How to make my monitor serve as a display for computer, Wii, and Xbox 360?

April 12, 2007 6:56 PM

Buying a new LCD monitor for my desktop computer. How do I know if a monitor can also serve as a display for Wii, PS2, Xbox 360? Or, what extra thingamajigs do I need to make this happen?

Now, I'm sure this information is sitting right under my nose, but it's all in techspeak that is beyond me.

What ports do I have to watch out for on a LCD monitor, that will enable it to be hooked up to my gaming systems? Or, what extra cables do I need to make this happen?

posted by Xere to technology (10 comments total)

look for S-Video or HDTV input in addition to DVI/VGA.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:04 PM on April 12, 2007

You can get a VGA cable for the Xbox 360, so it can be hooked up directly to any computer monitor. You can't get one for the Wii or PS2. You probably would want component input (also known as HDTV input) for the Wii and PS2 because interlaced video (which is what S-Video is) looks terrible on anything but a plain old TV.

It might be difficult to find a computer monitor with component input for a reasonable price. tracert gave an excellent answer in a previous thread on a similar issue. I got the VGA transcoder that he mentioned and it works incredibly well, but it is a little expensive ($73 with shipping). Also, the Gamebridge is nice as a fallback for games that don't support HD resolutions.

A few caveats:

• Some games start up in 480i, which the VD-Z3 doesn't support. You can solve this problem by plugging the green component cable into the Gamebridge, which will give you a black-and-white image of the game which you can use to navigate the menus to set it to progressive mode. You'll only have to worry about this on the PS2 and playing Gamecube games on the Wii, and for initially setting the systems to HD mode.
• Gamecube games don't work in widescreen mode on the Wii, so they will be stretched out when you play them. With most monitors you can unstretch them manually using the controls on the monitor. This might be annoying if you need to go back and forth often. This might also be an issue for PS2 games.

posted by zixyer at 7:33 PM on April 12, 2007

You may run into some problems with this.

Generally you won't find a PC monitor that has HDTV ports (Component / HDMI). More likely, you'll find a TV that has a VGA/DVI port for your computer. Typically these TV's do not support the higher-end resolutions.

The cheapest decent TV that I have seen is a Vizio for either $399 for a 20" or $599 for a 32". Those will look great on your gaming consoles. If you don't use the higher resolutions on your PC, this solution might work well for you. The max usable PC resolution on most HDTV's is 1280x768.

Personally that's way too low for myself. I run 1920x1200 at work and home. If you're good with 1280x768 then there's your best bet.
posted by Industrial PhD at 7:36 PM on April 12, 2007

Several of the larger Dell monitors have composite, S-video and component inputs built in, alongside the usual DVI and VGA. These should cope with the consoles you've mentioned.
posted by chrismear at 8:44 PM on April 12, 2007

Indeed. I have a Dell 2047WFP monitor and it has pretty much all the inputs I can think of as well as your standard VGA and DVI. I've used it to play my brothers xbox with no more trouble than flicking the input in the monitor settings.
posted by Silentgoldfish at 1:45 AM on April 13, 2007

Seconding chrismear and Silentgoldfish - I've got the 24" Dell and the component input works brilliantly.
posted by blag at 2:40 AM on April 13, 2007

If you get a monitor with DVI-D inputs (as opposed to the analog-only DVI-A) you should be able to run an HDMI to DVI-D cable from one to the other -- they're compatible signals. As mentioned above, I don't know if this will support higher resolutions, though.
posted by sonofslim at 6:10 AM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I third the Dell 2407wfp monitor suggestion. It has inputs for a number of devices and not only a button on the bezel for switching but actual illuminated numbers on there to let you know which one you're looking at.

Here is a link to an image of the connections on the back of the screen: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/images/products/large/2407WFP_connector.jpg
If that doesn't work, perhaps the link to the actual info page will: here.

I'd suggest a setup like this:
Computer into DVI. 360 into VGA. Wii into component. DVD player into cable box and cable box into SVHS. PS2 onto Craigslist. But I kid.

That screen, by the way, goes on sale quite frequently. I'm in Canada but Best Buy had a 24" screen from another manufacturer in last week's flyer with the same inputs.
posted by ChuckLeChuck at 11:21 AM on April 13, 2007

I'm nearly ready to pull the trigger on this, a refurb Westinghouse 22" LCD with all the inputs. The reviews are decent, and it's less than half the price of the 24" Dell. I just don't know how much I trust eCost, the retailer.

It's only 1680 x 1050, but that means it's less likely you'll need a fancy new graphics card to power a full 1920 x 1080 display (though if you're already playing graphics-intensive games on the PC this won't be an issue).
posted by reflexed at 8:17 PM on April 13, 2007

oops, link to Westinghouse monitor here.
posted by reflexed at 8:19 PM on April 13, 2007