Just discovered that my xbox doesn't have a HDMI port >

I have an HDTV and the top and bottom is cut off too. its not the game its the TV. i guarentee it. it cuts off every game and tv shows the same amount as skyrim. about the text? its a good thing nobody is a mute in skyrim. THEY SAY ALL THEIR LINES! and really you can just guess what option to pick and if its wrong try again. save often. And to your "well the other games worked fine!" statement i will say: they clearly anticipated this and did not put important things up there.

Wow, that must mean you're using a fairly old model. Amazing that it's still working, though!

*knocks on wood*

I guess in a thread with this many pages, people shouldn't be expected to read the whole thread before posting, but I have addressed the fact that some SDTVs work and some SDTVs don't before, a number of times. Different SDTVs have different safe areas. Wikipedia does a decent enough job on the issue, for the first few paragraphs...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_area

Reinveil, I appreciate that your tone is a lot more friendly than some of the people who have been ordering us to upgrade. You're clearly trying to be constructive, and I think that's totally appropriate for the thread.

But I think a lot of people have made clear that the resizing of text is not the only issue here. Many people just want an option to resize the screen so that the compass, the health display, etc., can be visible on our screens. Yes, a number of other games have had small text, but this problem wherein we can't even see half of our HUD has no precedent. TV safe areas are widely known, so Bethesda could have predicted and warned about this problem, one the consumer had no way of knowing about; a lot of us see it as shirking a big responsibility that they won't confirm a tiny fix for this issue.

Precisely. We are not asking them to downgrade the graphics or anything, we are simply asking for the option to adjust the HUD and possibly the text size. Everything else in the game (glitches aside) is perfectly fine with us SDTV owners.

I absolutely agree with faunis. I wish the issue would have been publicly addressed beforehand, I could have saved the money that I used to buy the game for looking into getting a TV on Black Friday, or Cyber Monday. But since it wasn't, I'm kind of stuck here. I can somewhat play on the HDTV in my living room (even then, the compass is partially cut off, since I had to adjust the vertical position to see the bottom part of the screen. Nonetheless, still playable.), but I don't have access to it whenever I want, as my household uses that as it's main television, so I'm stuck playing it at night.
I certainly hope they look into adding HUD adjustment for SDTV users. I know it's easier to say "Just go buy a new TV, SD is outdated", and I really would if I had the money to, but since I don't, I would like to see Bethesda at least look into adding an adjustment option first. Yes, Christmas is coming around, and TV deals will be widely available, I'm aware. I bought the game now, I would like to play it now instead of Christmas, and as one of their customers, I would at least like to see my problem being addressed.
Anyway, I'm not here to argue whether I should upgrade my TV or not. I know I have to, and it's now something I plan on doing. I would just like to see this being looked into. Even if I were to upgrade my TV, the issue still wouldn't be resolved. There would still be a bunch of other people in the same position as me, HD and SD.
I know nothing is probably going to happen, and in a few days or so, they'll release a public statement saying that they're not going to do anything about it. Yeah, it svcks, but I guess there's nothing we can do. Still, worth a shot.

I emailed Bethesda support a couple days ago and they finally got back to me. Unfortunately, they didn't even read what I sent them and instead gave me some canned response similar to the useless advice we've been getting on these forums. Here is my original email, followed by the response:

First off, I love Skyrim. You guys have done a tremendous job. But I and thousands of other people have a technical problem. The edges of the screen are cut off at least an inch on all sides. The small text I can play through, but I can't see my compass or the updates at the top left of the screen at all which makes the game virtually unplayable. There are numerous threads about this issue on the gamesas forums. For reference, I am playing on a 20 inch SDTV with 480i resolution on the Xbox 360 20GB Pro console from 2006 I've tried changing the Xbox's Display settings to Widescreen but the edges are still cut off and it makes the text totally unreadable. I have played hundreds of games on this platform of all different resolutions and never have I seen screen cutoff. As I said, small text is NOT the problem. I understand I am using somewhat outdated technology but I got this TV brand new when the Xbox 360 first came out and the Xbox itself supports SDTVs so why doesn't Skyrim? Please give us the option to change the aspect ratio or move the HUD around slightly in the next patch. Plenty of other current games for Xbox 360 have this simple option. At the very least, please move the compass down a few centimeters. There are many of us with this problem and I would hate to see your company lose fans and future purchases because of something that could easily be remedied in a patch as the developers of Borderlands did after their game released with the same problem. Thank you for your time.

Hi ******

We're sorry to hear that you're experiencing this difficulty with the game. There is a way to set your Xbox's display resolution to optimize your experience. You will have to talk to Microsoft customer support for this. To obtain support in the US, Canada, or Puerto Rico for the Xbox, please call 1-800-4MY-XBOX (469-9269). Alternatively, you may want to try playing Skyrim on a different display. If you have any other issues, please feel free to contact us again.

Best regards,
******

In other words, they don't give a [censored].

