How-To: Turn a standard Xbox 360 video cable into a VGA cable for make benefit your wallet

Every so often, that console-modding Benjamin Heckendorn wanders away from his lair at benheck.com to share some interesting projects with Engadget.

Recent Xbox 360 updates have allowed the system to spit out resolutions up to 1080p, and with the new HD DVD add-on drive there's more reason than ever to use a high quality VGA signal instead of the more standard 3-cable component. However there's a bit of a catch -- VGA cables for the 360 cost about $40. According to my calculations, that's about 2 pizzas and a case of beer less to game with. WE don't know about you, but we find that a pretty scary proposition -- yours buddies that swing over for game night probably do too.

In this How-To we'll describe how you can turn your existing Xbox 360 video cable into a "multi-out" device capable of VGA. You don't even need to hack inside the Xbox itself, just the cable. Total cost is around $7, including the Radio Shack project box shown above. Ready to save some cash? Let's get in there!

The following mod allows you to use a standard Xbox 360 cable to create a special VGA cable that would normally be purchased separately. The reason we can hack the standard cable in this way is because Microsoft was kind enough to put every pin in the normal connector, even ones the cable doesn't use. Standard plugs on other systems (notably the PS2 and Gamecube) only have the pins the plug needs.

Thank you Microsoft.

Main Tools You'll Need:

• Small pair of tweezers (very useful).
• Metal cutting pliers, tin snips, something along those lines.
• Soldering iron. A lighter powered, 15 watt range one is best.
  
• Solder... WITH lead works best. We know that sounds awful but it'll help you "convert" the lead-free solder inside the Xbox connector and make it much easier to work with.
  
• Multimeter, with circuit testing option. The kind where if you touch the two probes it beeps to indicate a connection.
• Hot glue. Oh yeah, that's right! Don't leave home without it.
• Small, thin flat-bladed screwdrivers, a larger flat-bladed screwdriver.
  
• X-Acto Knife
• Desoldering iron (optional, see instructions).
• Dremel (optional, see instructions).

Where is the "Parts I need" section, you ask? We'll cover them specifically later on, depending on which type of VGA cable you'd like to build. (Breakout box, as shown, or straight VGA cable depending.)

Alright let's get going on this sucker.

Step 1 - Take Apart Your Xbox 360 Video Cable

The Xbox 360's video cable assembly doesn't use screws but luckily it's still pretty easy to take apart. Here's how:

• Insert a small, thin screwdriver at the seam shown in the above photo.
• Press in and towards the label (also as shown) to get around the inner lip.
• Once you breach the lip you should hear a crack. You're in!
• Make a few more breaches like this next to each other, then insert a larger screwdriver as shown below. Twist it and the casing should pop open nicely.

Next, insert the big screwdriver at the seam near the main cable, and twist the case open at this place as well. You can now pull off the bottom portion of the plastic, and then pull the guts out of the top portion. The "TV / HDTV" switch will fall out at this point, save it if you ever plan to revert the cable to its original form (which is becoming less and less likely as this progresses).

Use your small screwdriver to pry up the metal near the TV/HDTV switch, as shown below.

Now pry the metal up and right off the optical audio jack, and bend it down on the right side, as shown below. You can now pull the main piece of shielding metal up away from the rest of the jack. Snip the shielding free of the main cable using your metal cutters.

Now you should come across a piece of material that looks amazingly like electrical tape. (Don't worry, we're sure it's certified next-generation electrical tape.) Remove it and the jack should now look like the below photo. On the left you can see the little circuit board containing the optical audio port and TV/HDTV switch, on the right is the connector itself with all the wires going to it.

Next we need to remove the circuit board from the metal. It is held down by 3 tabs. You can desolder the tabs with a desoldering iron, or wedge your small screwdriver under the board and pry up as you heat the tabs with the regular iron. Since everything on the Xbox 360 uses that lead-free solder, it might help to mix some fresh (ahem leaden) solder onto joints to help them melt. Once you get to the side with 2 tabs (near the TV / HDTV switch) you'll need to snip the metal shielding free of the cables before you pry up the PCB.

