Xbox 360 - HD Question

[WoD]

How to you connect it up to a HD TV to get the best picture and does the 360 come with the required cables or is it a seperate purchase???

Also, If I have HD films on the PC can I stream these to the TV in HD via the 360??

Thanks in advance.

[Steve Green]

Hi,

you need component cables - they look like the standard composite cables (the red, white, yellow) but are red, green and blue.

The audio is carried separately, either through a Toslink digital optical socket (for 5.1 sound if you have the gear), or through red and white RCA leads. (I'm not sure if all leads have the latter though). If you're connecting to 5.1 you will still need an optical lead to connect the two together.

The more expensive 360 pack came with component leads, but you can buy them separately.

You can also connect via VGA if you have it, I think the quality is supposed to be slightly better, but I've had no complaints with component.

Remember you will also need to tell the xbox that you are running an HD TV in the setup.

For movies, yes you can do at least 720P WMV files. It's pretty limited as to what you can stream - it used to be the case that you needed Windows Media Edition, but the last dashboard update allowed regular XP to play movies, although I've not got it to work.

Basically you install Windows Media Connect on the PC and you're supposed to be able to stream from there. I'm not sure how high-res you can go over a wireless network though, I've played 1280x720 movies from a USB memory stick, and off a CD - and I'm reasonably sure you could play 1920x1080.

Unfortunately, it only seems to be able to play WMV files rather than AVIs.

Hope that helps

Cheers

Steve

[WoD]

It does help...many thanks Steve.

I got the 360 to stream video recently (I have XP pro at home so it was a nice surprise to be able to do this), but I wasn't sure if it would 'know' it was an HD file (downloaded from Sky to test it) and would send it to the TV in HD.

I did go for the premium pack so (somewhere) I should have the cables..which is nice.

Cheers,
WoD.

[Steve Green]

I'm guessing it will just scale whatever you send it to the resolution your 360 is set to, so if you sent it a standard definition WMV, it would get scaled up regardless, but HD would be already at the right size.

I think it may also take .ts files (transport stream) which seems to be the highest quality (though large) HD files. Not really had the chance to try it though.

Cheers

Steve