Xbox 360 connected to PC monitor, but it's soft/blurry

I see the same thing on my Xbox/LCD monitor setup and you pretty much get used to it, go crazy or hook the console up to an actual TV.

I went with the first option as it was the easiest and had the fewest side effects.

One caveat about using a DVI adapter that I forgot to mention: you might also need to buy something like this in order to split off the audio to regular RCA jacks, since DVI won’t carry the audio part. I think only the Elites come with that adapter already, unless they’ve been including it in newer HDMI systems as well.

(If you decide on it as a permanent solution, anyway. It wouldn’t be necessary just for testing the picture.)

You don’t need to research. If it’s truly automatic, you will see black bars around the edges of the image when you lower the resolution in the Xbox360 below 1680x1050.

An HDTV has to get the image upconverted as well. It’s all fixed-pixel stuff. It just might be that the TV does a better job of it than a computer monitor. Or any other number of things that really need to be eliminated in a systematic fashion.

If you’re going in via VGA, check your monitor’s on screen menu for some sort of “sync” or “auto” button. Helps it glom on to the analog signal and fudge the right pixels to the right, er… pixel on your display. Whatever. You know what I mean. My brain isn’t working.

I have a Samsung 22" monitor I run an Xbox 360 into via VGA. Set the res to 1680x1050, and it looks very sharp indeed. Of course the dashboard text is a little fuzzy because it’s got some memory limitations and stuff, but I can very clearly see all the pixels of a game - stair-steps on edges of objects and so on. It’s very clear.

Games are 16:9 instead of 16:10 so I actually get very slim black bars on the top and bottom, but it otherwise fills the display.

I run my Syncmaster 226BW through VGA cables and its very sharp, I’d say sharper than my tv - though that’s probably the result of going from CRT to LCD. My resolution is 1680x1050.

I’ve set the signal and image size to auto, I do get horizontal bars in 1680x1050 and vertical bars at resolutions lower than that. However, any change in settings I make in the console or the monitor makes no difference in the soft image I get. It looks exactly how a PC game looks when played at a resolution significantly lower than the monitor’s native resolution, with the exception of the UI itself.

I’m going to try the VGA->DVI adaptor and see if that makes a difference, I’ll report back with my results.

Get a HDMI-DVI adapter. Try to get out of analog.

You’re probably sitting closer to the monitor than you are to the TV. Get a protractor (or something) out and measure the angle that the monitor subtends from your normal viewing position.

If you’re sitting two feet away from a 22" monitor, that’s a 44 degree angle. If your HDTV is 42", then you’d get the same angle of view by sitting less than four feet away, which I bet you don’t do.

Move your chair back a few feet and look at the monitor, and see if it doesn’t have the sharpness you’re used to on your HDTV.

Did you futz with the reference settings in the Xbox 360 video setup?

I’ve tried moving back a few more feet, extending my viewing distance from between 2 and 3 feet to 4 and 5 feet. Viewing distance simply isn’t the issue.

As far as the reference levels, I’ve tried them all.

Will buy the DVI adaptor later today.

You understand that the 360 is outputting a picture that is significantly lower than your monitor’s native resolution, right? Some monitors handle this well and some don’t. My old one always looked like crap if it was sent a lower resolution. My newer one does a much better job.

But you are sending a lower resolution picture to your monitor.