Best connections to HDTV?

[Mr-Niceguy2001]

Got a 40inch Samsung M86 1080p TV on its way to me and was wondering what leads would get the best display form these consoles until I get a 360 or ps3?
I know that SD material will only magnify flaws but I'd like to still have my older consoles as I have so many games that I said I'd get round to eventually .

Would this be a good assumption?

Dreamcast - VGA - Anyone selling one of these VGA boxes?
Gamecube - Component
PS2 - Component - I have a cheapo GAME branded component lead, any good? Only bought to demo on a X2000 Sony.
Xbox - I have no idea
Sega Saturn - RGB

360 - Component 1080p with 2.5% overscan (1080p VGA is a prob with loads of TV's apparently according to those at avforums).

Any suggestions as to which leads to use and any particular brands of leads and resolutions (if this can be selected?)

Cheers all!

[wehrwulf]

the hd minefield....

all x360 games are being buffered at 720P so at 1080P you are downscaling - set the x360 at 1280 x720 if you are using a proper 16:9 rather than 16.10 (1440x900 for example) and let the x360 chip upscale for you - their is no 1.1 pixel match but it is better for the x360 chip to upscale then downscale -if that makes sense ?

its always best to display games in native 1.1 pixel match - for example i own a 1440x900 lcd which means i would love Microsoft to include a 1440x900 resolution which would pixel match 1.1 - they don't - so i use 1280 x768 which means that i don't get an exact picture - my lcd has to upscale 1280 to 1440 and 768 to 900 which means that pixels are lost in the translation

1080p is true HD but is not being put out on any game released yet(?) - designers are aiming for 720P as of the next 2 years judging by the way most HD set set are only 720P capable


for example the new hot shot golf on ps3 is 720P....

this is a minefield and no doubt somebody will claim that you should set it 1080I !!!! i.e 576P !!!!!!

1280X720 is the standard for video games for at least the next two years

[Myth]

1080p is true HD but is not being put out on any game released yet(?) - designers are aiming for 720P as of the next 2 years judging by the way most HD set set are only 720P capable

There's a handful of 360 and PS3 games which output in 1080p already.

[Lyris]

Dreamcast - VGA - Anyone selling one of these VGA boxes?
Gamecube - Component
PS2 - Component - I have a cheapo GAME branded component lead, any good? Only bought to demo on a X2000 Sony.
Xbox - I have no idea
Sega Saturn - RGB

Xbox would be best over Component, so long as it's not a European unmodded one (they don't support anything beyond 480i/576i so in that case you'd be best off with RGB SCART).

all x360 games are being buffered at 720P so at 1080P you are downscaling - set the x360 at 1280 x720 if you are using a proper 16:9 rather than 16.10 (1440x900 for example) and let the x360 chip upscale for you - their is no 1.1 pixel match but it is better for the x360 chip to upscale then downscale -if that makes sense ?

Wow, does the 360 seriously upscale to 1440x900? Why not 1920x1080?

[egparadigm]

GameCube: Depends on software. If you have US games, then alot of them are 480p, so component cables are a good way to go. If not, then a quality RGB scart cable.

PS2: On my Samsung, I can't really see a huge difference between component and RGB scart and since few games have progressive scan (especially in Europe), component is not essential, but a nice bonus.

Xbox: Get it mod'd ASAP. It looks soooo much better. For some reason the Xbox RGB scart output is seriously blurred (unlike PS2/Gamecube, IMO). Nearly all PAL games support 480p and a few even do 720p (SoulCalibur II). Plus, now that Xbox Live is going down on the OG Xbox, there's really no reason not to install a custom dash like the awesome XBMC.

[sj33]

Wow, does the 360 seriously upscale to 1440x900? Why not 1920x1080?

No-one, there is no 1440x900 mode yet, maybe in the new update?

There definately is a 1920x1080 mode, though reading at AVS, various screens have differing implementation of 1920x1080, and there have been quite a few fixes for the 1920x1080 mode already for certain screens.
I know the 40" Bravia W 1080p accepts 1920x1080 from a 360 straight away, whereas a PC requires a bit of tweaking with PowerStrip.

Hopefully when the new 360 update fixes the VGA colour levels, I can just run the 360 to my TV at 1360x768.

