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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I used to play a lot of Oblivion on the X-Box 360 on a regular CRT television until I converted to a 60-inch plasma. Upon hooking up the original X-Box 360 cables, I noticed the image quality wasn't what it should've been. I found the standard cables that came with the X-Box 360 (core system, now discontinued) to really equate to a sack of rocks. I purchased this HD cable and I changed my video display settings on the dashboard to widescreen and adjusted my resolution. The images in Oblivion became intense and very crisp. All the details seemed sharper and the fonts displayed during conversation with characters became clear and very crisp. There were very minor details that I could finally make out that I wouldn't have seen before. The armor on the warriors showed so much more detail. If you have an X-Box 360 and you have an VGA input on your television, get this cable, hook it up, change your resolution on your X-Box 360 and enjoy the EXTREME change! I highly recommend this product!
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Easy to install and works well on my flatscreen monitor. Finding speakers with a stereo input was a bit annoying so I ended up getting a headset that works with Xbox 360.
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Very happy with this cable, does exactly what I wanted it for. The games look good on my monitor and it even came with a converter from rca audio to 1/8 headphone jack.
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I bought this cable because i only have one component input and the 360 has no HDMI out. I wanted to use the component input for my Wii, but after seeing the crappy picture quality with this I'll live with composite for the Wii. The cable is probably only good for DVD upconversion. Component has a far superior picture that's not as washed out. The VGA cable made my 360 dashboard look bad too. Even after i changed the display settings to my TV's resolution it looked completely washed out and colorless. So unless you have a 1080p TV and want DVD upconversion through an analog cable don't buy this. You'd be happier with component cables.
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The VGA cable is nice for people who dont own a tv (or a good one) and own a computer. Halo 3 and GTA 4 look awesome on my Optiquest moniter. The sound is hooked to the line in on my soundcard in the computer which gives clear digital audio that will give you the feeling that you are actually in the game you are playing. I believe this product is the best of its kind especially since it was made by microsoft.
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Great cables! definitely worth the money. No ghosting at all and everything looks crystal clear on my monitor. Now if only Microsoft would put out an update for 1680 x 1050 that would be great!!! A recommended buy for gamers without an HD TV. Don't skimp on the cost, the lower grade cables stink big time.
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Very enjoyable even just on casual, but if you want it's a challenge if you change the level. it's a great time spender
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I just bought this wire from ****Spot at full price. I heard good reviews about this wire from several different sources, but I've also heard bad things. I did not experience the 'thin film over the t.v.' effect. I have a 42" Westinghouse w4207 Monitor, and at first I didn't really notice any changes. One major change is the descisions between resolutions and the HD Resolutions they give with component. I guess this is good because there are more accurate descisions to make.
My Monitor automatically scaled the image to correct color and size. It is a 720p television, but I keep it at 1080p because the picture is a bit softer (Less jagged edges overall. I assume it is like that because the image is scaled down). I have not tried this wire to upscale any Dvd's yet, but I doubt I'll notice a big difference.
The Forza 2 Demo does look better on VGA, but that is all I've tried so far. If you have about $50 to spend on nothing, just buy this. You'll be satisfied.
EDIT**
The spring update for the 360 has fixed the thin film over the tv, which is why i never experienced it. If you go to the system blade, and display, there will be three options. The third one, which I've forgot what is called, is supposed to fix the problem that you might have. If you are on standard, pick expanded, (or vica versa) and your problems should vanish. The thin film is not the 360's fault, nor the tv's. It's a contrast difference between TV's and Monitor's. Apparently, HDTV's are set at 7.5 IRE, where as monitor's are set at 0 IRE. The 360 sets a default signal at 7.5 IRE, which is probably why you would experience the thin film on a monitor. Expanded mode should set your 360's signal to 0 IRE, thus matching your monitor's contrast and fixing your problem. :) Have Fun
P.S.
Upscaled DVD's are looking great.
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I originally bought a cheap generic cable off of ebay that was terrible; it had all kinds of image blurring. This cable has no blurring, crisp picture and works really well on my 24" LCD.
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Works great on my 17inch non-widescreen monitor. Would definitely recommend others picking it up from Amazon as their price is hard to beat.
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I highly recommend this for anyone using a LCD Monitor as a screen. This is mainly intended for those seeking fast screen response times from their monitor, as the image undergoes little post-cable processing with the VGA hookup and if you set the resolution to the native display of your monitor, the picture will look great. If you're only interested in picture quality, and don't even know what screen lag is, then use HDMI or Component.
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As soon as I hooked the cable up I noticed the visual upgrade immediately. The XBox 360 dashboard seemed crisper and clearer and the text looked less blurry (this was something I could see with my own eyes, it didn't take looking at some 200% zoom side-by-side comparison photos on some gaming message board to see the difference). The first thing I did to test out the true abilities of this cable was to pop in a slightly-compressed anime DVD that I own. The DVD that showed some obvious artifacts over the previous component cable were nowhere to be found with the VGA cable. The image quality was very smooth. Even the 10th Anniversary edition of Reservoir Dogs (not even the latest version/film transfer) looked noticeably better and could almost be comparable to some hi-def content.
The reason for the obvious visual upgrade on the DVD is because of the XBox 360's hidden DVD upconversion that can only be unlocked through the VGA cable (a true gem of a feature!). As far as games go, they already looked amazing with the component cable, but I did notice that they looked a little more defined and brighter. The games did NOT looked washed out like some reviews suggest. I believe that the washed out picture may have been a problem in the past, but Microsoft has since released a fix to the problem over XBox live (if your system is hooked up to the internet, you will get the upgrade for free...no need for a gold account). Most users probably never had the problem at all.
The VGA cable still includes a digital audio output, much like the original component cable did, and a headphone-sized adapter plug for the audio cables if your television set only has the single input. Just for the information, VGA is also known as D-Sub, so if your television has a D-Sub video/audio input (like mine did), it will work with this cable. Setup was fairly simple, but not exactly as simple as "plug-and-play". You'll need to know your TVs screen resolution (example: my 27" HDTV was 1366 x 768); a simple google search answered this for me. I also needed to manually change the ratio to Widescreen. Both of these setting are changed through the XBox 360's own display settings (not your television).
Obviously, if you have the XBox 360 Elite (black version), you should be using the HDMI cable for the best quality, but for the rest of us with the Premium and Core systems (white versions), the VGA is mandatory to reach the best picture quality on a HDTV. I paid about half the price that this cable retails (bought it off a user on the Amazon marketplace), but after my experience with this cable I would have gladly paid full price for a new cable!
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