• Once the circuit board has been desoldered from the tabs you can unplug the little connector on it and pull it from the main assembly.
• Finally, take your thin screwdriver and stick it between the black plastic and the thin top shielding as shown below. (Sorry the photo's a bit blurry, bigfoot musta been nearby.) Pry the metal up a little and you'll be able to pull the black plug out from the shielding. Be sure to save this piece of shielding for later.
  

The plug pieces should now look like the following.

Finally, cut the end portion off the metal shielding and lay down some electric tape inside it as shown below:

Step 2 - Make the wiring connections

Before we start making the wiring connections you'll need to carefully remove the glue stuff covering the pins, as shown below. Use your tweezers and be sure not to pull the blank pins up with the gunk. If they do bend up, simply push them back down. The glue is pretty easy to remove.

With the glue removed you can remove all the wires from the plug. Simply heat up the solder on each wire until it easily pulls free.

At this time you should put a small bit of fresh, new solder on each of the pins. This will make attaching new wires much easier.

Shown below is the end view of the now wireless plug and a drawing of which pins we'll be using for this VGA mod. Keep in mind this pinout refers to the WIRE end of the plug, looking at it from behind as it would go into the console. The numbering might look a bit weird but it refers to how the connections are labeled on the 360's motherboard.

Note how every pin is either long or short, and almost every other pin goes to ground (GND)

Before we go any further, here's the wire-end view pinout of a VGA port. Pins that we don't need for this project are simply called N/C (no connection). Most VGA-type ports also have the pin numbers etched into the plastic for your added reference.

Download a large PDF version of these pinouts, suitable for framing.

Since we're going to start re-attaching the wires to the connector, you should now decide what sort of VGA cable you'd like to build...

• Breakout box type adapter. As shown at the beginning of this article. Requires buying a few parts (the aforementioned seven bucks worth) but is more useful in the long run.
• Single cable coming off the Xbox. For this you can use an old VGA cable. Slice off the computer end of the plug so you can connect the wires directly to the Xbox 360 video connector. You'll also need some left and right audio cables, plus a yellow cable if you'd still like the option of using composite video.
  

Figure out which is best for you (I recommend the breakout box 'cause it's cooler, but that's just me) and use the directions below:

Method 1: Soldering wires to the connector port for a straight VGA cable (sort of like the one that costs $40 at Best Buy)

Parts you'll need:

• 2 position selector switch (if you want the cable to switch modes). You can use the Radio Shack Catalog #275-409, or just desolder the switch from inside the Xbox component cable.
  
• Left and right RCA phono plug audio cables, such as those from a stereo system. You'll need these since the VGA plug doesn't carry audio. If you plan to just use the optical audio, we'll describe how to wire it in the breakout box section.
  
• Yellow composite (crap) video RCA phono plug cable. You'll only need this if you want the cable to switch modes. A great source for both this and the audio cables are old PS1, N64 or GameCube cables.

What to do:

1. Cut off the computer end of the VGA cable if you haven't already. Strip the main coating off to reveal the wires inside. The main connections you'll need are red, green, blue, horizontal sync and vertical sync. They may or may not be color coded. H and V sync may be a shade of white. Put a little solder on each wire to keep the strands together. This will also help when attaching it to the Xbox connector.
   
2. Using the multimeter, test which wires in the cable go to the correct pins on the end of the VGA cable and connect them to the Xbox connector accordingly. (Use the above VGA pinout for reference.) Please note, they'll be several wires inside the VGA cable that you won't need to connect to the Xbox, such as the data lines used for monitor ID detection. (Labeled N/C in the pinout drawing.)
   
3. All the shielding around the wires you find inside the cable is ground. Also note that a lot of the pins on the VGA connector are ground.
   
4. Solder the wires from the VGA cable to the Xbox 360 connector using the pinouts provided to match up the signals. You can connect all the VGA ground shielding to a single ground spot on the Xbox connector to make it easier on yourself.
5. Strip the ends of the audio cables to reveal the inner wires and copper shielding. Attach the inner wires to the left and right audio spots on the Xbox connector (pins 16 and 15) and the outer shielding to any ground.
6. If you're attaching a composite video option, strip and attach the composite (yellow) video cable in the same way to pin 7 of the Xbox connector.
   
