So I just picked up an original Xbox today but I had the choice of either composite or an RF adapter which hooks up using coax. Neither of which my monitor supports. Apparently you can hook up the coax to something like a DVD player and then hook that to the monitor but that’s no an ideal situation. My monitor has HDMI, DVI, and VGA so I’m wondering if anyone has done this before. I looked on Google for a bit and saw that there are quite a few adapters but I don’t know which would be best or easiest.
Don’t know what to suggest for adapters, but get component cables if possible for better image quality (component > composite > RF)
EDIT: from a quick search it looks like component to DVI adapters are cheaper than component to HDMI adapters.
What are you using for audio?
Right now I’m just using my TV I have it plugged into. Ideally I’d want to use headphones with my monitor but I’m not sure how I’d plug my headphones into the Xbox and I don’t think I can plug them into my monitor either. I’m using composite right now but I do want to order component cables at some point. Just no place around me had the Xbox component cables. Would there be any picture quality loss with a component to DVI adapter?
Edit: Also, looking on Amazon right now and seeing a lot of DVI to component. Would those work or do I specifically need a component to DVI? I think they should work fine but I just want to make sure. Like
https://www.amazon.com/HDE-Plated-Component-Display-Adapter/dp/B004VNJK8K/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1437292436&sr=1-1&keywords=component+to+dvi
or
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-6-Inch-Component-Breakout-Adapter/dp/B00213KFHW/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1437292436&sr=1-2&keywords=component+to+dvi
Edit 2: Also, one of the cheapest Xbox connectors I could fine on Amazon had 5 cables, including 2 reds, while the above connectors only have 3 inputs. Does that matter at all or do I just use those 3 connections on the connectors above?
I don’t really know enough about video adapters to say for sure if they’d work / if there’d be quality loss, someone else here might know more.
The VGA adapter might work (think monitor needs to support sync-on-green).
DVI or HDMI might actually require a signal converter instead of an adapter.
For composite, you have three RCA cables, one carries video (yellow) and the other two carry audio (red and white).
For component, you have five RCA cables, three for video (red, green, blue) and the other two carry audio (red and white). The three video cables plug into the VGA / DVI / HDMI adapter (or converter), the two audio cables go to your audio device / through an adapter.
If your headphones use a 3.5mm audio jack, an adapter like this can be used to connect them: https://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-inches-Stereo-Splitter-3-5mm-Adapter/dp/B0009JFF7A/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1437302774&sr=1-5
When I connected my PS3 to my monitor a while back I used HDMI for video and this Logitech RCA to 3.5mm adapter for audio: https://i.imgur.com/Posv2kv.jpg (works for headphones or 5.1 speakers)
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. That if I want to use DVI or HDMI I’d need an actual converter instead of just an adapter, though they’re pretty expensive, especially compared to what I paid for the console itself.
One thing I’ve been thinking is that I found some place that said you could plug the console into a DVD player or VCR and it would be able to convert to HDMI, which might work. There would be some quality loss but it’s better than nothing. And I think there’d be quality loss with any kind of converter anyway. So if I get component cables I could use that for the video and then pick up one of those adapters for the audio. I could do it with composite cables (which I’m doing now) but they’re already worse quality so using a converter (like a DVD player) would just make it worse, but again, better than nothing.
What kind of monitor is it and/or what kind of input jacks does it have?
I said in the OP but it supports VGA, DVI (which I’m using for my computer), and HDMI. There’s also some audio jack but I’m not sure what it’s for because it’s an input I think, not an output.