DELL 2405 with the XBOX 360 VGA CABLE vs Component conclusion

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Limp Gawd
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Mar 20, 2002
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I know some of you are wondering about this. So, after comparing both the Component vs VGA cables for the XBOX 360 on the DELL 2405 I have come to the conclusion that the component cables are better.

Why? When hooked up with the component cables the text is alot shaper at 720P and at 1080i. With the VGA cable it only has a max high resolution fo 1360x768 and it is alot blurrier. The only advantage that the VGA cable vs Component is when the VGA cable is hooked up to the monitor, games are alot brighter, but with component is alot darker. Either way you can correct it with on screen monitor controls.

So there you have it. Also if anyone needs a XBOX 360 cVGA able I'll let it go for $35 shipped.
 
What settings were you using in both cases?

I've still been experimenting to determine the optimum arrangement for me.

Right now, I am using the VGA cable with 1360x768 resolution. Using just my onscreen controls I cannot get the game dark enough to play Condemned as it should be played.

There is a noticeable quality difference at this resolution whenever I switch to Aspect or Fill modes. This monitor's scaler tends to make jaggies more noticeable and it really softens up (for lack of a better description right now) textures on most of the games.

I am going to keep fooling around with it. I really need this monitor as a decent backup for playing 360 games- my wife hogs the big TV.
 
For the VGA cable I used 1360x768 which is 16:9 and Aspect mode. I also used 1280x768 which is 16:10, the correct aspect ratio for this monitor. For the component I use 720P. In all cases the VGA cable was significantly blurrier than when using component cables. Even when using 11280x720 which is 720P equivalent.

The other thing that I noticed was that with the VGA cable is that it is very bright. Any time you are scaling an image to an LCD's non native resolution isn't it going to be blurry? When I have time I will try to use it on another LCD and see if it exhibits the same symptoms.

I used this reference for aspect ratios.

http://hardware.teamxbox.com/reviews/xbox-360/40/Xbox-360-VGA-HD-AV-Cable/p1/
 
So far I agree with you that component looks better, but I would be happy with VGA if I could adjust this monitor's brightness down a little more than its zero setting. I may just be stuck playing dark games on the TV instead of the Dell.
 
What seems to be the final verdict on this? I've read through that other large thread and there doesn't seem to be a clear-cut answer.

Anybody?
 
Stick with component if you can. The colors are washed out using the vga cable.
 
ever consider that since HDtv was never meant to use VGA, it doesnt use the HD scaler chip to process VGA signals, hence why they look better over component.
 
Well, it looks like I will be holding off on getting the VGA cables then.

Thanks for the info everyone.
 
I don't think you can extrapolate this for other monitors or technologies.

The reason component looks better than VGA for us could be because of the electronics inside this Dell and not because of the Xbox 360 or the type of cable.
 
Mayor McCheese said:
I don't think you can extrapolate this for other monitors or technologies.

The reason component looks better than VGA for us could be because of the electronics inside this Dell and not because of the Xbox 360 or the type of cable.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I have seen the Xbox 360 hooked up to an LG 60" Plasma via VGA and it is simply stunning. None of the issues described in these threads is the VGA cable necessarily responsible for... it is simply a bad combination with the Dell 2405FPW.

On that note, when I get home from work today, I'm switching to component. ;)
 
I had $40 to burn so I bought the VGA cables to compare for myself.

The colors are indeed a bit more dull....not as drastic as some make it seem, but definitely more washed out. It almost looks like there's some sort of filter on. With VGA at the highest res, it looked like there were fewer jaggies, but that could be due to the "softening" effect that the duller colors presented. Overall in terms of sharpness, I thought the VGA cables were MAYBE a tad bit sharper, but even that might have been my mind searching for something, anything. The components are definitely more vibrant. This is all on Madden 2006. In Call of Duty, I actually thought component looked better. I think I will stick with component but I'll do some more comparing later.
 
Night Fox said:
On that note, when I get home from work today, I'm switching to component. ;)
Click to expand...

Well, I did. And I'm undecided at this point. When using the VGA cable, it seems sharper to me, aside from being slightly washed out which is actually because the monitor seems to brighten this input unnecessarily. The colors are definitely more vibrant when using component, but the image quality doesn't seem as good and I believe the monitor handles stretching 1280x720 better than the 720p component input.

I guess I'm going to play around with it a bit more...

PS - I can't wait to get a better HDTV. :(
 
With Kameo you can fix the washed out look over VGA by adjusting the brightness setting and choosing LCD. If every game had this then VGA would be a definite choice for this Dell monitor.
 
Night Fox said:
Well, I did. And I'm undecided at this point. When using the VGA cable, it seems sharper to me, aside from being slightly washed out which is actually because the monitor seems to brighten this input unnecessarily. The colors are definitely more vibrant when using component, but the image quality doesn't seem as good and I believe the monitor handles stretching 1280x720 better than the 720p component input.

I guess I'm going to play around with it a bit more...

PS - I can't wait to get a better HDTV. :(
Click to expand...

