Component cable? question

[Jay588]

ok, when it comes to video and cables im a moron. can someone please clear this up for me. a while ago i won an auction on ebay for a 360 20gb harddrive, they also included a transfer cable, and component cables?

( the cables to the right the red green and blue ones, red and white are seperate cables)

they do not look like the component cables on the xbox website, in fact, i cant even connect it to my xbox. or can i? on both ends there are red green and blue outputs, why would the seller include these if they do not fit a 360? or is there a special attachment i need? ive had an hd tv for a while now and just realized i may beable to enjoy the 360s graphics even more than the standard cables that came with it? i dont even know if component, composite or AV compare? also what are the red and white cables? they also cannot hook onto my xbox. can someone clear up all my questions? lol thanks in advance :worship:

edit: HDMI seem to be the most expensive cables, im guessing those are best looking?

 

[strommsarnac]

Those look like "extension" cables. The 360 requires it's own dedicated connector to plug into the console, then the other end has both component and composite/L-R. The extension would connect to the factory cable.

The only way you'll get HDMI is if you're 360 had the port. The standard 360 connector doesn't support HDMI. Only the Elite has always had HDMI. The other got it after September.

Unless your TV supports 1920x1080p, there's no reason to worry about HDMI. And I mean your TV must DISPLAY 1920x1080p, not just that it'll accept that resolution on it's input. Most LCD only display 1366x768, while most plasma's display 1024x786 and use rectangular pixels to make it seem widescreen. Most HD-RPTV's display 1920x1080i.

You can get a 3rd-party 360 component cable from just about anywhere for about $20us. Don't spend more than $30 as you won't see a bit of difference.

 

[The_Mitch]

those component cables are just extensions. i guess he/she just threw them in for the heck of it. i cant really think of a reason they would include them. also if you have your 360 hooked up to an HDTV with the red, white, and yellow cables (composite) then you are missing out ALOT! component cables (red, green, blue for video. different red and white for audio) make a world of difference with the 360. everything is much more clear.

here is a quick lesson on cables. composite cables are the red, white, and yellow cables. the red and white cables are used for left and right sound. 1 cable for each. the yellow is for the video. component cables are the red,green, blue, another red, and white cables. the 2 red cables will look different so you can tell what is what. one of the red cables and the white cable is for audio and the red, green, blue cables are for video. each cable carries a different color of the video. red carries red, blue does blue, and green does green. this helps produce better picture and give you a high def picture. HDMI is just one cable that carries audio AND video and is the best. it gives the best picture while at the same time carries the audio. i dont really know anything else about HDMI sorry.

while that may not be the best explanation i hope it helped you understand better.

 

[Jay588]

thank you guys! well i guess i need to spend even more on this console. and i hate to spend money on it because i feel it always has a risk of getting red ring again, and i made my decision, if i get the rrod for the 3rd time, i am going to smash it to bits, and i am not kidding.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Elem...75559/catOid/-12867/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
this is my tv, is it worth getting the HDMI cable? strom said that it must support 1920x1080p which it doesn't..is it going to look like crap? my cable hd channels look incredible, i guess the console cant output such a picture then? please explain why i would need the 1920x1080p requirement

 

[strommsarnac]

Just some clarifications. Composite is ONLY video, not the L/R audio signals. It's the yellow connector. Composite is a video standard like S-Video, that's why I had to clear up the L/R bit.

Second, Component on TVs/Monitors/Consoles is NOT RGB. It's YPbPr. The RGB is converted prior to the device's video output port.

YPbPr is converted from the RGB video signal, which is split into three components, Y, Pr and Pb.

Y carries luma (brightness) information.
Pb carries the difference between blue and luma (B - Y).
Pr carries the difference between red and luma (R - Y).
a green signal is not sent as the colour can be interpolated using the blue,red and luma information.

 

[Jay588]

i appreciate your concern and all of your help, but honestly you confuse me lol. can you tell me which cables i have and if it fits my tv? (link is listed above) i get confused on which is composite, hdmi, component..i cant tell the difference lol i know this is like a walk in the park for you but i have no idea whats what, i just match the colors from my console to my tv and sit on my ass

 

[strommsarnac]

Jay,
Your TV displays 1680x1050. This means it can't display 1080i let alone 1080p. So, there's no reason to bother with HDMI except for the fact your TV only has a single Component input. I'm guessing your HD cable box is connected to either the component (most likely) or HDMI input since you think the picture is so great. If it was conencted via S-Video, you're not getting HD.

You're options for two HD devices are.
Cable-Component / 360-HDMI
360-HDMI / Cable-Component

You're concern should be for future connections. What port is the new device going to need. HD-DVD and BlueRay players use HDMI connections. Either way, if you go THREE+ HD devices, you'll need a powered switchbox. Both component and HDMI varieties run about $100us for a good quality 2-4 port version. One type or the other though.

Something else to think about is if you think you're going to get an AV Receiver for sound. If so, the HDMI devices MUST connect via HDMI to the receiver FIRST, then the receiver will pass the video ONLY signal through to the display.

Whew, sorry I got off on a tangent.

Short of it is, either way at 22" 1680x1050, you won't notice a bit of difference from the 360. If it's going to be fuzzy, it'll be fuzzy on either port. I say this because 1080i/p doesn't scale well to 1050.

Do you know what HD mode your cable box is using? I have mine set to default to 1080i first and then 720p which my TV upconverts to 1080i.


My 24" Dell monitor is native 1920x1200 and my 55" Mitsu. Neither supports HDMI, so either way I connect via Component and get 1080i. I can't tell a bit of difference.