Xbox 360 on an LCD monitor

[Furtwangler]

So I'm off to college next year and I'm certainly not bringing my 32" tru-flat CRT with me. I wanted to invest in something that I can play my 360 on and I'd like to know if this would work.

I want to get a 22ish (size debatable) LCD monitor. It would be easiest if it had HDMI in, and a DVI in as well. This way, I can plug in my 360 via HDMI and I'm bringing my 5.1 system with me, and send the audio (from the component/composite plug) from the 360 to there. I can then double that monitor as a 2nd monitor for my laptop and also for tv because my laptop has a tuner in it. I've already removed the housing on the AV cable on the 360 and(in order to fit both hdmi and that cable in at the same time), tested it using HDMI and red/white at the same time on a normal HDTV at my work, works fine.

My problem is this, I have no idea where the whole HDCP standard comes into play, and will that matter with what LCD monitor I buy? Looking at tigerdirect, getting an LCD monitor with HDCP compliance just made it a better choice to get a normal hdtv instead of a monitor. I'm just worried about the functionality of the 360 via straight HDMI to the monitor without HDCP.

[izembo]

hdmi requires the device to be hdcp compliant

[Furtwangler]

all devices with hdmi? then howcome some lcd monitors (most) that have HDMI in aren't? wherever I've looked maybe 5% of the models with hdmi say hdcp compliant and they are way expensive

[Calina]

heres a 21.5" acer with HDMI DVI and HDCP $189.99 idk what your price range is but thats pretty cheap to me.

Newegg.com - Acer H213H bmid Black 21.5" 5ms HDMI Full HD 1080P Widescreen 16:9 LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ACM 20000:1 Built in Speakers - LCD Monitors

[Aidin]

I have 2 of the monitor linked above, for the exact same purpose. I run my 360 via HDMI on one and my PC on the other (PC on both when not using 360). Works great, looks great, sounds alright for monitor speakers even.

[rezn0r]

i also have the acer (pretty sure it's that model, i'm at work right now so i can't really check) and my tv in that part of the house is ancient. i've been running my 360 through the monitor (along with pc through a kvm switch) and it looks and works awesome.

[Furtwangler]

ok, so ive settled on the monitor I'm gonna get, tigerdirect says nothing about HDCP but their website does (I dont have the model atm its written on paper at work). I figured I'd share this scenario with you guys incase anyone cares or may run into the same problem..

I want to run HDMI into said monitor and use audio on a 5.1 logitech system. This would require me to use audio from the component cable + HDMI out to monitor. You can't normally fit both the component and HDMI cable in at the same time (M$ did this purposely.)

You would have to buy a special audio only cable ($50) that is slimmer and allows HDMI to fit. If you take off the housing on the component cable, both can fit allowing you to use both, however, if the monitor input is switched to anything besides HDMI (Say I wanted to go to dual monitor from my pc while 360 is dling something) it will reset your 360. The only difference that the console knows between the component and audio only cable is on inside of the cable- http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget....dget_howto.jpg

On the bottom right of the cable cluster you can see this tiny black loopback cable, all that cable does is connects the #28 and #30 jumper. When they are connected your 360 knows it is a component cable, and will reset your xbox when it is plugged in with HDMI. You can simply cut that wire and it will turn your component cable into a strictly audio cable(optical or rca). You lose your component and composite video capability though unless you turn that cut into a switch or reconnect the wires.

In my case, though (and maybe most people now) my cable was newer, and M$ changed the way this works. Instead of a wire, they directly soldierd the 28 and 30 leads. http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget....dget_howto.jpg

In my case, I had to desoldier the leads, and I just resoldierd wires into there, and ran them to a switch which is now hotglued onto the outside of the whole plug, so I can switch between HDMI+RCA Audio at college, and Composite+RCA for when im still at my house.