monitor for 360

[brx]

Hey, my son is off to college this fall and wants to take his xbox 360 with him. Is there a decent monitor out there that has sound and good response and price that will not brake the bank? Wide screen preffered.
Thanks.

[jgilbreath04]

how much money are you looking to spend? and how big of monitor are you looking for?

[brx]

An LCD. Up to 20" wide screen, up to $ 250 Canadian.

[jgilbreath04]

This is one that I found that you should be happy with.

ViewSonic Graphic Series VG2021m Black 20"

another was

Acer AL2051W Black/Silver 20"

Just remeber when looking for speakers in a monitor dont expect digital 7.1 quality. Though most of the times they work decent as desktop speakers for mid level volumes.

Both of these monitors have looked to get some pretty decent reviews. Never having an Acer monitor, I would personally recommend the Viewsonic. I have had a Viewsonic LCD for 2 years now and it is still running like a champ.

[brx]

Thanks looks good.

[bigjmaster14]

Hey im quite in the same position as well.

I will be starting college this year and just got an elite so a good pc monitor that i just bought for my 360 is the Samsung 226bw!

Its widescreen and has a response time of 2ms and has a 1000:1 contrast ratio

i bought it off buy.com

Its best to hook up the 360 with a vga cable on this monitor so you can get 720p quality.




Also the monitor costed me around $316

[jgilbreath04]

bigjmaster14 I actually just bought that exact monitor about a month and a half ago, its trully is a great monitor if you have the money to spend. There really is a wow factor to the size of the 22" widescreen.

[brx]

Thanks, you put me on the right path. I did some poking around and found this, http://viewsonic.com/products/lcddis...ries/vx2235wm/ and bought it here http://pcvonline.com/productDetails.aspx?id=5740 . It will be here in a few days then I'll let you know what it feels like. Thanks for your help.

[jer888]

I use my 360 on my Samsung 225BW. Looks amazing

[nocturnx]

Don't forget you will need the 360 VGA adapter cord. Also you can just connect the audio to your current pc speakers with an rca audio to mini-jack cable.

[brx]

The monitor just came in. Hooked it up to the 360 via the d-sub cable. The colours aren't as nice as as the HDTV it is hooked up to normally, the sound is OK. 360 doesn't seem to support the 1680x1050 res. though. It'll do.

[brx]

Xbox 360 doesn't support widescreen monitors. In the settings -> display area there are no options for widescreen resolutions. My very very bad. Should have checked this before. I called XBOX support about this and the tech dude said he'll forward my inquiry up. I can't believe, that with so many wide monitors out there microsoft can't keep up.

[nocturnx]

All HDTV's are widescreen though and the vga adapter gives different resolution options than component or hdmi. The 360 doesn't support the 1680 x 1050 res. but I remember reading a couple 360 vga adapter reviews about which res. you can use instead and the picture is just as good. Try googling "xbox 360 vga adapter review" or "connect xbox 360 to monitor". Theres actually alot of articles about connecting it to a 1680 x 1050 monitor. I'd provide a link but i'm at work. If I remember right it was the 13## x ### res option, hope that helps. I remember reading something about although the 13## res is a lower res than the native res of the monitor it has the highest pixel count of the other options available...

[brx]

Yeah the 1360x768 res is listed on some of the sites I googled. I will try it as soon as the kids let me at the 360.
Thanks.

[nocturnx]

Great! Post back how it looks, I've been considering doing the same thing since my monitor is much nicer than my old sdtv.

[brx]

Looks pretty good, tho the colours are a bit paler tham my HDTV. Maybe the monitor. Must play with it. If I wasn't on a budget, would have bought samsung.

[IonicBond]

Very helpful thread. Hope you don't mind if I ask a question of my own here.

I was considering getting an Xbox 360 and the 24" Dell 2407wfp-hc. It has component inputs, so will the xbox display 1080i correctly? I suppose there will be black bars at the top and bottom since the lcd ratio is 16:10 while normal HDTV is 16:9. Would it be better to connect via component or vga?

Any comments would be appreciated. I am total console n00b and this will be my first experience with a new-gen console. I was thinking of the PS3, but the lack of quality games is a major deterrent.

EDIT: nevermind, looks like I found part of the answer after a quick round of googling. (lol should have done it before!)
http://hardware.teamxbox.com/reviews...D-AV-Cable/p1/

Supported resolutions via VGA HD cable
Resolution: 640x480, 848x480, 1024x768, 1280x720 (720p), 1280x768, 1280x1024, 1360x768.

