Xbox 360 - 720p & 1080p available, but only HD-Ready TV?

[olkka]

Hi!


I have Xbox 360 connected with HDMI-cable to my 32" LCD Samsung B450C4WXBT. Its native/max resolution is 1366 x 768.

How is it possible that I can choose both 720p and 1080p resolutions, even though my 32" TV doesn't support the Full HD 1920x1080 (1080p) resolution?


Interesting, thanks!

 

[borisof007]

Are you referring to your options in the 360 menu or options on the TV itself?

If it's options on the 360, the 360 might not know any better and let you select them no matter what. If it's options on the TV... well then that's odd.

 

[GunBladeType-T]

Hi!


I have Xbox 360 connected with HDMI-cable to my 32" LCD Samsung B450C4WXBT. Its native/max resolution is 1366 x 768.

How is it possible that I can choose both 720p and 1080p resolutions, even though my 32" TV doesn't support the Full HD 1920x1080 (1080p) resolution?


Interesting, thanks!

See if your TV upscales to 1920x1080i or If your Xbox has those options! Thats the best you can do is upscale at the same amount of pixels and slower FPS if it isn't native 1920x1080P

 

[olkka]

It's in the options of 360.

Yeah, it upscales to 1920x1080 and even the TV shows it's 1920x1080 (which it can NOT be). However, I noticed there was an option for 'optimal resolution' and I chose it. Now, it's the native resolution 1366 x 768 and TV shows it as well.

My Xbox 360 HDTV Settings available:

Optimal resolution
480p
720p
1080i
1080p

However, all the other resolutions have much more crisper colors. 'The optimal resolution = 1366 x 768' seems very pale in colors. How's that? Whereas, the 'optimal reolution' seems to have the sharpest picture (maybe it doesn't stretch/scale the pixels like in 720p and 1080i/p).

Interesting...

 

[GunBladeType-T]

It's in the options of 360.

Yeah, it upscales to 1920x1080 and even the TV shows it's 1920x1080 (which it can NOT be). However, I noticed there was an option for 'optimal resolution' and I chose it. Now, it's the native resolution 1366 x 768 and TV shows it as well.

My Xbox 360 HDTV Settings available:

Optimal resolution
480p
720p
1080i
1080p

However, all the other resolutions have much more crisper colors. 'The optimal resolution = 1366 x 768' seems very pale in colors. How's that? Whereas, the 'optimal reolution' seems to have the sharpest picture (maybe it doesn't stretch/scale the pixels like in 720p and 1080i/p).

Interesting...

Well in my opinion 1.3 million pixels looks better at 1366x768 than 1.3million pixels at 1920x1080I! Better to go with 1920x1080P with 2.2 million pixels or Panasonic's 3820x2160 TV at 100 Inches If your that Rich

 

[jasonhunter]

i have the same television, the Samsung with a native res of 1360 x 768. i had a similar experience as you did when i tried the different XBOX 360 settings, even had it claiming it was running 1080p. Game performance suffered noticeably (big difference in frame rate in Fable 2 for example, even running around was slower), but the most noticeable difference was the contrast and color saturation, which was much more severe, and there was a noticeable shift in display clarity/picture sharpness when the camera stopped moving or panning. My preferred display mode is without a doubt native resolution. Because you're asking the XBOX to render only what it needs to, and you're not asking the TV to take the work already done and then change that again on its way throughout the set, games display best, the rendering is smoothest, and although at first glance, the game seems paler or washed out, this just means you need to adjust the TELEVISION settings to your preference.

The reason i was looking into this is because i finally got my second HDMI cable from Amazon (i also run an Apple TV 2) and when i plugged my XBOX into the HDMI 2 port on the Samsung, i no longer was able to get the native resolution setting. At first i blamed it on the fact that Crysis 2 forced a dashboard update to my XBOX (which is NOT connected to the network) and i assumed that MS had dropped support for that feature and decided it was best for everybody to make their TV work harder... i was wrong. After reading this article, i realized that on the Samsung the HDMI 1 port is also a DVI port, and HDMI 2 is not. Now that i've relegated the ATV2 to HDMI 2 (it can't display my native res anyway), i now have everything back to ideal. So thank you very much for sharing a similar issue. In a round about way, it solves my problem, and made my day. Thanks!

 

[jasonhunter]

But in answer to your original question, your TV has the capability of receiving and processing signals which exceed the resolution of the monitor's pixels. If it couldn't, and you owned a blu-ray player that only output 1080p, your TV wouldn't let you watch that source. Fortunately, your TV can convert the source signals appropriately and use it's 1360x768 pixel array to show it to you. This makes for an extra step in the process, and requires processing and processing power. When merely watching a movie, one might not notice the extra lag time, but playing an interactive game, it's more noticeable.

Bottom line: Set your 360 to run the native resolution of the television for best performance and best color signal, then use the TV menu to adjust the brightness and contrast to achieve the level of "dramatic impact" you're looking for. There are a couple of other settings in "Display" you might want to turn on, such as Reference Levels to "Expanded" and HDMI Color Space to "Source," which will allow your TV to take advantage of those digital features.

The XBOX 360 is well-paired with this TV since it doesn't actually do true 1080p/i for games and doesn't play Blu-Ray discs. PS3 has the true HD market cornered still....