Xbox 360 on a Dell 2407 Monitor

Oculus, excellent review and information on display settings available through VGA. I had no idea VGA would look so superior to component. I was aware that 1080p is only available through VGA, but it\'s unfortunate it doesn\'t work out for you on your monitor. Are you 100% sure your monitor can accept a 1080p signal? Most LCDs are native 720, IIRC.

No, it looks like 1080p is out of the question. Oddly, if the 360 output 1920x1200 it should work. This is counter-intuitive because 1080 is less than that, but the scaling poses a problem for it. (firmware in the future?) updated in post above.

As for the VGA, I don\'t know the internals, but would bet that the chip that handles the component signal is of a lower quality than, say, on a big screen tv where the component signal is expected to be one of the primary inputs. Of course, an electrical engineer could easily pwn me on this subject. But the VGA surprised me too.

I had high hopes for this monitor but after I learned it wouldn\'t do 1080p via component, I had second thoughts about it. Still if the price is right, I might own this monitor soon. But, I\'m reading that 2405 owners are having better luck with 1080p (especially 1:1 mapping).

Is 1080p an option anywhere through component? I thought the lack of HDCP available with component made manufacturers shy away. Basically, I am under the impression that 1080p comes through either VGA or HDMI. Am I wrong?

1080p via component is an option and some HDTV\'s accept it. However, as soon as HDCP kicks in you won\'t be able to get 1080p over component so a lot of TV\'s don\'t even go there.

HDCP?

Yea, it\'s the industry\'s new idea to encrypt all hd content above a certain resolution. Supposedly compliance will be a requirement in a few years, but noone\'s sure. I think it mostly applies to HD-DVD and BlueRay players.

Here\'s what wikipedia says about HDCP:

High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital rights management (DRM) developed by Intel Corporation to control digital audio and video content as it travels across Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connections. The HDCP specification is proprietary and an implementation of HDCP requires a license.

HDCP is licensed by Digital Content Protection, LLC, a subsidiary of Intel. In addition to paying fees, licensees agree to limit the capabilities of their products. For example, High-definition digital video content must be restricted to DVD quality on non-HDCP compliant video outputs when requested by the source. DVD-Audio content is restricted to DAT quality on non-HDCP digital audio outputs (analog audio outputs have no quality limits). Licensees cannot allow their devices to make copies of content, and must design their products to \"effectively frustrate attempts to defeat the content protection requirements.\"

If your TV doesn\'t have a HDCP license, you can forget about 1080p via DVD players, HD-DVD players, Blu-Ray, or gaming consoles. That\'s why 1080p gaming on HDTV\'s isn\'t going to be a hit until the next-generation of consoles. Only a few sets can do it now or will be able to in the next year (without paying a ton of money).

Updated above. 1080p is now functioning through VGA. Turning the sharpness to 30 magically gets rid of the problems and it\'s looking fine now. :rawk:

Sweet news.

What\'s the verdict on resolution comparison? Does 1080p look significantly better than 720p? Are you running 1080p30 or 1080p60?

It\'s running 1920x1080@60Hz. The image is slightly stretched to fit the aspect ratio of the monitor. And as far as the comparison between resolutions? To be honest, well, it\'s barely noticeable until you REALLY pay attention. The image does in fact look a little more clear, but it\'s not like you can all of a sudden see jaggies when you go back to 720. I have to get my face a foot away from the monitor to notice sometimes. Here\'s some pictures of HexicHD the first one is 720p, the second 1080p. Both are in \'fit\' mode.

If there\'s a difference between the two, it\'s as likely that my mind is telling me to think the 1080p looks better as it is to believe it actually makes a noticeable difference. As Skorned and I used to say, that may be the \"seat of the pants\" dyno talking.

Exactly. And I\'m not exactly using the most scientific of methods either.

Yeah, I barely see the difference. It\'s awesome that you got it working though! :)

Hi,

Thanks for the excellent writeup. I just purchased a Dell 2407 as well. The deal was just too good to resist.

I have an Xbox 360 as well and I am going to be buying the VGA cable and I really wanted to try 1080p resolution out. However I am concerned about only using the fit option. In the past I hate the way monitors stretch out the resolution.

