360 VGA 'colours washed' Solution

[capcom_suicide]

Yeah they disable support for 50Hz XBox games through VGA. A shame, I did hope they'd allow it to output 50Hz games as-is, since many LCD TV's (like mine) do support 50Hz through VGA.

That said, isn't 60Hz far more common on the XBox than 50Hz-only? The only game I've tried that didn't work was Halo.

I think there is some messing about when actually doing the emu update. (You need to do that on SCART) before you can even play some PAL60 games over VGA

I have found this with HALO2 & Splinter Cell: CS.

This helped me: http://www.maven.de/?p=689

QUOTE:

A few backward compatibility remarks
The VGA cable only supports 60Hz. Ergo, only games that support PAL60 can possibly work. Halo 2 does. But not the included Xbox Live Update and Downloader program. So to play online, you need to connect the LoDef cable (well, anything BUT the VGA cable), hope you have a device to display it on, download the updates and maps, reconnect the VGA cable and you?re good to go. Until they decide to update it again? :?(
And everyone that is running 1280?1024 with he VGA cable may have an incorrect aspect-ratio depending on the game, as that resolution was added with a firmware upgrade and some games (e.g. PGR3) haven?t been tested with that mode and thus display incorrectly (for now).

[sj33]

Shame they didn't let the end user simply select 50Hz or forced 60Hz (making the end user aware of possible artifacts). Seems so much easier.

[Concept]

VGA and component both work perfectly on my plasma. If you are having issues with it then I'd guess its down to your TV. The annoying thing with VGA though is that the Xbox emulation rarely supports it!

Neil.

It's more likely the lead or the 360. PS2, GC and Xbox component show no shadowing at all - just poor resolution.

[NeilMcRae]

No. Its most likely the TV. If you bounce the PS-2 in to 1080i what does it look like?

Neil.

[Concept]

GT4 is fine in 1080i. No flickering.

[sj33]

Pretty long topic about this on X-S.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=471233

So there is something to this.

[HaHaUK]

Shakey, are the pictures attached exactly what your getting? Dont think I'll be too happy if its like that.

[sj33]

Pretty much, though I've made a post about this over at X-S.

"Basically, I have an LG 26LX2R LCD HDTV, which accepts VGA through the DVI-I port. Both the DVI/VGA and HDMI port have separate 'PC' and 'DTV' modes. I'm not 100% sure what the actual difference is, I'm told they use a different colourspace and different amounts of overscan, but setting the port to 'PC' on anything but a PC results in a washed image, whereas DTV results in a correct image.

It's strange. My TV has a native resolution of 1366x768, so I planned to use the 1360x768 option and avoid upscaling. However, my TV detected this resolution as a PC resolution (even in DTV mode) and the results were a washed image. This also happened in 1280x768 and all other resolutions.

However. Setting my TV to DTV mode and sticking to 720p resulted in a correct image with no washed output whatsoever. VGA does seem a little lighter at first, but I reckon the Component output may be too dark. You can literally SEE more when using the VGA cable.

Anyway, anyone who has an LCD TV which lets them choose between PC and DTV mode (or it might be called 'AV' mode), either from the menu or via the service menu, should give it a go, and stick to 720p.
I reckon the washed output is caused by the TV taking the 360 output as a Pc output and using PC colourspace."

[andrewfee]

Hmm, this is not what I was expecting to see at all. This is a gamma problem, not a brightness or colour one. These Fifa images were taken from a plasma television which should have Gamma options in its menus to correct this. (or it is doing something very wrong with the input signal)

I will say that the component image is far too dark, and needs to be set up properly though.


I'm not really sure what can be done to fix it, if that's the problem, other than using whatever gamma controls your display has. It looks more likely to be a fault of the display than the cable though. I can't see that many faulty cables being put out, especially as something like that is so basic, and it seems that people with the same displays have the same problem.

[sj33]

You know better than me about this kind of thing. I can say for certain that when I choose a non-standard HD resolution with the VGA cable (such as 1280x768, 1360x768 or even 1024x768), my TV will basically assume it's a PC source and adjust accordingly (resulting in a washed image), even when the TV is set to DTV mode.
I know this because the same thing happens when I set my Oppo to PC mode (my Oppo working fine in DTV mode), but it works fine for my PC.

This would explain why 1280x720p works flawless for me in DTV mode (and I am satisified, I add). I can't see any other explanation for it.

As far as the LG goes, it's no big deal as long as you stick to proper HD resolutions (480p, 720p, 1080i) for non-PC outputs.

[Myth]

I'm not sure if I have the same problem as everyone else but when using the auto setup option on my monitor the screen goes a bit darker and all the colours seem much more vibrant. However as soon as the moniter finishes the auto setup the screen seems to get a slightly milky overlay which after seeing the picture before the auto config, looks slightly crappy. It's especially noticeable on the grass on the fifa demo.

[mikewl]

Pretty much, though I've made a post about this over at X-S.

"Basically, I have an LG 26LX2R LCD HDTV, which accepts VGA through the DVI-I port. Both the DVI/VGA and HDMI port have separate 'PC' and 'DTV' modes. I'm not 100% sure what the actual difference is, I'm told they use a different colourspace and different amounts of overscan, but setting the port to 'PC' on anything but a PC results in a washed image, whereas DTV results in a correct image.

It's strange. My TV has a native resolution of 1366x768, so I planned to use the 1360x768 option and avoid upscaling. However, my TV detected this resolution as a PC resolution (even in DTV mode) and the results were a washed image. This also happened in 1280x768 and all other resolutions.

However. Setting my TV to DTV mode and sticking to 720p resulted in a correct image with no washed output whatsoever. VGA does seem a little lighter at first, but I reckon the Component output may be too dark. You can literally SEE more when using the VGA cable.

Anyway, anyone who has an LCD TV which lets them choose between PC and DTV mode (or it might be called 'AV' mode), either from the menu or via the service menu, should give it a go, and stick to 720p.
I reckon the washed output is caused by the TV taking the 360 output as a Pc output and using PC colourspace."

I have the same TV as you and tried this out, it did the same for me, in 720p DTV it gives the same colour as using Component just slightly better quality.

But, I don't like it anymore, it seems too bright, I prefer the upscaled 1366 by 768 resolution and the colour it gives, I don't know in my head which is actually the more accurate of the two, its kind of like neither of them are.

[sj33]

I would hazard a guess that 1280x720 VGA in DTV mode is the most 'correct', we all seem to agree that Component is too dark.

If you like 1260x768, cool. Results in an overly washed image for me.

[HaHaUK]

Got the VGA cable in today, tried all the resolutions and the dashboard looks dull on all except for 1280x720.

It certainly does look better than component and in dark places I can actually see more than with component (eg I can see more on the carbon fibre background in PGR3 and I can actually see the inside of the cars now.)

Jake, one thing - I was messing around with the service menu yesterday and under panel controls saw an option for PC/AV/Auto. Any idea what this is? It was set under PC and I decided not to change it in case something goes wrong

[sj33]

No idea, but mines set to AV o.o I'll go set it to AV and see what happens =P

The service menu is undocumented because your not meant to see it!