360 research

Zetx

Hey guys, I'm planning on buying a 360 sometime over the summer. Is there a specific version I'd need if I'm going to use my monitor as the screen? HDMI? Something? I haven't bought a console since the n64 days.

Also, is a 19" going to cut it? (It goes to 1280x1024) I heard about problems with HD(TV?) vs Standard? Like Dead Rising had problems with the text being too small on one or the graphics/resolution being all screwy?

And what's the business about paying for online services? Am I good with just Silver if I want to play online and nothing more?

Thanks guys. :winky:

coutts

Zetx wrote: »

Hey guys, I'm planning on buying a 360 sometime over the summer. Is there a specific version I'd need if I'm going to use my monitor as the screen? HDMI? Something? I haven't bought a console since the n64 days.

Also, is a 19" going to cut it? (It goes to 1280x1024) I heard about problems with HD(TV?) vs Standard? Like Dead Rising had problems with the text being too small on one or the graphics/resolution being all screwy?

And what's the business about paying for online services? Am I good with just Silver if I want to play online and nothing more?

Thanks guys. :winky:

You need Gold to play online no matter what, silver just lets you talk to people and download stuff.

Dead rising's text is really hard to read on an SD tv, the game was made for HDTVs.

Edit: as for the stuff about SKU and TV size, I don't really know cause I play on a really old SD tv.

Evangir

Any 360 will be able to connect to a PC monitor. All you'll need is the VGA adapter kit (ridiculously expensive for VGA cables; $50 at retail or something). A 19" PC monitor will be displaying in HD, so all text will be 100% readable (Dead Rising/Mass Effect's problems appear only on a standard TV at non-HD resolutions. You'll be fine). Finally, if you want to play online, you do need a Gold subscription to Xbox Live.

Zetx

Thanks for the quick replies.

Is there anything else I should be concerned/aware about?

Peen

Don't get the Arcade version; you really really need the hard drive. If you can afford the extra $$$ then you should get the Elite with the bigger HD. It'd the only thing I regret from when I got mine.

Tav

Holy shit

I was wondering the exact same things about possibly getting a 360 in a few weeks (Using a 19" monitor as a screen, would text be readable and needing a gold or silver sub). Thanks for saving me the hassle of making a thread.:P

LewieP

How many games are only in Widescreen?

All I know of is Assassins creed, but I am a little worries it might be a wider trend. I have the choice of an oldish SD widescreen and a nice 19 inch 4:3 (are monitors even 4:3? or something close?) that runs at 1280x1024

Mr Pink

About needing the hard drive, it really depends on what you want the system for. My girlfriend bought be the Arcade version last December, and I've only now just picked up a used hard drive for it. If you don't plan on downloading demos, movies, etc, the Arcade and a memory card may be enough.

coutts

I got my arcade for 80$ which is the only reason I got the arcade over any of the others. Bought the 120gb hard drive for it and still payed less than I would have for a pro. It was an EB promotion though.

Daedalus

culdrasbit*h wrote: »

Don't get the Arcade version; you really really need the hard drive. If you can afford the extra $$$ then you should get the Elite with the bigger HD. It'd the only thing I regret from when I got mine.

With a Torx screwdriver, a specific model of 120GB 2.5" SATA laptop drive, and some balls, you can turn your 20GB drive into a 120 without paying Microsoft's 120% markup. I haven't done it myself yet, but that's because I haven't run out of space on my 20GB yet and really doubt I will at any point in the future.

Also, to the OP, buy rechargable AAs. Don't buy the Play and Charge kit.

Evangir

Daedalus wrote: »

culdrasbit*h wrote: »

Don't get the Arcade version; you really really need the hard drive. If you can afford the extra $$$ then you should get the Elite with the bigger HD. It'd the only thing I regret from when I got mine.

With a Torx screwdriver, a specific model of 120GB 2.5" SATA laptop drive, and some balls, you can turn your 20GB drive into a 120 without paying Microsoft's 120% markup. I haven't done it myself yet, but that's because I haven't run out of space on my 20GB yet and really doubt I will at any point in the future.

Also, to the OP, buy rechargable AAs. Don't buy the Play and Charge kit.

What's wrong with the Play and Charge kit?

tbloxham

Zetx wrote: »

Hey guys, I'm planning on buying a 360 sometime over the summer. Is there a specific version I'd need if I'm going to use my monitor as the screen? HDMI? Something? I haven't bought a console since the n64 days.

Also, is a 19" going to cut it? (It goes to 1280x1024) I heard about problems with HD(TV?) vs Standard? Like Dead Rising had problems with the text being too small on one or the graphics/resolution being all screwy?

