Low-Budget Monitor for XBOX 360

sandy10 · 14 May 2006 at 14:04

Hi, my CRT Monitor has finally shown signs of death, hence I'm typing this on a pretty grey looking screen.

I want a Monitor for PC and XBOX 360 use -my Budget is perhaps £180 max.

I've scoured the sites, and been to the usual retailers for a look - they didn't seem particularly clear, especially those linked to consoles.

It seems I would need a response time of 8/ms, and that the larger resolution the better - I'm not fussed whether it's 17'' or 19'' - just as long as it does the job - especially where the 360 is concerned.

I'm not interested in watching movies on it.

On the OC shop, this looks ok - ACER AL1916WS 19 WIDESCREEN TFT

Is widescreen preferred for XBOX gaming?

Can anyone suggest a model? [not Page 3 type].

Thanks in anticipation.

FlyingFish · 14 May 2006 at 14:19

I'm in the same boat, my iiyama is going flicky and zappy. I have my pc plugged into it and my xbox360.

I've not been too happy about not getting a decently proportioned image from the 360 into a 4:3 monitor, so I'm definately going widescreen.

I started looking at the monitor you mentioned above, the Acer, but it only has one input: analogue. So I'm most likely going to plump for the Viewsonic VA1912W 19" Widescreen It can be had for 199 notes and has one analogue and one digital input. Its not the best looking monitor but who cares.

And Viewsonic have a zero dead pixel warranty thing

Mick

sandy10 · 14 May 2006 at 14:21

Forgive my ignorance, what are the implications of digital and analogue inputs?

FlyingFish · 14 May 2006 at 14:28

Er... I'm no expert but analogue is your normal 15pin D type plug and digital is that DVI plug, thats on most modern graphics cards.

The 360, I would plug the vga cable into the analogue socket and I'd connect my pc into the DVI cos my graphics card has a DVI output.

When it comes to image comparison I'm not too sure but I dont think there is that much in it, maybe I'm wrong.

Main point for me is the the fact I dont have to buy a switch box due to the Acer only having one input, and of course the Viewsonic dead pixel warranty.

This will be my first LCD monitor, but I'm not gonna spend lots on it.

Mick

FlyingFish · 14 May 2006 at 14:35

A bit more info on the Acer here:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/aceral1916w/6.html

There seems to be an odd issue with scaling on the acer with the 360.

Let me go find that Viewsonic reiew.

Mick

OK a bit of info on the Viewsonic:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/buyer/reviews/86351/viewsonic-va1912w.html
And another:

http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/monitors/0,39023935,39258736,00.htm

For the price I think its a good monitor to start with, and if you stick the model number in the search box above you'll find more info from users here.
Oh and I think both of these use the same screen, I'm just hoping the Viewsonic has better on screen controls/adjustments.

sandy10 · 14 May 2006 at 15:10

thanks for your help

okcpu · 16 May 2006 at 14:05

FlyingFish said:
I'm in the same boat, my iiyama is going flicky and zappy. I have my pc plugged into it and my xbox360.

I've not been too happy about not getting a decently proportioned image from the 360 into a 4:3 monitor, so I'm definately going widescreen.

I started looking at the monitor you mentioned above, the Acer, but it only has one input: analogue. So I'm most likely going to plump for the Viewsonic VA1912W 19" Widescreen It can be had for 199 notes and has one analogue and one digital input. Its not the best looking monitor but who cares.

And Viewsonic have a zero dead pixel warranty thing

Mick

You can't set your XBOX 360 to 4:3 in the setup menu? If not that sucks!

FlyingFish · 16 May 2006 at 17:28

I dont think its a case of getting 4:3 or not out of the 360, its just that everything seems better proportioned in widescreen. I think this maybe a subjective thing

At the moment on my 19" iiyama, good image apart from the 60hz flicker :rolleyes:

I have the 360 set at 1280x720 and the screens vertical adjustment set to minimum to get the proper widescreen type image. So in effect a letterbox picture with borders top and bottom.

When the 360 is set at 1280x720 it is in widescreen mode and doesnt give the option of 4:3. So I'm looking forward to getting a screen that will do this naturally.

Mick