360 - Component or HDMI?

[FantasiaWHT]

Just got a 1080p 32" LCD HDTV for my graduation present from my wife!

NOT a technophile at all - should I use the HDMI cable that came with my TV or the Composite that came with the Xbox 360?

[CreativeOnlineSurname]

HDMI is pretty much a zillion times better than composite, go with that.

[FantasiaWHT]

Er, this is how bad I am. I meant Component - the R + G + B + L + R cables.

[NE146]

Just use the HDMI already. :) Also when you do you'll get that "optimal" setting in the menu when setting your resolution. You dont see that when you use component.

[Mayhem]

Still use the HDMI; leave the component free for another console (Wii?!) or a DVD player.

[Pantechnicon]

I'm curious about this myself as I'm running my 360 on component (which, I know, is different from composite) and I'm quite content with it. Is HDMI really going to give the 360 that much of a push over component? Cable cost isn't the issue for me. I just don't want to go through the hassle of pulling out everything from the wall and going to HDMI unless it's really, really that much better. For reference purposes, I'm using a 42" plasma TV.


Still use the HDMI; leave the component free for another console (Wii?!) or a DVD player.

...or get a component switchbox from Gamestop for $20. I've got 360, PS2 and DVD all running into one of these.

[ncman071]

you could always get the vga cable... which i think is just as good as hdmi

[FantasiaWHT]

Yeah, the other thing is I've been using a switch box and sending the video to the TV and the audio to a nice stereo system. Is there such a thing as an HDMI switcher? If not I'll just use a component one

[Leo_A]

There are HDMI switchers.

Component and HDMI on the 360 give comparable results. Go with the one that best suits your setup. Some televisions work better with one or the other, some televisions can't do 1080p through component but can through HDMI, component won't allow DVD upscaling, etc.

I doubt you'll notice any differences, so unless you want a sucky upscaling DVD player (The 360's DVD playback gets a ton of criticism at places like AVS), or your tv needs HDMI to run in whatever resolution you prefer, decide by going with the one most convenient for your setup (Like going with HDMI to free a component input for another console for one example).

[retroman]

HDMI is better im told, but to the naked eye. I dont see much a difference if any at all. Picture wise that is. But still sound in picture in one cable is nice.

[Leo_A]

Comparisons at places like AVS don't show the superiority of HDMI in regards to the playback of 360 games. Comparisons that I've seen are equivalent to what your experiences have been.

Places like AVS with videophiles give the recommendation I passed along, use the one that best suits the need of your own hardware and situation.

I don't have a HDMI enabled 360 to do any first hand test, so beware of taking my advice since its only as good as the sources I've looked at.

[otaku]

It isnt a big difference what really makes the difference with HD video/graphics is display resolution take the jump from a 1080i set to 1080p there is a difference! But HDMI is abit better and of course is less clutter

[NayusDante]

You'll get better audio with HDMI, unless you're using optical TOSLINK or whatever it is. It's also one cable as opposed to five for component, or four if you're using optical audio but that also leaves two hanging.Your wife may thank you for avoiding a mess behind the TV.

As for cables, if you need any more, look on Amazon. HDMI is digital, so cable quality doesn't directly affect picture quality. Don't spend more than $15 for a cable, which is what I paid for my 25' HDMI that connects my PC to my entertainment center. The individual 6' cables were ~$6 each. That includes shipping.

Enjoy your TV, and do it without the mess of wires that component video creates.

[Leo_A]

Monoprice is where a lot of people get their HDMI cables from if you want another option other than Amazon.

Whatever you do, if you go with HDMI, don't pay retail prices for one at a place like Wal-Mart. You'll easily be paying 4 or 5 times what the cable is worth.

[kupomogli]

I made this question previously. If a game is made for 480 resolution, does it look worse in 1080p or does it look better? The average game. The PS3 itself upscales all DVDs that go in it and forces them to play back at 1080p, this includes PSX and PS2 games.

Overall it looks better, but on character models it seems to give an outline type/jaggy look to the characters(probably since the graphics are so close together in a higher format.)

