VGA v Component for 360

turtle3 · 10 Apr 2006 at 16:13

When I first had my 360 I only had a 19'' tft to use it with so I did so happily with a VGA lead for a couple of months, I only had PGR3 and Kameo at that time and thought both games looked pretty fine but a little washed out

.... I recently managed to save enough for a sammy 26'' hdtv (same as 360 pods) and as everywhere I read said that component was the best connection I bought the leads and thats how I hooked it up.. As soon as I played PGR3 and Kameo on my new screen I noticed the colours were so much richer/deeper, seemed a little too dark for my liking but with a little fiddling overall it looked splendid. The thing thats :confused:

me though is that ive tried Oblivion and TRL and was not impressed much with the graphics, compared to the PC versions as both games seemed a little blurred and too dark, no definition, that was untill I reverted back to VGA. VGA with Tomb raider Legends has a MASSIVE improvement to visuals over component everything looks so much sharper and defined and actually looks better than the pc version which it definately did not when hooked up via component. Oblivion also benefits from VGA especially indoor/dungeon scenes, things can actually be seen much clearer which no amount of adjusting on composite can match. Its all left me a little confused as to which is the best connection to use,??Is it just me or anyone else notice this??

What display connections are you guys using/prefer??

NokkonWud · 10 Apr 2006 at 16:15

Went from VGA on my 17" Iiyama monitor to Component on my 42" Sony Plasma and Oblivion and Tomb Raider look far better!

However, I can't always use the TV (main viewing screen) and have to use my monitor as it's always free to use, however, I am getting a screen when I move house (atleast 32" as anything less doesn't interest me).

turtle3 · 10 Apr 2006 at 16:31

Thats strange, its the complete opposite for me.. I found the biggest difference is noticed by looking at the rocks on demo in TRL, with component they are dark and somewhat featureless, also lara looks a little blurred, as soon as I swap to VGA rock features/bump mapping can be seen where darkness was and lara really sharpens up, all the tools on her belt are really defined and can be picked out where they were a bit of a blur before,

Do you find component generally gives a darker picture over VGA?? If not then maybe Ive got something set up wrong somewhere??

~~EDITED~~Component,.lol

gord · 10 Apr 2006 at 16:33

ARG Stop saying composite you hurt my mind..

El_Watcher · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:11

gord said:
ARG Stop saying composite you hurt my mind..

Yes, VGA will always beat composite. Component video on the other hand is much better than both.
Composite is the single yellow plug/socket (with red and white for audio). Component has the three strange colours for video, no audio unless you use the red and white as for composite.

gord · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:15

Cheers turtle, i thought thats what you meant..

As for the images..

The majority seem to feel that:

VGA = Clearer, sharper image, but with washed out colours.

Component = Vivid darker image but less clarity.

Although, im using component on my LCD and much prefer it over any VGA ive seen.

turtle3 · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:22

El_Watcher said:
Yes, VGA will always beat composite. Component video on the other hand is much better than both.
Composite is the single yellow plug/socket (with red and white for audio). Component has the three strange colours for video, no audio unless you use the red and white as for composite.

Sorry, I was talking about Component, somehow I changed to composite half way through,,only had 2 strongbows's aswell, lol

Maybe its just me, but I really find when on composite the screen is darkened out/shadowed in places where the vga has features,, Ive tried taking up the brightness and contrast but just cant get the clarity of when hooked up to VGA.. Also went into game today and they had PGR3 playing Via composite/same screen but smaller and it looked a lot better than on my set up?? The only other thing I can think of is that both my cables are not official but are joytech one,, could that be the cause???

thanks guys

Jabbs · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:38

Well for me Component looks far better than vga.

R0B75 · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:38

turtle3 said:
I recently managed to save enough for a sammy 26'' hdtv (same as 360 pods) and as everywhere I read said that component was the best connection I bought the leads and thats how I hooked it up..
What display connections are you guys using/prefer??

The pod screens are 23"

Anyway, currently I'm using component and yes it can be a little dark, but since you can adjust the brightness when using component (most tvs dont allow screen settings adjustments thru VGA) I find the overall quality better. VGA is just 'as it is' with the colours a little washed out, even though it does look sharper.

Wyrdo · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:43

I'm using VGA, prefer it to component as I like the sharper image. Component has slightly better colour but the image is nowhere near as clear and sharp as VGA on my 2405.

t@xman · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:54

The reason you may find it clearer with VGA is that most HD lcd screens aren't actually 720p - they are in fact 768p. So, when using component it outputs 720p, and then the screen scales it to 768p.
With VGA you can set the output to several other resolutions, including 768p.

turtle3 · 10 Apr 2006 at 19:01

Thanks guys, looks like theres pros and cons for both options then, Ive actually gone back to component now, but I can see myself switching back and forth in the future even though it a bit of a pain reaching round the back of the tv, theres no way I can play TRL on component knowing how much better it looks on VGA,,, Right then, the boys asleep, the wifes at work, Im off to play Oblivion for a bit

Boogle · 10 Apr 2006 at 19:17

t@xman said:
The reason you may find it clearer with VGA is that most HD lcd screens aren't actually 720p - they are in fact 768p. So, when using component it outputs 720p, and then the screen scales it to 768p.
With VGA you can set the output to several other resolutions, including 768p.

