite, and dvd player via s-video on my Dell 2007WFP and they all looked terrible.
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Damn, don't like the sound of that. Anyone else had similar experiences?
 
Maybe terrible was too harsh a word, but in my case it definitley looked worse than on my CRT. It's a combination of a few things - the xbox (and the other sources I mentioned) is very low res, and - you sit a lot closer to your PC monitor.

When I play the xbox on my CRT TV I'm 6 foot away from the screen, whereas when I use the xbox connected to my Dell TFT I'm 2 foot away at most. Also it might be that the Dell just doesn't have a good s-video input, or good picture scaling. Also CRTs have softer pictures, so the low resolution doesn't show up as badly.

Clearly if mrgubby says it looks better on his Sammy through s-video/composite than on his CRT then the Sammy is doing something better than my Dell.
 
fish99 said:
*snip*
Clearly if mrgubby says it looks better on his Sammy through s-video/composite than on his CRT then the Sammy is doing something better than my Dell.
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I had the 215TW sitting on the floor in front of my 32" TV about 6ft away from where I (+family) was sitting , It looked brighter/clearer than the TV. I also gave it a quick go with a PS2 when it was on the PC desk & it looked good to me / my son at 2ft distance.
 
In that case then I might just go for the 215TW instead, though it seems a bit of a rip off to pay more to get a smaller screen :(
 
Im also considering the 21" Samsung, i think the reason for the price rise is the use of a better panel and component inputs? Either way, more features than the 22".
Would anyone reccomend the 215tw over the Dell 2007WFP in terms of PC/XB360 gaming, photo editing and general web browsing (perhaps freeview through S-video too)?
 
mrgubby said:
I had the 215TW sitting on the floor in front of my 32" TV about 6ft away from where I (+family) was sitting , It looked brighter/clearer than the TV. I also gave it a quick go with a PS2 when it was on the PC desk & it looked good to me / my son at 2ft distance.
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Ok. Sounds like the Samsung 215TW is just a better screen than the Dell 2007WFP if you need to use those extra inputs.

I'm gonna try my Dell connected to my Sky Digibox (it's not sky+ though so has no s-video output) this evening, just out of curiosity to see if the screen makes a decent TV or not. I suspect the answer will be not.
 
Trojan said:
In that case then I might just go for the 215TW instead, though it seems a bit of a rip off to pay more to get a smaller screen :(
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Have a look for a Gateway FPD2185W , it's got the same LCD panel / connections as the 215TW and costs £299. I could tell you where to look but it would be holiday time :eek:
 
Just did some more tests. Did xbox via s-video again. Doesn't look so bad from a distance but from 2 foot away it looks pretty messy TBH. Tested Sky via composite, looks fairly awful but I think that's most down to composite. Tested DVD player via s-video again. Initially it looks quite a bit worse than the CRT (outputting to both at once for a direct comparison), but after a while it seemed to become watchable, especially at 4+ foot away. It was also noticeably sharper than the CRT. The colour saturation and hue were quite a bit different from the CRT though.

One thing though, it was quite obvious to me that it was a 16:9 image being stretched to fill a 16:10 screen, so everything was a little taller than it should be.

I think Sky via s-video (which I can't test sadly) would be 'good enough', but I doubt it will look 'great'.
 
Anybody tried a 360 on *** 215tw via component? also can anybody comment on the apparant input lag problems? Really keen on this or the 2007WFP but the input lag issues may sway my decision..

If i cant decide soon i might just give in and get a 23" hdtv and lower the dpi :rolleyes:
 
Anybody have a 360 hooked up to the 2007wfp via vga? What resolution do you run at and whats the experience like? How far away do you sit? Thanks for any info :D
 
mrgubby said:
Have a look for a Gateway FPD2185W , it's got the same LCD panel / connections as the 215TW and costs £299. I could tell you where to look but it would be holiday time :eek:
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That looks very tempting, if only anywhere had it in stock! Think it must have been discontinued :(

fish99 said:
Just did some more tests. Did xbox via s-video again. Doesn't look so bad from a distance but from 2 foot away it looks pretty messy TBH. Tested Sky via composite, looks fairly awful but I think that's most down to composite. Tested DVD player via s-video again. Initially it looks quite a bit worse than the CRT (outputting to both at once for a direct comparison), but after a while it seemed to become watchable, especially at 4+ foot away. It was also noticeably sharper than the CRT. The colour saturation and hue were quite a bit different from the CRT though.

One thing though, it was quite obvious to me that it was a 16:9 image being stretched to fill a 16:10 screen, so everything was a little taller than it should be.

I think Sky via s-video (which I can't test sadly) would be 'good enough', but I doubt it will look 'great'.
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Thanks very much for that, that sort of performance will be fine for me really, as it's not going to be the main unit that I watch sky/dvd's on, just when I'm in bed.

So, given that I can't seem to find a FPD2185W for love nor money it seems to be a choice of 215tw or 2007wfp due to me requiring S-Video.
 
Trojan said:
That looks very tempting, if only anywhere had it in stock! Think it must have been discontinued :(.
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I bought the 215TW because I was told that it would be another two weeks before more stocks arrived.


That was a month ago :eek:

I've got the 215TW mounted on a telescopic wall bracket now , it looks like it's floating in space over my desk :cool:
 
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