School me on VGA adapters.
 

I have a 360 but not an HDTV. My money is tied up on a couple of trips Im going on this summer so I wont have an HD until sometime this fall. I read somewhere that I can buy a VGA adapter and play the 360 on my computer monitor. I have a few questions.

1)Will this make my 360 look better (as good as HD or just better than a regular TV)

2) Does the type of monitor I have matter (Im not sure exactly what it is but its a 15" flat screen Dell).

3) What other info should I know about this setup.

Thanks in advance

They have 3 i know of, one is from MS for 39.99, one is from Monster Cable and is 59.99 and one is from Pelican and is 19.99. The pelican one has no digital out, just the 2 RCAs (Red/White). They play in HD from what i understand. I saw the Pelican at Sam Goody a while back but didnt get it, but now i cant find one in a local store to save my life. Im going to order one from Newegg, they have it for 15 bux.

You will see a huge improvement using the VGA adapter. Think VCR vs. DVD difference.

Yes, there will be a huge improvement, though you may be stuck with a letterboxed screen (I don't remember if there are 3:4 options). It depends on the resolution your monitor can go up to, but I would think most if not all modern monitors can display enough lines of resolution for HD. The options in your Xbox 360 also change, so that instead of 480p and such, it's 1280x1020, etc.

Thanks for the responses thus far, keep em coming :). Next questions:

1. Once I do this, will I have to change any settings on my XBox in the dashboard to benefit from the resolution.

2. Also, will I have to switch my adapter from TV to HDTV?

I will post the specs of my monitor as soon as I get it so you all can LMK if my monitor is up to par in terms of resolution. Its only a year old monitor so I think it will be OK.

As I said above, you will need to change the resolution on the dashboard, because the resolution settings when using the VGA adapter are entirely different from using component cables (it probably defaults to the lowest resolution setting, though I don't remember). I don't think there's a switch on the VGA adapter to go to HD, since there's no need for one.

Here's a review of the cables, with corresponding resolutions:
http://hardware.teamxbox.com/reviews...D-AV-Cable/p1/

I stand corrected, there are 4:3 settings.

The Microsoft ones, at least, come with two audio cables and an adapter to plug into the audio in on your computer if you want to output audio that way. It also has the same optical audio out that the component cables have.

LMK: Lick My Keister? Oh, okay: Let Me Know. :)

BTW, when using the VGA adapter, is the refresh rate just 60hz? The one I have for the original Xbox only does 60hz, but I was wondering if the 360 one can do something higher.

I bought the Microsoft ones.

A few questions:

How can I find out what resolution my monitor can display? Whats HD quality?

What resolution do I change my 360 to?

What resolution should I change the 360 to when using my regular (non-HD) TV?

You should be able to set your 360 to the highest resolution when using just about any new monitor. On a non-HD tv you can get 480p if it has component inputs otherwise the best you can do is 480i.

I just got home with my xbox and i got the MS VGA Cable (my plasma just has VGA in). Ill report back with what resolutions i got working and how it all went. Ill snap some pics too prolly.

Well Ive tested everything out and wow, let me just say that as a user of the 360 on a regular TV that this thing looks so beautiful in HD. I now have to buy a larger monitor.

I posted a link to a review above that tells you what resolutions correspond to which HD resolutions. But for the lazy:

848x480 = Widescreen 480

1280x720 = 720p

Also, 1920x1080 is 1080p, but is not an option. I would recommend whatever is native to your monitor, though. My Viewsonic is 1366x768, so I sue the 1360x768 (max) setting.

On my 42" plasma, the proper res was 1360x768, however, games would get choppy while playing.. So i went down to 1280x720 and it was much better. 480p is 100% perfect, but 720p makes it look so much nicer that its worth the tiny drop in performance.