7. The selector switch (either the Radio Shack model or the one from the connector itself) has 3 leads on it. Connect the center lead to ground and the side leads to pins 20 and 24 on the Xbox connector. The switch can now "ground out" one of those two connections to set the video mode. Pulling pin 20 to ground sets the Xbox to VGA mode, putting 24 to ground sets it to composite.
8. If you don't want the cable to select a video mode and just be VGA, connect pin 20 to any ground. This can be done by simply blobbing solder from it to pin 18 or 22 (they're both ground)
   
9. Note: You HAVE to select a mode regardless, if you don't the Xbox won't boot and you'll get 4 red lights as a "Video Cable Missing" warning. (Strange that 3 lights is worse than 4, but whatever.)

You can now insert the black plastic Xbox connector back into the metal shielding we removed earlier and plug everything in to see if it works. (See "Setting the Xbox to VGA", below.) If you have a problem, check out the Troubleshooting section at the end of the article.

Method 2: Making a VGA/Composite Breakbox Box

Parts you'll need:

• Breakout Box. I used Radio Shack Catalog # 270-1802 cause it was the smallest and cheapest.
• D-sub 15 female connector (VGA port). Radio Shack Catalog #: 276-1502, Digi-Key: T815FE-ND Mouser: 523-G17S1510110EU If you have an old PC video card you can desolder one off that if you wish. But a new one is pretty cheap and easy to use.
• 2 position selector switch, if you want the box to switch modes. You can use the Radio Shack Catalog #275-409 or just desolder the switch from inside the Xbox component cable.
• 3 RCA phono jacks, for the audio and composite video. This is the type found on the back of DVD players. Radio Shack Catalog #274-346, Digi-Key: CP-1413-ND (red) CP-1414-ND (white) CP-1415-ND (yellow) Mouser: 161-4319-E. As with the VGA port you may have some old electronics you can pull these off.
• Shielded wires from inside the Xbox video cable.
• Some standard thin wire. Old floppy/IDE drive cable works great and is, best of all, free. Free is great -- it saves you money for things that aren't. Like beef jerky.
• Standoff screws from a PC. These are the type with a "screw within a screw" that are often used under the motherboard.
• Some drill bits. Sizes of 1/8th, 3/8th, and 1/4th-inch will be helpful.

Supplier websites:

www.radioshack.com
www.mouser.com
www.digikey.com

Start by slicing open your Xbox video cable. Remove the main metal shielding to find the individual shielded wires inside:

The shielded wires from the Xbox 360 cable, or as I call them "Buck Rogers Spaghetti."

These will work great for the inside wiring of the breakout box. Cut each wire to about 6-inches long for now, we can trim them shorter later as needed. You'll need 8 of them.

Start by sliding off some of the shielding and stripping the end of the inner wire. Dab a bit of solder onto it to lock all the strands together - this is called "tinning" and will make soldering it to the connector much easier. You can also put a little solder at the end of the shielding to keep it from fraying apart.

Solder a shielded wire to each of the following pins on the Xbox connector, or a regular thin wire as noted. Attaching them in the order specified works best, or reverse if you're left handed.

Top of connector:

1. Red (pin 3)
   
2. Composite video (pin 7)
   
3. Horizontal Sync (pin 11)
   
4. Right audio (pin 15) -- shielding not essential
5. Optical audio data (pin 25) -- use a regular thin wire for this.
6. Optical audio ground (pin 27) -- regular wire
7. Optical audio +5v (pin 29) -- regular wire

Bottom of connector:

1. Green (pin 4)
2. Blue (pin 8)
3. Vertical sync (pin 12)
4. Left audio (pin 16) -- shielding not essential
5. Set VGA (pin 20) -- regular wire
6. Set Composite (pin 24) -- regular wire

When everything is wired the connector should look as shown below:

Now you can slide the black Xbox connector inside the metal shielding. Be sure there's a layer of electric tape inside in case any connections hit the metal shell.


