Odd 360/ PS3/ monitor display issue

[Red Hogg]

A short while back I borrowed a mate's PS3 and decided at the time to see what my screen could do through HDMI. I tried 1080p and it worked fine, looked great and I was suitably impressed. Then I got a 360 Elite and tried the same thing but for some reason the image stretched right off the screen and I had to cancel the choice. 1080i works fine though, as does 720p.

So: why would 1080p work on a PS3 but not 360? Is it a question of downscaling (the max resolution that my screen does is 1680x1050), refresh rate, or something weirder?

Please advise, now.

[egparadigm]

Here's a guess: your monitor may be 16:10 format, as opposed to the traditional 16:9. If you have less height in the image than the Xbox expects, it is probably just displaying the height correctly and chopping off the sides.

A quick google suggests 1680x1050 is a 16:10 resolution. Does the 360 list that res as an option?

Alternately, maybe you need to use auto-adjust to get the image centred, like I do with my computer hooked up to my TV.

EDIT: reading your post again, if 720p and 1080i work, then it can't be the aspect ratio. Guess I was wrong.

[Red Hogg]

I am completely flummoxed by it myself.

After "updating" to NXE this week I've tried out 1680x1050 using VGA. It's letterboxed and for some reason has slight ghosting on the screen, hence my wanting to switch to HDMI.

[sj33]

Could it not just be that you didn't realise the PS3 was overscanning too? Sounds like the screen is doing CRT underscan compensation, which is an annoying 'feature' on many screens, and drives the rest of us mad.

And, well, you know why VGA is 'letterboxing'! (though strictly speaking it's not).

[EvilBoris]

When you choose the VGA resolution on the 360 it asks you

Is this ok? (or something like that)

If you choose no it will change some of the output settings and ask you again. Some resolutions have several different variations of the resolution. Maybe give that a go and see if it gets rid of the ghosting.

[Red Hogg]

Could it not just be that you didn't realise the PS3 was overscanning too? Sounds like the screen is doing CRT underscan compensation, which is an annoying 'feature' on many screens, and drives the rest of us mad.

And, well, you know why VGA is 'letterboxing'! (though strictly speaking it's not).

I had literally no idea that the PS3 was overscanning! Is this a service that the 360 does not provide?

Yes, the VGA letterboxing mystery is now resolved

When you choose the VGA resolution on the 360 it asks you

Is this ok? (or something like that)

If you choose no it will change some of the output settings and ask you again. Some resolutions have several different variations of the resolution. Maybe give that a go and see if it gets rid of the ghosting.

Will it give the same choices with HDMI?

[sj33]

Well basically, in the old days of CRT, they used to have a certain level of underscan (usually about 5-10&#37, so broadcasts took this in mind when sending the signal to the TV and sent them with a small boarder on all sides. This is just due to the nature of CRT, some image has always been 'lost' on the sides.

However, many most LCD's implement 'CRT underscan compensation' on their TV imputs (HDMI, Component etc), thus causing overscan on anything that sends a proper, full screen signal (360, PS3 etc.). Many screens will adjust to the signal, or have a specific mode to make the image display properly (usually branded something like 'full scan'). Unfortunately it sounds like your screen is applying overscan compensation with no way of disabling it, because even though it's a PC monitor, HDMI is a TV input.

This was another huge reason why VGA was, and still is, often prefered even on a HDTV - screens don't apply such nonsense on PC inputs like VGA or DVI.

I don't have an Elite, but I'm pretty sure that if the 360 detects you've connected the HDMI to a HDMI screen, you'll get HDTV resolutions (720p, 1080i/p). If it detects you've got the HDMI output connected to a DVI monitor, it should allow you to select from PC resolutions. Hopefully the HDMI port on your screen will have some kind of 'DVI mode' or 'PC mode', otherwise it's back to VGA (which imo is the better option, if you can sort out the ghosting on your screen).

[Red Hogg]

It's the fact that it worked on the PS3 that really twists my melon.

Ta for the info anyway.

[Red Hogg]

Right, I've hooked the 360 up via HDMI now and for some reason it's now working in 1080p (???). Anyway I've noticed a new option called "HDMI color space" - any clue what that means? Can't find much about it by googling.

There's also an "optimal resolution" option but I guess all that does it see if your screen can do 1080p and then work it's way down if not.

[sj33]

TV's and PC's have different colour spaces (16-232 and 0-255 respectively), I assume that option makes sets the monitor to try and copy TV colour space.

VGA would of course have full colourspace, though you can set the 360 itself to output different colourspaces anyway, though I can't remember what the setting it called... you get to choose between Normal, Extended and something else...

[Red Hogg]

There's still the Standard/ Intermediate/ Expanded reference level options, this new "Colour Space" thing appears as well as.

I tested Ridge 6 on 1080p and it seemed to judder slightly. Is this the screen struggling to keep up with the console, or is it just because Ridge 6 was never designed for 1080p?

[sj33]

It's a 720p game, so it's going to be upscaling to 1080p anyway, There are very few 1080p 360 games anyway, so you wouldn't loose much by running in 720p (depending on how well your screen upscales it).

[Red Hogg]

That little HDMI experiment didn't last long - the screen had a strange yellow hue to it and for some reason the sound was distorting. Straight back to VGA for me - it's lush

Thanks for the advice anyway!