What is the reason for only having the \'fit\' option? Is it a limitation of the VGA interface? What if you put a VGA/DVI adapter on the end of the X360 vga cable?

Has anyone tried this? Do you think this would allow 1:1 if you went through the DVI connection?

Thanks and any input would be great. I will be getting mine in like a couple of weeks so I will try it as well.

Thanks

I know it is easy to go from DVI->VGA, it requires a cheap adapter. But, for VGA->DVI all the adapters I have seen are $200.00+. And, to add to that, I wouldn\'t be surprised if they have a bit of lag. Other people I have talked to, as well as myself, want Microsoft to release a DVI cable, but I haven\'t seen any indication that they will do so. We\'ll all have to wait and see, and if they do, maybe the monitor will support 1080 1:1 over DVI.

Another option is if Microsoft released an update to the 360 that allowed for 16:10 resolutions. This could probably happen, as I have read about quite a few people asking for it.

I don\'t know the reasoning behind not allowing the 1:1 option for 1080p. It almost looks like an oversight by Dell. In 720p mode and 1360x768 the 1:1 works just fine, and if your dead set on it, I would recommend the 1360x768 mode, as it is quite good. I still use the 1920x1080 over VGA and there is slight stretching, but I don\'t even notice when playing GoW, so it is a matter of personal preference. Congrats on the monitor purchase, and don\'t forget to turn the sharpness to 30.

Thanks Oculus,

Actually there are many adapters that can adapt the vga to a dvi pin but the problem is that they only support 1600 X 1200 which is a major bummer and defeats the purpose altogether. The ones that support 1920 actually have a small processing box and thus make it much more expensive like the $200 you mentioned.

Oh well I guess i can learn to live with the stretching. I just got my monitor today and I also picked up the VGA cable so I am really raring to try it out. I don\'t have GOW yet so I will have to try it with Fight Night or DOA I guess.

One last question I can\'t seem to get 1:1 as an option even on my DVI signal with my computer. I wonder what the problem is? Do you know? I am going to post on the dell forums as well.

Thanks for the tips. I am going from a low def composite signal so i can\'t wait to see the difference.

I did a test by hooking it up to my computer via DVI to see what you were talking about. Here\'s what I found.
\'1:1\' or \'Aspect\' modes
1920x1200 - No (not needed 16:10)
1920x1080 - Unknown (my video card didn\'t offer this)
1680x1050 - Yes (not needed though 16:10)
1600x1200 - No
1360x768 - No
1280x1024 - Yes
1280x800 - No (not needed 16:10)
1280x768 - No
1280x720 - No

Oculus,

Thanks for the research. I got the same results too.

I just got Gears today so I will do some comparison between 1080 and 720 and see which one is better. What do you currently play in? Does the stretching bother you?

Thanks for all the help. I can\'t wait to try this game out.

1080 and no,

no prob

Did you try 1080i on the component? If so, did it have any effect on the 1:1 pixel mapping?

Yes, 1080i works 1:1 and \'aspect\' on component. I don\'t like interlaced though you can see a perceivable refresh rate on the screen. 720p is better. 1080p does not work on component.

Sign me up for the \"just ordered one of these monitors\" crew. Well i ordered it last week sometime actually, and for the main purpose of playing 360 on it. All this stuff i\'m hearing though is kind of turning me off. i mean it sounds like using component cables is basically useless with this thing. so i got to get a VGA cable now? dang.. the 1080p problems don\'t really help either, but i\'ve yet to see it myself so hopefully it just sounds worse than it is. I was pretty curious as to how bad this stretching was gonna look though so i made these to check it out, and thought i\'d post here for anyone else curious enough to see it themselves.

normal 16:9

stretched 16:10

not too bad really, but probably enough that i\'ll play on 720p instead. but we\'ll see once it\'s here and hooked up i guess

After viewing this monitor in person, I'll go ahead and say it's the shizz. Dell also just dropped the price $75 after the new year. If I was in the market, I would probably still go with a pair of budget 22" LCDs rather than the single 2407 (for similar prices), but the 2407 certainly delivers a lot of real estate and a great horizontal resolution capability.

