Questions

Stephen P

Bought an xbox 360 at the weekend. Delighted with it. Haven't touched it much yet though.

Have a couple of questions:

1. I was looking through the system settings & information and noticed that a lot of the HDD is full of pictures/video's etc.. that were pre-installed on it What do people generally do when the HDD is full?
2. Where do you buy Microsoft Points? Apart from with a credit card online.
3. I tried to hook the xbox up to my Samsung Snycmaster LCD screen through the scart and also the red, white & yellow plugs at the side of the screen (not at the same time) and the graphics are sh!t when its hooked up, can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!!

robinph

1. Delete stuff to make room for more new downloads, the system online records what you have downloaded with your gamertag though so you can redownload again for free if needed.

2. You can by point cards for cash in regular game shops.

3. Dunno, sorry.

Moojuice

Try chaging the output seetings on the xbox. It could be set to a **** resolution.

Ciaran500

Avoid using composite red/white and yellow one. You need to hook it up using the component connections, the red, green and blue ones. Than switch the cable to HDTV and set the Xbox to whatever res is right for your TV. (probably 720p)

Stephen P

Ciaran500 wrote:

Avoid using composite red/white and yellow one. You need to hook it up using the component connections, the red, green and blue ones. Than switch the cable to HDTV and set the Xbox to whatever res is right for your TV. (probably 720p)

It's not a HDTV LCD screen, does this matter?

Moojuice wrote:

Try chaging the output seetings on the xbox. It could be set to a **** resolution.

I'll have a look at that aswell and see if that's the problem.

Ciaran500

stephen p wrote:

It's not a HDTV LCD screen, does this matter?

Yep, does it have a component input?

Either way the standard SD connection you get with a 360 is sh*te, get a proper RGB cable and you will get a sharper picture.

GrumPy

Is it a tv, or monitor?

If it's an lcd monitor, you'll need to buy the 360 vga cable.

god's toy

Samsung Snycmaster's are monitors (some with TV cards)

As already said, you need VGA cable hooked up and your sorted.

Stephen P

Thanks lads. I'm not quite sure what exactly I should be looking for.
Could someone point out which cable it is from here
Is this cable available from Smyths?

Ciaran500

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360vgahdcable/

That one, Smyths should have it.

Stephen P

Ciaran500 wrote:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360vgahdcable/

That one, Smyths should have it.

Cool, thanking you.

I presume the sound goes in through the monitor connection?

Ciaran500

That depends on your setup. Do you have seperate speakers or are you using the inbuilt ones? What audio inputs do you have on the monitor/speakers?

Stephen P

Ciaran500 wrote:

That depends on your setup. Do you have seperate speakers or are you using the inbuilt ones? What audio inputs do you have on the monitor/speakers?

I have Creative 5.1 speakers hooked up to my PC's sound card. How could I get the sound from my xbox to come out of these speakers? The inbuilt speakers in the monitor aren't great.

Edit: There's a PC Audio In on the back of the monitor, I could probably hook up the 5.1 speakers into that.

Ciaran500

What inputs do you have on the speakers or are they just wired straight into a 3.5mm jack that hooks into the sound card?

If they are you will need a http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1218&criteria=phono&doy=7m11 and http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44070&criteria=3.5mm&doy=7m11

Stephen P

Ciaran500 wrote:

What inputs do you have on the speakers or are they just wired straight into a 3.5mm jack that hooks into the sound card?

If they are you will need a http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1218&criteria=phono&doy=7m11 and http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44070&criteria=3.5mm&doy=7m11

I have these speakers. There's no input on the subwoofer only outputs into the soundcard (3 cables into soundcard)

Ciaran500

You can use this http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1218&criteria=phono&doy=7m11 to get sound into them but you won't be able to get 5.1.

Stephen P

Cool. Thanks ciaran for your help!!

Stephen P

Ciaran500 wrote:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360vgahdcable/

That one, Smyths should have it.

Got the above above cable today and everything is hunky dory, even got sound out through my speakers (not 5.1 though).
Just another question...It'll be very annoying plugging out my PC connection from my monitor everytime I wanna play the xbox, is there such a thing as a double monitor adaptor where I could have both my PC connection and xbox connection going into the monitor at the same time?

Edit: Another question - could I hook up an optical cable from my xbox into the front of my Audigy 2 Platinum Soundcard?

Ciaran500

stephen p wrote:

Just another question...It'll be very annoying plugging out my PC connection from my monitor everytime I wanna play the xbox, is there such a thing as a double monitor adaptor where I could have both my PC connection and xbox connection going into the monitor at the same time?

Yep, they're called KVM's, they normally come with connections for two monitors and two keyboards/mice so you can switch two pc's between one monitor. But you just need the VGA bit. This is the one I got btw http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=13351&doy=9m11 Ugly as hell but cheaper than most KVM's.

stephen p wrote:

Edit: Another question - could I hook up an optical cable from my xbox into the front of my Audigy 2 Platinum Soundcard?

Is it an input? If so then yes.

Stephen P

Ciaran500 wrote:

Yep, they're called KVM's, they normally come with connections for two monitors and two keyboards/mice so you can switch two pc's between one monitor. But you just need the VGA bit. This is the one I got btw http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=13351&doy=9m11 Ugly as hell but cheaper than most KVM's.

Is it an input? If so then yes.

So I plug in the cables from xbox & PC into the KVM and do I have to buy another cable from the KVM into the monitor? How's the KVM powered? Is there a power cable coming from the box?