xbox360 with standard tv?

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DizzySHK

Gawd
Joined
Mar 28, 2001
Messages
657
i am thinking of picking up xbox360 but buying HDTV at the moment is really a distant option at this time.

my tv does have s-video connection. would s-video from xbox360 be at least better than the regular composite cables?
 
yeah its a little more sharp. and remember if your desperate for HD you can always hook it up to your monitor
 
The 360 looks fantastic on SDTVs.. yet only much better on HDTVs. This is a common question, and valid one at that.

You'll be loving it !
 
Sorry to say what you don't want to hear. I own an HDTV and have played my 360 on both, And i have to say this: Don't bother getting a 360 till you already have an HDTV. I however don't buy the "Its not in the cards for me right now" My freind Super_Stoner got a crt 30ish inch samsung widescreen at a scratch and dent liquidator for 250$ , and everything works on it. It does have a nasty looking scratch on the case, but who cares , its sweet! If your willing to drop 500$ on a new console you should get the hdtv first. You can do more with it anyways , other than just play games on it. HDTV programs look sweet and if your here, you probably have a decent pc right? Play pc games in HD on that thing while you save for a 360!
 
I disagree with 7718. I owned a SDTV before a recent purchase of an HDTV, and I can say its still worth it without the HDTV. Yea, it does look a bit better, but not enough to make me not want a 360 if I had only a standard tv.
 
steaksauce said:
I disagree with 7718. I owned a SDTV before a recent purchase of an HDTV, and I can say its still worth it without the HDTV. Yea, it does look a bit better, but not enough to make me not want a 360 if I had only a standard tv.
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A bit better? What games are you playing? A bit better.. Thats the understatement of all time. Thats like saying Kokanee is just a bit better than keystone. Thats like saying that Athlon 64's are just a bit better than a similarly clocked p4.. Thats like saying Bushes administration is just a little bit incompetent. :rolleyes:

Lets do the math , shall we? On a sdtv with svideo (which is 480i) there are effectively 153,600 pixels for the 360 to use to display images. On a 1080i HDTV there are 1,036,800 pixels to display the image. So to clarifiy the difference defined as "a little" is actually 883,200 pixels. So it would take 6 and 3/4's regular tv's to display the same amount of image "information" as an HDTV does.

Not to mention you can buy a spankin' new 51" HDTV at Walmart now for 800$ with an integrated HDTV tuner.

Personally I find it hard to go back and play games at 480p now (xbox/gamecube) after getting so spoiled with my hdtv gaming. 480p is a gritty grainy mess.
 
Dont get me wrong...Im not saying that I would go back, because quite frankly I wouldnt(Hell, discovery channel HD is enough to keep me hooked on HD), but if he hasnt had HD, and has only played an xbox or ps2 on a standard tv, hes not going to be bitching because it looks like shit.

When we picked up the 360 we were all fine with the standard TV. We still thought the games looked great, hell, PGR3 looked better on a standard TV than any other console games we had played.

Id also probably stay away from those walmart TV's. Just doesnt seem like a good idea. :eek:

I tell ya, I havent even went back to my other consoles since getting an HDTV....Im kind of afraid.
 
I agree in disagreeing with 7718. I have played on both highdef and standard def. The games look good on standard, and look damn good on high def. It is still definitely worth it if you only have an SDTV. That is if the games interest you.
 
If you havent used a HDTV yet playing xbox360 on a SDTV wouldnt be a problem.
 
Component > S-Video > Composite

My brother uses his X360 on a normal widescreen TV, and it looks surprisingly OK with the Component leads. Very bright and clear picture, about as good as you could expect for standard def. Composite is horrible, however. Colour bleed and fuzzy edges everywhere.

If you don't have a TV that can accept at least S-Video, I would give it a miss til you get a HDTV.
 
I would say hook it up to your pc monitor for now. It may be small but you will have true HD that way. You would need to pick up the 360 VGA adapter.
 
meatfestival said:
Component > S-Video > Composite

My brother uses his X360 on a normal widescreen TV, and it looks surprisingly OK with the Component leads. Very bright and clear picture, about as good as you could expect for standard def. Composite is horrible, however. Colour bleed and fuzzy edges everywhere.