Step 3 - Install ports in your Breakout Box

With the wires soldered to the connector we can get the breakout box itself ready.

• Set the connector against the lid of the box and trace the outline of it with your knife. About 1/4 of the way from the side is best, as shown below.
• Cut out the hole using either a Dremel or by making several deep cuts with an X-Acto knife and then "popping" the shape out by pressing on it with a screwdriver.

The lid of the project box with the trapezoid connector hole.

• Stick the connector through the hole and see how it fits. Adjust the hole as needed. Test this rig by plugging into the Xbox 360 and adjusting the tilt of the lid to the curve of the Xbox, as shown.
• Once it fits fully into the Xbox 360, put some hot glue (yes!) on the inside of the lid to temporarily secure the connector in place. (Don't worry about the hot glue, your 360 is fully accustomed to heat.) Once it's cool and secure, remove the whole shebang from the XBox.
  

• On the bottom of the main portion of the box carve and cut a hole for the VGA port. Once the hole's big enough stick in the port and drill 1/8th" holes in the plastic to match its mounts. Then you can screw in some standard PC motherboard-style screws to hold down the VGA port, just like on a computer. For added security screw on somes nuts on the inside (or just dump in a bunch of hot glue if there's no room for that).
  
• Drill (3) 3/8th-inch holes for the audio and video RCA ports. Space them evenly.
  
• Be sure to keep these ports on the side of the box away from the Xbox 360 connector. That way you know they'll be enough room inside.
  

• Desolder the optical audio port from the small circuit board from the connector. It may help to "freshen up" the solder first before you try to remove it.
• Make a square hole for the port on the opposite side of the box from the VGA port. This can be done by drilling a 1/4th-inch hole and then carving corners from it.
• Insert the optical port as shown below. The pinouts of the 3 center pins are also provided for when you attach it to the main connector. The two side tabs of the optical port don't need to be connected.
• Secure the optical port using... get this... hot glue! Hey, it works.

The business end of the optical audio port. We actually think it's called a TOSlink but optical audio port sounds more... um, universal. TOSlink sounds like some dude from Lord of the Rings.

• Drill a hole between the optical port and the audio ports that will fit the shaft of the selector switch. A 3/8th-inch hole will work for the Radio Shack switches mentioned above, or a slightly smaller one if you're using the switch from inside the connector itself.
• Install the switch using yet more hot glue. Of course be careful not to cover the 3 pins of the switch. Even though it'll be near the Xbox connector this switch isn't big enough to cause a space problem.

The inside of the breakout box should now look like this, give or take 5 pounds of hot glue. As you can see I've wired the grounds of all the ports together.

We can now wire the Xbox connector to the various ports on the breakout box using the pinout charts located several stories above. Some notes:

• Place the pieces of the box together as shown and begin by wiring up the optical port. Cut the wires as short as you can so it's easy to stuff everything in the box.
• Connect ground to the center pin of the three pin selector switch, pin 20 of the Xbox connector to one side, and then pin 24 to the other. This allows the switch to select between VGA and composite modes.

• Connect audio (pins 15 and 16) and composite video (pin 7) to the middle pins of the RCA ports next. The outer rings of the RCA ports should all connect to ground.
• After wiring the RCA ports cover the connections with electric tape. This keeps them from shorting out on all the shielding around the main VGA wires.

• Speaking of that, connect the 5 VGA wires next. Red, green, blue, H-Sync and V-Sync. Check the above VGA port pinout for reference.
• You can now close up the box. Smush the halves together, arranging the wires as you go to make sure everything will fit.
• Screw the case shut -- you're done!

