xbox 360 vga connection

asbob49 · 8 Sep 2008 at 20:51

Hey everyone
just got the official vga cable for the 360 to connect to my 19 inch AG Neovo screen (4:3) and the picture is a bit dark than normal. I'm running it at 1280x1024 and i've turned the brightness of the screen upto the highest setting and its like the colour i'm getting on my plasma via component. The colours just seems a bit washed out and dim. Also, there are much more jaggies visible in games. I'm not sure whether thats just the vga cable and that vga is supposed to be not as good as component or whether i've got the wrong settings/resolution. Any ideas? Is anyone else using the vga connection and having the same problem? if so what screen and what settings so I can compare with mine?

Phemo · 8 Sep 2008 at 20:54

It's a bit like that on my PC's monitor (Dell 20 inch widescreen - forget the exact model but it's 2 or 3 years old now), but I always put it down to the fact my monitor has a native res of 1680x1050 and the 360 can't output that (until the next dash update).

The reference level option made mine appear even darker in spots though - have you had a play around with those?

matty114 · 8 Sep 2008 at 21:16

Phemo said:
(until the next dash update).

So i can play at 1680x1050?, awesome

Phemo · 8 Sep 2008 at 21:50

matty114 said:
So i can play at 1680x1050?, awesome

Yeah they're adding 1680x1050 and 1440x900 resolutions at last. Of course the games will still be 720p and the 360's scaler chip will upscale but at least it's still going to be outputting in the monitor's native resolution.

Kreeeee · 8 Sep 2008 at 21:52

VGA has been a lot better than component for quite some time now, since the colour range option was added.

WatchTower · 8 Sep 2008 at 23:35

Kreeeee said:
VGA has been a lot better than component for quite some time now, since the colour range option was added.

But doesn't component only support up to 480p my Wii can do that. So would would want their 360 doing such low res?

Phemo · 8 Sep 2008 at 23:42

No, component supports up to 1080p (although not that many TVs can do this - any HDTV should be able to do 720p via component just fine though).

Dark_Angel · 8 Sep 2008 at 23:57

Phemo said:
No, component supports up to 1080p (although not that many TVs can do this - any HDTV should be able to do 720p via component just fine though).

100 percent correct

WatchTower · 9 Sep 2008 at 00:37

But surly 3 cables can't produce a picture has good has a VGA cable with all those pins dedicated purely to enhancing the picture?

Phemo · 9 Sep 2008 at 01:11

Seemingly they can on some TVs. It's probably a subjective thing, as well as the TV itself making a difference. On my old 32 inch HDTV my 360 looks much better in component at 720p than it does with VGA in 1280x720 res.

Other peoples experiences are that VGA looks better - it's just a matter of opinion and the display used really.

Also, 5 of the pins in a VGA cable are for ground alone, then you have red, green and blue carried over seperate wires. The other pins control things like vertical and horizontal syncs but in reality not all of the VGA pins are used for the picture. With component you have one cable carrying the basic signal (which if hooked up alone would give a black and white picture) then two other cables carrying colour information.