If you don't have a TV that can accept at least S-Video, I would give it a miss til you get a HDTV.
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I recently went from using my ps2 on composite to component, huge difference. Even the difference from composite to s-video is noticeable.
 
I suppose I should mention that I did have my standard TV hooked in through component cables.
 
Your console options are ...

1. PS3 8 months if you camp outside of stores.
2. Revolution in 8 months, but no HD support.

3. 360 right now, that supports full HD.
 
DizzySHK said:
i am thinking of picking up xbox360 but buying HDTV at the moment is really a distant option at this time.

my tv does have s-video connection. would s-video from xbox360 be at least better than the regular composite cables?
Click to expand...


The X360 looks great on a standard definition TV, and is a real treat on an HDTV. Honestly, I could never go back to playing my X360 on a standard TV as it looks so good in high def. If you don't mind having a huge heavy CRT based TV, they are actually pretty cheap as I see them on sale all the time at Walmart and other stores. As far as cables go, component is the best if you have them, but S-video will be much better than the standard composite cables.
 
People don't seem to realize that what looks better/is more impressive is going to vary from person to person.

Some people are impressed by HDTV while others are not.

My plasma has it, but it's not something that's going to make me jump over the moon in ecstacy. Thing is, there's nothing wrong with component and S-video. So while HDTV may display a "better" image, the former two hookups are more than good enough to play games.
 
I've played my 360 on about 6 different TVs, ranging from a 27" SDTV (my main tv), to a 50" HDTV, to a 20" HDTV LCD, to a 35" SDTV. The 50" was amazing, and I noticed the difference, but I still love gaming my my main tv. I'm sure I'll pick up a HDTV within the next 6 months, but until then, I'm perfectly happy with my SDTV.
 
Right now i have a sdtv, and playing a 360 on it is fine. i dled the fight night 3 demo like most people and the game looked great.....until i played it on a hdtv at ebgames. since then i cant really enjoy playing my xbox 360. i bought ghost recon, and i can already tell that the game would he so much better in hi def. seeing it in hi def does spoil you, but it is really good on a sdtv.

im waiting on buying a tv because im planning on getting a ps3, so im gonna wait until then to buy one, i have this inkling that the prices on panels are gonna drop significantly around that time.
 
Yeah, gaming on SDTV with my XB360 is great. I had it on my HDTV downstairs for a little while, but had to move it upstairs because the folks don't want gaming consoles on the "home theater" TV. Anyway, I played it first on my HDTV, and after moving it back to the SDTV... I'd say I missed playing it in HD for maybe 2 days. Then I forgot. The graphics are still great. Sure, it's going to be better on HD, but it's still loads better than Xbox or any other game console for that matter.

Basically, it's like this: take a modern PC game with great graphics and play it in both 1280x1024 and 640x480 with the same settings. If the game's graphics still look great for you at 640x480 (albeit not NEARLY as sharp), then you'll be OK with SDTV.
 
PWMK2 said:
Basically, it's like this: take a modern PC game with great graphics and play it in both 1280x1024 and 640x480 with the same settings. If the game's graphics still look great for you at 640x480 (albeit not NEARLY as sharp), then you'll be OK with SDTV.
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actually, its not like that. 640x480 looks much different on a computer monitor than it does on a tv.

why?

because the tv is only capable of 640x480 resolution, and therefore only physically has that many pixels. so the image isn't stretched across a bunch of extra pixels. the fact is that a standard definition television hides a lot of the drawbacks of 640x480 resolution so its gonna look better on your tv than on your monitor at 640x480.

in my oppinion, xbox 360 looks great on a standard definiton television. much better than an xbox. anyone who says different is misinformed. the 360 has effects that the xbox isn't even capable of doing at all.

the biggest improvements you get on an HD tv, are more vibrant and rich colors, and things in the distance are more clear. but really, its not a HUUUUUGE difference.