[emceelokey]

I bought a new tv about 2 months ago mainly to game on and I have both the component and an hdmi cable for my 360 and I found the HDMI to be inferior compaired to the component. For me, my tv will custom fit the output from the xbox to the tv but if I use the hdmi it's besically like using higher quality A/V cables but the tv doesn't recgonize it as anything different. Not only that but the colors weren't as vivid and the depth perception wasn't as defined with the hdmi. I'm just going to hang on the the hdmi cable for when I end up getting a bluray player or something like that.

[NE146]

Let me put it this way.. I had 2 360's hooked up to the same TV and I hooked up one via HDMI, and one via component. I popped in the same game in each one put it at a scene and then A/B'd it right there on the spot.

Quick answer:

Is there much difference? No.
Is there a difference? Yes.

There WAS a difference. Hard to describe and honestly I couldn't say one was "better" than the other. Perhaps the HDMI one had a little move minutae in color that was visible.. maybe the smoke was clearer, but not really. At the end of the day both pictures were just fine. And unless you sat there and A/B'd them immediately like I did, you couldn't tell a difference.

However, for me.. HDMI = 1 cable, Component = 5 LOL One's far easier :) Pick up a $4 hdmi cable off monoprice.com and go to town.

[Trebuken]

Doesn't matter...

I'd use HDMI if your going through a receiver and it has HDMI - you may get superior audio. Else it doesn't seem to matter much. Depends what else you are connecting. If you component for something else, use HDMI. Most people have more use for compenet then HDMI currently so you might use HDMI and save the component for something else, a Wii maybe...

[The 1 2 P]

HDMI will give you a better picture and is less cluttery thanks to the single cable you need to attach. However, I have noticed some sound descrepances during loud explosions in games. This is something that I've only had a problem with on my hdmi hooked up 360. My component hooked up original xbox does not have this problem. And my tv is a 32" lcd wide screen hdtv.

[Mayhem]

...or get a component switchbox from Gamestop for $20. I've got 360, PS2 and DVD all running into one of these.

Switchboxes can introduce degradation in the signal quality... I try not to use them where possible.

[Soviet Conscript]

do any tv's do 1080p through componant? from my understanding there was maybe one brand that did. unless thats changed in the last year or so.

[Leo_A]

Lots of HDTV's can do 1080p through component.

[Soviet Conscript]

Lots of HDTV's can do 1080p through component.

maybe i'm thinking CRT's doing 1080p through componant....

[Nesmaster]

HDMI if only to keep things neater, but I'm sure I personally get crisper black levels when using HDMI.

[garagesaleking!!]

go with hdmi, the best for sure.

[MeTmKnice]

Lots of HDTV's can do 1080p through component.


maybe i'm thinking CRT's doing 1080p through componant....


do any tv's do 1080p through componant? from my understanding there was maybe one brand that did. unless thats changed in the last year or so.

You can run up to 720p1080I through component, but IMO, 1080I looks like poop.

HDMi simplifies everything tho. full surround audio (if you have it) and 1080p res.
As far as the 360 goes, you can run it in 1080p through VGA sa well (as long as your TV supports 1080P through the VGA/DVI port.

[Leo_A]

No, you can run 1080p through component. My 360 is doing just that right now.

[NayusDante]

From my experience, VGA ports on TVs are the most limited input, aside from composite. Oftentimes, they don't even support 16:9 resolutions. You might get 1080p on it, but it's far from guaranteed.

[shopkins]

Two pitfalls of not having HDMI that I have discovered from having an older, Non-HDMI 360 that you may want to consider:

The 360 won't upscale DVDs over component. It's probably not going to be a primary DVD player anyway, but if you want it for a backup in another room or something, it would be better to have HDMI.

The Samsung TV I have has a really neat feature called Just Scan. This gives, from what I understand, 1 to 1 pixel mapping to the image, eliminating the overscan and showing more of the picture. I think it looks crisper on DVDs through HDMI and OTA HDTV. It does not work, at least with my TV, with component sources. It might be like that on other TVs.

I also agree that VGA seems more limited than component or HDMI. My Samsung lets you fiddle with tons of picture options on Component and HDMI, but when I hook my laptop up to it through VGA the picture options are more limited.