Step 4 - Setting the XBox to VGA

• Ok, plug in the breakout box, or cable, or whatever you ended up making, to your monitor / VGA-enabled TV and Xbox.
• Make sure the selector switch is to "VGA" (pin 20 grounded)
• Switch all your stuff on. You should see the Xbox boot up (it might take a hair longer than usual). If not, skip ahead to Troubleshooting.
• Once you're in, go to Dashboard, then goto the System blade and hit "Console Settings", and "Display"
  
• You can now select a resolution and aspect ratio to fit your screen. The 360 works best with widescreen displays although you can still make it work with square monitors as well. Strangely enough it'll letterbox the game whilst the dashboard and message panels will take up the whole screen. Weird, huh?
• Boot up Gears of War or some other awesome looking game and drool 50% more than usual.

Just think -- now you might be able to read the text in Dead Rising.


Addendum - Troubleshooting

Oh noes! You followed all the instructions but something isn't quite right - is it any of the following by chance?

• 4 red lights (but not of death). Since we've all heard of the dreaded "3 lights of death" a whopping FOUR lights could cause instant heart failure. But don't worry, it's actually just a "Video Cable Missing" warning. Check that the Pin 20 and 24 connections are correct. If neither of them are switched to ground the Xbox doesn't know what video mode to use and assumes there's no cable at all.
  

• Inversed, Andy Warhol-esque colors. Suddendly the Dead or Alive girls all have blue skin... Anime? A strange STD? Nope, you just got your some of your RGB wires mixed up. Now we bet you're glad you didn't slather all the connections in hot glue yet - right?
  

• Ghosting. If you see some ghosting of images on the screen you probably have insufficient shielding. Make sure all the shielding is connected to a ground someplace. If you use a decent VGA cable this really shouldn't be a problem, unless you live in the Bermuda Triangle or something.
  

• Optical audio problems. Be sure you have the ground, +5v and data pins wired to the connector correctly. Is the Xbox set to output this type of signal?
  

Alright well sorry if this how-to seemed a bit long, we just wanted to make sure you knew exactly what to do. Enjoy your sparkling new, crisp, hi-def, life-like (insert your own superlative here) video!

[Matt @ Nov 14th 2006 1:49PM]

Two questions:
1) Does it appear that an 360 HDMI cable is forthcoming?

2) Is there a VGA DVI/HDMI that I could use with this?

I have a 1080p TV and I am not buying the HD-DVD drive until I know that I will be seeing 1080p.

[Eli @ Mar 14th 2007 6:00PM]

Hey just so everyone knows at eb games a used vga cable for the 360 is ten dollars

[thegreatbg @ Feb 26th 2008 4:45PM]

dude you are incredibly smart but very cheap. only you can to this shit. its probably better to just go and spend $40 rather to mess up.

[silnor3ki @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:38PM]

I have made it. It took me 2 days to finish it but it works :) It works very good. I conected my 19" monitor to Xbox and I set 1280x1024 resolution. The picture is 100% better than on the TV. I have to say, the box looks ugly but who care :) Thanks to the inventor. I wish you all good luck with making your own ugly box ;)

[Bill @ Nov 14th 2006 1:49PM]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what the resolution has to be set at for 1080p??

[Matt @ Nov 14th 2006 1:49PM]

Stupid comments didn't format properly...

1) Does it appear that an 360 TO HDMI cable is forthcoming?

2) Is there a VGA TO DVI/HDMI that I could use with this?

[jptech @ Nov 17th 2006 3:21PM]

umm 1080p is 1920x1080

[Joe @ Dec 17th 2006 4:17PM]

1080p is 1920 X 1080...

[Matthew @ Nov 14th 2006 10:06PM]

If you're desperate for hdmi from your 360 you could try this.

http://www.hdtvsupply.com/cotohdco.html

[Bryan @ Nov 14th 2006 1:53PM]

Wow, that's a whole lot of work to save $40.

[Midas @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:25AM]

LMFAO.... same thing i was thinking...

[Ben Heckendorn Actual @ Nov 14th 2006 1:55PM]

When you set the video cable to VGA, new options appear in the Display Settings menu that you don't normally see in other modes. I believe it goes up to 1920x1080, though I haven't seen what the new firmware says differently for 1080p. 1080 vertical lines in VGA is progressive anyway. Even 720p (or 1280x720/768 in VGA mode) is a marked improvement. I think the XBox 360 renders all graphics at 720p internally and scales up regardless.

