Xbox Monitor Resolution?

mad_weegie · 22 Sep 2010 at 15:52

I have a samsung syncmaster 2433bw 24" monitor (1920 x 1200) and currently have xbox HD VGA cable going into it.

The text isnt as clear as i would like. maybe a little fuz, i was wondering if anyone else has 24" monitors and what resolutions are best suited for overall experience with xbox.

cmndr_andi · 22 Sep 2010 at 15:58

Hi there, is the image filling the screen or are there black bars at the top and bottom?

Also, can I just confirm this is an XBox 360, not an original XBox?

mad_weegie · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:04

Black bars if i use 1680 x 1050

xbox doesnt give me the res of 1920 x 1200 , so it gives me the other one of 1920 x 1080 and its very stretched ( me not likely) lol.

xbox 360 mate.

A2Z · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:07

I use my xbox 360 with a 24" monitor.

I know what you're saying - im on 1920 - 1200 on my desktop, and 1920 x 1080 didnt exactly fit when using the xbox - let me start it up and see what im using it on.

Ok its 1440 - 900 - thats the best fit i found.

agnes · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:07

have you got a hdmi slot? Could be the cable.

ags

mad_weegie · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:07

agnes said:
have you got a hdmi slot? Could be the cable.

ags

no hdmi slot on this monitor. I have the official Xbox VGA HD cable and also another 3rd party HDMI to DVI cable.. but both same results.

I know xbox ouputs at native 16.9 res and this monitor is 16:10

Demon · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:13

mad_weegie said:
Black bars if i use 1680 x 1050

xbox doesnt give me the res of 1920 x 1200 , so it gives me the other one of 1920 x 1080 and its very stretched ( me not likely) lol.

xbox 360 mate.

if your monitor is 1920*1200, that's an aspect ratio of 16:10, so using 1680*1050 (also 16:10) shouldn't give you any black bars on your monitor??

With regards to the 1920*1080 on a 1920*1200 monitor, you really need the monitor to be able to manually set the aspect ratio (My PC monitor can) to 16:9 for it to be pixel perfect..

mad_weegie · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:14

1440 x 900 ok ill go with that, black bars etc but that i dont care about! just wanting the best res.

Demon · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:16

OK, sounds like you've spotted the aspect ratio thing!, start looking in your monitors menu/manual and see what options you have for input scaling/aspect ratios..

On my Monitor, I can switch between 16:9/16:10 and 1:1..

I'd also use the HDMI->DVI lead, it'll be pixel perfect, 1920*1080 over VGA has a slight softness to it as it's analogue...

mad_weegie · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:17

you would think xbox would give more support with monitors these days!

cmndr_andi · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:21

Damn, that is a shame.

At 1680x1050 is that just black bars at the top and bottom, or are there some at the sides too?

As for 1920x1080 input - because it is stretching a 1080 pixel high image over 1200 pixels it will certainly look bad. Your best bet is to give these adjustments a try.

Also, do you have a DVI to HDMI adapter handy (as well as a HDMI cable)?

mad_weegie · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:23

1680 x 1050 is just black bars at top and bottom.

yeah i got both adaptors here.

yeah i use auto source and it does make the images clear.. its just when going from my hdmi tv you get the options of 1080p and its really nice and clear.. but using monitor with both cables.. you get to set the resolutions but the section for HD is greyed out etc.

point decay · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:28

ive got my 360 running on a Hanns G 27.5 inch monitor through an HDMI cable, bars at the top and bottom and a little blurry (1680x1050). the PS3 on the other hand gives a far better, sharper image through the monitor at the same resolution. no idea why their issuch a difference..

mad_weegie · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:29

Yeah ive been reading a lot of issues with xbox and monitors online. I just think that given the way tech is and how many people do game.. native res supports would be nice.

mame · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:31

Ideally you would want it to display 1920x1080 'centered' so that you have 2 small borders. 60 lines at the top and 60 lines at the bottom. If your monitor has an option for this then you will lose a small amount of screen size but it should look much better.

cmndr_andi · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:34

mad_weegie said:
1680 x 1050 is just black bars at top and bottom.

Ok, that is not ideal.

As the 1680x1050 is a 16:10 aspect ratio signal then it should either fill the 16:10 screen (fully stretched, but aspect ratio maintained) or appear in a box with black around the top, bottom and sides (not stretched, 1:1 pixel mapped & not stretched - the ideal).

