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[Pedroshin]

So I've finally got someone to lend me a VGA cable and see for myself what was better: HDMI or VGA?

First on my 1368x768 Native R7 Series Samsung LCD TV the 360 chooses 720p (1280x720) when I choose Optimal Settings, but I can set VGA to 1360x768 no problem.

I've noticed I actually like the picture quality on HDMI better than VGA on my TV. VGA looks blurrier and the blacks aren't as deep.

But I've just noticed something... With VGA on 1360x768 I can see more of the screen. I've noticed this when I looked at the radar on the bottom left corner on Halo 3. See it for yourself on these photos I took:

VGA on 1360x768:
(IMG:http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/3070/halo3vga1360x768mediumcum4.jpg)

HDMI on 1280x720 (720p):
(IMG:http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/2981/halo3hdmi1280x72050nitigc2.jpg)

It's not much but it's still noticeable. I have no idea why would my TV overscan a resolution that is lower than its native?? I've been told Falcon 360s are the only ones that choose 1360x768 over HDMI when set to Optimal Settings, because of a hardware revision making the 360 interpret it as PC, but I doubt that's true.

[SphtKr76]

Sorry dude but that just the way it is, HDMI pretty much always overscans, and VGA pretty much never does. Of course the type of TV will determine exactly how much. DO you have a copy of Bioshock? If so then see how bad it is on the loading screen, thats where I noticed how much overscan the HDMI really has.

The type of 360 you have has nothing to do with the resolutions you can select, it depends on the TV. IE, on my 61" 1080p Samsung my Elite offers the typical TV resolutions through HDMI, but on my 27" Olevia 1366*768 LCD, it offers me the PC type resolutions over HDMI.

[Pedroshin]

I see. Well since I'm not getting a different TV and my friend is actually getting a new HDMI-supported TV I'm thinking of choosing between HDMI and VGA. So I've been thinking of the pros and cons in these overscan situations.

HDMI
pros:
- Sharper
- Better colours in general

cons:
- Overscan
- Resolution further lower than native and no 1:1 pixel mapping
- Jaggies very noticeable

VGA
pros:
- No overscan
- Resolution closer to TV native's + 1:1 pixel mapping
- Jaggies not so noticeable

cons:
- Blurrier
- Colours not so good - washed out*

*Not a problem if 360 Refernce Level set to Extended and TV settings are adjusted accordingly

So I guess I'll choose VGA over HDMI for my TV.

But I am interested to know what would you choose in this situation?

[opethfan]

Maybe it's not overscan, but in 768p (misnomer I know) the games rendering more, or at least showing more of whats rendered, as the overscan you're seeing does look around 48 lines.

Try HDMI in 768p, and report back  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Pedroshin]

QUOTE(opethfan @ Jan 2 2008, 04:06 AM)

Maybe it's not overscan, but in 768p (misnomer I know) the games rendering more, or at least showing more of whats rendered, as the overscan you're seeing does look around 48 lines.

Try HDMI in 768p, and report back  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I would try 768p with HDMI if my TV did it  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) . For some reason the Optimal Setting for HDMI in Display is 720p. If I had those more recent Samsung models that have 2 HDMI inputs the 2nd HDMI input seems to allow 768p with HDMI. But my model only has 1 input and it doesn't get set to 768p no matter what.

So this means I can only run with 768p with VGA. It's what I'm even using now really...

[opethfan]

That's weird, my TV (which actually has a DVI port, but they're identical) can display 768 and even 1080p, and it's scaled down. I guess you're just out of luck then. Maybe try 1080p and see if your TV scales it down.

[SphtKr76]

If you like the look of VGA then go for it, i always prefer a 1:1 mapping if possible, and if your TV only supports it via VGA then thats what I would choose.