And what's the business about paying for online services? Am I good with just Silver if I want to play online and nothing more?

Thanks guys. :winky:

I had this plan, check this first. How will you be listening to your xbox 360 sound? Does your monitor have internal speakers which can be accessed by standard component cables, HDMI input? Do you have a sound system with an optical input, or could you place the base station within about 6 inches of the inputs of the monitor?

The 360 has no microphone out, which is why I am stuck playing mine on the tiny SD CRT TV in my house rather than the nice big widescreen monitor I have.

You can use converter cables and female-female jacks to get sound out of the stereo component cable bits onto a headphone, but the 360 broacasts sound without amplification as its intended to let the TV take care of it, as such plugging headphones directly into that requires you to jack up the volume hugely. This, combined with quality loss across 3 connections, means you will get far from great sound this way.

Of course, your monitor may have inbuilt speakers which can take sound from HDMI or something, so this would all be moot.

Evangir

tbloxham wrote: »

Zetx wrote: »

Hey guys, I'm planning on buying a 360 sometime over the summer. Is there a specific version I'd need if I'm going to use my monitor as the screen? HDMI? Something? I haven't bought a console since the n64 days.

Also, is a 19" going to cut it? (It goes to 1280x1024) I heard about problems with HD(TV?) vs Standard? Like Dead Rising had problems with the text being too small on one or the graphics/resolution being all screwy?

And what's the business about paying for online services? Am I good with just Silver if I want to play online and nothing more?

Thanks guys. :winky:

I had this plan, check this first. How will you be listening to your xbox 360 sound? Does your monitor have internal speakers which can be accessed by standard component cables, HDMI input? Do you have a sound system with an optical input, or could you place the base station within about 6 inches of the inputs of the monitor?

The 360 has no microphone out, which is why I am stuck playing mine on the tiny SD CRT TV in my house rather than the nice big widescreen monitor I have.

You can use converter cables and female-female jacks to get sound out of the stereo component cable bits onto a headphone, but the 360 broacasts sound without amplification as its intended to let the TV take care of it, as such plugging headphones directly into that requires you to jack up the volume hugely. This, combined with quality loss across 3 connections, means you will get far from great sound this way.

Of course, your monitor may have inbuilt speakers which can take sound from HDMI or something, so this would all be moot.

My solution has been to route the 360's audio cables through the sound card/motherboard on my PC, so they share sound on my PC's speakers/headphones. The only problem is the PC has to be on for the 360 to have sound, but my PC is basically always on, so.... yeah. I'm currently doing this through my motherboard, but I also had a $20 sound card that did it perfectly.

For an even better trick, try connecting a PS3/360 and PC to the same set of speakers through one sound card. Fun times.

Lunker

Evangir wrote: »

Any 360 will be able to connect to a PC monitor. All you'll need is the VGA adapter kit (ridiculously expensive for VGA cables; $50 at retail or something).

Monoprice.com has quality 360 VGA cables that will only run you about $15 or so, IIRC. I'm using them now with my 40" LCD TV and I noticed no difference from when I was test-driving the first-party ones.

Typically you'll be perfectly fine with the Premium model of 360; the Elite is nice for the larger hard drive but unless you plan on buying a ton of Xbox Originals (XB1 games fully downloadable) or renting a lot of movies most people I know find the 20GB HD pretty reasonable, so long as you delete demos regularly.

Silver Live accounts are free and let you buy XBLA games, rent movies, chat with friends and etc. The Gold account is what you need to actually play with friends; it's $50 a year normally but if you keep an eye on cheapassgamer.com you can regularly pay far, far less than that. So far I've paid about $40 for two years' worth of Live.

Kirk

remember to download aegis wing for FREEEEEEE

Peen

Evangir wrote: »

Daedalus wrote: »

culdrasbit*h wrote: »

Don't get the Arcade version; you really really need the hard drive. If you can afford the extra $$$ then you should get the Elite with the bigger HD. It'd the only thing I regret from when I got mine.

With a Torx screwdriver, a specific model of 120GB 2.5" SATA laptop drive, and some balls, you can turn your 20GB drive into a 120 without paying Microsoft's 120% markup. I haven't done it myself yet, but that's because I haven't run out of space on my 20GB yet and really doubt I will at any point in the future.

Also, to the OP, buy rechargable AAs. Don't buy the Play and Charge kit.

What's wrong with the Play and Charge kit?

