HDMI vs. VGA connection


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Will I notice a difference between the two at 1080p? I am thinking about buying a new screen and it only has one HDMI connection which I would like to reserve for my PS3 since that doesn't have the VGA option. I already have the VGA cable for the 360 so that isn't a big deal, I'm just wondering if the quality difference is worth finding a screen with two HDMI inputs.

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if you use VGA then the graphics card has to convert the digital signal to analog and there is always some loss there. and you might notice that the image will be less sharp at times. here is a good article that goes over the advantages of a digital signal they refer to it as dvi but dvi and hdmi as pretty much the same minus the audio. http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/1990-3174_7-...=ecoustics-cnet

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Will I notice a difference between the two at 1080p? I am thinking about buying a new screen and it only has one HDMI connection which I would like to reserve for my PS3 since that doesn't have the VGA option. I already have the VGA cable for the 360 so that isn't a big deal, I'm just wondering if the quality difference is worth finding a screen with two HDMI inputs.

Do you ever plan on buying a receiver (sound system) ?

If so all you'd need to do is get one that accepts HDMI inputs, maybe 3 connections, then your PS3/360/whatever else plugs into the receiver and you only need one HDMI cable going from the receiver to TV for video.

If not, you probably won't really notice any difference running the 360 off component anyway. I guess I'd still recommend you get a TV with two HDMI inputs, but only if it isn't vastly more than the TV you want just now.

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It will be high fidelity. However, you need to be aware that different HDTVs will apply different processing depending on the input. Some Sony HDTVs I've had have a more accurate but smoother PQ with VGA; Sharper but processed Picture Quality with HDMI. My Panasonic applies no processing to HDMI so things look perfect :)

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VGA on the 360 is sharp and smoother than HDMI, but personally i prefer the former. VGA makes everything look too much like PC gaming, but that could be in my head...for me, HDMI looks better - more vivid, if less smooth. And yes, don't forget you'll need a solution for your sound. make sure the TV's VGA connects to an audio out.

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if you use VGA then the graphics card has to convert the digital signal to analog and there is always some loss there. and you might notice that the image will be less sharp at times

This is, frankly, a load of crap. At distances less than 25 feet there is essentially no signal loss in a VGA cable, and the one marketed by Microsoft is maybe 12 feet. Even if it were total crap, there should be no appreciable loss at those distances, unless you ran it parallel to a power main or something.

As long as you have your reference levels properly set in the 360 display configuration, you will notice no difference visually. (This is the vividness problem, change your display settings to "expanded" reference levels).

Another note worth pointing out is that depending on your setup, you might have to find some kludgy solution to deal with 5.1 audio. You can't plug in both a normal 360 video cable and an HDMI cable at the same time, and the optical digital audio jack is on the cable on 360s instead of on the unit. You may have issues with your display not passing through the actual digital audio from the HDMI cable to a digital output on the display. For instance, my receiver is older and has only optical and coaxial digital inputs for audio (no HDMI inputs). My display has HDMI inputs, but the audio is decoded and the optical output on the display only outputs PCM stereo for HDMI sources (for OTA or cable sources, it will pass through the original digital audio).

My choice is to use VGA, but there are probably other solutions (maybe some HDMI switchboxes or I could buy a new multi-hundred dollar receiver that will take an HDMI input, decode the audio and pass-through the video, although many of them also do some sort of processing on the video before output which could introduce a source of lag unless you disable that feature).

Hopefully that's something that will be addressed in the next console (optical really should be on the box, IMHO).

Edited by Dead_Monkey
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VGA on the 360 is sharp and smoother than HDMI,

Sharp and smooth are opposites, so how can it be both?

but personally i prefer the former. VGA makes everything look too much like PC gaming, but that could be in my head...for me, HDMI looks better - more vivid, if less smooth.

Then you acutally mean you prefer the latter, not former.

@treemonkeys, does the display you are looking at have component inputs? That would get you 1080i (not p), and avoid any potential problems (such as having trouble getting audio connected) with VGA.

Edited by roadwarrior
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Just get a monitor with DVI and HDMI. Not only do they look better, but you'll be ready for the future. It's like asking the question should I use coaxial or s-video. There's tons of newer monitors that have both.

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roadwarrior, you have a problem with me? don't recall ever getting into it with you. if you want to discuss grammer further, i have no problem driving down to Jackson. Have a good day.

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Well I got the new screen over the weekend, 360 on VGA running at 1920x1080 looks way better than it did on my old TV using component at 720p, no comparison really. I still need to get an HDMI cable for the PS3 so when I get that I will use it to test the 360 just to make a comparison, but I am very happy with the VGA connection so far. Still just using analog stereo sound, 5.1 is well down the road.

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there's little point lecturing composition to a medicated, unemployed alcoholic with too much time on his hands. a lot of good won't come of it.

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there's little point lecturing composition to a medicated, unemployed alcoholic with too much time on his hands. a lot of good won't come of it.

:blink:

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This is, frankly, a load of crap. At distances less than 25 feet there is essentially no signal loss in a VGA cable, and the one marketed by Microsoft is maybe 12 feet. Even if it were total crap, there should be no appreciable loss at those distances, unless you ran it parallel to a power main or something.
Never experimented with HDMI TVs, but on LCD monitors, there's a world of difference between digital and analog connections. Digital means pixel-perfect picture, all the time, guaranteed. Analog sometimes does as good, most of the time not. Whenever I see an LCD where the text seems slightly blurry or the pixels are slightly off horizontally along certain verticals, it's always a VGA connection. And switching to DVI reveals a consistently sharp picture on that same monitor.

Using VGA means adding two unnecessary conversions to the process, one from the digital output to the analog cable, and one from the analog cable to the digital display, which is actually a re-sampling. Substantial quality loss should be expected.

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