Saving up for a cheap HDTV...

Best bet, get a loan. I know they are expensive, but you deifnetly dont want go cheap on an lcd hd or esle within a month you will end up with a tv similar to what you have right now. Just save up is all I can say.

For hd i highly reccomend panasonic(which new egg is selling one good sized for $900 with 720p support), samsung, hitatchi, or maybe sharp.

Also make sure you get a protection plan since some of these have display problems that require maitence that is more expensive to have repaired wihtout a protection plan.

 

There is no way I can spend that much on just a TV though. I just need a good gaming TV for a room, nothing big and huge. =( Looks like It's lose-lose. Damn the current gaming gen and it's HD crap.

 

You're in the same boat I am. I'd like to have a nice LCD HDTV too, but they are so expensive and varying in quality. Plus you have all kinds of crap to look at. You have TVs that don't support 720p, more than don't do 1080p, many that don't have HDMI, and you have the widescreen aspect to worry about. I'd hate to have a widescreen LCD and go back to play a 4:3 aspect classic game and end up with some horrifyingly butchered picture.

 

Yeah, I've actually really considered just getting an Xbox 360 and a VGA cable since I have a nice 19" 1440x900 Widescreen DVI moniter. I mean, that'd allow me to get all I can out of a 360's picture, right? Cus if I get a Wii like I wanted, then what am I gunna display on it, vs a 360 and some of the games I've been really wanting to play like PD and Dead Rising and stuff.

 

I already have the 360 and a VGA cable, and I could buy a LCD TV rather than a Wii, but I'm still going for the Wii, cause honestly you can live with another decent CRT TV for another year or two.

 

You should be able to since its a higher resoloution then 720p but lower then 1080i, still if you badly want play your xbox games in quality is might be the most affordable soloution.

 

I think I have decided that for now I'm going to grab a 360 and a VGA cable. And I could run stuff in 720p and get the visuals out of 360, so yeah. That added up to like 400 or so when I checked. (systen cable HD and game, not retail though)

Wii comes out tonight and I dont have enough money or a TV for it so....=( If I had a TV that at least worked I would be fine and grab a Wii but this thing is serious shit. I cant even watch TV on it. Games and TV have lines all over the place, so yeah.

 

hehe u r in luck.

I have the same issue.i just own a PC monitor. I got a progressive scan component box (which turns RGB component from RCA hooks, into RGBHV on D-sub 15pin ). So, i will enjoy my wii on my monitor 480p Zelda, here i Come!!

PS: I got my component converter from eBay. it has some engrish on it, but it should be fine. costs 50 USD.

 

PhreQuencYViii, if you are talking that you want to buy the Xbox 360 system and Gears of War, plus a VGA cable... You're going to want the harddisk, which means you might as well go premium pack. So thats 460$ plus tax for the system and game. Now the VGA cable in stores is a rip off. You can get it on ebay for like 20$. You'll have to calculate your sales tax yourself. But if you are getting a Xbox 360 and a game, expect to dish out 500$ in the end. I spent probably more like 600 something. I bought 2 games and the system, plus a replacement plan.

If you display to replace your TV, I recommend doing what I have decided to do. I'm going to get one of those PC LCD monitors that has Composite and S-Video inputs. That way I can hook up my 360 via VGA for high resolution, as well as my gaming systems via composite or svideo. Then for watching off the air TV I'll just get a cheap VCR and use that to tune in stations. I can probably get a 19" LCD (1280x1024 8ms) for about 250$. Beats paying around 450$ for a 20" EDTV LCDTV with 640x480 resolution.

It's actually rather shocking. Just to get a "TV" LCD I'd be paying about 200$ more. I kind of doubt that the tuner (not digital) was fucking 200$. Esspecially when I can pickup a VCR for probably 5 or 10 bucks (since it doesn't even have to function to lpay VHS tapes) to tune in TV.

