XBox 360 VGA cables?

December 4, 2006 4:35 PM

I want my XBox 360 to output to my computer monitor. Is it worth spending twice as much on the first-party VGA cable?

Joytech VGA Cable: $19.99

Microsoft VGA Cable: $39.92

Also, I'm getting the VGA cable, a stereo RCA-to-3.5" audio adapter, and a 2 input VGA switcher to select between XBox and PC. Am I missing anything?

posted by ludwig_van to technology (10 comments total)

The microsoft cable comes with the male/female adapter you may need for you specific monitor. I know that is the drawback with the monster brand cable, I'm not sure about the joytech.
posted by phox at 4:56 PM on December 4, 2006

Under what circumstances would I need an adapter? I'll be going from the output of my Xbox into the VGA switcher, then from the VGA switcher into my monitor. Which reminds me that I forgot I'll need an extra VGA-to-VGA cable to go from my computer into the switcher.
posted by ludwig_van at 5:03 PM on December 4, 2006

Beware of some VGA switchers, which may affect your refresh rate, and diminish performance. Something you don't want to do while playing Gears of War.

When I had my xbox 360, I used the MS VGA cable and had great results from it. I sold my xbox on ebay because there weren't many games available, now there are and I want one again.
posted by benjh at 5:06 PM on December 4, 2006

"One thing we noticed is that Monster Cable has not included a male-to-female adapter, such as the one included with the Microsoft Xbox 360 VGA cable. Even if most LCD monitors have a female VGA input, some CRT monitors don’t have such a connector and instead have a cable that ends in a male connector. In that case, you’ll need a male-to-female adapter."
posted by phox at 5:29 PM on December 4, 2006

http://hardware.teamxbox.com/reviews/xbox-360/56/Monster-Cable-GameLink-360-VGA-AV-Cable/p1/
posted by phox at 5:30 PM on December 4, 2006

I won't be plugging the Xbox VGA cable into my monitor; I'll be plugging it into the VGA switcher.
posted by ludwig_van at 5:32 PM on December 4, 2006

I've seen quite a number of complaints about the VGA quality on the 360. If your monitor has component inputs (many do, these days), you might want to use those instead.
posted by Malor at 7:24 PM on December 4, 2006

VGA might be a little darker but if he has a LCD he will be able to use the Xbox 360's scaler chip to run at the LCD's native resolution instead of the usually crappy LCD scaler. VGA is better then solution component in most situations because of the resolution control.
posted by robofunk at 9:35 AM on December 5, 2006

Don't buy those expensive cables. Check newegg or something for cables at 10% of their price. See here for an example.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 1:06 PM on December 5, 2006

From the other question about cables recently: Monoprice.com. I haven't used them personally, but I've heard the name a couple times as a place for good cables for way cheap.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 1:11 PM on December 5, 2006