I have been looking at getting a new screen for my sons bedroom. He has a pc and xbox 360 that would need to be connected. Originally was looking at a 26" Samsung tv with 1366 x 768 resolution, but decided against the tv option as whilst fine for xbox gaming, the resolution and screen size wouldn't be great for typing, internet browsing etc. Having looked through numerous reviews I have nailed 3 monitors at 3 different price points. They are Dell SP2309W for £213, Samsung Syncmaster XL2370 for £242 and NEC Multisync EA231WMi for £300. Of these, the Dell has the best connectivity and has good stand adjustment and is obviously cheaper - but the picture quality is not so good as the other two. The Samsung has very good picture quality and reasonable connectivity, but suffers from poor viewing angles and only tilt adjustment on the stand. The NEC would be my preferred option without doubt, except for connectivity. I do not want to use the vga input on the screen, leaving just displayport and dvi to connect the pc and xbox 360. Is this possible with this monitor? Can the xbox 360 be connected to the NEC Multisync EA231WMi either by an hdmi to dvi cable or hdmi to displayport cable? I have read that hdmi to displayport cables only work if the source is displayport and the monitor is hdmi - so I assume that displayport will not work with xbox 360/ NEC monitor. If the xbox 360 was connected by hdmi to dvi cable (assuming this works). I would then connect the pc with a displayport to displayport cable. Would audio be transferred to the monitor speakers from the pc, over the displayport cable? PC graphics card is ATI HD5450. Any help much appreciated, as the answers to these questions will decide which screen I go for.
will the system you are using be used for gaming ? I think you will struggle with frame rates at the resolutions those monitors run at and that graphics card, could consider the DELL and an upgrade on the GPU, this would yield the best results overall assuming it is going to be for gaming. bit-tech gave both the dell and the NEC pretty good write ups.
The pc itself is just a basic spec - athlon x2 4400+, 2gb ram. Mainly used for typing and internet browsing with the occasional go on half life 2. The xbox 360 is used for gaming, so haven't really got a need for a powerful gpu on the pc. It was really just confirming how to connect the xbox and pc up to the nec screen in the way that I need i.e. digital connection only.
I can't help you with the connection issues but what I can say is that the NEC is a blindingly good screen with viewing angles almost, though not quite, as good as a crt
It works, that's exactly how I connect my xbox. It even supports 16:10 resolutions but places black bars at the top and bottom. As for screen I'd go for the NEC definately, gets great reviews everywhere.
Thanks for the responses guys. Just really need confirmation on the audio over displayport issue - again, I assume that audio is transferred over displayport to the nec screen. The reason I questioned the xbox working using an hdmi to dvi cable is because the current lcd screen in my sons room gives the message "out of range" when I use the hdmi to dvi cable, yet using the vga cable is fine. Interestingly the pc connects fine to the same monitor, using the same hdmi to dvi cable. Didn't want to spend £300 the nec, just to find that I have to connect the xbox using vga still. I suppose the problem is a limitation of the current monitor though, as it only cost £100.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/monitors/2010/01/23/dell-sp2309w-monitor-review/1 & http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/monitors/2010/01/07/nec-multisync-ea231wmi/1 both get decent reviews here on bit-tech
Well I think I have the displayport thing sorted - downloaded the ea231wmi user manual, and it states that it can accept digital audio over the displayport connector as well as stereo audio through the mini-jack. My only worry really concerns the connection of the xbox. I understand that an hdmi to dvi cable should work, as hdmi and dvi are compatible with each other. But I noticed in the Troubleshooting section of the manual for the EA231WMI, that it states "OSD warning 'OUT OF RANGE' is displayed on a blank screen: Signal frequency is out of range, choose one of the supported modes." This warning is the same as the current monitor states when xbox 360 is connected with hdmi to dvi cable. I'm just concerned that I will get the same message with the xbox 360 connected to the NEC. Has anyone connected xbox 360 to this monitor with hdmi to dvi? I presume the frequency that it refers to is for instance 1920 x 1080 @ 60 hz.