Reading through my initial review, you may get the idea that this monitor isn't worth it. Let me be clear now that I've had it for long enough to know. IT IS! It is the perfect fit for me right now, since it's just the right size (My office is a small room), is as high res as you can get, and has great color replication, contrast, and sharpness. I wouldn't have it any other way. I even read a way to bump the color values if needed, but I haven't had the need to. Come to think of it, if Dell were to release a firmware update to allow 'aspect' mode for 1080, I probably still would prefer to stretch it over the full screen.

I enjoyed gaming on your 2407, Oc. I can't imagine getting a better picture on that size of a monitor.

Oculus, thanks for posting your research. I started with the component cable between my XBox 360 and my 2407WFP, thinking I would get the best picture from that. But, yeah, the VGA cable is much better than the component cable on the 2407.

I'm using it at the 1920x1080 resolution (the vertical stretch, 10-11%, isn't that noticeable to me- playing GoW and everything looks good) and I didn't have any issues with setting the sharpness. The default settings looked great; no jaggies. I did notice that when I set the res to 1920x1080, the monitor adjusted itself (it popped up a window and the colors shifted til it was done). I didn't even try the 768 or 720 modes.

I just got the monitor and Xbox last week, so maybe the latest versions are now working better together.

I'm also using the DVI connection for my PC, and the picture quality is awesome.

Anyway, thanks again!

No prob. I'm curious if you saw this post before or after your purchase? Have fun, and glad you are enjoying your setup.

I saw this post after I had bought the monitor and XBox. I googled to see if there was any info on the best setup for this configuration, and your post was one of the first.

Hoy smoke! got the Dell 2407 REV03 other day at very good price - 470 quid/pounds! I have not got Xbox 360 nor PS3. I'm from UK, but still have PS2. Running it via s-video is pretty darn good. I'm not sitting too close at least a few metres away and have to say this is the best best thing I have bought in ages!
I was going to buy the 360 but after the rumours of the Zephyr version, looks like I'm going to hold back just to see what happens. I have heard so much good stuff with the PS3 hooked up via HDMI too even though the stretching is still apparent on that too (dam!). It doesn't bother me that much to be honest. However what's the state of affairs IF a firmware update of 1:1 mapping is available in the future will Dell allow it to be updated?
Thanks! And what a great page on this superb monitor!

I've never had any experience updating the firmware for a monitor before. If anyone has, please let me know. There's always the possibility of sending it to Dell to have it updated. I would do it if they offered, but I'm not going to lose any sleep because I probably wouldn't use 1:1 anyways.

As far as the Zephyr 360, here's another HushedCasket post about it:
http://hushedcasket.com/node/1607

My opinion...

Your missing out on a lot of good gaming right now, Gears of War/Call of Duty2,3/Possible H3 Beta in a couple months /Oblivion.. and the list goes on.

This is really a sweet spot for Gears of War right now, because it's not competing for my time with Halo 3. HDMI would be great, but I prefer playing now and updating later. Maybe a trade in of my 'old' 360 will dampen the blow to my wallet... but wait. I spray painted it.. oh well..

Hi Oculus,

I've got my 2407 after I read your test report, as you have help me to discuss to buy this good monitor. One more think is, can you list your setup of your 2407 that I want to try the professional guy setting, I just want to compare with my setting. I'm using the Monstor VGA cable between 360 and 2407 and using 1920 x 1200 mode. when I play the "Call Of Duty 3" I have noticed the graphic not very sharp and smooth, but using the componet cable I did't noticed that problem. Did you have any suggestion?
I'm come from HK, call me Chiu.

Thanks.

The 360 doesn't output 1920x1200 as far as I know. There's is the 1920x1080 setting in your 360 dashboard video settings that you must change when changing between cables. Then your monitor will fit this resolution appropriately. Also, try turning your sharpness to 30 in your 2407 settings, this gets rid of a lot of problems.

My setup:
VGA Cable (Microsoft)
1920x1080
2407 sharpness to 30
XBL 'Fall update'

Also, are you running on xbox live? If not, you may not have the latest xbox 360 dashboard update. This would prevent you from getting some of the higher resolutions on vga.

Dell should totally hire you.

Thanks a lot, Oculus, you are so nice. Will try the setting, hope to see you next time on XBL. Oh, what's your user name on XBL?

