FAQ: Xbox 360 Audio/Video Options

[twistedsymphony]

any support of SACD's?  I see that DVD-A is supported...

SACD is supported by the PS3, I don't think the 360 will support it.

[badbob001]

On the xbox, selecting 720p and letterbox doesn't run games in 1280x1024 mode. Instead, games will either run at 480p instead or ignore the letterbox option and still run in 1280x720. I suspect the letterbox option is meant mainly for dvd movies or is something ignored by games. I'm not hopeful that this will be fixed in xbox360, which means by going the vga route, I'll have to run it at 480p or have my monitor horribly stretch 1280x720 to 1280x1024.

So so far on the xbox for vga:
4:3 = 480p
16:9 = 720p, 1080i

I'm hoping they add this for xbox360:
4:3 = 480p, 720p+letterbox, 1080i+letterbox

Someone please prove me wrong! I want my black bars.

This post has been edited by badbob001: Oct 26 2005, 03:58 PM

[twistedsymphony]

On the xbox, selecting 720p and letterbox doesn't run games in 1280x1024 mode. Instead, games will either run at 480p instead or ignore the letterbox option and still run in 1280x720. I suspect the letterbox option is meant mainly for dvd movies or is something ignored by games. I'm not hopeful that this will be fixed in xbox360, which means by going the vga route, I'll have to run it at 480p or have my monitor horribly stretch 1280x720 to 1280x1024.

So so far on the xbox for vga:
4:3 = 480p
16:9 = 720p, 1080i

I'm hoping they add this for xbox360:
4:3 = 480p, 720p+letterbox, 1080i+letterbox

Someone please prove me wrong! I want my black bars. 

Thats because there is no such thing as 720p letterboxed... and the current Gen xbox doesn't actually support VGA.

There is no TV in existence that doesn't interpret 720p as a widescreen only signal. Even the 4:3 HDTVs know that it's widescreen and automatically letterbox it.

On the 360 you won't be selecting 720p or 1080i... you'll be selecting things 1280x960 and 1920x1024... Because it will ACTUALLY support VGA and know how to display those resolutions.

[nme234]

Hi I have a question thats been bugging me ever since I laid down my deposit for the xbox360 and is concerns how the xbox360 will display on a standard 14inch PAL UK 4:3 portable TV.

I have terrible visions of black borders at the top and bottom of the screen leaving me with a small display area on top of having a crap TV. To be honest Im not that bothered about getting a high def TV at this point as they cost an arm and a leg over here but I do not like the idea of not having 4:3 display for Xbox360 games, surely all developers with any sense will make there games compatible with 4:3, I imagine quite a few console gamers would be in a similar situation to me...

Lastly, what do you think of the HD CRT televisions? they are not as dear and some people seem to think they are better for gaming than the LCD ones?

Things were never this complicated in the SNES days, thanks very much for any help you can provide!

[twistedsymphony]

Top Posted Updated

[thisempty]

I'm been reading all this stff about VGA and 1280x1024 and letterboxed picture and so on.
But i'm having a hge problem:

I bought the VGA xbox360 cable to connect the 360 to my 19" Samsung 913N LCD, as i can't afford a HDTV right now.
But some weird shit is happening:
With exclusion of 640x480 and 1024x768, every other resolution that i choose gets upscaled to the full screen of the monitor!
With 1024x768 i get a correct ratio, with black bars on top and bottom of the screen, but if i choose 1280x1024 is stretches the image once a race starts (i only have PGR3).
Weird is that in the menus of the game the ratio is ok, it just stretches once i go into a race.
I would really like to use 1280x1024, as it is the native resolution of my LCD and is more HD than 1024x768

Anybody knows what's going on?

Thanks

[twistedsymphony]

I'm been reading all this stff about VGA and 1280x1024 and letterboxed picture and so on.
But i'm having a hge problem:

I bought the VGA xbox360 cable to connect the 360 to my 19" Samsung 913N LCD, as i can't afford a HDTV right now.
But some weird shit is happening:
With exclusion of 640x480 and 1024x768, every other resolution that i choose gets upscaled to the full screen of the monitor!
With 1024x768 i get a correct ratio, with black bars on top and bottom of the screen, but if i choose 1280x1024 is stretches the image once a race starts (i only have PGR3).
Weird is that in the menus of the game the ratio is ok, it just stretches once i go into a race.
I would really like to use 1280x1024, as it is the native resolution of my LCD and is more HD than 1024x768

Anybody knows what's going on?

Thanks

did you actually read the FAQ?

What about people with 4:3 screens? Isn't 720p a widescreen format?
Unfortunately the Xbox 360 is limited to the aspect ratio of your screen, if you have a 4:3 screen the picture will display in 4:3, if you have a 16:9 scrreen (or a 4:3 HDTV) then the picture will display in 16:9 There are currently no options to letterbox, strech or crop the image (despit the fact that MS claimed there would be).

how games handle letterboxing and cropping is dependent on the actual game. The reason PGR3 behaves the way it does is because that's how Bizarre programed it... sucks don't it

[thisempty]

Yes, i read it....
But i said that in 1024x768 it IS LETTERBOXED!
So whats your point?

[thisempty]

ok, someone just gave me the answer at another forum:

Here's the real answer you need. Apparently the support is not there for 1280x1024 on PGR3 (bug they didn't catch), it works fine on every other game, but not that one. So, just switch your resolution to 1024x768 whenever you play that game, and it'll work fine.