Hope this hack is useful to people!

[ANTHONY @ Apr 13th 2007 9:58PM]

HOW DO I TURN A VGA CABLE INTO A PLAYSTATION CABLE I'M TRYING TO PUT A 14" FLAT PC SCREEN AND ALXO PLAY MY PLAYSTATION TOO

[gps @ Nov 14th 2006 1:56PM]

What is this reference to "high quality VGA" as opposed to component? VGA really has no advantages on normal tvs which have VGA input when compared to component. Are you referring to playing on computer monitors?

I just don't get the reference.

[csjk789 @ Nov 14th 2006 2:37PM]

VGA Connections have less noise and have more pixel capacity than both Component and DVI (but not HDMI). Also, playing on computer monitors is beneficial, especially if you have a new, higher end LCD that sports VGA. 1080I/P actually stands for a the resolution 1920 x 1080, which is the number of actual pixels you are viewing. Some simple math will tell you that that's about 20.7 million pixels. When viewing this on a smaller screen such as a computer monitor (perhaps 22" wide screen), the detail will be astoundingly deep.

[Sam @ Nov 14th 2006 1:57PM]

I think I'd rather pay the $40 (actually $33 more than the $7 required to do this). Luckily my 42" Westy actually supports 1080p over component.

[Adam Seyer @ Nov 14th 2006 2:24PM]

"Luckily my 42" Westy actually supports 1080p over component."

But does the XBox 360? I thought it only did 1080p over VGA.

[JP @ Nov 14th 2006 10:07PM]

More importantly, Component does not have the necessary bandwidth to give a HiDef picture, at least not with out significant noise (as in rendering image un-vewable)

[caleb @ Nov 20th 2006 7:49PM]

Your 42 inch westy does NOT do 180p over component, only HDMI, DVI and VGA...

http://www.westinghousedigital.com/details.aspx?itemnum=44#VALUE

[NeCrom-X @ Mar 11th 2008 12:37PM]

It is 1080 just it's 1080i thats the most I can do on the PS3 with component video cables 1080p requires HDMI.

[Badle @ Nov 14th 2006 1:57PM]

This is why I love Engadget! Keep up the good work guys!

[Phoenixfury @ Nov 14th 2006 2:01PM]

For half the price of the official first party vga cable you can get the Pelican brand Livewire 360 vga cable. The trade off is you don't get the optical audio output, but for some people that's not exactly a deal breaker anyway. I initially got mine through Gamecrazy, but it can be found at Amazon.com for a mere $20. I think that's a way better deal for anyone that's not going to use the optical output anyway, and to me it beats hacking your composite cable to do the same thing.

[cking @ Nov 14th 2006 2:21PM]

I don't know if this is the same thing, but it works for me...

I went and ordered one of these cables to go from the VGA port on my projector to the 360 component cable ends :
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10235&cs_id=1023503&p_id=2170&seq=1&format=2&style=

And one of these, to mate the two cables together:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10401&cs_id=1040107&p_id=3002&seq=1&format=2&style=

I don't have 1080p capability, but this setup works great with the 360 and the HD DVD drive, plus I still can use my original Xbox cable in it's stock form or as a VGA-ended cable.

[Rick wilson @ Nov 14th 2006 7:28PM]

To cking:
Wow, I would have never thought that cable combination would work... What kind of resolution do you get from that component to VGA connection you have? Do you choose resolution on xbox or what? What resolution does your projector display the component inputs at?

[Evan @ Nov 14th 2006 2:24PM]

Great, now can you explain how to hack a Wii cable to get component video? Those Wii component cables are overpriced!

[vaa81 @ Nov 14th 2006 2:37PM]

Yes the 360 with the new update does support 1080p over component

[csjk789 @ Nov 14th 2006 2:24PM]

I still don't understand this! Everyone is so concerned about 1080p. On T.V.s less than 108", there is no clear visible difference between 1080 interlaced, and 1080 progressive. Our brain cannot process the difference on screens smaller than 108". When we get into screen bigger than 108", we are talking projectors. You will NEVER notice the difference between 1080i and 1080p on a projector. Ever. What's the big deal with 1080p? It just requires so much more bandwidth and processing power.

