360 VGA 'colours washed' Solution

[HaHaUK]

I'm waiting for a VGA cable, what else do I need to hook it up to my TV (LG 26lx2r) the VGA to DVi cable that came with the TV appears to have the same connection on the end of it as the VGA cable (both Male I believe).

Is a female vga to dvi adapter readily available?

You need one of these to link up VGA to the LG.

[EvilBoris]

The 360's VGA cable comes with a gender changer, so as long as the DVI end fits into your TV (probably male) it wouldn't be a problem what gender the VGA end is.

Only the official VGA cable does, if you've got the joytech one you will need to buy the adapter yourself, it doesn't come with an RCA to 3.5mm jack either.

[Gavin]

couldn't find the options to do that, do you mean in the service menu's?

No, it's off the normal menus when you're using the VGA port, comes up as PC Setup or something similar.....

[HaHaUK]

But it will still be better to get the splitter cable, as then you can input DVI as well.

[watusi]

No, it's off the normal menus when you're using the VGA port, comes up as PC Setup or something similar.....

Cheers found it, can't believe I missed that....

[sj33]

Jake, have you tried Condemned over VGA?

Using component the game was absolutely pitch black when the flashlight was switched off, now over VGA I can actually see whats going on without the flashlight switched on.

Which one is meant to look correct? Pitch-black or slight visability?

I'll dig out my digicam in a bit and get some pictures up.

Here we come to another issue - games being made with the default brightness of one connection in mind, but not others.

We've seen this already with King Kong - by default, it's too dark on SD CRT sets as it's made with HD LCD's in mind, this was picked up by many reviews.

Go fire up Kameo or Perfect Dark Zero, these games let you choose between LCD, Plasma, DLP etc, changing the brightness for each. I remember when using the Component cable, I tried the 'LCD' setting and found to be waaaaay too dark. I figured it useless and went back to default.
With the VGA cable, it now makes sense - setting it to LCD looks correct over VGA.

[BERSERKGOOSE UK]

I've got a Sharp 26GA4E which can handle PC and Video colourspace through VGA (via the DVI-I port), and I have to say 1360x768 at PC level is definitely superior to 720p at video level.

The colours are just as vivid, and the image is sharper and cleaner. There is no loss of detail of the lighter parts of the image like the guy on xbox scene demonstrated with the pics of Fifa. It look some minor tweaking but I'm well chuffed with it.

[HaHaUK]

Now that the 'washed situation' has been sorted by MS, what are LG26LX2R owners finding the best resolution to use?

For movies Im using 1024x768 as 1024x720 is too dark.
Haven't tested out games yet.

[andrewfee]

Here we come to another issue - games being made with the default brightness of one connection in mind, but not others.

We've seen this already with King Kong - by default, it's too dark on SD CRT sets as it's made with HD LCD's in mind, this was picked up by many reviews.

Go fire up Kameo or Perfect Dark Zero, these games let you choose between LCD, Plasma, DLP etc, changing the brightness for each. I remember when using the Component cable, I tried the 'LCD' setting and found to be waaaaay too dark. I figured it useless and went back to default.
With the VGA cable, it now makes sense - setting it to LCD looks correct over VGA.

Actually, I don't think this is correct at all. Kong was much too dark over any connection from what I tested, if I remember correctly.


The Plasma, LCD etc options shouldn't really be there in PDZ - the thing is, a lot of LCDs and Plasmas (particularly older models) didn't do a good job of keeping good blacks and showing shadow detail, so they had very low gammas (as low as 1.6 on some sets) resulting in an image that is far too bright. If your display is calibrated to 2.2 (and the better LCDs these days are) then you should be running on "default."

[sj33]

My older comments were really just throwing out ideas tbh, they are probably way off the mark.

Anyway, in reference to the LG 26LX2R, since the new dash update, I've found runing the 360 in DVI-PC mode to be much more pleasing now. It used to be washed to such a degree that you were forced to use DVI-DTV, which overscanned badly. While the DVI-PC mode still looks like the brightness is up a tad too much, a comparison of FFXI on the 360 in DVI-PC mode to the PC game looks pretty much identical... so it's probably correct.

My LG 26LX2R Settings -

DVI-PC
1280x720
Contrast 100
Brightness 40
sRGB OFF
CMS - User (Red 30, Blue 20 Green 20)

[Kevvy Metal]

My LG 26LX2R Settings -

DVI-PC
1280x720
Contrast 100
Brightness 40
sRGB ON
CMS - User (Red 20, Blue 20 Green 20)

My settings for the same TV are actually very close.


DVI-PC
1280x720
Contrast 85
Brightness 40
sRGB Off
CMS - User (Red 30, Blue 20 Green 20)

Thats since the up date. I've ALWAYS used DVI-PC and didn't mind the "washed out" colours. I think I actually prefered it the way it was before. I've had to bump up the brightness setting. I also wouldn't have the contrast at full. seems a bit much.

Just for the record. I now that Shakey also uses the same DVI to DVI & VGA splitter lead. Dude DON'T use it, it's ****ing gash and really dilutes the video signal. I was getting really bad interference, then I bought a seperate DVI adaptor for the 360 VGA lead and since then, the interference is gone.


This is what i'm talking about -



It is teh suck!

[sj33]

I do get annoying shadowing, might be caused by that cable. I assume you gotta keep switching the cables though? I do have my Oppo connected.

EDIT - I actually have sRGB Off, post edited. I tried setting Red to 30 too, probably better

[andrewfee]

I do get annoying shadowing, might be caused by that cable. I assume you gotta keep switching the cables though? I do have my Oppo connected.

EDIT - I actually have sRGB Off, post edited. I tried setting Red to 30 too, probably better

When you say you're getting shadows, do you mean other than the ones that are supposed to be there?



Oh, and for anyone using a Sony MFM-HT75W, I've found these to be the best settings over VGA:

Backlight: 91
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 43
Color Temp: User - R118, G124 (fixed) B116
Gamma: Gamma2

That's 200cd/m2 brightness, D65 white-point, 2.2 Gamma.

[Concept]

I get shadowing too. It's nowhere as bad as it used to be through component though in using VGA.

[Kevvy Metal]

I do get annoying shadowing, might be caused by that cable. I assume you gotta keep switching the cables though? I do have my Oppo connected.

EDIT - I actually have sRGB Off, post edited. I tried setting Red to 30 too, probably better

I also get what i would assume is the "Shadowing" I get Horizontal dark streaks moving vertically on the right hand side of the screen. They are very very faint and i can usual only see them when the background is grey ( hitting the guide button on the 360 will darken the rest of the screen. Here it is most notable).

I didn't get them on ANY other input. Just the DVI-I input using the splitter ( i got 360 in via VGA and PC in via DVI. I don't got an upscaling DVD player yet.)

So i now use an adaptor for the 360 VGA lead so i can use it in the DVI port.
Since doing this I get NO interference video quality looks a little sharper but this is probably just my imagination.

And yes i have to keep swapping the PC DVI and 360 VGA leads which can be a real pain and slightly concerned because swapping all the time might **** the input on the TV.



Also i'm glad you don't use sRGB. thought you might be a bit crazy there for a minute (only joking) the sRGB colour option looks ****ing horrific. (I ain't dissin' superRGB)

I been fiddlin' with my TV and i do think the 360 looks good with high contrast. I used the THX optimizer and now set contrast to 92. Looks better