As some of you may have seen me mention, I recently recapped one of my original Xboxes. I've put a bit of time into playing the system over the last few days, and it's great fun! However, to be frank, it looks like complete garbage on my HDTV... The textures are incredibly blurry during movement, there is ghosting and shimmering everywhere, and dark areas are the worst of all. If I play for more than an hour or so, I start to get a headache, it's that bad!

My system is already modified to allow output in resolutions of 720p and 1080i (PAL systems need a modification to unlock this capability, unlike NTSC systems). I'm not sure how many games I own that can be displayed in these resolutions, but my system is ready! However, I only have the original composite cable that came with the system.

My question is, will I be able to dramatically improve the visual quality of my Xbox, and in particular reduce the motion related blurring, if I simply purchase an original Xbox component cable? Will that cable allow me to display the higher resolutions my Xbox is capable of? Is there any other cable or HD solution that could even further improve picture quality?

Thanks everyone!

When the system was new component cables made the picture quite a bit better on a CRT. I have not played the original Xbox on a modern tv. I play the Xbox games on 360 with all the emulation errors.

Have you tried one of those monster brand S-Video cables?

I have a softmodded Original Xbox with component cables connected to my HDTV. The main menu of the softmod outputs in 720p which looks fine and I have played plenty of games that output in 480p and even some games like MVP Baseball that output in 1080i which looks very sharp. I don't have any ghosting or shimmering that you speak of, it actually looks really good to be quite honest. It's possible your HDTV's scaler for even the 128-bit generation of consoles is not very compatible with your Original Xbox and 480i/p in general. A lot of new HDTVs these days seem to not like 480i/p whatsoever (240p consoles will of course upscale to 480i with composite). It's possible that the scaler was purposely made to be crap for just about anything with composite and component since TV makers want to be rid of analog video altogether since it has no copy protection, so they make HDMI superior to every other input on newer HDTVs. A buddy of mine had this problem with all of his retro consoles on his new HDTV also, he had the same effects you've described (ghosting/shimmering/dark picture) so I recommended he get an S-Video/composite to HDMI upscaler. He says all of his retro consoles look great on it now.

Now I'm sure somebody may think "well why didn't you tell him to get SCART?!?" It's because the cheapest SCART to HDMI upscaler box actually has more input lag than your typical S-Video/CVSB to HDMI upscaler and he's far from being a videophile also, he just wanted his retro consoles to look good enough to be playable on his HDTV, even with the input lag his upscaler will have (still not as bad as the input lag on $50 SCART upscaler IMO tho). Lastly, S-Video and composite is cheaper and easier for a casual customer to buy and handle anyway.

In conclusion, you probably have to get a component to HDMI upscaler of some kind, whether a cheap or expensive one is up to you. The OSSC has both component and RGB SCART support without any input lag.

Yeah, I was thinking about an upscaler for this one, that might actually be the best route. With the upscaler, I was of course concerned about lag, but you reckon the lag will be manageable if I use component?

I guess my best bet at this point would be to get the component cables first, then see how they do. If the picture is still no good, then get the upscaler involved.

No can do! Don't have S video input on my TV, unfortunately!  

Monster component are the best period hookups I've seen, especially on a CRT.

I just use the Monster cables S-Video and that works fine for me.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/v...

These guys talk about the best quality s-video cables you can find.

There are plenty of options of comparable quality to Monster without allowing those scuzz-buckets to take your money.

Hey folks, thanks for the advice, but as I mentioned above, my TV does not support S video, unfortunately. I am currently working out a deal to buy some component cables, which I'm hoping will at least somewhat improve my situation here!

I used to be a regular on one of the larger AV forums. I do not miss those Monster apologists trying to rationalize spending money on interconnects.
 

They haven't made them for like a decade, so you cheapskates should be fine.   And if there are plenty of comparable options Arch, please list them here, I'd love to see anything reasonable listed.  Microsoft's own sub-par quality cables were a distant second and for 2/3 the price of Monster's were hardly a comparison.  I've picked up several sets for under $5 at thrift stores, and even if you pay full blown ebay retail, you're talking $35ish for the best picture quality available at the plug and play level.  This isn't 2003.

 

I would assume any of the cables mentioned in that forum link I provided, that the AV-heads think are superior to Monster would fit the bill.

If you get a Monster cable used, fine, go for it, but I gather there are numerous alternatives that are at least as good.

But I don't condone them receiving any money or support, of any kind, as a matter of principle.
Has nothing to do with being a cheapskate, and everything to do with the abusive trademark chasing that Monster has been known for.

Metal Jesus reviewed a third party XBox HDMI adapter awhile back:

Try a component to HDMI converter which are cheap. There'll be no input lag like with a cheap upscaler. You needn't worry about 240p, which is usually not supported by converters, since the Original Xbox outputs no less than 480i.
Although there's a 50/50 chance your HDTV may not like resolutions lower than 720p even on HDMI.
 

Monster cables are fine but they are indeed overpriced, even when sold used. If the OP decides to go the S-Video route with the Original Xbox, there's actually a very decent quality 1st party S-Video output box that comes with high quality cables comparable to Monster, and they usually go for around $10 or $15, even ones that are unopened. Surprisingly there are alot of unopened 1st party S-Video output boxes and cables out in the wild, probably since just about everyone used composite back in those days. Even 1st party RF modulators were more commonly used. I had one because my cheap 1998 CRT TV at the time was RF only and it was more convenient for me to bring along an RF cable than to carry a VCR or external composite to RF box with my TV whenever I went to Halo LAN parties.

Edit: Here's a pic of the 1st party S-Video box from Microsoft.


 

Ah hah! Now we're getting somewhere! That cable looks like it's just what I need, thanks dude. Gonna see if I can order one later today.

