Xbox 360 Spring Update unknowns: VGA image quality improvement

Posted May 10, 2007 at 4:29PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: VGA

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It has come to our attention that Daily Tech discovered that not only does the Spring Update that crept in recently to your Xbox 360 sport the fixes officially listed in the update list, but also comes with a few overlooked improvements as well. According to Daily Tech, one improvement that may have been missed by some users was that image quality has improved on the Xbox 360 - over VGA.

Often the object of criticism for "washed out" finishes to images, the Xbox 360 rendered images in a slightly less vibrant manner that even average digital cameras were capable of on small LCD screens. The culprit was the technical divide on how the LDC TV and LCD monitor interprets black levels.

 

LCD TVs define the color black on a level of 7.5 IRE when properly calibrated. In contrast the LCD monitor, commonly used for computers, labels black as completely black, with a zero level. LCD TVs also inherited that property when accepting signals through the VGA port, since manufacturers believed that the VGA port would usually be connected to PCs.

So while connected through VGA, the Xbox 360 still sends signals appropriated for the 7.5 IRE level of black, instead of zero. This tells the LCD that the color isn't actually black, but a lighter shade of grey. Thanks to the Spring Update, however, Xbox 360 owners have access to an IRE tweak feature that allows them to set the black level either to 7.5 IRE, zero IRE or and IRE level in-between.

 

The modes are Standard (zero), Intermediate and Expanded (7.5) modes are the only three modes that encompass a viewers range of options, although we believe once you go expanded, you won't be going back to standard. Comparison images brought you by Daily Tech.

Via Daily Tech

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Comments 

 

# cool — Guest 2007-05-10 21:11

this improvment is totally amazing, i'm on a VGA monitor and couldnt stand the washed out image but now all is well in the world!

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# Well — RedDevil_NL 2007-05-11 10:37

Im on a VGA monitor too, but havn't tested this new feature.

So whats the best setting? You can choose youre IRE 'value' (dont know what that IRE means exactly)..

But the most right picture looks the best

Hope some1 can still answer my question before this is an old headline ;)

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# vga — Guest 2007-05-12 02:21

I never had a problem with the picture quality through a vga connection on my LG HDTV, but with this update games look better, this a nice suprise and it's really cool.

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# pure crispness — Guest 2007-05-14 03:50

I´m on a VGA monitor and all I have to add is "wow"! I didn´t even realize that black wasn´t black until this update arrived. It´s significant and it definitely adds to the feel of the picture.

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