I'm sure you probably know someone with a 360, ask them to hook it up to a regular tv and let you play on it a bit. I think you'll find its just fine.

If you don't have an HDtv now, it'd be smart to wait until HDCP is widespread.

I just play GRAW last night, connected through a vcr, and displayed on a shit ass tv from the 80's, it looked fine to me, and I was quite impressed with that game's graphics.
 
People are getting way too caught up in the HDTV vs. SDTV debate. People are too busy arguing over pixels to remember that the X360 is a next generation piece of eqiupment. It can and will display more polygons, better textures, cooler lighting effects than the original Xbox. That alone means that 360 games will look better than Xbox games. (I'm talking as a whole, not game specific. Obviously some individual games have poor graphics for any system.)

The 360 looks great. That's all you really need to know. Don't worry about an HDTV. If you've got a computer monitor pick up a VGA transcoder and you have an HDTV for a fraction of the price. You can get a monitor with component inputs for under $500 if you look for the right coupons/discounts etc.
 
chameleoneel said:
actually, its not like that. 640x480 looks much different on a computer monitor than it does on a tv.

why?

because the tv is only capable of 640x480 resolution, and therefore only physically has that many pixels. so the image isn't stretched across a bunch of extra pixels. the fact is that a standard definition television hides a lot of the drawbacks of 640x480 resolution so its gonna look better on your tv than on your monitor at 640x480.

in my oppinion, xbox 360 looks great on a standard definiton television. much better than an xbox. anyone who says different is misinformed. the 360 has effects that the xbox isn't even capable of doing at all.
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I agree with you that it does look great even on an SDTV! Maybe I wasn't clear in what I was trying to say. I was mearly saying that if you don't need to have the highest resolution when you're playing games (as in, lower resolution is OK if the graphics still rock), then Xbox 360 on SDTV will be fine. I know it's fine for me. :)
 
there's actually something interesting about SDTV which I think is strange that nobody has really taken advantage of. Most people think it's limited to 640x480, but in fact it's only the vertical resolution which is limited. The horizontal res is pretty much unlimited.

Anyone who had an Amiga 1200 might remember that it was capable of outputting 1280x256 or 1280x512 interlaced to a standard TV (vertical res varied depending on PAL/NTSC). You could also go slightly higher with overscan, although this was usually cut off on your typical 14" portable TV. :) Why can't the X360 do the same?
 
meatfestival said:
Anyone who had an Amiga 1200 might remember that it was capable of outputting 1280x256 or 1280x512 interlaced to a standard TV (vertical res varied depending on PAL/NTSC). You could also go slightly higher with overscan, although this was usually cut off on your typical 14" portable TV. :) Why can't the X360 do the same?
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Standard TVs can only display at a resolution 640x480 or less, 720x480 if it's widescreen.
 
i just bought a hdtv yesterday, but i didnt get a chance to mess around with it 2 much yet. i player GRAW for literally 30 seconds just to see what it'll look like. it looked better of course, but the graphics on the 360 still hasnt wowed me yet. its still early on so i know better games/graphics is coming.

when i get home from work ill play some more, hopefully my feelings will change.
 
ne0-reloaded said:
i just bought a hdtv yesterday, but i didnt get a chance to mess around with it 2 much yet. i player GRAW for literally 30 seconds just to see what it'll look like. it looked better of course, but the graphics on the 360 still hasnt wowed me yet. its still early on so i know better games/graphics is coming.

when i get home from work ill play some more, hopefully my feelings will change.
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Make sure you turn on the HD functions on the plug, too...on release night I didn't notice that for about 30 minutes :p

As for wanting to see a next-gen quality game, GRAW isn't really the one I'd choose. I'd actually go with Need For Speed: MW, Oblivion, or maybe DOA4. It's really not a HUGE jump over the current gens (at least certainly not as big of a jump as the PS2 was over the PS1), but it's there.
 
i have doa4, cod2, and my bro has madden, so ill try one of those. what do u mean by make sure i turn the hd functions on the plug? im guessing ur talking about the component 360 cables. ill check that out when i get home. i really need to just read the 360 and game manuals. ill do that 2 i guess.
 