Well I have got a DVD recorder and outputting component (progressive) and like S-Video sitting a few metres away looks fantastic with DVD. Again the stretching doesn't seem to bother me anymore. One thing I do notice though is that this monitor is quality conscious, ie feed it well and it will deliver. This is very apparent with Freeview digital TV which is in the recorder itself. Some channels and programs look great, others ... looked wrecked: with poor compression and this monitor will reveal it.. badly (not the monitors fault. This goes back to my point, feed it well .. with DVD or HD! And another thing don't sit too close: a few metres is good enough!

I noticed this during our JANLAN playing Halo 1 connected to composite. The lower resolutions really stuck out like a sore thumb. More so than on a crt. I guess it's cause there's nothing to mask the artifacts. I'm spoiled by the 360 I guess.

This reminds me, that little CRT that I've got seems to be one of the best screens I've played the original XBox on. I don't know why, I guess the fast response time and clarity are decent. It's also pretty small, I've never had much luck playing on large screens.

The simple fact is the resolution is so high. 1920 X 1200 is a lot of pixels remember. the original xbox had an ouput of 480 and the CRT had something to match that as that was 480 as well. With Xbox 360 and PS3 its different the TV has to match them 720p being the minimum and 1080p being the max. The Dell monitor is that solution especially at the 20-32inches size. This is one of the only products at that size to take on the 360 and PS3 natively. Putting a composite feed through this monitor is a criminal offense in my opinion, not even the scaler can rescue the dire picture that is fed through; s-video is far superior!

Ok I have bought an X box 360 for my monitor.. at last.
I have hooked it through component in 1080i.
What can I say?
Well the picture looks awesome the logo and the game play Call of Duty 3)! I love this monitor!
I was blown away by the graphics. My concern is how can it get any better than that. I haven't got a VGA cable nor do I have the firmware update which makes it 1080p.I need a router for broadband but that will be coming soon.
So how is it that when I read reviews of this monitor component looks nowhere near as good as VGA?
Has the new firmware update ruined the 1080i option or something. I can see a refresh rate but its barely noticeable form just two metres away? I only have a demo of PGR and Call of Duty 3 so far but Gears will be next.

Congrats on the 360. I'd use 720p over 1080i, the games are made for that anyways and most people here use 720p tv's. 1080i has always had the refresh problem, because your splitting the 1080 pixels by two, and sending them one at a time to your monitor. It's like making a pretty girl into two half as pretty girls, and letting you switch between them by blinking really fast. Wouldn't you just rather look at the pretty girl?

(Yes mr. Dell, I'll take any form of payment including cash, check, or laptops preloaded with vista)

Well I see your point there it does look just as good in 720p and very occasionally I do see some tearing in the picture in 1080i, although this I have noticed more on HD vids. Does this happen in VGA (not got the new update for 1080p yet but will do shortly) even when the sharpness is turned down to 30?

I am hooking up my 360 to my newly-purchased 2407 via components (for now), but can't seem to figure out where to hook up the audio cables.
Also, I thought if I just connected the Live Headset, that I still should hear audio through the controller.
Sorry for the ultra-noob question...

Unless you bought the attaching speakers for your monitor (~$30.00) you don't have any way to hook them up. There aren't any speakers on the monitor by default. I am using a surround sound system.

No, it doesn't happen in VGA as far as I know. Try restarting your monitor if you ever get tearing.

Damn. Well, I had the unit hooked up to my home system (Pio 5070HD, surround, etc.) but thought it would be cool to play it while tethered to my computer. I don't have the 2407 speakers since I use a Klipsch 2.1 via my computer. Sooo, you're basically saying that I wont be able to hear the games?

I wonder if there's a way to connect some headphones to the monitor or the 360 itself...

Update: I see there is no headphone jack on the 360. It looks like that Dell soundbar you mentioned is the way to go since it also has 2 headphone jacks in addition to the speaker itself.

Yea, I'm going to buy it pretty soon, it would be great for taking to LANs

The only thing that kinda sucks with the soundbar is that you have to use a two-inot-one converter for the 360's audio out as the Dell only has one 1/4" audio in jack...

