I have a Syntax Olevia 342i 42" LCD HDTV (no Tuner). I'm planning to get a hd cable box from comcast. I want hook up my xbox 360 via VGA to get 1080i hdtv. My question is. Do I need to connect my xbox 360 to the TV or to the hd cable box. I'm not sure if the hd box has vga input. Can someone help me plz??

Xbox 360 will not display 1080i over vga only progressive signals(1080p, 720p) I also doubt your cable box will have a vga input so if you want 1080i you'll have to use component.

Xbox 360 will not display 1080i over vga only progressive signals(1080p, 720p) I also doubt your cable box will have a vga input so if you want 1080i you'll have to use component.


Do I need a hd tuner to get 1080i with my xbox 360?

you can set your 360 up to output in 720p. if you have the inputs on your tv i suggest a direct connect.

I have a Syntax Olevia 342i 42" LCD HDTV (no Tuner). I'm planning to get a hd cable box from comcast. I want hook up my xbox 360 via VGA to get 1080i hdtv. My question is. Do I need to connect my xbox 360 to the TV or to the hd cable box. I'm not sure if the hd box has vga input. Can someone help me plz??
Attach the 360 directly to the TV with component cables for 1080i. If your TV has VGA then you can attach your 360 directly to the TV with the VGA adapter for 720p (with upscaled DVD playback as a bonus).

You'll have to try each to see which is better. No tuner needed, the 360 is generating the 720p/1080i image.

I believe your set is a native 720p and has 1 HDMI, 2 Component inputs and 1 VGA.

You do not need an HD Tuner to use the Xbox 360 in HD. You DO need an HD Tuner to watch HD TV. With your set up I would personally get an HDMI Capable Cable box from Comcast and use the HDMI to connect the HD Tuner to your TV. If Comcast in your area only has Component capable boxes you can connect it to the second component input on the TV.

I would then use one of the component inputs for your XBox 360. You can also connect it through the VGA to get the DVD Upconversion. Either way I would also put the XBox in 720p not 1080i. Putting it in 1080i will only make the TV down convert to its native resolution with the possible introduction of lag.

I have a question, I am going to get the panasonic 37px60u and will be wanting to play the 360 probably at 720p. The native resolution of the set is 768p or something like that. So when I play should I set the 360(in the system settings area) to 720p or should I keep the 360 set at 480p? Will my tv upscale the picture automatically or will it keep the picture at 480p? I imagine if my hdtv does the scaling the picture will be better than the 360 simply because the tv's scaler would probably be better than the 360. Am I wrong?

Krone,

You want to play the xbox in 720P as it is closest to your TVs resolution. In fact I believe 768 is actually the same as 720 (overscan lines or something). Even if I'm wrong about that, you do not want to set the 360 to 480 because your xbox is not scaling from 480 to 720 like an upconvert DVD player would, the xbox 360 is actually producing 720p and going to 480 would be like turning HD off. You logic applies to regular DVDs, in which an upcovert player won't always improve your PQ because somewhere, 480 content on the DVD disk is converted to your tvs HD resolution. The TV does this anyway, so then it becomes which does it better, but again, not an issue with the Xbox.

xlinkx - your TV has a native resolution of 1366x768 - If the menu system will let you calibrate the color on the VGA input, that will likely give you the best image. Failing that, you'll have to go with component and see which looks best to *your* eye, 720p or 1080i. YMMV. If your set has a dot-by-dot/zero-overscan/1-to-1 pixel mapping mode (most 720p displays don't) you may be able to get pristine 720p with a black border instead of a stretched out image that is fuzzier than it needs to be. Again, VGA is likely your best bet if your set supports it properly. Which isn't to say component won't be good; it just won't be ideal because the native resolution does not correspond to any of the official HD resolutions. This is common and not a particularly evil thing; just the way the business works these days.

Krone7 - your display is a stretched XGA native-resolution; 1024 by 768 - Again, VGA is the only way you'll get native display without any kind of scaling. Again, image quality will depend on your set letting you calibrate color on the VGA port. If you go with component, the onboard electronics will have to resize the 1280x720 XBOX signal to 1024 by 768 and... well, lets just say it won't be pristine. Asymmetric rescaling plus overscan is not a friendly way to treat HD video. For movies and DVD you likely would never notice it; for PC use you definitely would. For XBOX? YMMV.

