Picture Quality: HDMI vs Component Cables
Here’s a question recently asked on the Ars Technica forums. With the announcement of the new Xbox 360 Elite, one of the highlights is the native HDMI output, compared to older Xbox 360s, which only supported up to component output.
I just got a 1080p television and was wondering, would the new HDMI port make any difference in picture quality over component cables? Didn’t MS require 720p resolution? But have any games gone all the way to 1080p? It wasn’t possible until a software patch (a few months ago?). Just wondering. It sounds cool until you ask, are there or will there be 1080p games? I’m waiting around for movies to be on hd-dvd I’d want to watch and would buy a stand-alone player anyway so for the 360 the only factor is games.
The response is quite interesting. HDMI output and Component are different in that HDMI is digital, and component is analog (though very high quality analog at that). So you will inevitably get some signal loss with component output. However, there will likely be no perceived difference to the eyes of regular folk, all else being equal. So unless you’re a videophile with a really keen eye for detail, either component or HDMI output will be fine.
Still, not all hardware are made the same, and some televisions will produce strikingly different results between component and HDMI. For one, some games have a native 720p resolution, and outputting to 1080p will require scaling or upsampling, either on the Xbox 360’s end or the televisions. In this case, it’s best to upsample using the Xbox 360 by setting resolution to 1080p instead of the game’s native resolution (upsampling on the TV set will result in poor visuals).
So is this a good argument against buying yourself an Xbox 360 Elite? Maybe not. There’s still the 120Gb hard drive!