Hooking a 360 to a PC monitor?

[Denic]

Hello guys.

I was thinking about purchasing an Xbox 360 but I don't feel like forking out on a new TV aswell so I was thinking that maybe it's possible to hook a 360 up to a PC monitor.

My monitor is a 22' widescreen. I did some reading and I saw that sometimes games wont play at the right resolution and they'll be streched across the screen and wont look right.

So, how would I find out if my monitor would be able to handle games alrgiht and what equipment would I need to make it possible?

Thanks.

[format]

I use a 22" secondary monitor for my 360 next to my main 24" for my PC.
It *can* go up to 1900x1080 (FullHD) but for some reason the refresh rate is so low that on a PC it runs with a very poor clarity.
Check to see if your monitor has 1:1 pixel mapping on your monitor, that would stop it from stretching.
Also if you don't have a HDMI port on your monitor then you'll need a DVI-HDMI adapter.

[tigerboyce]

Or the VGA cable.


22" is fine, with the new NXE update on Xbox the full range of resolutions are now supported including 1680x1050

[Denic]

Or the VGA cable.


22" is fine, with the new NXE update on Xbox the full range of resolutions are now supported including 1680x1050

Hey dude and cheers for your reply.

So that means I won't have to do any messing about seeing if it will work? And this 'update' you speak of is it something that has to be installed? I'm a newb at all this!

[format]

Hey dude and cheers for your reply.

So that means I won't have to do any messing about seeing if it will work? And this 'update' you speak of is it something that has to be installed? I'm a newb at all this!

If you connect to xbox live then it'll ask you if you want to install, just say yes and it does the rest itself.
There's no reason why it shouldn't work, you just need the right cable to connect it and away you go
(As long as you're happy with the sound from the monitor speakers)


edit: Just FYI, connecting to XboxLive is as simple as plugging an ethernet cable from router in to the back of your 360.
You can go wireless too, with the rather expensive (~£50) official adapter, or you can bridge your connection using a cable from your laptop to your 360, using the wireless link from router to laptop.

Hope this helps

[Denic]

If you connect to xbox live then it'll ask you if you want to install, just say yes and it does the rest itself.
There's no reason why it shouldn't work, you just need the right cable to connect it and away you go
(As long as you're happy with the sound from the monitor speakers)


edit: Just FYI, connecting to XboxLive is as simple as plugging an ethernet cable from router in to the back of your 360.
You can go wireless too, with the rather expensive (~£50) official adapter, or you can bridge your connection using a cable from your laptop to your 360, using the wireless link from router to laptop.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the info, it's greatly appreciated!

Kind of a shame that you have to use monitor speakers but it's better than nothing I guess!

So which sort of lead/connector do I need to purchase? Is there a special word for it?

Thanks!

[format]

If you check the back of your monitor for what connections it has, I can give you more information.

If you have the xbox elite bundle, you get a HDMI cable with it. If it's not then you'll just get component which is used to connect to older televisions.
If your monitor has a HDMI port on the back, its as simple as HDMI in to the 360, then in to the monitor. HDMI cables can be pricey ( I've seen them at £15) so shop around before buying
Otherwise, it'll have DVI (or if its an older/cheap model, VGA)
If its DVI, then you'll need a DVI-HDMI adapter
If its VGA, then I don't think you can use your monitor with the 360, I don't think it can handle the bandwidth throughput for it.

[Denic]

If you check the back of your monitor for what connections it has, I can give you more information.

If you have the xbox elite bundle, you get a HDMI cable with it. If it's not then you'll just get component which is used to connect to older televisions.
If your monitor has a HDMI port on the back, its as simple as HDMI in to the 360, then in to the monitor. HDMI cables can be pricey ( I've seen them at £15) so shop around before buying
Otherwise, it'll have DVI (or if its an older/cheap model, VGA)
If its DVI, then you'll need a DVI-HDMI adapter
If its VGA, then I don't think you can use your monitor with the 360, I don't think it can handle the bandwidth throughput for it.

Cheers for the info once again. My monitor has a DVI connection at the back of it so I can just use the spade DVI-HDMI that I have .

[digit]

If its VGA, then I don't think you can use your monitor with the 360, I don't think it can handle the bandwidth throughput for it.

There are VGA cables available; an official MS one (overpriced) and a number of 3rd party ones. They all allow a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1200. As was said above with the NXE pretty much ever resolution you could want is now supported! I've used my 360 with a Joytech VGA cable for a number of years!

[JimmyBoy]

There are VGA cables available; an official MS one (overpriced) and a number of 3rd party ones. They all allow a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1200. As was said above with the NXE pretty much ever resolution you could want is now supported! I've used my 360 with a Joytech VGA cable for a number of years!

i didnt realise nxe added more res im pleased with that as my monitor is 1680x1050.

the official vga lead isnt expensive if you shop around, i got mine for a fiver off ebay.
gamestation sell the preowned ones for around the same price but ring first because they (at least my local) dont get too many traded in!!

[tigerboyce]

Yeah VGA cable is pretty cheap, its what I use to run my Xbox on my PC monitor. Sound is also on the VGA cable through red and white aux(?) cables that come with an additional Y splitter enabling you to plug that into the back of your PC's line-in, so you can run the sound through your PC speakers.



So my setup is basically:

XBOX >>connected by VGA @ 1680x1050>> MONITOR <<Connected by normal DVI cable<< PC

Then sound goes from the VGA cable, into the back of my PC's line-in port, where my speakers are plugged in normally to the green/orange/black slots.



You get the best of both really, whilst running it on your monitor is not only convenient by not having to fork out for a TV, its pretty handy to have the functions of a pc running "behind" the 360. VGA runs great for me, no problems whatsoever!

[Denic]

Can anybody confirm this please? I heard that if you want to use Xbox live you HAVE to have an xbox 360 harddrive, so basicaly if you buy the Xbox 360 arcade pack, you wont be able to use Xbox live unless you buy a HDD.

Is this true?

[arthurleung]

Can anybody confirm this please? I heard that if you want to use Xbox live you HAVE to have an xbox 360 harddrive, so basicaly if you buy the Xbox 360 arcade pack, you wont be able to use Xbox live unless you buy a HDD.

Is this true?

NXE will eat about 128MB of your memory card so Microsoft offered cheap 20GB harddrive upgrade.
http://www.xboxstorageupgrade.com/

You can still use Live, but the content you can download is heavily limited.
I bought an arcade and upgraded the HDD, very happy with it.

I hook up my arcade to my 2709W through a HDMI-DVI cable and it worked fine at 1080p.