It tethers your controller to the console, which might not be a problem, but being able to just switch batteries quickly and stay wireless is sweet. Also, you can use them in other devices (like your wireless Guitar Hero 3 guitar).

I said get the hard drive because I didn't think I'd need it and then soon enough, I needed it. Better to get it from the start and save some moolah.

Jelloblimp

Evangir wrote: »

Daedalus wrote: »

culdrasbit*h wrote: »

Don't get the Arcade version; you really really need the hard drive. If you can afford the extra $$$ then you should get the Elite with the bigger HD. It'd the only thing I regret from when I got mine.

(...)
Also, to the OP, buy rechargable AAs. Don't buy the Play and Charge kit.

What's wrong with the Play and Charge kit?

Around here its cheaper with a standard battery charger + four rechargeable batteries.

OP: For sound you can use a rca-into-stereo female adapter and use regular headphones (official vga-cable has rca-into-male stereo plug). Although Live-chat will be much lower than ingame sounds even with max volume.

LewieP

My PC speakers, in addition to the standard 3.5mm line in, has an additional "Aux in" on the front, which from what I can tell, is a female 3.5mm, so I guess I can use that?

Icemopper

Yeah, going along with what LewieP said, is there any way at all to get sound from the xBox other than directly? Like if I have surround sound cords or something?

Also if anybody here wants a free xbox, look at my signature...

Wetsun

http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-Eneloop-Battery-Charger-Batteries/dp/B000WPJIME/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1210192475&sr=1-3

I've found that these things hold their charge extremely well compared to other batteries (so well that they come pre-charged, actually). They're pretty much ideal for wireless controller use.

edit: Costco had a pack of 8 AAs, 4 AAAs, charger, and a couple of AA->C/D converter shells (all in a handy, compact snap-case) for about $20 when I got mine. $32 on amazon...URL updated.

Zetx

Evangir wrote: »

tbloxham wrote: »

Zetx wrote: »

Hey guys, I'm planning on buying a 360 sometime over the summer. Is there a specific version I'd need if I'm going to use my monitor as the screen? HDMI? Something? I haven't bought a console since the n64 days.

Also, is a 19" going to cut it? (It goes to 1280x1024) I heard about problems with HD(TV?) vs Standard? Like Dead Rising had problems with the text being too small on one or the graphics/resolution being all screwy?

And what's the business about paying for online services? Am I good with just Silver if I want to play online and nothing more?

Thanks guys. :winky:

I had this plan, check this first. How will you be listening to your xbox 360 sound? Does your monitor have internal speakers which can be accessed by standard component cables, HDMI input? Do you have a sound system with an optical input, or could you place the base station within about 6 inches of the inputs of the monitor?

The 360 has no microphone out, which is why I am stuck playing mine on the tiny SD CRT TV in my house rather than the nice big widescreen monitor I have.

You can use converter cables and female-female jacks to get sound out of the stereo component cable bits onto a headphone, but the 360 broacasts sound without amplification as its intended to let the TV take care of it, as such plugging headphones directly into that requires you to jack up the volume hugely. This, combined with quality loss across 3 connections, means you will get far from great sound this way.

Of course, your monitor may have inbuilt speakers which can take sound from HDMI or something, so this would all be moot.

My solution has been to route the 360's audio cables through the sound card/motherboard on my PC, so they share sound on my PC's speakers/headphones. The only problem is the PC has to be on for the 360 to have sound, but my PC is basically always on, so.... yeah. I'm currently doing this through my motherboard, but I also had a $20 sound card that did it perfectly.

For an even better trick, try connecting a PS3/360 and PC to the same set of speakers through one sound card. Fun times.

Ahh, I didn't think about the sound.

@tbloxham - I think I understand what you're saying and I guess I could use my 2.1 speakers for that, would that compensate for the lack of amplification?
@Evangir - Could you elaborate on what you're doing? I'm not sure if I can accomplish this with my on-board sound, though.

I'm not very good with this audio stuff. o_O

(edit: Didn't see the last couple posts, but I guess I'm not the only one confused on sound :P)

@Jelloblimp, Could you find me a picture? I'm pretty sure all I've got are male ones on GIS.

Pastoriusk2

Icemopper wrote: »

Yeah, going along with what LewieP said, is there any way at all to get sound from the xBox other than directly? [/SIZE]

That question doesn't make sense. How would you not get sound directly from the Xbox?

Pastoriusk2

Zetx wrote: »

Evangir wrote: »

tbloxham wrote: »

Zetx wrote: »

Hey guys, I'm planning on buying a 360 sometime over the summer. Is there a specific version I'd need if I'm going to use my monitor as the screen? HDMI? Something? I haven't bought a console since the n64 days.

