XBOX 360 on my old CRT

After purchasing the Gears of War game for my XBOX 360, I found that the game wouldn't play because my XBOX 360 had its display settings set to Pal-50. Apparently, Gears of War requires Pal-60. No problem, as its just a simple case of changing the display settings. Or so I thought...

Previously, I had been playing my XBOX 360 by pushing the video signal through my PC's TV Card (as a composite signal) and the audio through the PC sound card. I then used InterVideo WinDVR to display the composite signal on my TFT monitor. When I tried changing the video settings to Pal-60 on the XBOX, InterVideo WinDVR seemed to mess the picture up. Numerous video capture programs were tried yesterday without success, and this made me consider purchasing the XBOX 360 VGA HD Display Cable. Being a poor student, I was reluctant at first to part with some much needed money.

This morning saw me re-arrange my desk (for the 900th time in the last 3 months) to accommodate my 17" CRT monitor that my mother donated to me, along with her old PC. It is a superb condition Philips "Slimline" CRT (if such a thing ever existed).

As things are never fully straightforward, I realised that the CRT has a moulded connection to the monitor, and a male connection on the other end of the cable (as you would expect to connect it to a PC). Trouble is, the XBOX 360 HD VGA Cable has a male connection at the other end to connect it straight into a monitor that has a VGA input. I contemplated the fact that I may have to source down a female-to-female VGA adapter, costing me even more money.

To my surprise, the XBOX VGA Cable also included a female-to-female VGA adapter, so all is well.

Since connecting it all together, I have my XBOX 360 pushing out a video signal at a 1280x1024 resolution, and I also now get the added bonus of no more lag whilst gaming (it takes time for a video signal to go through the TV Card, get processed and then displayed on screen). I have a CRT as if it were a dedicated XBOX 360 TV, and my games have never looked so good since the signal is now defaulted to Pal-60.

If only I could decouple the sound having to go through my PC's sound card and instead get it to go straight to the surround sound system, then that would be even better. Oh well, next pet project is decided at least!