Learned my lesson...

[evilmegaman]

well, yesterday, I bought a pelican VGA HD/AV cable for xbox 360. What this does is enable me to play the 360 on my monitor. It worked, But had several things wrong with it. For instance, the only way I could get sound working was to use my huge ass stereo system because that was the only thing that would accept RCA input (red and white). And my biggest problem was that the picture was VERY distorted. I tried everything but it was just a really crappy picture.


So today I decided to return it. Found out I couldn't so I just sold it for half the amount I bought it for and bought the official VGA HD/AV cable. Unfortunately I am now out 40 bucks. Luckily though, it worked like a charm. It came with an adapter for RCA to (the green jack). It also had no problems whatsoever. So basically the lesson I learned today is this:


When buying any sort of technology. It's almost ALWAYS worth it to get the official product. Generally generic brands are of poor quality (like this case) or just don't have all the features. Every time I buy a generic brand piece of hardware (I won't even touch software) it just doesn't cut it.

/end rant

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

I tend to agree. I do that with my Sony products.

[shawners]

I learned the lesson with buying RIAA products.. I can only sell it for half the price that i bought it for.
Very few things i buy are unknamed brand.. Prescription drugs is one of them.

[black_magiic]

Ya cutting corners often result in getting burned :(

[Atheist Icon]

I have the same problem with buying parts for my Tbirds...If I buy aftermarket(cheapies) I have problems, I can only buy Motorcraft Items. That equates to me buying higher priced items for other things.

[Psilaxs]

You would have had the same problem with the "genuine" Microsoft cable as well

[Lehk]

hate to put salt in your wounds, but an RCA to headphone adaptor runs for less than $5 at radio shack probably cheaper online

also if it didn't work like it was supposed to the store must take it back in most jurisdictions

[Theinfamousone]

I have gotten so frustrated with problems like that too Megaman. The new computer I started building in December had one fault after another. First the motherboard didn't fit in the case very well, it was too sunk into it for the jack panel in the back tto line up with the rectangular cut out, then it was having grounding problems, it kept shutting down after a split second of powering up, then my brand new 550 watt power supply bit the dust, so I got a new one of those, then the fan on my ATI video card stopped working and I fried my video card (cost me $300), then I had my Western Digital 120gig hard drive (that I was using just to supplement the 300 gig one I bought especially for it) went out, and I've only had it for a couple of years. Then I thought I had gotten a good brand of CD drive by getting Teac, it wasn't, that thing vibrates and crap and so I just unplugged it. but kept it in the computer for asthetic purposes. Then I got an NEC floppy disk drive for it and that still has never worked. Pretty much the only thing that hasn't failed on it in within the first 6 months of having it is the Corsair RAM and the sound card. Even the case is kind of crappy. On my old Gateway computer case, it has quick and easy lock/unlock things that hold the cards in, the drives and even the power supply, I can dismantle that thing in about 2 minutes or less (ok the motherboard is screwed in, but even that is held in by screws that you can unscrew by hand. The hard drives are even put straight in from looking at the tower sideways, rather than coming from where the mother board is forward and so I don't have to gouge up my hands on all the cards in there, and of course I don't have to unscrew them. Even the sound and video cards just come out without unscrewing them. Then of course on my new case when I got it, some of the lights had to be reconnected so I had to take the front cover off so I will count that as being defective too. I tried to go as name brand with everything that I could for this reason and it didn't seem to pay off.This new case has screws for everyting and of course I've got cables and crap running all over the place so I inevitabley drop all of the screws trying to get them out. Very poor design, it looks cool and everything, but it isn't very convenient. The fan on the processor that came with my Athlon 64 x2 4400+ was always running too slow, so I bought a new one and haven't had any problems since, then I had Windows XP 32 and it was running fine on it and so since that was the copy from my other computer I figured I'd get 64 bit edition, so I paid the $100 or whatever and it turns out that when I run the installation process, it always freezes/goes to a BSOD at 37 minutes remaining, almost every time, 1/10 times it will go all the way through, and for a while I had it running, then it started to do this same thing upon bootup with the Windows splash screen right before it got to the welcome screen and I even tried reinstalling again and it still had the same problem. I looked all over the net for why this might occur and no one seemed to have any similar problem, so I bagged it and went with Windows XP 32 bit, so if anyone wants to buy my 64 bit version from me, let me know. I even downloaded ISOs of it with bittorrent just to make sure it wasn't my CD or something even though it was brand new and it did the exact same thing. Its probably a BIOS problem, but anyway...So I might try Vista when that comes out. I ran Microsoft's 64 bit Pro compatibility test and it said I should be fine.

I too got a cable from some random brand for my Zen Vision M that you plug into it and it lets you watch videos from the mp3 player on your TV (converts it to RCA output cables) and that worked for the first few days, and then it stopped working, and so now I'm stuck with something that does nothing that cost me $20 or something I think, just another $20 of money and time I've wasted on these projects.

The lesson I learned here is that the value of a warranty can't be underestimated, it seems like anything that I've bought in the last 6 months or so since I started with this computer project has turned to junk faster than I can replace it. I got a new (used) car and it started out working fine and it's developing all kind of random problems almost by the day...transmission is starting to hesitate, head gasket is starting to leak, struts are wearing out, hydraulic power top is leaking hydraulic fluid (it's a convertible)and I am sick about all of my hard earned cash getting thrown down all of these money pits, I just want something that will work for a while without having to be replaced!! It's also frustrating because if I call a local computer hardware store, they quote me prices in the $120 range or something for a 550 watt power supply for example, how much does it cost to get it online? About $30. So of course I'm getting it online, heck I don't even have to drive down to the store, I can have it delivered right to my front door, but it seems like every time I order something online, I regret it because it's such a headache to deal with returns and by the time you pay for shipping to ship it back, you might as well just buy a new one and spare yourself having to deal with their pointless tech support people.

[cjules13]

Too bad it didn't work well. Even though you could've got an adapter for the sound RCAs, that wouldn't of helped your picture problem anyway.

Just out of curiousity, why do you want to play xbox360 on your monitor? The best thing about console vids is that you play them on your big screen with your "huge ass stereo system." I dunno, just seems more social to play in the living room instead of the computer room... and more comfortable...

[evilmegaman]

Originally Posted by cjules13

Too bad it didn't work well. Even though you could've got an adapter for the sound RCAs, that wouldn't of helped your picture problem anyway.

Just out of curiousity, why do you want to play xbox360 on your monitor? The best thing about console vids is that you play them on your big screen with your "huge ass stereo system." I dunno, just seems more social to play in the living room instead of the computer room... and more comfortable...

Well one thing is that, I could not read the text on my TV, The text was as small as ants no matter how close I was.

The other thing is I don't have very good sound on my TV at all. I just use the built in sound. Lastly it's actually much more comfortable in my computer room because my house is a mess and my living room is set up so badly that you can't get in and out of it without jumping over stuff :P

[Psilaxs]

Originally Posted by evilmegaman

The other thing is I don't have very good sound on my TV at all. I just use the built in sound. Lastly it's actually much more comfortable in my computer room because my house is a mess and my living room is set up so badly that you can't get in and out of it without jumping over stuff :P

Sounds like my computer room/ bedroom. (rest of the house is okay tho')

[moneoa]

Originally Posted by Psilaxs

You would have had the same problem with the "genuine" Microsoft cable as well

no...he said he bought the "genuine" cable and solved his problem..