Also, is a 19" going to cut it? (It goes to 1280x1024) I heard about problems with HD(TV?) vs Standard? Like Dead Rising had problems with the text being too small on one or the graphics/resolution being all screwy?

And what's the business about paying for online services? Am I good with just Silver if I want to play online and nothing more?

Thanks guys. :winky:

I had this plan, check this first. How will you be listening to your xbox 360 sound? Does your monitor have internal speakers which can be accessed by standard component cables, HDMI input? Do you have a sound system with an optical input, or could you place the base station within about 6 inches of the inputs of the monitor?

The 360 has no microphone out, which is why I am stuck playing mine on the tiny SD CRT TV in my house rather than the nice big widescreen monitor I have.

You can use converter cables and female-female jacks to get sound out of the stereo component cable bits onto a headphone, but the 360 broacasts sound without amplification as its intended to let the TV take care of it, as such plugging headphones directly into that requires you to jack up the volume hugely. This, combined with quality loss across 3 connections, means you will get far from great sound this way.

Of course, your monitor may have inbuilt speakers which can take sound from HDMI or something, so this would all be moot.

My solution has been to route the 360's audio cables through the sound card/motherboard on my PC, so they share sound on my PC's speakers/headphones. The only problem is the PC has to be on for the 360 to have sound, but my PC is basically always on, so.... yeah. I'm currently doing this through my motherboard, but I also had a $20 sound card that did it perfectly.

For an even better trick, try connecting a PS3/360 and PC to the same set of speakers through one sound card. Fun times.

Ahh, I didn't think about the sound.

@tbloxham - I think I understand what you're saying and I guess I could use my 2.1 speakers for that, would that compensate for the lack of amplification?
@Evangir - Could you elaborate on what you're doing? I'm not sure if I can accomplish this with my on-board sound, though.

I'm not very good with this audio stuff. o_O

It's a fairly simple set up. I'm assuming the xbox has RCA cables for sound (the red and white plugs), so all you need is an adapter that converts it to an 1/8" male stereo plug, and plug that in to the line in of your sound card. Then using the audio control panel software your sound card uses put the line in volume up and un-mute it.

This is the adapter: http://www.radioshack.com/sm-y-adapter-phono-jacks-to-stereo-1-8-plug--pi-2103225.html

Willeth

Icemopper wrote: »

Yeah, going along with what LewieP said, is there any way at all to get sound from the xBox other than directly? Like if I have surround sound cords or something?

Also if anybody here wants a free xbox, look at my signature...

The 360 just pipes out an audio signal on either optical, HDMI, or red/white audio things that I forget the name of. You can then connect it to anything that'll take that connection.

If you want HDMI and optical audio out, though, it's either a bit of a hack job or a ridiculously expensive cable purchase.

LewieP

Surely I don't have to go through my sound card? Don't my speakers amplify it?

Mx. Quill

Anyone use the Ethernet cable attached to a computer to get the 360 online? Just want to know how it is in that configuration, since I'm picking up a 360 soon as well and plan to use my Macbook's Internet Sharing to get the 360 online and I'm not spending a hundred bucks on a wireless adapter, nor do I have a spare internet cable.

Willeth

Lewie: If your speakers will take the cables then do it. Mine only have a male minijack which plugs into my sound card, and so my VGA cable has to go through a Y-cable to my sound card's line-in. The cable is provided.

My friend has his 360 connected through his PC and all he has to do is bridge the connections. This is under Vista, though.

LewieP

I guess that means I'm good to go.

Hopefully my recent argos misprice will come though. If not, I'll be buying a 360 from elsewhere in the next two weeks.

Zetx

Pastoriusk2 wrote: »

It's a fairly simple set up. I'm assuming the xbox has RCA cables for sound (the red and white plugs), so all you need is an adapter that converts it to an 1/8" male stereo plug, and plug that in to the line in of your sound card. Then using the audio control panel software your sound card uses put the line in volume up and un-mute it.

This is the adapter: http://www.radioshack.com/sm-y-adapter-phono-jacks-to-stereo-1-8-plug--pi-2103225.html

Jelloblimp wrote: »

OP: For sound you can use a rca-into-stereo female adapter and use regular headphones (official vga-cable has rca-into-male stereo plug). Although Live-chat will be much lower than ingame sounds even with max volume.

