Hdmi-dvi Or Vga for a 22 inch Samsung monitor?

I have a 22 inch Samsung 226bw it has Vga and Dvi

I have an elite and should i stick with Vga or go with the Hdmi-dvi option? From what i heard my monitor only supports up to 720p so i dont know what i should do

I don't know if connecting your Elite to a monitor via DVI will cause it to be detected as an HDTV or a monitor as I just have a premium. I have the same monitor though, and I believe that my resolution is actually higher than 720p via the VGA cable, and it's at 60Hz. I'll have to check when I get home. It looks great in VGA though.

As far as sound goes, the VGA adapter basically gives you an unamplified output of red/white RCA-type cables, and an y-adapter to connect it to a 1/8" audio input. As long as you have an amp or powered speakers that accept this input, it sounds just fine. You can also use an optical audio cable which I plan to try out soon.

Thanks for the reply. But at 60hz does it hurt your eyes?Bigjmaster14

60hz isn't a problem with an LCD panel, only with CRTs, so there's no noticeable flicker. Believe me, I can't even look at a CRT at 75hz without noticing a flicker, I'd have to have it at 85hz, but a 60hz LCD is fine, doesn't refresh the same way.

Alright and now my final question is whether or not will the hdmi-dvi upscale and show 1080p on my monitor

thanks

[QUOTE="Bigjmaster14"]Thanks for the reply. But at 60hz does it hurt your eyes?TimothyB

60hz isn't a problem with an LCD panel, only with CRTs, so there's no noticeable flicker. Believe me, I can't even look at a CRT at 75hz without noticing a flicker, I'd have to have it at 85hz, but a 60hz LCD is fine, doesn't refresh the same way.

What he said ;)

Alright and now my final question is whether or not will the hdmi-dvi upscale and show 1080p on my monitor

thanks

Bigjmaster14

The max resolution of this monitor is 1680x1050. 1080p is 1920x1080. I'm pretty sure this monitor won't do that no matter which cable you use. I think 720p is 1280x720. With the VGA cable I BELIEVE (still need to check at home) that I'm running 1280x768, so just a very slight bit better than 720p. I think that you're going to see only negligable picture quality differences between the DVI and VGA cables. My concern would be that using DVI, your 360 will see this as an HDTV and make you select 720p, whereas the VGA cable will let you select from many different resolutions, though the 48 extra lines of verticle probably don't make that much difference. I will be at home in a little over an hour, so I'll come back here and post what I have exactly.

[QUOTE="Bigjmaster14"]

Alright and now my final question is whether or not will the hdmi-dvi upscale and show 1080p on my monitor

thanks

zaphod_b

The max resolution of this monitor is 1680x1050. 1080p is 1920x1080. I'm pretty sure this monitor won't do that no matter which cable you use. I think 720p is 1280x720. With the VGA cable I BELIEVE (still need to check at home) that I'm running 1280x768, so just a very slight bit better than 720p. I think that you're going to see only negligable picture quality differences between the DVI and VGA cables. My concern would be that using DVI, your 360 will see this as an HDTV and make you select 720p, whereas the VGA cable will let you select from many different resolutions, though the 48 extra lines of verticle probably don't make that much difference. I will be at home in a little over an hour, so I'll come back here and post what I have exactly.

I can't see how changing the resolution to 1280*768 would actually make the 360 render a game at that? I mean if you choose 1360*768, I don't except it to actually be that. I expect the game to render at 720p like normal and the scaling chip changes it to 1360*768, same with any other resolution above 720p like 1280*768. There would be compatiblity issues with suddenly changing the resolution like that and I don't thing developers would bother supporting and testing it. I could be wrong, but when ever has a game on the 360 rendered at something other than 720p, 1080i or 1080p or SD stuff?

[QUOTE="zaphod_b"][QUOTE="Bigjmaster14"]

Alright and now my final question is whether or not will the hdmi-dvi upscale and show 1080p on my monitor

thanks

TimothyB

The max resolution of this monitor is 1680x1050. 1080p is 1920x1080. I'm pretty sure this monitor won't do that no matter which cable you use. I think 720p is 1280x720. With the VGA cable I BELIEVE (still need to check at home) that I'm running 1280x768, so just a very slight bit better than 720p. I think that you're going to see only negligable picture quality differences between the DVI and VGA cables. My concern would be that using DVI, your 360 will see this as an HDTV and make you select 720p, whereas the VGA cable will let you select from many different resolutions, though the 48 extra lines of verticle probably don't make that much difference. I will be at home in a little over an hour, so I'll come back here and post what I have exactly.

I can't see how changing the resolution to 1280*768 would actually make the 360 render a game at that? I mean if you choose 1360*768, I don't except it to actually be that. I expect the game to render at 720p like normal and the scaling chip changes it to 1360*768, same with any other resolution above 720p like 1280*768. There would be compatiblity issues with suddenly changing the resolution like that and I don't thing developers would bother supporting and testing it. I could be wrong, but when ever has a game on the 360 rendered at something other than 720p, 1080i or 1080p or SD stuff?

