27 inch mac as a display for my 360 - aint workin'

[Murry33]

So I've got myself a nice little 27 inch imac. I want to use it as a display for my Xbox 360. I've got the VGA to mini display port adapter. The problem is that once I connect it all up, and turn on the 360, the xbox 360 video (or audio) doesn't come up. The screen just changes resolution (which I understand is it going into target display mode).

I've been looking through other sites and what I've been led to believe is that as soon as I connect the 360, the imac should just enter target display mode and the Xbox 360 visuals should just come up on screen. This however is not the case.

I've looked through the display settings and still no obvious solution. So can anybody help me out with this problem?

 

[TMRaven]

From what I understand, those adaptors do not work properly, as people have tried things to that extent when the 27 inch first came out.

You'd have to get one of those official hdmi/component to minidisplay port cables some companies offer now.

 

[Murry33]

Is it because the VGA signal is analogue and the mini display is digital? Or something to that extent? And do the hdmi/component cables support the digital output?

 

[Superman07]

I see you didn't search: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/806175/ .

 

[NATO]

Unfortunately the VGA-to-MiniDisplayPort adapter you have bought is not the right one, it's an adapter to convert a mini DisplayPort *output* to VGA, it won't work the other way round.

Because Mini DisplayPort uses a totally different protocol than DVI/HDMI, you need an active converter to convert a DVI/HDMI *input* to Mini DisplayPort.

There is a long thread which will steer you towards the right one, but they are expensive (£130+). See the post above for more information