However, the console still scales from 720p to any other resolution through VGA. There is only a single game than in HD mode doesn't render at 720p internally and thats PGR3. All other games are 720p and then scaled.

The reason VGA is so much clearer is it has two sync signals, and three colour signals (RGB). Component has two colour signals (Pb [Blue minus luminence] & Pr [Red minus luminence]) and a sync signal (Y) which contains luminence and two sync pulses. From this the TV can extrapolate the actual RGB values of each pixel. For this reason component will have stronger colours (usually) at the expense of accuracy and clarity. Remember component is not much more than S-Video with an extra signal.

RGBHV on the other hand (not in this country afaik, think this is an Australian connection) is made up of 5 signals: Red, Green, Blue, Horizontal Sync, Vertical Sync (R/G/B/Y/W), in this way it is a lot like VGA.

VGA is a pretty accurate account of what the game really looks like. Component is an alternative connection that is less expensive to implement at the cost of accuracy. Due to holding colour information in relative terms (and not even carrying an explicit green value) it offers 'stronger' colours. Incidentally you should be able to replicate the component effect by playing with the brightness & contrast. Contrast should be set quite low.

Update: Just found out component was introduced in the 1950s

It was an intermediate step in video processing apparantly.

NokkonWud · 10 Apr 2006 at 19:45

turtle3 said:
Thats strange, its the complete opposite for me.. I found the biggest difference is noticed by looking at the rocks on demo in TRL, with component they are dark and somewhat featureless, also lara looks a little blurred, as soon as I swap to VGA rock features/bump mapping can be seen where darkness was and lara really sharpens up, all the tools on her belt are really defined and can be picked out where they were a bit of a blur before,

Do you find component generally gives a darker picture over VGA?? If not then maybe Ive got something set up wrong somewhere??

~~EDITED~~Component,.lol

Component is darker in dark area's yes, perhaps a little too dark, but has a far better clarity and contrast. If my monitor took Component I would definitely be using it.

A lot of quality is down to the standard to TV set, mines a 42" Sony Plasma which beats any LCD TV for picture quality hands down that I've ever seen (and my Grandad has the best LCD TV available).

gord · 10 Apr 2006 at 21:00

NokkonWud said:
Component is darker in dark area's yes, perhaps a little too dark, but has a far better clarity and contrast. If my monitor took Component I would definitely be using it.

A lot of quality is down to the standard to TV set, mines a 42" Sony Plasma which beats any LCD TV for picture quality hands down that I've ever seen (and my Grandad has the best LCD TV available).

Quite a debatable post there Nokkon. The majority would easily says component is not better for clarity, VGA is the king of this as explained previously due to its split signals.

Plasma vs LCD is an entirely different matter, but im intruiged as to what you believe is the "best LCD Tv available", which frankly reminds me of saying "Ferrari makes the best cars"... horses for courses remember!

chaparral · 10 Apr 2006 at 21:10

Am playing tombraider on my dell 2405 by component...VGA looks washed out and burrly..

Spend about 2 hours sunday swapping between VGA & component on the dell 2405 and normal composite on my 32" widescreen CRT TV with the xbox360..

Boogle · 10 Apr 2006 at 21:51

gord said:
Plasma vs LCD is an entirely different matter, but im intruiged as to what you believe is the "best LCD Tv available", which frankly reminds me of saying "Ferrari makes the best cars"... horses for courses remember!

Indeed, quite an out of character post for Nokkon. Especially as new LCDs come out so often.

Chaparral: That'll be the difference between the LCD scaling and the Xbox scaling (and a mix of the two). 1080i is very close to the native res of the 2405FPW.

chaparral · 10 Apr 2006 at 21:54

Boogle said:
Chaparral: That'll be the difference between the LCD scaling and the Xbox scaling (and a mix of the two)..

But why is the 720p perfectly clear.. :confused:

with vga the text is burrly(fuzzy) on all xbox360 res settings..but with 720p on component it is perfect.. :confused:

Boogle · 10 Apr 2006 at 21:57

chaparral said:
But why is the 720p perfectly clear..

I admit it, you got me

Is there something wrong with your VGA cable? Maybe a different scaler on the monitor itself (different scaler for VGA/Component)? I do know most reviews complain about the VGA quality of the 2405FPW, but haven't seen any real tests with component.

chaparral · 10 Apr 2006 at 22:00

Boogle said:
I admit it, you got me Is there something wrong with your VGA cable? Maybe a different scaler on the monitor itself (different scaler for VGA/Component)? I do know most reviews complain about the VGA quality of the 2405FPW, but haven't seen any real tests with component.

I have my download system plugged into the VGA and it's no way near as clear as my main system which is plugged into the DVI......Like you said it could be a problem with the VGA on dell 2405

Am not using a microsoft Official XBox 360 VGA Cable..Any idea if that would be the problem???