Loving this monitor! Now I all I have to get is the HD-DVD drive does anyone know whether this will output 1080p in VGA. I wouldn't expect it to work on component (I hear).

Hi looking for a monitor for my xbox 360 have seen this dell for £274 gbp, was going 2 get vga cable. What sort of picture will i get through this and will the sound be any good. Want a screen i can run both my computer and xbox through. But the dell monitor above is the model above the one i'm looking 2 get and if there are problems with that what will this be like. Will be the same quality as a H.D tv.. I just dont know what 2 do £300 gbp is my limit.. THANKS

lol, I can't seem to get my settings correct on my 360, can you help?!? I've been trying with it for the past couple days and im looking like i am not understanding it if well. ;) can you help with what I'm trying to do, it's going to be connected one way or another lol, but I'm not sure if it's in the vga cable's settings or not?! i tried the dell support but the man just didn't understand what I was trying to do and he said that i need to call microsoft lol. no ways!

I guess these are the kinds of questions you get when you're the first search result for "dell xbox monitor."

I'm sure it will look fine, except you may have a bit of trouble with the speakers since there are none.

I know this is an old posting.

I remember hearing component didn't support 1080p from one of you guys. And it didn't make sense to me, especially because I've heard the opposite. Anyways I looked it up awhile back.

Component cabling can support 1080p and 1080p TVs should support 1080p via components. However, the issue is with the 1080p source material. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray both use AACS a DRM technology. From what I've read supposedly the AACS spec says somewhere components cabling can only do 1080i. So AACS is the limiting factor not the actual technology. Go figure.

The issue is also with TV hardware. While 1080p is capable of being transmitted across component, very few sets take advantage of it. I know there are a couple Sony sets that allow it. Since 1080p has become "the new thing" almost all HD sets have had HDMI inputs. I suppose companies didn't forsee something transmitting 1080p via component.

My Toshiba 30" CRT HDTV is 1080 native. I tried the 1080p setting on the dashboard and got a black screen. Was a little disappointed, since there was a chance (because it's 1080 native).

Interesting.

I wonder if this is a similar issue. The new AACS piracy protection requires HDMI. Plus component cables are analog. Manufactures, especially ones that have movie studio wings, purposely handicapping their products. Who could think such a thing?

1080p, HDMI, and HDCP are kind of like Larry, Moe, and Curly. They're always discussed together. Perhaps the circuitry to view 1080p via component isn't worth it to TV manufacturers because of the extremely small consumer base. Less than 20% HDTV saturation / people with access to 1080p content / people who care = really, really small...maybe just the two of us. :)

It's strange how all these TVs have HDMI yet don't support 1080p, like the new TV my mom just bought.

It's just because it's not a 1080 native set. It's much easier to build a set with 768 horizontal lines of pixels than with 1080. HDMI is also still probably the best way to transmit any HD signal, including 1080i and 720p.

What I'm saying is that HDMI is popular now, while 1080p is not. It still makes plenty of sense to use HDMI even if you can't do 1080p.

I see what you're saying. HDMI also transmits audio, correct?

Correct.

I'm just more cynical and prefer to blame it on "the man".

Posted twice here, but nothing showed up...
Dell Soundbar has no option for the 360 to go Audio in. Don't waste your money.

Well I got the updates for my 360 dashboard 1080p. I also bought an HD-DVD drive which looks awesome through VGA. The stretching really doesn't bother me. But the guy I bought this monitor off has said that he will sort something out when the REV.A04s come into stock. Great stuff!

Cool, What's your experience been like so far with the HD-DVD Drive? Screencaps of the interface in the 360 dashboard would be nice too. As far as the monitor goes, I'm not sure when the A04s come out. I wonder if he meant he would give you a trade or a better deal, or if he meant he'd somehow get you a firmware update. I'm not to worried about it, if they had a firmware update I might do it, but I would still leave my screen to stretched (except maybe for movies).

The HD-DVD is just out of this world! Bargain of the century. The only change in the dashboard is the fact that you have a separate button in dashboard to open/close/play HD-DVD drive. That's it. The picture quality is fantastic! I emailed the guy again the other day and I quote: 'I should be getting some A04's in about 7-10 day's. Please just contact me again end of next week to confirm delivery date'. Sounds good to me... I said I would pay any difference, delivery etc. If I had bought it from Dell I think I would have stuck with it judging by what people have said in other forums. Also if you want to see my set up, check out my youtube clip playing Harry Potter HD-DVD. It doesn't do it justice!