You should buy the HD-DVD drive not for 1080p, but for the fact that there are higher capacity DVDs involved.

[ebob9 @ Nov 14th 2006 3:05PM]

I understand your argument, and in a world of perfect video sources, that would be true.

However, with HD Cable, I can tell a huge difference between 480i and 480p. Same with forcing 720i and 720p. I'm assuming the same would hold true for 1080i and 1080p, if content was output at that resolution by my receiver.

With a HD-DVD, I can't really tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p. Same comparing 480i/p, and 720i/p.

I believe that it has to do with the crappy Cable compression that causes artifacts and tearing when interlaced. I'm not sure, but likely it gets de-interlaced then re-interlaced after compression.

[andy @ Nov 14th 2006 2:37PM]

Is the optical data format the same as as the format for coax digital?

I'd really like to have the audio come out over coax instead of over an optical cable. It's much cheaper, and you don't have to worry about messing up an RCA/coax cable.

[tsaavik @ Nov 15th 2006 12:54AM]

yes, they are the same, just hook the optical data to the center pin and ground to the otter and you can have the superior coaxial digital audio output.

Course i've only done this on my orginal xbox and tivo.

[Travis Bell @ Nov 14th 2006 2:37PM]

While I appreciate the effort... all that to save a measly $40.00? I don't know...

[Porsche 911 @ Nov 14th 2006 6:06PM]

1080p over component is for games ONLY, not movies. movies will be displayed at 480p ONLY due to the new update, not 720p and not 1080i/p

[SUNNY SINGH @ Nov 15th 2006 12:21AM]

since when does VGA allow better resolutions that DVI?
and u said hdmi is better than DVI, its basically the same thing, except for audio

[WicKdWire @ Dec 12th 2006 12:44AM]

Actually... doing SIMPLE math... tells you this...

720p = 1280x720 = 921,600 pixels

1080i = 1920x1080 = 2,073,600 pixels

Should have used a calculator... Start/Run/calc.exe

[Popstand @ Nov 14th 2006 2:37PM]

"Luckily my 42" Westy actually supports 1080p over component."

I would take this with a grain of salt. Both the 42" Westy's that I returned barely supported 1080p over even the digital inputs, actually only over DVI 1, an issue that is been thoroughly discussed on avsforums. I wouldn't be surprised if the claim of 1080p over component is false as well, not that there are many sources of 1080p over component out there anyway.

[delsvr @ Nov 14th 2006 2:56PM]

You're kidding...right? That's a ridiculous amount of work to save $40, and it'll uglify your xbox 360 as well. Head over to eBay and buy an unofficial cable for cheap.

[DrHockey @ Nov 14th 2006 2:59PM]

Unless you get your pizza from Domino's and your beer of choice is the Beast (*shudder*), $40's is not going to cut it.

[DaCheetah @ Nov 18th 2006 11:50PM]

It so would...
According to xe.com, US$40 is little over AUD$52. Unless you are getting the most expensive pizza and beer you can find, you could manage it easily. You can get a Dominoes or Pizza Hut pizza for AUD$4.95, cheaper if you have a coupon, leaving you with $42 for the beer, and that will get you any beer you want, including the imported beers. Drop down to a mid-range local beer and you could buy gourmet pizza's instead. If you get the cheapest beer and cheapest pizza, you would have enough change to buy a non-MS VGA cable for the 360.

[Popstand @ Nov 14th 2006 3:05PM]

"Luckily my 42" Westy actually supports 1080p over component."

I would take this with a grain of salt. Both the 42" Westy's that I returned
barely supported 1080p over even the digital inputs, actually only
over DVI 1, an issue that is been thoroughly discussed on avsforums.
I wouldn't be surprised if the claim of 1080p over component is false
as well.

