Widescreen computer monitors and the Xbox 360

[shopkins]

Can anyone suggest a widescreen computer monitor that works well with the 360, or even just give me general tips on buying one? I'm looking to spend around $200 for a 19-inch monitor. I've actually found several around that price online already, but I'm computer illiterate and am not sure about their native and recommended resolutions. Do these have to exactly match what the 360 supports? Is it okay as long as they are higher than the setting for 720p?

Here's an example of the type of thing I'm looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824254001

Would this work?

[gepeto]

When I was shopping for my monitor the warranty was important to me. I picked up the viewsonic va1912wb for 199.99. The warranty was 3yrs. I havent used it for 360 gaming but the pc gaming is great but it doesn't do hdcp and the picture is sweet. So many choices. The difference in the warrantys was amazing some 90 days some 1yr.

I believe if you believe in your product will you should stand behind it.

[skaar]

I believe if you believe in your product will you should behind it.

So.... many... bad... jokes.... brewing.... AHHH

[GM80]

Originally, the native resolution to shoot for when using the VGA cable was 1366x768, and that's still an easy resolution to find in a PC monitor. The recent updates to the 360 firmware have enabled the option for 1080p over VGA, for HD-DVD playback and DVD upscaling as well as gameplay, so 1920x1080 may be the way to go now.

FYI, I use the white and silver 17" White Westinghouse that Best Buy sells for about $150 when I'm on the go with my 360. The refresh rate is mediocre which means there's more blurriness than I'd be willing to put up with if it were my primary monitor, but for a portable solution it's not bad.

Make sure the refresh rate of the monitor is 5ms or less if it will be your primary display, as the one I mentioned has 8ms and is pretty blurry on high-contrast scenes.

The other important factor, though, is that it may be difficult if not impossible to tell the difference between 1280x720 and 1920x1080 on a 19" monitor. Might be wise to save the $ and pick a lower resolution.

[Mr. Smashy]

For reference, here are the following resolutions that are supported by the Xbox 360 via VGA:

640 x 480
848 x 480
1024 x 768
1280 x 720
1280 x 768
1280 x 1024
1360 x 768
1920 x 1080

You might want to try an in-store demo of whichever monitor you like and take a look at it in some of these resolutions.

[kedawa]

I don't think there are any 1920x1080 monitors, unfortunately.
I've seen plenty of 1920x1200 displays, but unless they support some sort of letterboxing, they'll scale the image vertically and make it look shitty and/or introduce some latency to the image.

[shopkins]

Thanks for the replies. I think I would be happy with one of the midrange resolutions. I guess the thing I'm still not clear on, though, is this: Does a monitor's native resolution have to exactly match what the 360 outputs? Can a monitor have a slightly higher native resolution and support a lower resolution or will it look weird? I know my old CRT has no resolution controls on it, but can handle most of the ones I set my Windows Desktop to display well enough.

[jajaja]

I don't think there are any 1920x1080 monitors, unfortunately.
I've seen plenty of 1920x1200 displays, but unless they support some sort of letterboxing, they'll scale the image vertically and make it look shitty and/or introduce some latency to the image.

I think most monitors supports 1920x1080. I just checked with my ~6 year old 19" CRT monitor and i can set the resolution to 1920x1080 :) It looked wierd tho, guess i have to adjust it better to the screen.

[RARusk]

"I believe if you believe in your product will you should behind it."

I think we just found a replacement for "All your base are belong to us".....

[kedawa]

Thanks for the replies. I think I would be happy with one of the midrange resolutions. I guess the thing I'm still not clear on, though, is this: Does a monitor's native resolution have to exactly match what the 360 outputs? Can a monitor have a slightly higher native resolution and support a lower resolution or will it look weird? I know my old CRT has no resolution controls on it, but can handle most of the ones I set my Windows Desktop to display well enough.CRTs don't have a native resolution, so any resolution they can scan will look ok. LCDs, on the other hand, must scale any signal that isn't at the native resolution, and most don't do it very well.
If xbox360 support is a really that important to you, then you really need to get a monitor whose native resolution is supported by the 360.

[PallarAndersVisa]

how do you connect a 360 to a computer monitor?

[jajaja]

VGA. Maybe some newer monitors got other inputs too.

[kaedesdisciple]

Can anyone suggest a good vga->dvi converter? I want to try and hook up my 360 to an apple 23" display.

[petewhitley]

LCDs, on the other hand, must scale any signal that isn't at the native resolution, and most don't do it very well. If xbox360 support is a really that important to you, then you really need to get a monitor whose native resolution is supported by the 360.

I've spoken to a couple of pretty knowledgable tech-guys about this and both said you don't really have to worry too much about that. Any info that backs that up? (Incidently, quite a few high-quality widescreen monitors you'll find do NOT natively support those exact resolutions, though in practice they seem to support gaming quite admirably).

[shopkins]

I've also read that many widescreen monitors are actually 16 by 10, not 16 by 9, which means they'll stretch the picture a little bit or put black bars on the sides. I don't mind the bars but I hate stretching. This is getting more and more complicated.