eau

I'm posting in the video game talk forum since this is mostly video gaming related.

I'm considering a shared monitor for console gaming and computer use. I have a PS2 and hoping to hook it up via component input. Will consider hooking up Xbox 360 and/or PS3 in the future.

Does anyone have a DELL 2405FPW LCD monitor and use it for console gaming? Does it support the various TV modes such as 480i/480p/720p/1080i? How's the video quality? I assume the specs' 12ms response time is fast enough for video gaming.

Flay

Shots of a Xbox 360 hooked up to a 2405FPW:

http://g-prime.net/x360/

Mopower

I have the 2005FPW and using the component video on the PS2 an XBOX is a little blurry. I haven't tried the S-video connection or the Xbox Hi-Def pack so that might make a difference.

Ghym

My roommate has his 360 hooked up to a 2405. The times I have watched him play something, it looks good. He hasn't mentioned any problems. He also plays his PC games on it.

DVDKrayzie

i have all the systems hooked up to one of my 2405s in the office thru component and it looks awesome. only problem with it is when i ordered comcast HD cable and used the DVI connection i found out it wasnt HDCP-compliant so all i got was a big green box with a message on my screen.

mopower do you mean composite?

Mopower

Yeah, sorry. I always get those mixed up. How did you get yours to look good? If I use composite video everyone is a little blurry and not something I'd want to look at long enough to play on. The PS2 is a little worse than the XBOX.

DVDKrayzie

use the components and output 1080i it looks incredible.

Mopower

How do you change the console to 1080i? You are talking about the PS2 and xbox and not the 360 right?

DVDKrayzie

actually i was talking about the 360 but i have the ps2 xbox and gamecube all hooked up to it as well (the games do look sharper with the component cables even if the game doesnt support 1080i), just make sure u use the green blue and red wires. umm i dont remember but i think you set them in the display options for xbox/ps2 gamecube u enable progressive scan by holding down the b button i think when you turn it on.

Noonan

The xbox will only give you the option to change the video output once you have the high def pack hooked up. You won't see it in your menu without it.

Mopower

Oh ok. Well the 2005 only has s-video, vga, dvi, and the yellow video connector. That's composite right? The cable that comes from the console with the yellow for video and red and white for audio?

DVDKrayzie

yea id try the svideo if u dont have component inputs, but the difference probably wont be that big

eau

I gotta get myself one of those!!!

So the 2405 does support all 480i/480p/720p/1080i

I don't know how true it is but I heard that the video quality of the 2405 still lacks comparing to a LCD HDTV using component...probably because the component video circuitry in the 2405 may not be as advanced as that onboards a HDTV.

eau

I got my 2405FPW last week. When I hook it up to my PC at 1920x1200, it looks absolutely awesome. However, when I hook up my PS2 via component input, it looks awful!

I loaded up Tomb Raider:Legend demo (running 480i) from the OPM Vol. 104 demo disc and I could see wide vertically banding, especially obvious around Lara's skin. I can understand the heavy pixelization because of the scaler, but what's up with this vertical banding?

Anyone has this problem with their PS2 hooked up to a 2405FPW?

Btw, how do you hook up the P2 audio output? I have 2.1 computer speaker but it input is the mini-plug, and the PC soundcard uses the same. Can you directly connect computer speakers to the PS2 audio RCA jacks through some kind of adapter? Would there be a voltage compatibility issue?

boston george

I have a similar Gateway 21". Not sure the model #. I hook my 360 to it using component cables from time to time. Here's some pics.

I'll hook up the 360 later and snap some better pics if I get a chance.



The 360 looks amazing on this monitor. It can be had at Fry's for under $600.

edstein

Try a 1080i game like GT4 on the PS2 and you'll see a noticable difference. But really consoles like the 360, PS3 and Wii will really shine on this monitor. I've got the 20" version and the 360 looks spectacular on it.

pinata242

Here's a stupid question. I'm looking to get a new monitor for my home pc, but my video card is quite old, an ATI AIW Radeon 7500. I'd feel kinda silly buying a 4:3 monitor in this day and age, but I'm not sure if a widescreen monitor will accept a 4:3 signal, even if pillarboxed or stretched. Will I have to upgrade my video card to output a "wide" signal? Maybe there's a driver update, I don't know, I kinda doubt it with such an old card, but I haven't looked.

Drexl

Check to see what output resolutions are available for your video card in the Display settings of Control Panel. If there are settings with a 16x9 ratio like 1280x720 or 1600x900, that's what you would use. Widescreen monitors for computers tend to be 16:10, so you may see that ratio too. What you would want to do, if you get an LCD monitor, is make sure the video card can output the native resolution of the monitor.

pinata242

Thanks for that. I'm sure it doesn't support any wide resolution. At least not the 1680x1050 native that most widescreen monitors have.

What I'm more curious about is can one of these WS monitors accept a 4:3 (1280x1024) signal even if there's "wasted" pixels around the image? I need a new monitor, but I really don't want to upgrade the video card because then I'm going to want to do the whole damn thing as this thing is already 5 years old.

eau

I'm using a quite old Matrox G450 video card and it supports 1920x1200 (but not the newer 1680x1050 such as the 2007WFP). The control panel check does not really show all the modes that the video card can support, but show only those that are compatible with the current monitor hooked up to it. When I hook up the G450 with a 1800FP, it only shows up to 1280x1024, but with the 2405FPW, it shows all the way to 1920x1200.

pinata242

Thanks. Looks like my next purchase will definitely be a widescreen monitor.

eau

Ok. The ATI website says that the AIW Radeon 7500 supports 1920x1200 mode, so you should be able to use 2405FPW with no problem.

When I choose a 1600x1200 (4:3) resolution on the video card, it shows black bars on both sides of the 2405FPW. Although you are 'wasting' pixels, you get the selected resolution displayed in the middle of the screen.

eau

The video hardware on the 2405FPW must be a lousy one. When I play a PS2 game in 480i via component (mind you most PS2 games are in 480i), the video looks absolutely crap. I messed with the 2405 settings a little and couldn't improve the video much. I'm not sure if it has to do with the scaling and/or the de-interlacing. Anyway, if anyone has found an optimal setting on th 2405 for use with a PS2, please post.

It looks like I have to either get a better scaler (if such thing exists at a reasonable price) or wait for the PS3, which apparently can upconvert PS2 games to 1080i.

DVDKrayzie

i dont play many PS2 games anymore, the last one was the new onimusha game, not sure if that's only 480i or not, but it still looked good on my 2405 via component cables.

eau

Last night I used the Display menu on the Tomb Raider:Legend demo to change it to 480p and it's lot more better. The vertical banding was hardly noticeable. What remained was the pixelization which was expected anyway.

The TR's Display menu has a widescreen option that was default to "OFF" and I got a 4:3 image. When I switched it to "ON", the angle of view was wider (Lara became narrower) but the image itself is still 4:3. The 2405FPW was set to "Aspect" on image setting. When I changed it to 1:1 setting, I still got a 4:3 image but it's centered in the middle of the screen. When I changed it to "Fill" setting. The image was slightly stretched horizontally but it didn't fill the entire screen, and image still looked "squashed" horizontally. Am I missing something here regarding the widescreen setting?