Xbox 360 VGA HD AV Cable (Xbox 360)

I purchased these cables to compliment my new Xbox 360 Arcade bundle. It came with only the standard definition cables. I used the VGA cable to connect to both an HD TV and a PC Monitor. The picture looks great!

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If you want HD quality video out of your Xbox, but it's not an Elite, than you want these cables. For $40, this includes everything you need to take your standard Xbox to the next level of video quality. And I don't know if it's just my HDTV or cables or what, but for whatever reason, the standard cables that come with an Xbox do not produce anything that looks better than normal component quality, even using the HD plugs and flipping the switch on the AV cable, so this is what you ACTUALLY want.

I bought these when I lived in a dorm, and we shared a TV, so I didn't get to play when I wanted to. These worked because I took my then CRT monitor, and hooked the Xbox into that with these cables (contrary to what I thought, these cables come with a female-female adapter connector in order to connect the male cable of a CRT monitor to the male cable of the Xbox, so don't worry about that). The quality of the video is amazing. You don't know what you're missing using component cables until you hook up using a VGA cable connector (what these are); the difference is mind blowing. All that text you can't read on a normal TV, all that text that's too small, or those far-off targets in shooters, or that tiny red spot in Halo 3 that appears in your reticle to let you know of a headshot, well with these cables, and ESPECIALLY with an HD TV, you can now see those things with absolute clarity.

Further, these cables come with a speaker jack adapter, so that you can either plug the two audio cables into your TV, or plug them into your computer and use your computer speakers (by using the microphone input jack), which, in my case, are MUCH better than my TV's speakers.

So, in the end, these are what you want as an easy, very convenient way of ramping up your gaming experience without shelling out $400 for an Elite (or actually, buying an Elite and a new HD TV). No complaints whatsoever.

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I took a gamble on this and purchased the VGA cable after reading numerous reports that the colors are drab and washed out on HDTV's. Initially, I was disappointed because compared to the component cables, the default settings for VGA look terrible compared to the component that came with the 360. (reason for 4 stars)

I can't say this for all HDTVs but if you own a Samsung with Game Mode on. You will find a better picture overall that can look as vivid (without the crushing blacks) and less sharp than component cables. This can be accomplished when you bring contrast levels all the way up and brightness levels down. Microsoft worked with Samsung to develop Game Mode for the xbox 360, so I am unsure of the results with other brands.

For PC monitors, I noticed that in the dashboard settings you can set your resolution for whatever inputs you are using. They have several resolution options ranging from 640x480 to 1920x1280 so it's great for gamers on a budget.

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