xbox 360 vga cable 1080 vs 720 BS

[CHICO2003]

So I've searched endlessly on the internet and have come up with nothing. So hopefully someone here can help me out...

I've got a non-hdmi xbox 360 with the hd-dvd add-on. (yeah yeah, rub it in)

Anyway... there's like never any good movies on cable (or even pay-per-view it seems) so I signed up for netflix. So far... I'm lovin it. I read somewhere that the xbox could upconvert normal dvds to HD if you're using a vga cable. Since HD-DVDs are no more, I figured that was the next best thing. So I shelled out $40 for a stinkin vga cable.

I guess I have to assume the sd-dvds are being upconverted (only one way to really tell.... but I'm not going to go through the hassle) but a couple things are bugging me.

Even though my TV supports 1080 resolution, the xbox dashboard won't accept it. The highest resolution it will take is xxxx x 768 But that one F's up the blades so I settled for the xxxx x 720.

But here's the thing... while the sd-dvds are presumably being upconverted to 720p, my hd-dvds are also only playing at 720p. I went back to the component cables to see what the difference was and low and behold, I was able to get 1080i resolution on the hd-dvd.

So it looks like I have 2 choices... I can watch upconverted dvds through my vga cable but seemingly sacrifice some resolution when watching an hd-dvd or settle for the 480p for sd-dvds and get the full 1080i out of hd-dvds. (and... of course get my 40 bucks back.)

question is... wtf do I have to compromise? Why can't my xbox get 1080 out of the damn vga cable? Am I missing something here? In case you can't tell... this is sort of pissing me off.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

[avarela86]

From what I know 360s only go up to 720 resolution. Not 1080P but I can be totally wrong. As for the mess your going with why not invest in a blue ray player and save the hassle. The prices on them have gone down significantly. I'm going with the PS3 alternative though. Since I got my house broken into im going with "another" elite and picking up a used PS3 somehwere. My issue though is no 1080P from my tv only 720 :-(.

[mckraut]

1080p is possible through HDMI on the 360.

As for your problem OP, I suggest you do what I did. Take back that VGA cable (yes, I bought one too and found it lacking compared to my component cable) and put the money toward a dedicated upconverting DVD player.

[gimpo2]

i think you should just invest in a blu-ray player. An upconverted dvd will never equal a real HD source

[avarela86]

i think you should just invest in a blu-ray player. An upconverted dvd will never equal a real HD source

yeah, specially if your looking for that in your face, looks like you can touch her look on the screen. I want that but first I need a 1080 TV, right now its a 32 LCD 720P but I want like a 42LCD 1080P now.

[CHICO2003]

The VGA cable is the only way to 'unlock' the xbox's ability to upconvert dvds. That's the only reason I got it. I assumed a) I'd be able to upconvert to 1080i and b) hd-dvds (even though it's defunct, there are still a lot of great movies out there) would still play in 1080i.

For some crazy reason, the xbox taps out at 720 with the vga cable (for both dvd & hd-dvd). The components on the other hand will deliver 1080i hd-dvds but aren't capable of upconverting sd-dvds. Maybe I'm making more of this than I should. Every hd movie available on xbox live is in 720p so maybe watching hd-dvds in 1080i isn't that much better. I'd have to run some tests I guess... it's just the principal of it all that's killing me.

As far as buying a stand-alone upconverting dvd player (which, along with an hdmi cable, will probably cost at least $100) or 'investing' in a blu-ray player (far more expensive) goes... no way in hell. Even though it seems like it is, this shit isn't that important to me. I essentially paid $40 for the ability to upconvert normal dvds. Even though it's just a stupid cable, for what it supposedly does, it made sense.

So I guess I'll run some tests to figure out whether watching an hd-dvd in 1080i through components is that much better than watching one in 720 through the vga. If the difference is neglible, I guess I'll stick with the vga cable. If it's noticeable enough... assuming I can't figure out a solution, maybe I'll just swap cables when appropriate.

[gimpo2]

what size tv do you have? these things are less noticeable with smaller tvs

[orlandomsp]

Can't say I know what the problem is, but you could always try to find the HD-DVD movie you want online. deepdiscount.com has some plenty of HD-DVDs below 10 bucks. (dunno)

As far as I know, the 360 is supposed to play HDDVDs @ 1080i and DVDs @ 480p max (because of DVD licensing restrictions) through the components. With a VGA cable HD-DVDs, and DVDs should play at 1080p, provided you have a 1080p TV. That said, the 360 isn't that great of a DVD player to begin with, you'd get a better picture with a quality standalone upconvert DVD player.

[Fear]

The VGA cable is the only way to 'unlock' the xbox's ability to upconvert dvds.

Nope, it will do it with an HDMI cable as well.