ne0-reloaded said:
i have doa4, cod2, and my bro has madden, so ill try one of those. what do u mean by make sure i turn the hd functions on the plug? im guessing ur talking about the component 360 cables. ill check that out when i get home. i really need to just read the 360 and game manuals. ill do that 2 i guess.
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It's kind of odd, you can plug in the component cable and everything will run normally (even 16X9), but it won't actually be in HD unless you flip a little switch on the component plug. My first 2 hours were kind of ho-hum until I noticed that under my graphical settings option that I wasn't actually using the 720p or 1080i mode. A good way to know for sure is that an EA game will flash a big "HD" symbol before a game begins if you're in HD mode.
 
PWMK2 said:
Standard TVs can only display at a resolution 640x480 or less, 720x480 if it's widescreen.
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No, like I said above, the horizontal resolution of normal TVs is pretty much unlimited, because that part is analogue. Or did I just imagine my Amiga running at 1280x512 on a TV?

It's definitely possible, and I think it's odd that the extra res isn't used.
 
meatfestival said:
No, like I said above, the horizontal resolution of normal TVs is pretty much unlimited, because that part is analogue. Or did I just imagine my Amiga running at 1280x512 on a TV?

It's definitely possible, and I think it's odd that the extra res isn't used.
Click to expand...

I know with ATI cards you can push up to 1024x768 out the S-vid port to a sd tv, you get the expanded work space but gain no clairity, its still 640x you just get smaller(blurrier) stuff to work with
 
[T5K]thrasher said:
I know with ATI cards you can push up to 1024x768 out the S-vid port to a sd tv, you get the expanded work space but gain no clairity, its still 640x you just get smaller(blurrier) stuff to work with
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Yes, it just downsamples to 640x480.
 
meatfestival said:
No, like I said above, the horizontal resolution of normal TVs is pretty much unlimited, because that part is analogue. Or did I just imagine my Amiga running at 1280x512 on a TV?

It's definitely possible, and I think it's odd that the extra res isn't used.
Click to expand...

No, no, no. There are only so many pixels on a television screen. That amount is 640 pixels horizontal pixels and 480 vertical pixels (or 720 vertical pixels in the case of widescreen). There is no such thing as an unlimited horizontal (or vertical) resolution on anything.

In other words, your Amiga didn't run at 1280x512, but either downsized to 640x512 or 640x256, depending on whether or not the Amiga's television adapter automatically corrects the aspect when ouputting to TV.
 
PWMK2 said:
No, no, no. There are only so many pixels on a television screen.
Click to expand...

Nope. CRT screens are only divided into scanlines, of which there are 625 for PAL (576 used, 512 usually visible) or 525 for NTSC (480 used, 400 normally visible). The horizontal resolution is not discrete. The only restriction is the dot pitch of the screen, and the frequency at which each line is sampled. Look it up on google. LCD/plasma screens are different, and DO have discrete pixels.

PWMK2 said:
That amount is 640 pixels horizontal pixels and 480 vertical pixels (or 720 vertical pixels in the case of widescreen).
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The standard for all SDTV broadcasts is 720 pixels wide. However on 4:3 screens, some of this is "overscan" and is not usually visible. This is why you sometimes see black borders with a 640x480 image on a TV. Widescreen TVs don't have any more "pixels", they just treat the signal differently.

PWMK2 said:
In other words, your Amiga didn't run at 1280x512, but either downsized to 640x512 or 640x256, depending on whether or not the Amiga's television adapter automatically corrects the aspect when ouputting to TV.
Click to expand...

Incorrect. Individual pixels were clearly visible at 1280. Unlimited horizontal res. The amiga's graphics chip wasn't capable of rescaling in this manner, and there was no TV conversion since its chips worked natively at TV frequencies.

It's also worth noting that some people use VGA-to-RGB converters to directly output from their PC at 1024x576 to their standard def widescreen TVs (without rescaling). I imagine it would be possible to do the same with the X360 VGA cable.
 
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