[Foe-hammer]

I just found out the hard way that the 360 doesn't support WM High definition DVD movies. I should have verified it here in the pinned topic, but I just figured it would considering they said it would initially, and that there would be no fee's for MS to do so.

I wonder what gives? I know that it takes a pretty heftly pc to run WM HD DVD's good; could it be the 360 cannot handle it? I should hope not.

[twistedsymphony]

I just found out the hard way that the 360 doesn't support WM High definition DVD movies. I should have verified it here in the pinned topic, but I just figured it would considering they said it would initially, and that there would be no fee's for MS to do so.

I wonder what gives? I know that it takes a pretty heftly pc to run WM HD DVD's good; could it be the 360 cannot handle it? I should hope not.

it definitely can handle it, there are some reports of people using the kiosk disc to play rips of WMVHD DVDs

my guess is it's completely political and they don't support them because they don't want to hurt HD-DVD in any way. it could be part of the reason there's no upscaling of DVDs either/ using no digital out as a cheap excuse.

[x Jack Ryan x]

OK guys, I apologize if this question is out of line, be nice... it's my first post (but hopefully not my last!).

I just ordered my first HDTV which is a 37" Sceptre 1920 x 1080p from Costco.com. It's supposed to be delivered today. My 360 should be here in a week or two. My problem is which connection to use with my 360. The tv only has 1 component input, and that is going to be used by my Time Warner HD cable box (that's the only connection I can currently use to pass HD through), it also has a VGA input, but I've read various things about the 360's VGA output. First, how bad is the quality as described here? Is it significantly worse then the component cables? I read the whole FAQ and saw that the VGA is currently the highest recommended connection, but how does that mesh with the reports of washed out colors? Just not that bad? Second, this FAQ is the only place I have seen reports that the VGA will support 1920x1080 resolution, and those posts are all from prior to the actual launch of the console. So, has anyone confirmed whether this is true? I suspect not, and if it won't, how will it display on my tv? Is it in a 1:1 pixel map? Or will it scale to fit the 1920x1080 resolution from whichever is closest?

Sorry again if I am out of line with posting this here. Please direct me if so, and I'll slink away with tail between my legs!

Thanks in advance for any help though.

[x Jack Ryan x]

Oh, and one quick follow-up. If the VGA is not recommended, is there such a thing as a component to VGA cable that I could use instead to send the 360's component output to the VGA input on my tv?

[twistedsymphony]

OK guys, I apologize if this question is out of line, be nice... it's my first post (but hopefully not my last!).

I just ordered my first HDTV which is a 37" Sceptre 1920 x 1080p from Costco.com. It's supposed to be delivered today. My 360 should be here in a week or two. My problem is which connection to use with my 360. The tv only has 1 component input, and that is going to be used by my Time Warner HD cable box (that's the only connection I can currently use to pass HD through), it also has a VGA input, but I've read various things about the 360's VGA output. First, how bad is the quality as described here? Is it significantly worse then the component cables? I read the whole FAQ and saw that the VGA is currently the highest recommended connection, but how does that mesh with the reports of washed out colors? Just not that bad? Second, this FAQ is the only place I have seen reports that the VGA will support 1920x1080 resolution, and those posts are all from prior to the actual launch of the console. So, has anyone confirmed whether this is true? I suspect not, and if it won't, how will it display on my tv? Is it in a 1:1 pixel map? Or will it scale to fit the 1920x1080 resolution from whichever is closest?

Sorry again if I am out of line with posting this here. Please direct me if so, and I'll slink away with tail between my legs!

Thanks in advance for any help though.

Oh, and one quick follow-up. If the VGA is not recommended, is there such a thing as a component to VGA cable that I could use instead to send the 360's component output to the VGA input on my tv?

1st... why would you buy a TV, particularly a 1080p TV without an HDMI or DVI port? That's just ludicrous. A display with only 1 component video port is even more ridiculous. Honestly if it was me I'd take Costco up on their no-questions-asked return policy and return that TV for one with some digital inputs with HDCP. Without it you wont be watching any HD movies with HD-DVD, Blue-Ray, or even upscaled DVDs on that thing EVER.

2nd... the VGA picture is washed out, that's really its only problem. I would not recommend it unless you're using it on a computer monitor, even then people claim to have better results using an external trans-coder.

3rd... no where in this FAQ does it recommend using VGA over component, nor does it say the VGA supports 1920x1080. Before Launch MS claimed the VGA cable would be able to output in 1920x1080 once the console was launched that option was not available.

4th... if you're going to spend money you'd be best to spend it a component video switcher because 1 analog HD input will not be enough

[x Jack Ryan x]

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I must have mislead you when I said the only way I could pass through HD signal from my cable box was through Component. The TV does have an HDMI (w/HDCP) input, but I had been told by TimeWarner that the HDMI output on my cable box was disabled. After posting on another forum, I found that there was a good chance the HDMI output would work and tada!, it does. So now I have the cable box connected through HDMI and the 'box through component. I also found a Philips component video switcher with 4 inputs for $20 at Walmart. So I now have another 3 component inputs if I need them.

As for the VGA being recommended, I guess I misunderstood the part of the FAQ that had the list of cables in order of quality... i.e. Composite<S-Video<Component<VGA

Thanks again for the help.

By the way, this TV looks pretty incredible... and at 1920x1080 for $1499 (after $100 rebate), it's a steal.