F.a.q.: General Av Formats/cables/resolutions Etc., What you should know about HD & Surround Sound Options

[bogan_nath]

Cheers Mate!! you just saved me from spending $20 on an s/vid cable because now i see i can use the HD cable with my tv

[Vidness]

Something I don't see mentioned which might need to be:

DVDs & full resolution. If you have DVD 'backups', they generally won't play at 720p or 1080i unless you

a) Have a 'enhanced' Xbox 1 with XBMC
Have a DVD player that uses HDMI (LG comes to mind)

I picked up a ps3 and HD DVD player for the 360. Neither would play a backup DVD higher than 480p, yet they would do their kind up to 1080p. The PS3 not playing it at full res kinda ticked me off, since it's connected via HDMI.

[Eksyte]

So you can't use an X360 VGA cable with a DVI-D port?

[pessaddict]

NOOB ALERT

i have this hdtv and currently have it connected to my 360 via the cable that came with my 360, component i think. the 360 is set to 720 just wanted to know if i should stick the component or change to the hd vga cable

http://www.mirai.eu/Uk/ProductDetails&...6&cat_id=43

[twistedsymphony]

Something I don't see mentioned which might need to be:

DVDs & full resolution. If you have DVD 'backups', they generally won't play at 720p or 1080i unless you

a) Have a 'enhanced' Xbox 1 with XBMC
B) Have a DVD player that uses HDMI (LG comes to mind)

I picked up a ps3 and HD DVD player for the 360. Neither would play a backup DVD higher than 480p, yet they would do their kind up to 1080p. The PS3 not playing it at full res kinda ticked me off, since it's connected via HDMI.

The connection you use has nothing to do with whether or not the DVD outputs at 480p or 720p/1080i.

All DVDs are encoded in SDTV or EDTV resolutions... that is to say the highest resolution a DVD has is 480p. The Player needs to "upscale" the content if you want it in high resolution. which is basically just taking the 480p image and stretching it out to fit 720p or 1080i.

Most Upscaling DVD players arbitrarily require an HDMI output per MPAA regulations. it's not technically required but politically they require it because it's a secure connection that theoretically helps prevent piracy (since you can't tap the data line and extract the movie through the HDMI connection). Also I think it's to help condition people into thinking HDMI is required for HD signals since HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will require it down the road once they institute the Image Constraint Token.

Since XBMC pisses in the face of the MPAA regulations it upscales with no regard to political requirements. Similarly certain brands of upscaling DVD players (most famously the OPPO players) will also upscale via component video connections.

The Playstation 3 doesn't upscale because it doesn't have any scaler hardware inside to perform the operation. though like XBMC it could easily do it through software instead... it's just a matter of Sony actually adding in that feature. Unlike XBMC the PS3 would likely only output DVDs in HD via the HDMI port as they conform to MPAA regulations.

So you can't use an X360 VGA cable with a DVI-D port?

Nope... it wont work... at all.

If the Rumored Zeyphyr or Elite versions of the Xbox 360 (the one with the HDMI port) ever arrive you could adapt HDMI to DVI-D as they're essentially the same signal.

NOOB ALERT

i have this hdtv and currently have it connected to my 360 via the cable that came with my 360, component i think. the 360 is set to 720 just wanted to know if i should stick the component or change to the hd vga cable

http://www.mirai.eu/Uk/ProductDetails&...6&cat_id=43

Unless you've got an HDTV with a native resolution of 1920x1080 then you should stick with Component.
Where your TV has a native resolution of 1366x768 there is no VGA resolution available that matches that exactly.

Particularly where the closest VGA resolution that the Xbox 360 can output is 1360x768... your TV will stretch it out over those extra 6 pixels and I've heard the results are horrid when that happens.

[JJF]

HI!

Thanks for the very informative post!

Could you perhaps give me some advice - I have a LCD monitor with two inputs: Normal VGA and DVI-D. I want to play DVD's from my DVD player on this monitor. The DVD player has 3 different video outputs: S-video, component video output and digital video output (The latter though look like a composite "RCA plug" output). Is there any way I can do this with a cable or adapter or will I have to go for a converter box?

Thanks!

[Dark_Raider99]

I know that I'm not the first person to say this, nor will I be the last, but THANK YOU! Before reading this guide, I thought I knew a significant amount about Audio/Video but I guess not. I really appreciate it! Very well done!

[solocreep]

well now also have dobly digital true hd and dts master hd... but if your the hd dvds and blu-ray machines if its not a really $$$ hd/ blu0ray player it will down sample the dd truehd&dts master hd to 5.1 dts signal..and to add to this posting note if your current reciever does decode these signal now your in sort of a nutshell losing great sound just as if you have 1080p hdtv and just use a regular dvd player to movies... you really missing and if a waste of money..

[Rustmonkey]

...or if you have a PS3, it automatically deocodes the new formats into PCM 7.1 (but only over HDMI - no analog outs, doh). I just upgraded to a HDMI PCM/DolbyTrueHD/DTS Master-HD capable reciever... - these new sound formats blow DTS and DD5.1 out of the water - sounds SPECTACULAR!