beetroot bertie
September 27th, 2007, 09:28
Ow do,
I was wondering if anyone here has both the 360 VGA cable and Component and would mind sharing their views of both compared.
Is there any discernable difference between the quality of the output?
I have a 23" HD ready TV (Samsung 23" LE23R87BDX/XEU) with a screen res of 1366 x 768 and to be honest the picture looks great with component anyway. I've tried both the 720p and 1080i settings and whilst I feel the 1080i looks a touch sharper, I find 720p very slightly easier on the eyes due to the smoother motion (to me it appears to blur a tad less during movement), but the difference is only slight. I am curious if it would be worth getting the VGA cable if the picture was any better.
Anybody have any advice?
I could always use the VGA port for my Dreamcast anyway :D
EDIT:
OK, so I went out and bought the 360 VGA cable today. I have tried hooking up my Dreamcast with VGA. The picture looked so much better in VGA than the Scart cable but the extra audio cable from the VGA box was a hassle so I gave up on it. I'd certainly recommend it to any regular DC users who have a HD Ready TV (and can get hold of a VGA box) as the picture was noticeably better.
As for the 360, I honestly can't really tell much difference yet between the VGA and Component, certainly nothing monumental. I would say that the component is actually a tad sharper (especially on 1080i), with the VGA having an ever so slightly smoother look with jaggies being a little less noticable. I think I prefer the VGA. Both look equally excellent really (the call of duty 4 beta looked very nice, as do most of my games compared to how they were in SD) and it would be hard to go back to standard def now I can see the difference.
The VGA perhaps seems a bit smoother during quick movements but I really don't know if it's me imagining it or not (probably is). On the plus side the 360 seems to output at a desired resolution, with a 1360 x 768 option available in my dashboard. Whether this is just scaled or not, I can't say, but it looks good so who cares. On the downside, some of the backwards compatible original xbox games do not work with the VGA cable - Psychonauts being the only one of mine that's incompatible. I think it's those that don't have a 60hz option, so it may only apply to PAL games. There's a list over at Wiki showing which games have the 60hz mode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360).
I wouldn't know whether to recommend this or not to anyone else as the differences seem small to me, but the extra VGA connectivity is handy so it was probably worth the cost of the cable. From what I've read elsewhere, it may depend on the make of telly you have. Some seem to fare better with VGA, others with component.
EDIT 2:
Having spent a little more time with the cables and tinkering around with the TV, I would say that the VGA cable is better after all. I recently went back to the component after trying out the Dreamcast via VGA again, and noticed what I perceived as a decrease in picture quality. It was a small difference yet noticable on the 720p setting, but when I turned down the sharpness setting on the TV, it was larger difference than I thought with the component image being overly soft. So I'm back to the VGA now and happier, perhaps looking into a VGA splitter cable or box so I can also attach the Dreamcast via VGA. Anyone have any experiences with these?
I was wondering if anyone here has both the 360 VGA cable and Component and would mind sharing their views of both compared.
Is there any discernable difference between the quality of the output?
I have a 23" HD ready TV (Samsung 23" LE23R87BDX/XEU) with a screen res of 1366 x 768 and to be honest the picture looks great with component anyway. I've tried both the 720p and 1080i settings and whilst I feel the 1080i looks a touch sharper, I find 720p very slightly easier on the eyes due to the smoother motion (to me it appears to blur a tad less during movement), but the difference is only slight. I am curious if it would be worth getting the VGA cable if the picture was any better.
Anybody have any advice?
I could always use the VGA port for my Dreamcast anyway :D
EDIT:
OK, so I went out and bought the 360 VGA cable today. I have tried hooking up my Dreamcast with VGA. The picture looked so much better in VGA than the Scart cable but the extra audio cable from the VGA box was a hassle so I gave up on it. I'd certainly recommend it to any regular DC users who have a HD Ready TV (and can get hold of a VGA box) as the picture was noticeably better.
As for the 360, I honestly can't really tell much difference yet between the VGA and Component, certainly nothing monumental. I would say that the component is actually a tad sharper (especially on 1080i), with the VGA having an ever so slightly smoother look with jaggies being a little less noticable. I think I prefer the VGA. Both look equally excellent really (the call of duty 4 beta looked very nice, as do most of my games compared to how they were in SD) and it would be hard to go back to standard def now I can see the difference.
The VGA perhaps seems a bit smoother during quick movements but I really don't know if it's me imagining it or not (probably is). On the plus side the 360 seems to output at a desired resolution, with a 1360 x 768 option available in my dashboard. Whether this is just scaled or not, I can't say, but it looks good so who cares. On the downside, some of the backwards compatible original xbox games do not work with the VGA cable - Psychonauts being the only one of mine that's incompatible. I think it's those that don't have a 60hz option, so it may only apply to PAL games. There's a list over at Wiki showing which games have the 60hz mode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360).
I wouldn't know whether to recommend this or not to anyone else as the differences seem small to me, but the extra VGA connectivity is handy so it was probably worth the cost of the cable. From what I've read elsewhere, it may depend on the make of telly you have. Some seem to fare better with VGA, others with component.
EDIT 2:
Having spent a little more time with the cables and tinkering around with the TV, I would say that the VGA cable is better after all. I recently went back to the component after trying out the Dreamcast via VGA again, and noticed what I perceived as a decrease in picture quality. It was a small difference yet noticable on the 720p setting, but when I turned down the sharpness setting on the TV, it was larger difference than I thought with the component image being overly soft. So I'm back to the VGA now and happier, perhaps looking into a VGA splitter cable or box so I can also attach the Dreamcast via VGA. Anyone have any experiences with these?