If it is just showing black bars at the top and bottom then it is both strecthing and altering the aspect ratio of the image.

Have a go with those adjustments I linked to from samsung's site (in my above post), maybe you will get lucky.

Ideally what you want to see is when inputting a 1920x1080 signal from the Xbox to the monitor- the monitor displays the full width (1920 pixels), but has small bars and the top and bottom of the screen (image only using 1080 vertical pixels). This will mean that the image is 1:1 pixel mapped on the screen and using only the pixels it needs - to produce the best quality image.

mad_weegie said:
yeah i got both adaptors here.

Great. In that case I suggest you plug the DVI to HDMI adapter into the monitor's DVI slot and plug the HDMI cable into the adapter then into the Xbox. I'm not sure how this will affect the image quality (the image scaling is often different between digital and analogue inputs) but it may allow you to display the image how you want it. At the very least, the digital connection should make the image appear a bit less fuzzy.

Demon · 22 Sep 2010 at 16:35

cmndr_andi said:
Ok, that is not ideal.

As the 1680x1050 is a 16:10 aspect ratio signal then it should either fill the 16:10 screen (fully stretched, but aspect ratio maintained) or appear in a box with black around the top, bottom and sides (not stretched, 1:1 pixel mapped & not stretched - the ideal).

Apparantly the 360 adds the black bars to keep the Dash/Game at a 16:9 aspect ratio, so it sounds about right!

Anyway, Looking in the 2433BW manual, From the Monitors menu, under "Size and Position", there is an "Image Size" option, and it says you have support for 4:3 / 16:9 and Screen Fit, which using DVI will do what you want..

Use the HDMI->DVI lead ideally..

I got the manual from Samsung,
http://org.downloadcenter.samsung.c...00905/20090526185745109/BN59-00950A-02Eng.pdf

Page 35 of the PDF (Page 34 as seen in the manual)..

Kreeeee · 22 Sep 2010 at 18:16

Demon said:
if your monitor is 1920*1200, that's an aspect ratio of 16:10, so using 1680*1050 (also 16:10) shouldn't give you any black bars on your monitor??

With regards to the 1920*1080 on a 1920*1200 monitor, you really need the monitor to be able to manually set the aspect ratio (My PC monitor can) to 16:9 for it to be pixel perfect..

Yes it should!

The 16:10 modes on the 360 add black bars to compensate for screens with lazy manufacturers, who don't bother implementing aspect ratio scaling properly.

Also, there is little point in getting your knickers in a twist over "perfect pixel mapping" as all the games run at low resolutions anyway (like the CoD series running at pretty much SD resolution). All you are doing is choosing to let the 360 scale rather than your monitor, and a lot of decent monitors will do a better job of this scaling.

Drake5 · 22 Sep 2010 at 18:20

19" Monitor, I get black bars at the top and bottom but they don't bother me at all. I don't know why they bother some people, the bars are only small.

Demon · 22 Sep 2010 at 18:38

Kreeeee said:
Yes it should!

The 16:10 modes on the 360 add black bars to compensate for screens with lazy manufacturers, who don't bother implementing aspect ratio scaling properly.

Also, there is little point in getting your knickers in a twist over "perfect pixel mapping" as all the games run at low resolutions anyway (like the CoD series running at pretty much SD resolution). All you are doing is choosing to let the 360 scale rather than your monitor, and a lot of decent monitors will do a better job of this scaling.

I realised later on that the black bars are added by the 360 to keep the aspect ratio correct. so corrected myself in post 17.

Regarding scaling abilitiies, I disagree, a lot of 'monitors' don't have any decent scaling abilities, they aren't TV's, and don't have masses of image processing going on, I've not seen one yet that scales nicely. Certainly on my monitor, it looks noticeably better to let the 360 do the upscaling and output at 1080p rather then output 720p and let the monitor do it, especially for text/HUD elements which seem to look much cleaner. If it was a 100Hz modern LCD TV with decent image processing, I'd wager it should be able to upscale better then the 360, or perhaps I'm just exposed to crap LCD PC Monitors, running windows at 1680*1050 on my Viewsonic 2835 (1920*1200 native) looks terribly soft with horrible edge artefacts.

And regarding the Pixel perfect aspect, all I meant was, if you are relying on the 360 or Monitor upscaling, why add another imprecise stage in the signal path? I agree that due to native game rendering resoluitions, the notion of pixel perfect has little theoretical meaning, but in terms of signal integrity, it's a slight degradation you could do without.