Thanks for the video, James. It's difficult to tell how good the HD-DVD looks through a Youtube video's resolution, but I bet it's pretty sweet.

I was excited when I received my A04, no dead pixels, no apparent flaws, banding etc. Going from a 17" CRT to this made the desktop JUMP at me! Then I plugged my 360 into it....

Disappointed is all I can say. I used the Vga cable, went to the dashboard, selected the 1920x1080 option, inserted PGR3 and sat back in quivering expectation of widescreen 1080p crystal clarity and then BAM! Ugly! Jaggies. Fuzzy image. NO CRYSTAL CLARITY.

I tried a few more games and was left feeling under whelmed. 1080p? I can't tell the difference from 1280x1024(CRT) to 1920x1200. 1:1, aspect, wide all look the same. The solution? Sit back from the screen about 1.5 metres.

Then I tried the component cable. Urgh. Fiddled with colour, contrast etc and found it marginally worse than Vga. Some games looked better than others. The solution here? Sit back about 2 metres.

After a lot more googling I have discovered that HDTV is not much chop either. Very disappointing indeed since that was my secondary reason for purchasing this 2407.

Finally, getting a straight answer regarding this monitor capabilities regarding input limitations is nigh on impossible. Conflicting opinions and heresay are everywhere. I just want a straight answer dammit! (DVI -1080p or 1080i with set top box? for example).

All in all, not as happy as I would liked to be with the 360. But as a PC monitor, it's great.

This is just my personal findings.

Your the first I've heard with a rev A04. I don't know the ins and outs of the A04, but I would try the 'sharpness to 30' trick for starters to see if that clears up the image. PGR3 is jaggy city from my last experience with it. But if your still getting a fuzzy image then something might be wrong with the monitor. I've got about as clear of an image as I have yet seen on a 360. hmm.

What type (brand) of vga cable do you have and where did you get it?

...............................
Oc's current feeds

Although I'd rather hook up a power tower to a kickass monitor like that rather than an Xbox 360.

I learned of the 30 sharpness trick from this site before I received the dell and was one of the first things I tried as soon as plugged the 360 in. It removed the lines but it still seems a little "fuzzy".

I've got the MS certified cable which I bought at EB so it's not the cable. Since my last post I upgraded my pc a little and have tried a pc game at 1920x1200 via DVI and it looks fantastic. I also have a DTV HD tuner card which does NOT look fantastic. (still fiddling with that). So I'm starting to think that anything that requires scaling is causing my "fuzzy" displeasure.

For anyone with an A03 or less, I personally wouldn't get to upset about the 1:1 and aspect modes. The Fill mode stretching is barley noticeable compared to 1:1 and aspect and does nothing to alieviate the "fuzziness" factor.

As for the component input, I don't know if this has been rectified on the A04 or not. (haven't found any direct comparisons). This monitor is the first time I've had the opportunity to try *any* component so I have nothing to compare it with. As I said earlier, a little fiddling can produce a pretty good image.

On 1080i component the 1:1 places black bars on the top and the sides and aspect places black bars on the top and bottom only. 720p 1:1 puts massive black bars on the top, bottom and sides shrinking the image alot. Roughly to the size of a 15" This negates having a 24"

At 1920x1080 on VGA, 1:1 and Aspect look exactly the same, i.e black bars top and bottom. Again fill mode is not that big of a deal.

Maybe this monitor is that good that it is showing the flaws of the 360 games or perhaps I'm being to picky. I suspect the latter ;)

However I can't help but wonder how it would look with a 360 DVI cable. Oh wait, yes I can. The 2407 WONT accept 1080i or p over DVI. Dosen't bode too well fora possible hdmi>dvi MS cable. (I know these cables don't exist, but never say never when it comes to MS).

Overall I am happy with the 2407, just not ecstatic.

I'm using 1920x1080 over VGA on my 2407 with revision B0, and I'm noticing that on the bottom left of the monitor, I'm seeing faint images of things displaying on the bottom right. This isn't a huge deal, but, of course, I want my image to be perfect. Has anyone had this issue? Any suggestions on how to deal with it or where it could be stemming from?