Okay, so from what I understand, the two ways are:

- Pastoriusk2's 360->PC->Sound using the above adapter
- Jelloblimp's 360->Sound using something that looks like this? (female RCA for the 360 and female stero jack for speakers/headset)

[EDIT: Oh wait, so the official headset plugs into the controller? Wha? I'm guessing they're proprietary plugs?]

maximumzero

I have a few XBox Live Cards I'll sell to anyone that needs them on the fairly cheap.

PM if interested.

Willeth

Yeah, the headset plugs into the controller. It's a tiny little plug.

The VGA cable comes with one of these:

maximumzero

Emerlmaster999 wrote: »

Anyone use the Ethernet cable attached to a computer to get the 360 online? Just want to know how it is in that configuration, since I'm picking up a 360 soon as well and plan to use my Macbook's Internet Sharing to get the 360 online and I'm not spending a hundred bucks on a wireless adapter, nor do I have a spare internet cable.

I ran a 50ft ethernet cable from my eMac to my 360 to get it on the internet, and it worked awesome until I upgraded an ethernet connection coming off a spare Airport Express I had lying around.

Mx. Quill

maximumzero wrote: »

Emerlmaster999 wrote: »

Anyone use the Ethernet cable attached to a computer to get the 360 online? Just want to know how it is in that configuration, since I'm picking up a 360 soon as well and plan to use my Macbook's Internet Sharing to get the 360 online and I'm not spending a hundred bucks on a wireless adapter, nor do I have a spare internet cable.

I ran a 50ft ethernet cable from my eMac to my 360 to get it on the internet, and it worked awesome until I upgraded an ethernet connection coming off a spare Airport Express I had lying around.

Well, I have no clue how to upgrade computers, so I guess I'm in the clear, then. Thanks.

Santa Claustrophobia

LewieP wrote: »

How many games are only in Widescreen?

All I know of is Assassins creed, but I am a little worries it might be a wider trend. I have the choice of an oldish SD widescreen and a nice 19 inch 4:3 (are monitors even 4:3? or something close?) that runs at 1280x1024

I don't know about the numbers (though I know Katamari and Ace 6 are), but any game that is native widescreen will force a letterbox effect. At least they're supposed to. So folks may want to keep that in the back of their minds if they're going with small size monitors.

tbloxham

Zetx wrote: »

Pastoriusk2 wrote: »

It's a fairly simple set up. I'm assuming the xbox has RCA cables for sound (the red and white plugs), so all you need is an adapter that converts it to an 1/8" male stereo plug, and plug that in to the line in of your sound card. Then using the audio control panel software your sound card uses put the line in volume up and un-mute it.

This is the adapter: http://www.radioshack.com/sm-y-adapter-phono-jacks-to-stereo-1-8-plug--pi-2103225.html

Jelloblimp wrote: »

OP: For sound you can use a rca-into-stereo female adapter and use regular headphones (official vga-cable has rca-into-male stereo plug). Although Live-chat will be much lower than ingame sounds even with max volume.

Okay, so from what I understand, the two ways are:

- Pastoriusk2's 360->PC->Sound using the above adapter
- Jelloblimp's 360->Sound using something that looks like this? (female RCA for the 360 and female stero jack for speakers/headset)

[EDIT: Oh wait, so the official headset plugs into the controller? Wha? I'm guessing they're proprietary plugs?]

Those two are both effectively the same method, although if your PC does have a good onboard soundcard which can take the line in then you are good to go and should get decent sound too.

HarshLanguage

Emerlmaster999 wrote: »

Anyone use the Ethernet cable attached to a computer to get the 360 online? Just want to know how it is in that configuration, since I'm picking up a 360 soon as well and plan to use my Macbook's Internet Sharing to get the 360 online and I'm not spending a hundred bucks on a wireless adapter, nor do I have a spare internet cable.

I used that method, 360 connected via the included Ethernet cable to a laptop connected (wirelessly in my case) to the Internet. Worked great. You just have to be willing to potentially dink around with your internet-sharing and/or firewall settings to allow the 360 the access it needs to the 'net. I'm sure there are guides available for this.

(Also, new or future 360 owners, check my sig please. :P)

Mx. Quill

I found quite a few methods for it, all of which are more or less the same. Seems easy enough, since even I, a complete dunce when it comes to computers, was able to find all the stuff required on the Mac's side.

Pemulis

Daedalus wrote: »

With a Torx screwdriver, a specific model of 120GB 2.5" SATA laptop drive, and some balls, you can turn your 20GB drive into a 120 without paying Microsoft's 120% markup. I haven't done it myself yet, but that's because I haven't run out of space on my 20GB yet and really doubt I will at any point in the future.

Could someone elaborate on this or provide a link please?