Anyways, I'm waiting on finding out from the manufacturer if the LCD can handle strange refresh rates within the specified support range. They say 50hz to 75hz vertical refresh rate. Mortal Kombat is said to be either 53hz or 56hz, which means it's in that range. I'm just making sure it's not some crap where is supports 50hz, 60hz, and 75hz or something. Support for my so far unloved Mortal Kombat JAMMA boards is very important to me.

 

Well, I already have a 19" widescreen DVI moniter that said it can do HD (ont he box anyhow), but it doesn't have inputs. It was 179$ when I bought it. It ought to be nice with a 360 on VGA. Aren't the cheapo engrish ebay VGA cables crap compared to the officials? The cheapest I've found the officials for is 30$.

I added up, and for a 360 Core, Perfect Dark Zero, a VGA cable and a hard drive from ebay or somewhere (No way in hell I'm paying 100$ for one) it added up to 400$ or so. And I already have another wired controller I use on my PC, so I thought it sounded good. Most the games I wanted are under 30$ aside from GOW, but I'll prolly wait a bit for that. Later on maybe I'll get a good TV and a Wii, because eventually I will need a new TV, I do have a ton of other systems sitting under the broken one right now...

So yeah, before I rush into this, my 1440x900 widescreen moniter would be able to run the 360 games in HD at 720p, right?

 

You do know that you can connect anything with an HDMI connector to your monitor, right? All you need is a cable with HDMI on one end and DVI on the other.

A word of advice: do not get Perfect Dark Zero! It is a complete piece of shit. It looks okay, but it's boring as hell.

1440x900 is fine for 720p. Some monitors with that resolution will even do 1080i (with some slight downscaling).

 

I thought the 360 and Wii don't have HDMI?

I already ordered PD0....I heard a lot of people say it sucked, I guess I'll find out for myself, I'm hoping I like it...it was only 15 bucks so at least I didn't pay 50 or 60 for it.

I think I can get some VGA cables for 20-25$ from a guy, and there official ones, so yeah, so far if I can get the cables, all I need now is an Hard Drive and a core system. (HD seems like it'll cost 60 used, I already have a wired controller so I can have 2 controllers) I might just go ahead and grab a core from a store for the 299 they cost just to be sure I get the newest revision, since i'm guessing they won't have as many probs and such. I don't think I'll go for premium since it's 100$ more and I don't need some of the crap it comes with. The HD is nice, but like I said I can get an HD for a little less used so yeah, then I won't have to wait a lot longer for money to come in to get a system.

Is the only cosmetic difference between core and premium that silver DVD tray?

 

yeap. But paying 400 is a bit too steep for me. I peeled the Core's barcode sticker and crazyglued it on the Premium package. Old-lady cashiers didnt know what hit them

 

Lol! Damn! If I could find a 360 that wasn't inside a glass case I'd do that. >=)

 

i went to a super market. Dr_Slump (the user here) and I prettended to chat while i was grabbing the ass of the 360 and doing the peel-job , 2 meters from the security guard xD ( I also chatted with the guard while doing that )

 

I will never go there again because of that. I'm wanted. xD

 

That is awesome!

I have a question on these VGA cables...

Should I justs hell out the 30$ for the official MS VGA cables or grab some third party ones? Is there a difference?

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-de-49-en-70-16s8.html
(Someone said something about a gender adaptor int his one)
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-de-49-en-70-178e.html


This looked cool...
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-de-49-en-70-1cpq.html

 

You're my hero. That is just awesome.

Forthe VGA cable, check EBAY. You can get them cheaper, and they are official M$.

 

? All I see on ebay are the cheap bootleg cables that say Made by Mircosot and stuff like that...Whats an example of what to look for, what price?

Are the third party like joytech and mad catz and such crap compared to the MS ones?

 

I don't think mine is an "official" MS cable, but it does work fine on my VGA monitor. I only paid 7 pounds including shipping. I m not complaining so far =)