1680x1050 + Composite Input = Poor Image?

[Maviryk]

I have a Samsung 215TW widescreen monitor. It has composite input. My Xbox with HDTV games has composite output.

No matter what video settings I put into the Xbox dashboard, my monitor only uses 720x480p. And the picture looks like this:

http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc010009vi.jpg

Is it just because my monitor is not made for TV?

Please help.

[AtomicMonkey]

Well mostly because composite output is not the highest quality. Unless I'm mistaken it also does not provide progressive (480p) output but just your normal NTSC/480i. It would also explain why no matter what you set, you get the same crappy picture. Your monitor is upconverting the 480i signal to full native resolution + deinterlacing and is simply doing a poor job of it, as most would actually. Presumably, if you were to use component output from XBox (does it have one?) then you should be able to take advantage of HD output resolutions, thus suffer much less PQ loss.

[adamwinn]

composite won't handle hd signal bandwidth, plain and simple :(

[Maviryk]

Er... composite... I meant component. 5 wires...

Whatever these things are
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4838/dsc010042dz.th.jpg (http://img266.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc010042dz.jpg)

[AtomicMonkey]

Yea, well big difference :) Bit strange then. If the monitor has component inputs it should be to accept HD content, which would point to your XBox inability to output anything higher than 480p. And 480p on a 21" LCD will look like crap no matter what. I'm not familiar with either XBox nor this monitor. Kinda obvious, but did you check the monitor menu/settings for some lilely suspects? My bet however would be XBox is screwing you.

[JRW]

If you're talking about Xbox (Not Xbox360) then 99% of the games dont support any higher than 480P which would explain your problem. Xbox360 on the other hand will output all games at 720p or 1080i (whichever you select).

[Maviryk]

Yes I'm talking about the old Xbox, but I thought I was going to be able to get at least regular TV quality out of this monitor... not this pixelated crap...

Yes messed with monitor settings, there are none, it's auto adjusting.

As for Xbox, I told it the "HDTV" was 480I, 480P, and 720P compatible. Widescreen mode. Nothing gets rid of the edges.

That first picture was from MechAssault2, which says it HDTV 16x9 compatible. Here is a picture from MOHAA
http://img333.imageshack.us/img333/7813/dsc010092qx.th.jpg (http://img333.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc010092qx.jpg)
MOHAA says HDTV 480P on the back of the box, and here is a pic of Crimson Skies, also 480P on the back of the box
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3755/dsc010121fy.th.jpg (http://img403.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc010121fy.jpg)

Gah!!! WHere is the AA! AF?

[AtomicMonkey]

Nothing gets rid of the edges because the output is still only 480p because that is what the xbox is capable of displaing, and the upscaler needs to make up 600 pixels - which is btw more than the picture itself. Actually even at 720 the monitor would still have to make up over 300 pixels. Picture would be far from perfect. Even with a great AA 480 picture would simply be very, very blurry.

[adamwinn]

Even still, that image looks worse than my Gamecube outputting 480i and upconverting on my 27" lcd hdtv.
there's no way that can be right- I know on Gamecube you have to manually enable 480p because not all games support it, is it the same way on XBox?

[AtomicMonkey]

It probably does but then your 27" LCD TV probably doesn't have nearly the resolution of a 21" PC monitor. 1680x1050 vs what, 1280x720? In this case, higher is not necessarily better. And your TV may have a better scaler on top of it.

[adamwinn]

1366 x 768. I haven't tried hooking my GC up to my monitor, I should try that to see how it looks. My monitors native is 1920 x 1200 so that should really make it ugly if it is the pixel issue.

Actually, here's the easiest solution. Put a DVD in and compare that. DVD's are 480p and I guarentee you it won't look that jagged. So that establishes that your monitor can handle 480p scaling just fine. That leads me to the conclusion that the jaggies are just the limitations of the XBox's hardware being amplified by such a high resolution monitor. Is there a standard AA/AF applied to all XBox games?

[noxqzs]

have you tried setting the picture scaling on the monitor to 1:1. This should give you the best comparison on whether there is a problem or not.

[Encore2097]

Also have you tried those cables on a different source? DVD player for example? That might at least tell you the cable is fine and narrow down the problem to the monitor (scaler chip) or the Xbox. Also does your monitor have RCA audio inputs? Because the component is three connectors Y-Pb-Pr, and the last two are audio, so I am wondering how come you have all 5 hooked up to the monitor

EDIT: Or are you using a RGBHV cable?

http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/products/2002/119/h119XGL400.jpeg

[Maviryk]

Well, problem solved, sorta.

I'm borrowing an Xbox 360 from a friend. Found out it wasn't my monitor.... BTW, Burnout Revenge in true 720p is AWESOME!

I set the 360 to 480p and it still looks much better than the 480p from the original Xbox. I'm quite confused. Doesn't look like I'll be buying a 360 soon though... my favourite games... MechAssault and MechAssault2:Lonewolf aren't supported!

ZOMG! All that stuff about the premium being the better buy and "backwards compatibility" was marketing crap.

Stupid M$.