I have played the xbox for a long time and for the most part have stuck with the wonderful svideo connection due to funding problems. Recently I have upgraded my PC monitor to a 26in LCD HDTV which I normally run at 1280x720 using HD over DVI with my Nvidia 6800GT. The PC displays wonderfully, I have no ghosting only 1 dead pixel after 5 months thats tough to notice and everything is good. I also have a Pscan DVD player hooked up too it that runs great and looks nice as well. Since I have this PC I havent played the xbox in a while but the other day I decided to see what it looks like in HD, I hooked up Halo 2 and wow did it look like crap. Everything was all nice and colorful yea, but it looked all jaggy and just poor. I thought that it was just my TV or something and since I dont have any games that are 720p I decided to run my PC down at 480p and it still looked loads better than the Xbox. To connect I am using the Xbox Brand XD Pack.

Now the reason for this is that I was debating on getting a VGA adaptor for the xbox instead of using the HD cables. Does any one know how much this would improve the quality of my gaming experiance? Is there really a difference between HD and VGA if run at the same resolutions? I allways thought that VGA or DVI were the cream of the crop and then I hear HD is just as good? whats the deal anyone know?

VGA is analog. DVI is digital. DVI is much better than VGA.

As for component vs. VGA, they are both analog, and they are both good.

Personally I'd stick with component, but some people swear by VGA. If you have jaggies with component, you'll have them with VGA too. Won't make a difference on jaggies. Get a copy of Amped 2 (720p native) or Enter the Matrix and see what you think.

I wouldn't think the XBOX would look much worse than your computer at 640x480, but do remember, the XBOX is a 700MHz old PC. It has killer graphics for 4 years ago. It won't keep up with a 3-D card in your computer that is current. Today's 3D cards can do a lot more realtime AA and oversampling to smooth things out then they could 4 years ago.

Thnx a bunch, is there anyway I can force resolutions on any games? I also have a softmodded box which for some reason wont go to the normal xbox dash with the HDTV plug in it. Probally because I havent updated anything on it in forever on it. I will try one of the games you mentioned though when I get home later and see what the deal is then. Thnx again for the info.

That's debatable. On a high-end monitor with a good analogue to digital converter, the difference is negligable.

Kenosto004 - In regards to using your Xbox, I would stick with the component connection. If you get yourself a VGA transcoder box, you won't notice any improvement because it's simply converting a component signal into a VGA signal.

True VGA from the source, like from the Dreamcast and Xbox360 will look much better picture quality wise than the Xbox.

Thnx for the input, I also have another question, I have only 2 games that run in 720p (since I got softmod dash back working) and one of them Soul Caliber 2 shrinks the screen down and leaves empty space on both sides regardless of widescreen or not. Then I have Xmen Legends 2 which is also 720p and it cuts off part of the screen during the menus but the actual game fits the whole screen. I also run my PC in 720p and it doesnt cut off at all. Is it something with the game?

its the games.