Gary Whitta
Member
This happened to me over Xmas... I suspect it has happened to other GAFers too.
My gf's nephew got an Xbox 360 Premium for Christmas. They have a wall-mounted plasma HDTV so I figure they're all set. I even offer to help them set it up, but the nephew's older brother says don't worry, he's got it covered, he claims to know his shit.
Anyway, the gf and I head back over there the next day to play Scene It 360 with the family (it's great fun, btw) and the picture quality looks like ASS. It's a pretty decent TV so that's not the issue. I convince the family to let me poke around behind their TV, and what do you know... yup, composite input.
Two minutes later, the component cables are plugged in, HD switch flipped and 360 set to 720p output and suddenly everyone in the room is going HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT THAT'S AMAZING IT'S SO CLEAR. The previous day they'd been wondering why they were having trouble reading the smaller text on Scene It and now everything is suddenly super crystal clear. Even though they owned an HDTV I don't think they'd ever seen much (if any) HD content on it so seeing the crystal clarity of 360 graphics as they're meant to be seen was a bit of a revelation.
So all's well that ends well in this case, but it did make me wonder about just how many noobs out there have their consoles/HDTVs set up all wrong without even knowing it. It's easy as a geek to take for granted knowing the difference beween composite and component and how important that is, and not appreciate how many people don't have a clue about this stuff. It was a wake-up call for me, I'm sure it's at least part of what is holding the HD generation back, and it made me want to fly around the country fixing people's setups for them.
My gf's nephew got an Xbox 360 Premium for Christmas. They have a wall-mounted plasma HDTV so I figure they're all set. I even offer to help them set it up, but the nephew's older brother says don't worry, he's got it covered, he claims to know his shit.
Anyway, the gf and I head back over there the next day to play Scene It 360 with the family (it's great fun, btw) and the picture quality looks like ASS. It's a pretty decent TV so that's not the issue. I convince the family to let me poke around behind their TV, and what do you know... yup, composite input.
Two minutes later, the component cables are plugged in, HD switch flipped and 360 set to 720p output and suddenly everyone in the room is going HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT THAT'S AMAZING IT'S SO CLEAR. The previous day they'd been wondering why they were having trouble reading the smaller text on Scene It and now everything is suddenly super crystal clear. Even though they owned an HDTV I don't think they'd ever seen much (if any) HD content on it so seeing the crystal clarity of 360 graphics as they're meant to be seen was a bit of a revelation.
So all's well that ends well in this case, but it did make me wonder about just how many noobs out there have their consoles/HDTVs set up all wrong without even knowing it. It's easy as a geek to take for granted knowing the difference beween composite and component and how important that is, and not appreciate how many people don't have a clue about this stuff. It was a wake-up call for me, I'm sure it's at least part of what is holding the HD generation back, and it made me want to fly around the country fixing people's setups for them.