I don't know if it looks "sharper" with VGA....it looks "softer" and some of the textures don't seem as detailed (may be because of the washed out colors). Right I'm leaning towards 720P over component...I love the vibrant colors and it still looks very crisp and sharp. I still can't decide though, LOL. It's close.
 
Is it just me or does 1080i look better than 720p on this particular monitor. I know it shouldn't be that way but I have switched back and forth a million times and 1080i looks better.
 
skittzle said:
Is it just me or does 1080i look better than 720p on this particular monitor. I know it shouldn't be that way but I have switched back and forth a million times and 1080i looks better.
Click to expand...

I've noticed that a bit...but only when I sit kinda close and even then the difference isn't very much. To me 720p "flows" a little smoother, or at least it seems that way to me.
 
Spose I'll throw it in this thread too since this was specifically regarding the two...

Anyone test the Monster VGA cable on the 2405 yet? I know Monster's a ripoff all things the same... however, if their particular modifications somehow compensated for the washed out look of the official MS VGA cable... that'd make their $60 cable worth it for me.

I'm becoming pretty convinced that the components are either 1) upscaling a downconverted 480p signal or the 2) the input chip(s) use an algorithm that's particularly poor resulting in the jaggies. I really really would like to keep the vibrancy of the components if at all possible over teh VGAs.

Navy
 
NavyH16 said:
I'm becoming pretty convinced that the components are either 1) upscaling a downconverted 480p signal
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I've read this statement in a few forums now, some fella here even claimed a dell rep admitted to it, though i don't put much faith in a dell rep's product knowledge, especially regarding the details of lcd video chipsets.

If the 2405 (and thats if !) is first downscaling, then upscaling Xbox video signals, then that is not a good thing at all imho. And yes there is a decent chance that the 2405's vga input is "pass-thru" whereas the component input is likely fed into the video chipset for upscaling/downscaling/video processing. We just have no idea how the 2405 is processing all of this video information.

Would be nice if someone with more technical knowledge of the 2405's video chipset were here to answer these questions. The answers are probably out there on google somewhere, but the thought of sifting through all that information :(
 
Yeah, I'm not saying it's a good thing. That's a really bad thing if it downconverts and upscales.

Ummagamma has a diagram or two I think in another thread that shows the VGA takes a similar path to the DVI through the 2405 while the component (and the other inputs) take a different path coming in through a seperate array of chips.

Navy
 
Well, I'm using the 2005fpw. I hooked up my Xbox360 via VGA @ 1280x720. The monitor is set to aspect mode. The image looks outstanding. I'd still be interested in hearing how the monster vga cables compare. If the monster cables make the colors even more vibrant, then I'd buy it.
 
How does the VGA cables do on a CRT monitor? One poster said it was the Dell that was behind the blurriness isssues. Does this still occur on a CRT?
 
Orange.exe said:
any experiences with crt screens and the vga cables?
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360's VGA has the same symptoms on our FW900 CRT as the 2405fpw,It's a bit washed out and lacks color vibrancy but you can (for the most part) compensate both using the monitors adjustments, I was able to get the black levels perfect by turning the brightness down to 5 and Contrast up to 95, I haven't really messed with the color yet other than changing the temperature from the usual 6500k to 9300k for now which did help,Im guessing I need to mess with the RGB Gain and Bias adjustments to get the color looking brighter. It's a shame 360's VGA is like this I wonder if MS will ever fix it, in comparison my Gamecube's VGA output is much richer and not washed out at all.
 
ok can you post the settings that you are running the 2405 with like saturation,bightness,contrast, ect.............
 
I'm really eager to see if the washed out problem is present with the Monster cables. Please post your results if you have this cable! Thx!
 
jaybird said:
I'm really eager to see if the washed out problem is present with the Monster cables. Please post your results if you have this cable! Thx!
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I ordered a Monster VGA cable and the optical cable. I'll let you how it compares to the MS version when I get them. However, I have read impressions of the Monster component cables compared to the MS version. Everyone who has bought the Monster component cables writes that the image is sharper and the colors are more accurate than the Microsoft cables. I'm thinking this will be the same case with the VGA cable.
 
Gmeister said:
I ordered a Monster VGA cable and the optical cable. I'll let you how it compares to the MS version when I get them. However, I have read impressions of the Monster component cables compared to the MS version. Everyone who has bought the Monster component cables writes that the image is sharper and the colors are more accurate than the Microsoft cables. I'm thinking this will be the same case with the VGA cable.
Click to expand...

Did you experience the washed out colour problem with the MS VGA cable?
 
jaybird said:
Did you experience the washed out colour problem with the MS VGA cable?
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I do notice that the colors are little less vibrant and rich like they are on component. I've heard people saying that the Monster components actually made a noticeable different compared to the MS cables and I'm hoping that is the same case with the Monster VGA cable.
 
Gmeister said:
I do notice that the colors are little less vibrant and rich like they are on component. I've heard people saying that the Monster components actually made a noticeable different compared to the MS cables and I'm hoping that is the same case with the Monster VGA cable.
Click to expand...

Gmeister, you just got the Monster VGA in right? Can you get us some pictures of the dashboard with the Monster VGA vs teh MS VGA?