I'm not 100% on how the 360 renders these higher resolutions... whether the GPU actually renders everything at that resolution or if it's rendered at the nearest HD or SD resolution and upconverted/stretched. I tend to think that the 360 actually does render at the resolution you selected, since I have dropped the resolution before to stop screen "tearing". I could be wrong though, but think of PCs. The developers design their game like developers do, but when I install it on my PC I can run it at 1680x1050, or I can run it at 800x600.

[QUOTE="Bigjmaster14"]

Alright and now my final question is whether or not will the hdmi-dvi upscale and show 1080p on my monitor

thanks

zaphod_b

The max resolution of this monitor is 1680x1050. 1080p is 1920x1080. I'm pretty sure this monitor won't do that no matter which cable you use. I think 720p is 1280x720. With the VGA cable I BELIEVE (still need to check at home) that I'm running 1280x768, so just a very slight bit better than 720p. I think that you're going to see only negligable picture quality differences between the DVI and VGA cables. My concern would be that using DVI, your 360 will see this as an HDTV and make you select 720p, whereas the VGA cable will let you select from many different resolutions, though the 48 extra lines of verticle probably don't make that much difference. I will be at home in a little over an hour, so I'll come back here and post what I have exactly.

From a quick glance at the 600+ user reviews at newegg, the monitor does seem to support 1080p/i "input". I could be wrong, but if it does then while the screen is NOT 1080p, it can still accept it and I guess downconvert it to 1680*1050 (who knows the quality it does this at), and hopefully appear much better than 720p upconverted to that.

[QUOTE="TimothyB"][QUOTE="zaphod_b"][QUOTE="Bigjmaster14"]

Alright and now my final question is whether or not will the hdmi-dvi upscale and show 1080p on my monitor

thanks

zaphod_b

The max resolution of this monitor is 1680x1050. 1080p is 1920x1080. I'm pretty sure this monitor won't do that no matter which cable you use. I think 720p is 1280x720. With the VGA cable I BELIEVE (still need to check at home) that I'm running 1280x768, so just a very slight bit better than 720p. I think that you're going to see only negligable picture quality differences between the DVI and VGA cables. My concern would be that using DVI, your 360 will see this as an HDTV and make you select 720p, whereas the VGA cable will let you select from many different resolutions, though the 48 extra lines of verticle probably don't make that much difference. I will be at home in a little over an hour, so I'll come back here and post what I have exactly.

I can't see how changing the resolution to 1280*768 would actually make the 360 render a game at that? I mean if you choose 1360*768, I don't except it to actually be that. I expect the game to render at 720p like normal and the scaling chip changes it to 1360*768, same with any other resolution above 720p like 1280*768. There would be compatiblity issues with suddenly changing the resolution like that and I don't thing developers would bother supporting and testing it. I could be wrong, but when ever has a game on the 360 rendered at something other than 720p, 1080i or 1080p or SD stuff?

I'm not 100% on how the 360 renders these higher resolutions... whether the GPU actually renders everything at that resolution or if it's rendered at the nearest HD or SD resolution and upconverted/stretched. I tend to think that the 360 actually does render at the resolution you selected, since I have dropped the resolution before to stop screen "tearing". I could be wrong though, but think of PCs. The developers design their game like developers do, but when I install it on my PC I can run it at 1680x1050, or I can run it at 800x600.

Yes, but pcs are different, they are designed to support all types of resolutions since not one PC user has the exact same setup, resolution, or graphics power, so one person might only be able to run the game at 800*600 for various reasons, while another has one capable of 1680*1050. But a console, they know everyone has the exact same hardware. The tvs might differ, but they know they only need to support SD, 480p and atleast 720p. I mean if the game is 720p only, and you pick 1080p, obviously it's upscaled to that, no reason to think it renders at that because one picked it, same with the odd other resolutions the VGA cable offers. I could be wrong too, but overall I would think they create odd issues with the game's interface unless they tested every possible resolution before hand, which they wouldn't need to. Maybe I'll do a quick test.

When quickly testing 720p vs 1280*768 at 1:1 mode on my 1366*768 tv, the 360 interface buttons looked slightly oval with 1280*768, like the B and A buttons. But going back to 1280*720, the buttons looked round as normal. I'd expect the same to happen with a game, it renders it at 720p, then stretches it up and down for 1280*768. Now, if you have a normal 16:9 monitor that's higher than that, like 1366*768, when setting the screen to fill it stretches the other way and makes 1280*768 look normal.

I have no idea why the 360 even offers that resolution, it's somewhere between 16:10 and 16:9, when has there ever been a monitor with that exact resolution or aspect?

Alright so my safe bet is buying the vga and playing it at 1280*768?Bigjmaster14

If you pick something other than exactly 720p then you might as well choose 1360*768 with VGA. Or possible even 1920*1080 if the monitor accepts it and downconverts it to the monitor's 1680*1050 resolution. The games are still originally 720p, so one of these methods will be better than the other in terms of the upscaling to the screen's resolution. Just try them out and see what looks best to your eye. Just don't ever pick 1080i if that interlaced option some how comes up.

I have the same monitor as you but cant get my 360 to display on it. It just flashes 'analoge' 'digital' like it cant make its mind up which one to use.

Im using hdmi > dvi lead

thanks

mark