Oh, and for anyone curious, B0 does not do anything but stretch at this resolution, so no aspect for me. The picture (aside from aforementioned issue) looks beautiful though.

I'm curious where you saw that it won't accept 1080p over dvi? I've never heard about that. Not saying that it isn't true, just wondering if you've tested this out. It's too bad you're getting some fuzziness though.

I'd call them up and ask about that. I haven't heard of a problem like that yet. If enough people are calling them and returning the monitors, they'll pay attention and send you a version that was made in a different factory or a revision that works. I know it's hard to do though since you've probably got that 'new monitor' honeymoon feeling. Since I bought mine, I've heard of revisions A04 and B0, do any of you that have bought these have info on which one is newer and/or where they are manufactured. The location can usually give an indication of build quality.

The only way I've tried the 1080i/p over DVI was when I was fiddling with the Graphics card by turning the monitor into a HDTV through th nVidida control panel. (got the tuner card working BTW, the ugliness was the bundled software. Tried Showshifter and now it looks fine)

As for the DVI, it worked fine at 720p but as soon I selected 1080i, it gave me the "out of signal range" message that you get with component 1080p. The setting stuck leaving me with me a blank screen. I had to reboot in VGA to correct it.

I've read elsewhere that DVI maxes out at 720p, but since I've only been able to try the one method, I can't conclusively say that it won't do 1080i/p. I can only go by what I've personally discovered.

Since my last post, I've tried out several more PC games and I'm convinced that I was expecting the 360 to match PC quality.

I've had this monitor a couple of weeks now and I find my disappointment has abated somewhat. In fact I'm digging my Dell.

For typh with the B0, I think you'll find that the 30 sharpness will fix it.

Just thought I'd give an update on my monitor issues:

First of all, I had an A03, not B0. B0 was some other random number on the back and I didn't explore enough. Thus, the behavior with aspect ratio is to be expected. As for the ghost-image issue, adjusting the sharpness DOES fix it. I tried this before I posted, but hey, whaddayaknow, the monitor won't retain its sharpness setting. Argh.

I called up Dell and after frustratingly trying to explain the 1080p aspect issue to about 6 support reps/customer care, I was basically told I was out of luck.

Some excuses I was given:
It's the XBOX's fault (...wrong)
It's a cable issue (No, it's not)
It's not a supported resolution (Aside from the supposed pixel-mapping feature..?)
It'll be fixed with firmware updates (There have never been any, and I later found out it's a HARDWARE issue, not a software issue)
etc, rinse, repeat

I got fed up and contacted the BBB over the issue, claiming a feature of my monitor was missing and Dell refused to do anything about it, along with reps lying to me about the issue (it's actually more likely they were uninformed, because some really did try to help).

Eventually a rep from Dell's executive office contacted me and looked into it. He said it's fixed in A04 (but apparently not ALL A04s) and it is a hardware issue, not a software. I'm currently waiting on my replacement monitor now :)

Moral of the story: bitch, bitch, bitch. It's missing a feature that is advertised and you paid for? Don't relent until the problem is addressed.

I'll post again when I test my new one.

If anyone needs help/questions, contact me at jwpeddle+hc[[_AT_]gmail.com

Happy xboxing.

gg Typh. I had to get the BBB involved in a dispute with Best Buy one time. Same story after that: Got a call from their corporate office from a knowledgeable person empowered to make decisions and the situation was resolved very quickly.

Glad to hear you got something worked out finally. Sounds like you got ahold of an engineer who actually knew what they were talking about.

My latest favorite customer service experience was a few weeks ago when I called Microsoft and talked to a man with a thick Indian accent that went by the name of "Steve".

I've noticed that many non-European immigrants adopt a western name for convenience. When I used to frequent Shogun on University one of the sushi chefs there went by Tommy. After talking with him many times I learned that his real name was Sho-Pan. There is also a new officer here at my unit that is Asian. He goes by Allan, but his full name in the global email address listing is NOT Allan.