[landincoldfire @ Nov 14th 2006 3:05PM]

I don't mind tinkering with stuff like this but at a much lower level.

With the time one will have involved in making this. The $40 dollar cable will be a steal. Pay the money and use the time to do want you really want, watch a movie.

[Mauricio @ Nov 14th 2006 3:08PM]

XBOX 360 VGA CABLE

http://cgi.ebay.com/VGA-cable-for-MICROSOFT-XBOX-360-RCA-Optical-free-DVI_W0QQitemZ150058655558QQihZ005QQcategoryZ122517QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Mark @ Nov 14th 2006 4:12PM]

Or get your 20 bucks on for a Joytech VGA cable w/ digital out.

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product_Id=4086577&JRSource=googlebase.datafeed.JOY+360%2FVGA

[potato @ Nov 14th 2006 3:32PM]

"1) Does it appear that an 360 HDMI cable is forthcoming?"

Possible, though I in my opinion unlikely. The HDMI requires an extra chip to do the encrypt. But from what I've seen, there's plenty of electronics inside the existing plug - there's nothing stopping MS from making a bulkier, heavier version of the existing HD cables that integrate the chip for HDMI out. If there is overwhelming demand, possibly.

"2) Is there a VGA DVI/HDMI that I could use with this?"

I don't understand. Do you mean if you can get 1080p out? The answer is yes, with the VGA cable (or, I suppose, this hack). If you mean if there's a way to get a *digital* 1080p signal out, the answer is no. That said, there *are* 6 unused pins, and I suspect 5 of them would come in very handy if MS ever wanted to do some form of digital output.

FWIW, you would need the following 5 pins: GND, +5V, RED, GREEN, BLUE. If you're really short on pins I *suppose* you could recycle the optical power source, but that's kind of a huge design/standards no-no.

[Andir3.0 @ Nov 14th 2006 1:55PM]

"That said, there *are* 6 unused pins, and I suspect 5 of them would come in very handy if MS ever wanted to do some form of digital output."

Which if I'm not mistaken would require you to buy a new 360 seeing that most companies don't wire up these unused pins internally.

[Shiftdelete @ Nov 14th 2006 3:35PM]

This is the biggest waste of time I've ever seen.

Any mod that has a photo with a picture of metal and a screwdriver with the words "CRACK" is definitely NOT worth the effort to save around $30, not to mention you have that fugly looking box on the back of your 360, and ruined video cables.

[pyro @ Nov 14th 2006 3:41PM]

I think there as alost easier way to do this that came out when the 360 was released and before the VGA cable was even out.

[Matt @ Nov 14th 2006 3:54PM]

Anyone saying "you can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on a tv that isn't blah blah size" doesn't get it...

I paid for a 1080p TV, which means that if something outputs to 1080p I expect to be watching 1080p. I don't care if my little eyes don't know the difference because I WOULD KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.

Before my 1080p TV I had an LCD TV with a 1366x768 resolution. I then hooked my mac mini up to it and discovered that it would only output at 1280x768. This pissed me off since I knew that every image on that screen was being stretched by 86 pixels. 86 pixels isn't a lot, but that bothered me since my TV was capable of more.

So STOP TELLING PEOPLE THEY CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE. When you can afford to buy a 1080p TV, then come and tell me there is no difference and that I shouldn't care. I'm sure you will be singing a different tune.

[Zorque @ Nov 14th 2006 4:40PM]

If that's the case, why would you pay for a 1080p tv?

[Eric @ Nov 14th 2006 4:08PM]

Wow, Matt, lay off the coffee...
When I bought my HDTV I could afford a 1080p, but I bought a 720p intentionally because very little content has hit the 1080p mark, yet.

That's one issue with buying on the bleeding edge, you have to wait for everything else to catch up to you.

[hehehhehe @ Nov 14th 2006 4:30PM]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought they'd rather pay $20 for an aftermarket VGA cable.

Anyway, one thing you're not getting with this DIY is the high level of electrical shielding the original cable came with. That thing is shielded 100% (look at the first photos), including the part where the cable is connected. Actually very impressed with MS on this.