Xbox with HD kit (1 Viewer)

[BretWeaver]

I just bougth the advanced A/V kit for my xbox so I could hook it up with component video cables to my HDTV. Well when I started up NCAA 2005 the widescreen works great but the whole game looks horrid compared to how it did. There are jagged lines everywhere that I either didnt notice before or are just more apparent now. Anyone know if there is an anti-alaising option I need to turn on somewhere or if this is just what happens? I suppose my TV (toshiba 65H83) is upconverting the signal to its native 1080i... could that be the problem?

 

[Carlo_M]

It's been 2 years + since I set mine up (and I'm not at home to check) but don't you have to go to your dashboard and enable 480p, 720p (if applicable to your TV) and 1080i? (and 16:9 for that matter)

If you've done that, then I'm officially of no help. My XBox and NCAA 2005 look good on my 47" 16:9 HDTV. Good luck!

 

[BretWeaver]

yes you do. I set mine up to support all of those features but it still looks aweful.

 

[Joe Szott]

Yeah, see if you can force the TV to use 480p signal without upconverting. That's the only thing I can think of that would cause a problem like this (when you didn't have it before.)

 

[Carlo_M]

I'm officially out of ideas, Bret, sorry! Did you buy the official HD pack from MS (the one I use) or the Monster Cable pack or some other HD pack?

 

[BretWeaver]

I used the offical MS pack. The colors do look much more vibrant but its the jagged lines that are driving me nuts... bought madden 2005 today, same thing but I'm still enjoying the game

 

[Carlo_M]

Do you have a dig camera where you can post pics? There are some jagged lines on mine but they're there too on my 27" HDTV as well (but because the screen is smaller it is less obvious).

Maybe you're just noticing them more because the pic is so big?

 

[Jorge M]

I think it has little to do with your TV. I don't own those games but I've seen this sort of thing (albeit less dramatic than what you describe) in many other games. For example in Ninja Gaiden (480p I believe), when the character is idle and just "breathing" you can see jaggies between him and the background. These are not apparent if switched to 480i.

It seems to me that the more a game pushes the system graphically in standard def, the more it suffers when switched to higher resolutions. The system just can't handle the graphics decently at these higher resolutions, so things like anti-aliasing are turned off. The fact that a game supports a higher resolution ironically doesn't mean that it'll look better in it! These games are optimized for 480i, and with good reason: how many people actually play these games in anything but standard TVs?

Of course those are just my observations. I'm not an engineer, so I could be wrong.

 

[Joe Maiurro]

That is just the game and the size of your tv. I has a 51" with the avanced AV pack and i was thinking the same as you. I notice it mostly with the Sport titles (ESPN hockey & Football 2k5) but when i put in a game like Splinter Cell, looks amazing! So really, it must just be the games..

 

[Leo]

And if you want the dashboard to be 480p, then click the Left and Right analog along with the Left and Right trigger controls. Viola - 480p dashboard - I believe it was one of the Live updates that enabled this feature.