Haha, I've noticed that with the Dell online tech support. It's always something like
"Nancy Haskfklasdjfklsdhgklsd" or "Sarah Gfgfkdjkgjfdgdfg". I imagine it would get frustrating having people screw your name up all day.

Hey, did a filter change my email or did somebody edit it? The +hc will already let me filter that email if it ever does get crawled. Best gmail feature ever.

I think assimilation is awesome.

yea, Typh I did the change. We get crawled quite often so it's assured that the way you had it that you'd get spam in that box.. I can forsee someone also creating a bot to peel off the '+' filter from gmail addresses, at least that's what I'd do if I was a low down dirty spammer.

If you know your enemy and know yourself then you need not fear the result of 1000 battles. -Sun Tzu

Just received my A04, fired it up, and ta-da! Pixel mapping is working for 1920x1080. Woop woop!

The sharpness issue is still there, sadly, but at least there's a work-around.

Just in time for the 360 update that adds some VGA color control.

Cool. Glad it works for you. I'm afraid I'm too attached to mine to have it sent off at the moment.

And btw, if any Microsoft/Xbox employee reads this.. please, please give us some 16:10 resolutions on the 360. 1920x1200 would be heaven (but maybe too much to ask), but 1680x1050 should definitely be in there.

After hooking up my AO4 to my computer (DVI was giving me problems so I hooked it up via VGA) the picture quality was amazing. I was expecting the same for my XBOX, but sadly I didn't get it. I first tried the Microsoft brand VGA cord but it didn't look that great, so I tried component. I first tried putting it on 1080i (1080p was out of range) and I thought I was going to have a seizure (the picture was shaking like crazy). So I tried 720p and it was comparable to the VGA. Since I had my computer hooked up with VGA I just decided to keep it hooked up with component and I am really not satisfied. If anybody has a solution to getting a good picture with component, please tell me your settings.
Here are mine:
720p
sharpness: 50
Fll mode
Theater Mode
Red 50
Green 53
Blue 56
Jue 50
Saturation 50
Brightness 54
Contrast 50

If you have a setup that you think is good via component, please share...

I have the A04, and everything was working well with the VGA cable, 1080p with 1:1 mapping. Then one day I went to play and the image was stretched. No matter what setting I put for wide mode, it wouldn't change. Has anyone had this happen?

I just tried VGA mode w/ an A04 and the only way it would take up fullscreen was in fill mode. And in Guitar Hero 2, there was a black border all around the screen, even in fill mode. I guess I will stick to component even though VGA looked so much better...

What's the latest standings on this subject? I'm currently looking for a 2407 but what is the final conclusion? I'm looking for the best 1080p experience on a xbox360 with a 23"/24"+ monitor...

Conclusion: It's a great monitor to have for the 360. There's a couple quirks, but the quirks are less than some others at this resolution. (and price for that matter)

-Fast response time
-Large
-Great picture
-Great VGA picture

Dislikes
-For the older versions you have to put sharpness on 30 to eliminate some artifacts
-Image is stretched slightly on older versions to make a 1080p signal fit. (I've heard the newer versions allow for the black bars at the top and bottom.
- So-So component picture, not as good as VGA

Other than that, There's not much more I can say. I feel competitive (as much as I can be) on this monitor, so that's good for me. No lag was a top priority.

"Oculus is just this guy, you know"

Frank, there's no denying the 2407 is top of the line for 24" displays, but if you're on a budget there are now 24" 1920x1200 diplays for $300. Just FYI.

Hey guys. I have roughly the same set up. I attach my 360 to my Dell 2407 (rev 3) via the component input. The component input stopped working so i called up Dell and they sent me another monitor -- a refurbished one that was actually a month older than the one that broke. The second one broke too.

The guys at warranty support are claiming that the xbox is breaking the component input. (I've plugged it into my big HDTV and it works fine.) Is this possible?

I run my XBOX 360 through the VGA cable at 1920 x 1080 and it runs flawlessly. Not sure what rev my Dell 2407 is, however. It says November 2006 on the back, though.

Hello 2707 and Xbox360 user here.

How do you enable 1:1 pixelmapping? Is it done on the xbox software or on the monitors settings?

I haven't had any problems with setting my Dell at 720p. I only have one queston. What do you do for sound ? No matter how I run it, I still have no sound.