That's the pound Xbox hdmi cable. I have one and it works great.

Right, I've put my order in on Amazon!

Just a word of warning however... When I went to the Pound webpage to research the cable before my purchase I noticed the following disclaimer:

"We have recently learned that our cable has issues with some modded XBoxes with their shielding removed as well as XBOX revisions v1.4 (late 2003 - early 2004 model XBoxes). We are working on a solution to resolve this issue."

Now, I have checked and found that one of my Xbox units is the 1.4 revision, which means it MIGHT have issues using this cable. Fortunately, the primary Xbox I wish to use (the modded one mentioned in the original post), is NOT 1.4, it is an earlier revision (most likely 1.3), so hopefully I wont have any problems using this cable.

If anyone else is wondering how to check the revision number of their original Xbox, I found the following webpage incredibly useful and very comprehensive:

http://www.informit.com/articles/...



P.S. I am still in the market for a decent original Xbox component cable, as I may need to use that with my 1.4 revision unit.

Man... I ordered that cable from Amazon like 3 days ago now, and the cable is in stock and everything, but Amazon still haven't shipped!

Is it normal for Amazon to take so long to ship an item? I normally get stuff shipped within like 24 hours...

Right, so I got my cable and plugged it into my Xbox, and I'm having problems. One is a little problem, one is a Biggie...

Small problem: The Xbox is modified, as I mentioned above, and the image is unstable on the mod bootscreen in 480p, cutting in and out. When I change the settings in the mod menu to display in 1080i, the image is absolutely perfect, it looks great and stable and all that. So I get that the mod chip may not play nicely with the cable. However, it seems that whenever I reboot the system it always reverts back to the lower resolution automatically, so I don't know if there is anything I can do to fix this permanently. All 480p and 480i output from this system is grainy and crappy.

Big problem: Banding and noisy image playing real games on the system. I did not notice any rainbow banding at all in the image over composite, but now I'm using this cable I can see significant banding distorting the colours in my picture, plus huge amounts of general noise in the image. This does not appear on the mod menus at all, but as soon as I'm getting the image straight out the Xbox, it looks like crap, worse than the composite image I was looking at before.

Questions... I know that the cable is fine because I tried it with my other unmodified Xbox, and the picture is a definite improvement over composite, very crisp and clean (even though the PAL Xbox can only show 480p unmodified, it still looks pretty good). So:

1. Is the mod chip somehow interfering in some way with the communication between the Xbox and the cable, causing the banding and noise?

2. Is this Xbox just screwed? I already replaced 3 leaking caps in this one. Did I do a bad job, and the replacement caps and repair process have further worsened the condition, OR did I not go far enough and should go in and replace all the caps?

3. Would bad caps give an image over composite that looks ok (for composite), but a very bad image over component? Like wouldn't it be both bad rather than either/or?

I am really struggling to figure out what to do here... At least the silver lining is that I'm getting a good picture out of ONE of my Xboxes, but I was really hoping to get the best possible picture out of my modified one and take advantage of up to potentially 720p and 1080i.

A little more help, anyone, please!  

OK, another update for anyone who may still be interested!

Turns out, the modified Xbox I have will play games running in 480p and higher with no significant visual problems. There are a few faint wavy lines in the background, but no banding or distortion like I saw before. Those wavy lines are faint enough to be ignored entirely, unless you get right up close to the screen, and most likely caused by poor grounding due to mods etc. Generally the picture quality is pleasing, I would say at least twice as good as composite, although textures are still a little blurry during motion, depending on the game... I guess we are still talking 480p here, so that is not too surprising.

However, I have also identified why I had an issue with banding etc. before. The game I was using to test this Xbox was my FAVOURITE Xbox game, GTA: San Andreas. Now, I happen to own the PAL version of this game, which I did not realise CANNOT display 480p, even on a modified Xbox. This is unlike the vast majority of PAL games which will play at the full applicable resolution in a modified machine. For whatever reason, perhaps the poor grounding I mentioned before, the resulting 480i or 576i image produced by this Xbox through the Pound HDMI cable is complete garbage.

I CAN get a stable image at 480i and 576i using my non-modified Xbox, but the resulting image quality is very similar to composite, making this whole exercise moot! I find it strange that one Xbox gives a terrible image at 480i, and the other a clean one, but it is either a grounding issue, something to do with the mod, some other issue (caps) OR maybe because my modified Xbox has a Conexant video encoder chip while my non-modified Xbox has a Focus video encoder chip... I will be open to any suggestions on this question, mainly out of curiosity.

Anyway, for now my issues appear to be solved! I am gonna source an NTSC version of GTA: San Andreas so I can play it in good quality in 480p, and any other games I can't play for whatever reason I will do the same!

Since the xbox is modded you can copy the game to the hdd and hex edit the xbe to output 480p.
https://www.reddit.com/r/original...

Yeah I ripped my copy of GTA SA to my hdd using the backup function. However, I have two problems with this:

1. I don't know how to edit the hex (I guess I could learn though)

2. For some reason, GTA SA will not boot from my mod screen, even from my real legit disc. The only way I can get the game to play on my modified Xbox is to turn the system on with the game already in the disc drive. If I put the game in the system while the system is on and try to launch on the mod screen, it tries and then can't do it. It will not boot the backup from the hdd whatsoever. This is very strange, and it is the only game that has this problem... Maybe there is some anti-piracy thing going on?

Such a shame too, as this is my favourite game! The only one that doesn't work properly, what are the chances!  

Hex editing is not that hard but you would need to ftp into the xbox to grab the xbe,if anything you could send it to me and I could do it.

As for the game what bios are you running on the xbox.