Component
You're going to miss out on a lot if you only play your Xbox 360 on a normal television set. Microsoft mandated that all games on the Xbox 360 be designed with 720p as the reference resolution. In fact, the Xbox 360 renders everything internally at 720p, regardless of what kind of video resolution you use. However, the system will scale the video to the necessary video format. Component video uses three wires to pass the video signal into the television display, and allows for higher resolutions like 480p, 720p, and 1080i. You can actually use old RCA cables in place of real component cables in a pinch, but keep the cable as short as possible to minimize the image degradation caused by an impedance mismatch. The full Xbox 360 system includes a complete set of component and composite video cables.
480p/720p Comparison - Put your mouse cursor over the image to compare the difference
We set the Xbox 360 to 720p and 480p to demonstrate the differences between the two. The result doesn't come as much of a surprise. If you've played PC games for even 10 minutes, you know that increasing the resolution is one of the best ways to make a game look better. Jumping from 480p (852x480) up to 720p (1280x720) gave us a huge increase in image quality. If you don't own an HDTV, do yourself a favor and get some kind of television or monitor that is capable of displaying 720p.
The key message to take away from these pictures - use the right settings. Many HDTVs only run well at one resolution, their attempts to convert to other resolutions result in poor image quality, as demonstrated in these pictures.
VGA
If you want to get high definition resolutions but can't afford an HDTV (since you just dropped 400 bones on an Xbox 360), consider getting a set of VGA cables for your 360. The console can output high resolution video directly to a computer monitor if you have the right cables. . By PC standards, 1280x720 (720p) is a walk in the park. Any decently made CRT monitor has the ability to display resolutions of 1600x1200 and upwards. Display size constraints are the only real downside to using a monitor as a gaming display since there's a world of difference between gaming on a 50-inch widescreen HDTV and a 21-inch CRT monitor.
VGA Comparison - Put your mouse cursor over the image to compare the difference
We're not going to compare VGA image quality with the rest of the cables because our 21-inch monitor is far smaller than our HDTV screen, but we can show you the differences between the monitor resolutions. The image quality differences between the two resolutions seem to be minimal. We'd like to attribute that to the versatility of computer monitors. Their ability to display numerous different kinds of resolutions and refresh rates gives them a leg up on TVs.
The Take Home
In our basic tests, we've seen that different cable types can greatly affect image quality. If you're currently using RF, we suggest that you make the switch to a better video cable. The Xbox 360 doesn't have an RF cable option, and it's not worth buying an adapter to create your own. Going from RF to composite video or S-Video produces significant improvements in image detail and color quality. The next major step comes when you move to component video, but the biggest benefits are the increased resolution options and progressive scan output. If you don't have an HDTV, you can buy a set of Xbox 360 VGA cables to turn a computer monitor into a high resolution Xbox 360 display.
