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No more TV! Hello monitor!

by thephantomnaut

When I had my Xbox 360, I was stuck mostly playing my games on a crappy 13" Magnavox TV. Some times when my parents are not home, I would play it on my 50" Sony Vega Rear Projection HDTV. I hated playing my games in 480i with only a couple of games that can be letterboxed. I couldn't take it anymore and wanted the HD quality but on my monitor. Good thing Microsoft sells the cables. Last Saturda...

When I had my Xbox 360, I was stuck mostly playing my games on a crappy 13" Magnavox TV. Some times when my parents are not home, I would play it on my 50" Sony Vega Rear Projection HDTV. I hated playing my games in 480i with only a couple of games that can be letterboxed. I couldn't take it anymore and wanted the HD quality but on my monitor. Good thing Microsoft sells the cables.
 
Last Saturday I went to Fry's Electronics in northern Sacramento to get all the necessary components:

  1. Xbox 360 VGA cable - $40
  2. PTC 2-Port VGA switch - $25
  3. 3.5mm Female/Female audio adapter - $2
  4. VGA cable - $4
I hook them all up and besides the VGA cable which is used for the computer creating a blurry look (which I will take care of), everything else worked and looked amazingly well.  I don't have a LCD monitor or whatever but I have a square CRT monitor which I love today and would never replace. Heck when I compared to my experiences with LCDs and plasmas with this, CRTs are my favorite maybe because it shows a crispier image in a flat glass screen. 
 
It took about 20 seconds or so to boot up which is intentional because it fully shows the Xbox 360 intro when ready instead of cutting to halfway. Originally the resolution was at 640x480 but I would try out my usual comp resolution of 1280x1024. I then experimented for a widescreen experience althout my CRT is square. I then switched to the 720p equivalent of 1280x720. When I switched to it, the image was stretched but since I have a monitor, I can adjust the size. It was annoying that games like Halo 3 and Modern Warfare 2 didn't support letterboxing yet other games did. It's now letterboxed with no stretching and I am satisfied.  Xbox 360 ready to go!
 
The first game I tried was 1 vs. 100 because my friend wanted me to play with him. It looked pretty good with everything very clear and crisp. I then gone to try out Modern Warfare 2 which looked so much better than what I saw on my Magnavox. I would later run games like Resident Evil 5 and Gears of War (first and second) which look great too but seem to run a bit slower (as opposed to 30fps, it looked like 25fps) but maybe it was being used to Modern Warfare 2's frame rate.
 
EDIT: I also tried out the Bayonetta demo and looked spectacular too.
 
I wish I had a better camera but my cell phone does it some justice showing that it worked. Nonetheless I am happy that I have done this.
 Modern Warfare 2 spec ops solo on 16:9 aspect ratio
 Resident Evil 5 demo