It's sad but apparently true. They really do not care. And they totally used to, about their fans. This is life in the new age of corporate rule. I was lucky enough to have my flatscreen computer monitor for the desktop and a set of speakers that I can now finally play the game with. I got a VGA cable at Gamestop and one end is the same wide traqezoidal plug in that your normal XBox to TV cord has, the end you plug in to the XBox in place of that other cord. On the other end of it were two things, a cable computer monitor hook up (with the two screws on the side) which hooked right into my monitor, and the audio cables, red and white like those on the standard cord itself.

Unfortunately, the monitor doesn't have a direct speaker jack or ports. The set of speakers I have for the computer have two things on the end of the cord, a USB plug and a jack (light green). This is usually hooked into the proper places on my computer or my laptop, and I managed to get sound to the speakers through the laptop by using a piece that came with the VGA cable in the box. It's a little thing with two red white female ports that turns into a single 3.5 jack, and I plugged it into the microphone port. I googled how to adjust microphone settings (apparently never messed with by the former owner of my laptop), and going into sound settings, I got it to turn on. But man was it crappy. It's not really made to send a microphone signal, it's meant as a direct audio output signal. You could totally tell the difference. Basically if you've ever heard how a person can start sounding "tinny" or "echoy" over a cell phone, it was like that.

I solved that problem last night with a trip to Radio Shack. Got me a dual female jack piece (looks like a cylinder about an inch and a half long with a plug in receiver on each end) and now, with the video playing on my monitor, the USB plug of my speakers that power them plugged into one of the USB ports on the front of my XBox, and the green jack in one side of my speakers with the audio out part of the cable in the other one, I am playing Skyrim for the first time able to see all my display and read things. I finally learned what my carry capacity is and how much health, stamina, and magicka I have. Could've gotten the VGA cable cheaper than $35.00, but now I can even go back and read some of the lore stops in Dragon Age II (which I like a lot better than the first).

I fail to see how you can afford a $300 console and an internet connection yet you can't save up for an HDTV. Don't you at least have family that give you money for your b-day/x-mas? lol

Well in my case, I got my 360 back when I actually had money to throw around. And as for an internet connection, I share the costs with three other roommates. Money doesn't grow on trees, man.

Unlike yourself, not everyone is a child who gets money for their birthday, or even celebrates Christmas for that matter. "lol, i get free money. why can't you just go buy a new TV? lol derpaderp" is not a real solution to the problem. We're simply asking for the ability to adjust the HUD/interface position, which would have absolutely no effect on gameplay for HDTV users. I fail to see why Bethesda cannot add that, and I fail to see why anyone is against adding this option.
On another note, I got my xbox back in the spring. I've had no issue playing any games with my current xbox, and no problems displaying them on my SDTV until Skyrim. While saying I should upgrade my TV is a valid argument, I don't see any correlation between the fact that I once bought a video game system and can afford to have an internet connect, and Skyrim not displaying properly on an SDTV. You're saying because I once bought a console, and because I have access to the internet, I should be able to just go out and by a new TV just so I can play the one video game I've had display issues with. It's a bit of a stretch no? I fail to see why I should go out and pay 120+ dollars for a new TV on top of the 60 dollars I paid for the game, when Bethesda could just give us the ability to adjust the HUD to our screen.
Your argument is literally just "You can afford to live in an apartment, pay your rent, as well as the rest of your bills. Why can't you just go out and buy a TV?". It's completely unrealistic for me, and a lot of other people. We bought a game we thought would be compatible with our televisions (there was no reason to expect otherwise - Bethesda never mentioned it), it doesn't work, we would like a solution. What's wrong with that? We're customers just like you. We expect customer service, just like you. Why are you arguing against them fixing an issue with their game?
Sure, buying a TV fixes my problem. Do you think that solves the problem for the thousands of other people who are having the same display issues? Instead of just adding a patch, you want thousands of people to spend their money on a brand new TV just to be able to fully see the HUD in their game. It's a really bold argument, and I don't really see how it makes sense. Had they told their customers beforehand you would need an HDTV to play, I could assure you I, and I think a lot of other SD users, wouldn't have picked it up. But to just leave your SDTV customers/fans hanging out to dry instead of adding an adjustment option, and telling them to go buy a new TV is just plain unreasonable, and I can't see how you would think that's a fair message for a company to give to it's consumers.
Of course, I'm not actually responding to an official statement by Bethesda. I'm simply just making an argument.

Anyway, this is actually the first game I've bought upon release. I saved up since September to be able to purchase it. It's certainly a disappointment to say the least. (Not the game, but the displaying. I think the game is great).

I would like to point out the xbox was never meant to be an HD console. actually it was designed to be an affordable way for the average consumer to play the most cutting edge games that were on the market. This implies that a HD tv is not required.

Finally. Someone who knows the truth speaks. The XBox 360 is NOT a console with support for SD TVs. It is and was always a console FOR SD TV which was made with support for HD TV, which was still fairly rare back when it first came out. But Microsoft designed it with forward compatibility with this "new" format of television (may be more common now due to price, but not then).

