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[ravenge]

I have a 50" Plasma screen however only currently have the stock composite cable for video. What can I do to ensure maximum output quality on this tv?
Ie what cable to get, etc.

Cheers,
Ravenge

[dIsEaSe]

Component video.

[ravenge]

is there any settings i need to change on the box at all?

[project722]

You need to find out whether your plasma is an enhanced def(480p) or high def (720p, or higher) . Then you'll need an ED or HD compatible a/v pack to hook the xbox to the tv. If your set is ED, set the MS dash on the xbox to 480p/widescreen. If its HD, enable all 3 modes with widescreen. Then reboot and do the same in your other dash. For dolby digital get a toslink cable and go from the a/v pack to a SS amp.

[ravenge]

ok.... (looks up technical mumbo jumbo dictionary...)

[Jully]

radio shack has a 10ft toslink cable for $20. along with better grade component cables called monster i think

[bikehorn]

My first, and formost advice would be stay the goddamn hell away from Monster Cable.

why, you ask? isn't Monster Cable supposed to be "the shit" ?

well you see, Monster Cable has, of late become a group of slaves to the dollar. they have made it their mission to slap anyone who uses the word "Monster" with a lawsuit, claiming copyright infringement. it doesn't matter if they win or lose, they're still incurring massive legal fees on the part of the respondent party. this includes http://www.monster.com, the place you go to look for jobs, and http://ww.monstervintage.com, a place that sells vintage clothing - hardly someone who is going to steal cable-manufacturing business from Monster Cable.

Aside from unbridled corporate greed, Monster Cable is also guilty of selling overpriced garbage to the Best Buy crowd. i'm not sure if there is a more articulate way of saying it but...your video quality will not magically improve just because you pissed away $75 on a set of Monster Cables considering the video output produced by the Xbox is not the be-all and end-all of widescreen gameplay.  My advice to you would be to buy a High Def AV pack and get whatever cheapo or medium-priced component video cables you can, provided they are long enough. also - no matter how much some asshat will try to tell you, there is really no different in sound quality between a $20 Toslink optical audio connector and one that would run you $120...although the $120 one probably looks cooler, and for that difference in price, it damn well better wash your dishes and make your bed too.

My own setup involves a Mad Catz combination PS2/Xbox component video set....it has Y, Pb, Pr and regular old analog audio(connected to my beat up late 70's Marantz stereo rig) and it cost all of $20 canadian - and it smokes. don't get sucked up into the hype - you'll cry about it later when you realise you wasted your cash.

[mb3k]

QUOTE(bikehorn @ Jan 30 2005, 05:35 PM)

My first, and formost advice would be stay the goddamn hell away from Monster Cable.
...

Touche

[ravenge]

awesome, I wish everyone here was this helpful!! cheers guys

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(bikehorn @ Jan 31 2005, 11:35 AM)

Aside from unbridled corporate greed, Monster Cable is also guilty of selling overpriced garbage to the Best Buy crowd. i'm not sure if there is a more articulate way of saying it but...your video quality will not magically improve just because you pissed away $75 on a set of Monster Cables considering the video output produced by the Xbox is not the be-all and end-all of widescreen gameplay.  My advice to you would be to buy a High Def AV pack and get whatever cheapo or medium-priced component video cables you can, provided they are long enough. also - no matter how much some asshat will try to tell you, there is really no different in sound quality between a $20 Toslink optical audio connector and one that would run you $120...although the $120 one probably looks cooler, and for that difference in price, it damn well better wash your dishes and make your bed too.

[ravenge]

[dsl1]

Get the MS hd pack or the MS Advanced A/V pack depending what kinds of inputs you have. Go for the hd pack if you have a choice.

[bikehorn]

in an application like the Xbox, the quality of your cables won't change the output too much,

if you were using one of these, it might:

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(ravenge @ Feb 1 2005, 12:38 AM)

someone said tht the only difference also is that like a million years down the track the downside to the cheap ones deteriorate (plastics etc) quicker. and i said i'm fairly confident i'll have a new console by then

[ChrisF]

Cables are like anything else - diminishing returns make you spend a lot more for each incremental increase.  That said, the first few $ make a big difference and many people can notice a difference on a good display using ultra crap ($10-15 cables vs. $30-50).  (Un)Luckily the Xbox weds you to a properietary port so you have no option but to buy a basic HD pack made specifically for it - so no reference cables for you.  The old MSFT HD pack had a breakout box that allowed custom cables but the breakout box and design was fairly low grade (what do you expect for $19) and it degraded the signal enough to make it a wash.  A good number of people reported swapping out the stock MSFT cables (which are really bad) for something marginal like a $30 Radio Shack set made a decent difference.

This brings me to the next point.  High end cables may be a sham at some degree but ultra shit quality bottom of the line stuff compared to marginally decent $30-50 cables (not high end by any stretch) makes a big difference.  The Madcatz HD offering is hated.  I've seen so many people have horrid results with the Madcatz, even the $5 generic on Ebay improved many people's results over this.

So really, there are and have only been 2 choices that offer reasonable quality (not high end by any stretch once again).  The Monster Cable HD pack and the MSFT.  I'm not a Monster fan at all but at the time I bought it in lieu of the MSFT with the breakout box because I got it cheap and a number of people with serious equipment reported better and sharper colors relative to the MSFT even with upgraded cables.  MSFT obviously took notice and recently redesigned (or reoutsourced) their cable offering and the new one is a single one piece design like the Monster and this time it's a set of semi-decent cables rather than ultra crap.  

So at this point the MSFT for $19 gets you what you need.  Throw in a Toslink cable and be done with it.

It has become very fashionable to bash Monster - particularly among people who don't know what they are talking about and like repeating what others say.  The bottom line is that they make decent cables and it's a marketing driven company so you are going to pay up for the name and finance some promotional selling efforts when you buy it.  Monster has a broad spectrum of cables and the better ones don't even sell at BB/CC or standard retailers.  They get the job done and have an offering for just about every level besides the very top end (they might have something for this but I don't shop in this category of $10K cables/interconnects).  As to whether you buy into the whole high-end cable argument is for you to decide but it's irrelevant for the Xbox because only 2 offerings are decent and both fall into the marginal category.  Personally, I buy reasonable stuff like 12 guage quality generic for speaker wire.  The majority of the differentiation comes when moving from ultra shit to decent quality.  I have good equipment and I'll pay up for that.  If someone gave me Monster 12 guage for the same price, I'd use that and not think twice.