Xbox on computer screen?

[Jon415]

So my friend has an xbox with an HDMI cord, and my computer's graphics card has suport for HDMI.  Will the xbox plug into my computer and be playable, or does my monitor need to have an HDMI port, or is it even possible?

[aeria.]

It's something you need to plug into the monitor, not the computer itself. If you want to plug it into the computer (for recording and such), you'll need to get yourself a capture card which is fairly expensive.

Most monitors connect by VGA so you'll need to get some kind of cable that'll output it to that. I'll go into more detail when I got the time. I just wanted to reply to you quickly.

[Jon415]

My monitor is pretty old and has vga only.  Well i dont think i want to buy a capture card, it would be easier to just plug the xbox into the tv   Well thanks anyway.

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

I want to say what is the worst that could happen. It might work. Hold old is your video card and pc?

[Soap Mactavish]

his computer is brand new and isn't a slow computer by any means CPU wise. besides, the xbox is doing all the processing, all his monitor will be doing is displaying the game. that is if he plugs it up to his monitor directly through VGA

[Jon415]

I got my PC 3 weeks ago.  Graphics card is ATI radeon HD 5570, pretty new but not the top of its class.  I dont think monitor has HDMI, only VGA.  Monitor is pretty old though.

[Hardcore]

ok well first off, if your connecting the xbox to the monitor, it doesn't matter what your graphics card can handle. secondly, it doesn't matter, if your Monitor isn't HDMI itself there is no point in connecting an HDMI cable to it, as it won't display HDMI.

Give us the specs perhaps?

But you can connect the xbox to your monitor and play it on it via the VGA cable likely.

[Jon415]

okay.  maybe i can convince my friend to buy the VGA cable for his xbox, or we could split the cost...

As for monitor specs, i dont really know.  I bought it with my old mac mini, at least 4-6 years ago.

[aeria.]

In terms of visuals, it doesn't really matter what it's connected with. HDMI is more popular (mainly because HD is in it) but VGA and Component Cables more or less produce the same picture quality. That's why I tell people to not buy that expensive HDMI cable when it looks just fine with the component cables that it came with. It really just depends on the quality of the cables and the quality of the TV.

Since you're using an older monitor, I'd say get yourself a VGA cable. It's $40 retail but I'm sure you can get it cheaper if you look around.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360vgahdcable/

[Jon415]

I looked on gogole products, just a quick look but the first two results were $4.50 and $10.

[aeria.]

Regular VGA cable:

Xbox 360 VGA cable:


Regular VGA cable's prolly not gonna work. You'll need to get a specific one for the xbox 360. It's been that way for consoles since... forever.

[Soap Mactavish]

sounds about right. I got mine for 16 at best buy.

[Jon415]

I'll check out amazon or something. and see if i can find something that looks like that.