Navy
 
Rare games, Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo, have an option to change "display type". This adjusts the brightness in order to suit a typical monitor of a certain type.

With the VGA cable and the display type set to LCD, the 2405fpw looks fantastic! Better than component, IMO.

Hopefully more games have this awesome feature. I wrote MS and RARE to thank them, and you should as well.
 
I just tested out the Monster VGA cable, and I'm actually pretty dissapointed.

There was some rolling noise that is NOT present in the M$ VGA cable.

And the colors and detail are too close to call, not the big improvement I had hoped for.
 
moonlitmatt said:
I just tested out the Monster VGA cable, and I'm actually pretty dissapointed.

There was some rolling noise that is NOT present in the M$ VGA cable.

And the colors and detail are too close to call, not the big improvement I had hoped for.
Click to expand...

did you experience the washed out colour problem with the MS VGA cable? If so, was the Monster VGA cable any better?
 
jaybird said:
did you experience the washed out colour problem with the MS VGA cable? If so, was the Monster VGA cable any better?
Click to expand...

Yes, the colors were slightly washed out with the MS VGA cable. I think this has more to do with the game/developer than the console, cable, or monitor. Games like DOA4, Perfect Dark Zero, and Kameo have options to adjust the video output to match your monitor. (PDZ and Kameo have specific options for LCD, DLP, Plasma, etc.) These options should be in EVERY game on the 360.

And no, the Monster VGA didn't help with the washed out effect.

For now, the MS VGA and a well optioned game are what I am sticking with.

Although I also think that the component cables artificially saturate and decrese the gamma.
 
moonlitmatt said:
Yes, the colors were slightly washed out with the MS VGA cable. I think this has more to do with the game/developer than the console, cable, or monitor. Games like DOA4, Perfect Dark Zero, and Kameo have options to adjust the video output to match your monitor. (PDZ and Kameo have specific options for LCD, DLP, Plasma, etc.) These options should be in EVERY game on the 360.

And no, the Monster VGA didn't help with the washed out effect.

For now, the MS VGA and a well optioned game are what I am sticking with.

Although I also think that the component cables artificially saturate and decrese the gamma.
Click to expand...
I noticed a difference on my 2005fpw. Like you said, there is still a slightly washed out look, but this is a internal problem with the Xbox 360. MS needs to update the console to fix that problem.
 
moonlitmatt said:
I just tested out the Monster VGA cable, and I'm actually pretty dissapointed.

There was some rolling noise that is NOT present in the M$ VGA cable.

And the colors and detail are too close to call, not the big improvement I had hoped for.
Click to expand...
Rolling noise. I don't have that problem with my setup.
 
moonlitmatt said:
Yes, the colors were slightly washed out with the MS VGA cable. I think this has more to do with the game/developer than the console, cable, or monitor. Games like DOA4, Perfect Dark Zero, and Kameo have options to adjust the video output to match your monitor. (PDZ and Kameo have specific options for LCD, DLP, Plasma, etc.) These options should be in EVERY game on the 360.

And no, the Monster VGA didn't help with the washed out effect.

For now, the MS VGA and a well optioned game are what I am sticking with.

Although I also think that the component cables artificially saturate and decrese the gamma.
Click to expand...

Even when I play games that u can adjust brightness (PDZ and Kameo) I still notice the colours are washed out regardless of what brightness setting I'm using.

Very frustrating. I have to pick between washed out colours (VGA) or lots of jaggies (Component). For now I'm going to stick with the VGA cable :(
 
jaybird said:
Even when I play games that u can adjust brightness (PDZ and Kameo) I still notice the colours are washed out regardless of what brightness setting I'm using.

Very frustrating. I have to pick between washed out colours (VGA) or lots of jaggies (Component). For now I'm going to stick with the VGA cable :(
Click to expand...

I have tried this on multiple 2405FPWs, and they all look fantastic.

MS VGA cables.

2405 setting:
brightness: 50
contrast: 50
Color settings: User (R-50 G-50 B-50)


Kameo/PDZ set to LCD

DOA4
Brightness IN GAME (not on monitor) -35
Contrast IN GAME +5

....

I also tried out the Monster VGA on multiple 2405s with multiple 360s.... ALL had rolling noise if you look really close in a dark area, like the menu of perfect dark.
 
moonlitmatt said:
I have tried this on multiple 2405FPWs, and they all look fantastic.

MS VGA cables.

2405 setting:
brightness: 50
contrast: 50
Color settings: User (R-50 G-50 B-50)


Kameo/PDZ set to LCD

DOA4
Brightness IN GAME (not on monitor) -35
Contrast IN GAME +5

....

I also tried out the Monster VGA on multiple 2405s with multiple 360s.... ALL had rolling noise if you look really close in a dark area, like the menu of perfect dark.
Click to expand...


Interesting, I've checked my 2005fpw with the Monster vga cables and I still don't see any video noise.

MS is supposed to release a big update for the Xbox360 dashboard etc... which includes new options. I hope one of these options or fixes they include is solving the vga brightness problem. The VGA cable regardless of brand should be producing a better image than component.
 
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