JCByrd - sorry, no; 768 is not even close to 720. For starters, there are two flavors of 768: stretched-XGA, 1024x768, and WXGA, 1366x768. The latter uses square pixels, the former rectangular. Second, those are the native resolution pixel counts of the display, not the set's frame buffer resolution. What overscan does is take the incoming signal, scale it up by anywhere between 2-10% (depending on the idiocy of the manufacturer) into the frame buffer and then display the center section of this mangled signal, letting the edges of the scaled image in the buffer fall off the viewing area. The display presents 1024x768 (or whatever the panel res is) worth of pixels but they aren't the exact same pixels the 360 sent out in the first place. Its all about accurate rendition of the input. Overscan is the mortal enemy of accuracy and sharpness. ;-)

When talking HD displays it is very important to:

1- distinguish between the signals a set's electronics will accept as inputs and the *native* resolution at which those signals are presented.

2- understand that unless the set has a zero overscan mode (by whatever name they choose to market it) on *some* port, the image presented will be stretched and scaled and anything but a 100% accurate rendition of what the original source provided. (And that doesn't even begin to address the fact that the source--cable box, satellite receiver, FOX broadcast, might be mangled/faux-HD to start with.)

We are still in the early days of the HD era and a lot of manufacturers and content providers are sticking consumers with sub-standard products with "legacy" features like overscan that have no more place on a true HD set than a vertical hold control.

Be wewy, wewy caweful, as Elmer Fudd would say. ;-)

Even with VGA you won't get "native" 1366x768 -- you just have the xbox doing the scaling rather than the TV. Games don't render at that resolution.

Nope. But that's as good as it gets these days.
You get to see what the XBOX puts out, not what the display thinks you should see.
Some games have been known to have trouble with overscan chopping off parts of the HUD and all that, you know...

Games don't chop parts of the HUD off, TVs do, and many do it even with their native resolution. The only reason to have the 360 do the scaling instead of your TV is if you are using a TV that has a crappy scaler.

Even with VGA you won't get "native" 1366x768 -- you just have the xbox doing the scaling rather than the TV. Games don't render at that resolution.
This is not true. It's true that the VGA only offers 1360x768, but the TV can display it natively, with no scaling by the TV, and three pixel lines missing from the right and left side of the display.

His point is that it is still getting scaled at the console since 360 games aren't rendered at 1360x768.

Oops, read that differently.

Games don't chop parts of the HUD off, TVs do, and many do it even with their native resolution. The only reason to have the 360 do the scaling instead of your TV is if you are using a TV that has a crappy scaler.


Games don't chop HUDs, but some games allow for overscan while others don't. That's why its not immediately obvious on all games when your set is mangling the video.

The chief virtue of VGA is that good TVs don't overscan VGA. (Kinda defeats the purpose of having a PC input and few manufacturers are quite *that* stupid. Close, but not quite...)

Letting the 360 do the scaling is how you feed native resolution to the non-overscanned port so the TV doesn't chop off the HUD. Feeding 720 to anything other than a native 720 display *will* lead to scaling *and* overscan. You avoid both or neither.

Again, only a handful of TVs offer zero-overscan on non VGA ports.

Overscan is the enemy. :-)

I'm confused here....

First, do we know what resolution is the xbox 360 running at? I'm assuming its got to be near 720/768. So below your not talking about scaling from SD right? Just whatever 360 source res. to native panel res needs to be done?

Letting the 360 do the scaling is how you feed native resolution to the non-overscanned port so the TV doesn't chop off the HUD. Feeding 720 to anything other than a native 720 display *will* lead to scaling *and* overscan. You avoid both or neither.

2nd, is 720P signal to XXXX x 768 native really that undesireable? The TV is obviously doing a little bit of scaling here (possible/definite overscan as well), but it doesn't seem to be a big enough problem for it not to be the norm....i.e. Most panels have a 768 native not 720 native right? Haven't TV programers and whatnot gotten this pretty much figured out...why would this be a problem on the 360 when its a TV based game system (vs. PC) and TVs take standard resolution inputs (720P). Is it a problem because the 360 is PC based and therefore starting out with PC like resolutions?

Just trying to learn, thanks for the info.