So, no 1080p via VGA cable.....only though HD component.

EDIT #2: I was wrong. My sincere apologies for the confusion. Looks like there was an update that allows 1080p over the HD VGA cable.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x...defdetails.htm
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x...le/default.htm

[brx]

If the monitor has composit imputs, then the 360 should treat it as a tv monitor. Don't see why not. With VGA 22" and less go with 1360x768, 24" and up go with 1920x1080. This info I got out of people at Xbox. It seems to work for me. Good luck.

[brx]

I just read that some Dell and Benq 24's have built in scalers to correct the image. Don't know which models though.

[jer888]

The VGA is better then component. If you get the HD DVD drive for the 360, you can run 1080p through the VGA to certain TV's.

[tomster2300]

I run my 360 on my 19" LCD monitor (non-widescreen) via the VGA xbox cord and it works great at 1280 x 1024. I'd run it on a HDTV if I could, but i don't have the money for one.

Make sure you get all the console updates though or it may not initially recognize the VGA cable (mine did not at first).

My comments had nothing to do with the current flow of this thread though

[nocturnx]

Originally Posted by jer888 The VGA is better then component. If you get the HD DVD drive for the 360, you can run 1080p through the VGA to certain TV's.

I'm pretty sure you can run 1080p through HDMI, VGA, and Component (If your tv allows). I wouldn't recommend the HD-DVD drive since Blu-ray is doing much better in sales and has more stuido support. It would be better to get a HD-DVD / Blu-Ray standalone combo player anyway.

[tomster2300]

I thought VGA support ended at 1600 x 1280. Don't you need a DVI plug (for monitors) for anything higher?

[nocturnx]

I got one of the new hdmi 360 premiums last night and the vga cable ($40 ouch) and connected it to my 20" dell 2005fps monitor. Looks very good, I was impressed. I didn't notice much of a difference between setting the 360 output from 1360 x 768 to 1920 x 1080. I did leave it at the recommended 1360 x 768 resolution for my monitors native 1680 x 1050. It was nice that the vga cable came with an audio adapter to connect it to my pc speakers. Also I haven't gotten around to messing with the reference level option yet. I know that it justs the white and black levels. I will fool around with it after work.

[jer888]

Originally Posted by nocturnx I'm pretty sure you can run 1080p through HDMI, VGA, and Component (If your tv allows). I wouldn't recommend the HD-DVD drive since Blu-ray is doing much better in sales and has more stuido support. It would be better to get a HD-DVD / Blu-Ray standalone combo player anyway.

The component output on the 360 ends at 1080i/720p. Im pretty sure about that but as always I could be wrong. Unless you have a Elite, or are one of the ones that got lucky and got the Premiums with HDMI output, then you don't have the HDMI option either. VGA being the best only applies to the original xbox 360's without HDMI.

I wouldn't say Blu-Ray is doing MUCH better in sales, last I heard more HD DVD stand alone players were sold then Blu-Ray. However, both parties are getting desprete if you ask me, giving away more movies then they're actually selling. DVD is winning.

EDIT: Linky http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/09/21...ent-1080p-vga/

[nocturnx]

Actually Blu-ray is selling alot more than HD-DVD. I don't have an HDTV so I'm in no hurry to get either, I'll stick with my regular DVD's. However it looks like Blu-Ray is coming out on top. I still think it would be best to get a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo player.

Link

[nocturnx]

I have been using my monitor (mentioned above) for my xbox 360 and have been experiencing noticeable screen tearing on some games. I haven't seen it too much when playing gears of war, stranglehold demo, or bioshock demo, but it happens on the blacksite demo alot as well as some others, and when pulling open xbox dashboard menus within a game. Anyone else experience this or know a fix?

[tomster2300]

I don't know of a fix, although I know it has done it to me in Saints Row.

[jer888]

Originally Posted by nocturnx Actually Blu-ray is selling alot more than HD-DVD. I don't have an HDTV so I'm in no hurry to get either, I'll stick with my regular DVD's. However it looks like Blu-Ray is coming out on top. I still think it would be best to get a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo player. Link

Part of this has to be attributed to the PS3. Without it, I think they would sell equally.

I guess Samsung is coming out with a combo player this year to compete with Lg's. $999. Ill stick to DVD.