[EvilBoris]

the hd minefield....

all x360 games are being buffered at 720P so at 1080P you are downscaling - set the x360 at 1280 x720 if you are using a proper 16:9 rather than 16.10 (1440x900 for example) and let the x360 chip upscale for you - their is no 1.1 pixel match but it is better for the x360 chip to upscale then downscale -if that makes sense ?

its always best to display games in native 1.1 pixel match - for example i own a 1440x900 lcd which means i would love Microsoft to include a 1440x900 resolution which would pixel match 1.1 - they don't - so i use 1280 x768 which means that i don't get an exact picture - my lcd has to upscale 1280 to 1440 and 768 to 900 which means that pixels are lost in the translation

You aren't losing anything byt setting your 360 at 1280x768 as you've already said, the standard for 360 games is 1280*768 so even if the 360 had a resolution option for 1440*900 all you are getting is a 1280*720 stretched out to 1440*900.

Them having a 1440*900 option would only be of benefit to you if you are playing a 1080p native game such as Virtua Tennis 3 or NBA and that is only providing that the 360 chooses to downscale from the 1080p resolution and not upscale from the 720p resolution.

There definately is a 1920x1080 mode, though reading at AVS, various screens have differing implementation of 1920x1080, and there have been quite a few fixes for the 1920x1080 mode already for certain screens.
I know the 40" Bravia W 1080p accepts 1920x1080 from a 360 straight away, whereas a PC requires a bit of tweaking with PowerStrip.

Hopefully when the new 360 update fixes the VGA colour levels, I can just run the 360 to my TV at 1360x768.

Hoefully there will be fixes all over the places, for instance my TV won't accept native 720p and 1080p resolutions over RGBHV VGA as the circuit has reserved those resolutions for Y'PbPr.
If microsoft was really clever they could solve loads of problems by allowing you to adjust what colour format was coming out over the VGA aswell.

[Mr-Niceguy2001]

Thanks for the info guys, I borrowed my friends 360 and used the component cable. The colours were much more vivid and I prefered them over the VGA cable I tried.

Thing is, the reason I borrowed his 360 was to try and see if my tv accepted 1080p via vga (Some do, some don't) and using the official VGA cable, I couldn't get certain resolutions such as 1920x1080, 1360x768 and 1280x720. The highest I could get was 1280x768 as the others just wouldn't work. 1920x1080 via component worked though btu with overscan.

Is this because my friend hasn't with any live updates? I thought I remembered an update was released to enable 1080p over vga?
1280x768 via VGA did make the image look nicer bearing in mind i haven't calibrated my TV yet, it looked softer, but as if the image had been processed with more detail appearing in Gears of War despite the muted colours.

Oh and I couldn't get any sound via the VGA cable, I tried the two audio leads into the audio in on the side of the tv, no luck, tried it in the two audio in associated witht he HDMI 2 (DVI) input but no luck either, only other place was the audio output but didn't try there for obvious reasons.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Also, if I have to donwload the live update, but don't have internet access, can I purchase the official 360 mag (Latest one has Smackdown on it) and will that have the update or alternatively download it somewhere and install via cd/dvd?

Many thanks!

[Charlie]

Regarding not getting any sound via the VGA cable, check if the TV has a 3.5mm socket dedicated to PC sound, if it does you'll need to fit a 3.5mm to stereo phono adaptor to the VGA cable's L&R RCA plugs - an adaptor that comes free with Microsoft's official VGA cable.

Also worth mentioning yesterday's new dashboard update has improved VGA settings which, when set up properly, should look notably superior to the display output over component.

[EvilBoris]

You don't really need your 360 running 1080p unless you are using it for Hd-dvds. If it is just games you are going to get a clearer picture via the overscan free VGA , even at 1280x768

[sj33]

Thanks for the info guys, I borrowed my friends 360 and used the component cable. The colours were much more vivid and I prefered them over the VGA cable I tried.

You may wish to try again, they fixed the VGA colours in this weeks update.

[Mr-Niceguy2001]

I ran Crackdown last night and it didn't ask me to update, I think the autumn update had 1080p over all leads so the fact it worked over component bothers me as I do want it for movies as well.

Thanks for the tip about the audio jack as that worked perfectly!

I do however have a bigger problem.

I tired again last night to get 1080 working over vga and must have pressed up and A to keep the resolution or something when it tests and as now I cannot use vga at all!

Before I could run at 768, switching to 1080, the tv would display auto-adjusting, go into standby mode for a few seconds then revert back to the 360 screen with 768 as 1080 wouldn't work. Now after doing what I did last night, whenever I start the 360 with vga, it displays auto-adjusting, goes into standby mode and stays there!

I tried changing the resolution via component to something lower and then switch over to vga with the 360 still on but it would go back into standby.
Now when I have the 360 on without the vga plugged into my tv it stays inb pc mode but with no input, the moment I plug the cable back in the tv goes off again!

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this is happening and how to fix it? I'm going to try a 3rd party cable tonight and see if I can get a replacement for my official cable just in case I fried it, but I think its down to the 360 as it worked before.