Now all we need to do is destroy the myth that seems to be accepted fact that designing for SD TV is somehow the "extra" work effort. It is not. It is making a game for HD TV that requires more resources, which is probably why game developers (including Bethesda with every single Elder Scrolls title previous) did not immediately move to putting in the greater effort to make HD compatibility in their games. Some many years later, able to do so, viewed it as it should be, an additional option for those who wanted the best quality out of their systems that had that capability.

This is the first instance I've encountered too of a game made for a platform that specifically is meant for SD and HD televisions which explicitly refused to design in line with that system's own compatibility. Other games that worked without this major design FLAW (and by that I mean every game except for Skyrim) were not luck out situations. You don't accidentally get something as intricate and purposeful as a damn game design right by "luck". They were all examples of game designers who did their job right the first time. Period.

I contacted Bethesda, here's what went down.

Me:
Hi I have been an avid fan of the Elder Scrolls games Morrowind and Oblivion as well as Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas I recently purchased Skyrim on the day of it-and-039s release and was very disappointed to discover that it has issues running on my SDTV The text is too small though I can deal with that The main problem I have is that the HUD is almost completely off screen enough to where I can just barely see that it-and-039s there but to the point that I can-and-039t see the text in the top right of the screen I can-and-039t see how much money or weight I am carrying I cant tell what-and-039s going on in the compass and I can-and-039t see how much magichealthstamina I haveBut I am also disappointed that not only does it have issues but these issues were never made aware to the public I likely wouldn-and-039t have spent 60 dollars on a game that I knew had these problems I ask that you please consider patching this game with an option to change this It would be very simple to add an option in the game-and-039s menu to adjust the HUD boundaries and an option to increase text size Other game developers have done this before and I know it would not be too difficult a task for a company as talented as yourselfIf you plan on not fixing this issue however is there any way I can send you my game to receive back the full amount of money I paid for this title I know that if I were to sell back the game to Gamestop I would not receive the full amount I paid and I feel like I would have been severely ripped off by a company that I trusted especially when I was never informed that there would be problems with my TV It would be a shame if I had to resort to that considering how great the game appears to be but I feel as though I have been ripped off since I can-and-039t play the game the way it is meant to be played

Them:
Hello,
We are sorry for the inconvenience you have encountered with your game. Standard definition TVs are not supported on Skyrim. Also, all returns must go back to the place of purchase.



I'm actually going to try replying to the email to see if I can get an official response as to why they never made this publicly known, and why they didn't specifically tell me whether or not it will be patched.



Edit, here's my reply to them:

With all due respect, if Skyrim is not able to be played on an SDTV, why was this not made publicly known before launch, or even a week after launch after so many people have sent in complaints? Had I been warned beforehand that there would be problems with SDTVs, then I would have been ok with that. But that nobody from Bethesda has come out to publicly state that there is a problem (even after a week of the game being out) is just shady and unprofessional.

I am also curious as to why we are receiving mixed responses regarding whether or not this issue will be addressed. Some people have received replies from support that you are working on a fix, while others get replies that it's something that nothing will be done about. Even in your reply to me, you never stated whether or not this issue will be looked into. So which is it?

Also, I would really suggest that you guys do consider addressing this issue. It's not a difficult issue to deal with, as the only thing you have to do is add an option to the main menu to adjust the HUD's boundaries, and possibly the size of the text. It's something that's far easier than a bug to target, and really has no affect on other players if it's implemented in this way.

There is a large user base that still owns SDTVs, and Bethesda's actions make it seem like you don't truly care about your customers. I implore you to reconsider patching this in the game. However, I feel the smartest thing Bethesda can do right now is publicly state that there is a problem, and actually tell us clearly if this is or is not going to be addressed.

Bravo, sir. Glad to hear that people are still emailing them about this. "Not supported for SDTVs." Yeah, no [censored]! That's what we're complaining about! Bethesda, if you are reading this and you truly care about your fans, please do us the small favor of adding an option for SDTVs in the settings menu. That's all we ask. After all, you never warned us about this problem so we just went out and bought the game thinking everything would be fine. You MUST have known about this problem ahead of time, and yet you did nothing about it, nor did you think to tell anyone. We feel cheated and lied to. I have bought every one of your games since oblivion (including all DLC), spent hundreds of hours on them, and the fact that you are treating us this way boggles my mind.
You were my favorite developer, and now I will never be buying one of your titles ever again.

I would not tell you to buy a HD CRT... I have a 30" SONY Super Fine Pitch 1080i CRT, and it is still my display of choice for blu-ray movies and television, but not so much for gaming these days. I could never be convinced to part with that TV!

Developers for the Xbox 360 should be aware of the "title safe" region when it comes to HUD design, which accounts for overscan on older displays... unfortunately, not all follow the rules. Even accessing the service menu on my CRT and minimizing overscan as much as physically possible, there are some games that display HUD elements offscreen. What is worse, text was barely legible in Oblivion on this television set because of interlacing and a font that was only 1 or two pixels wide. I have not even bothered to try Skyrim on the TV, I have my 360 and PS3 hooked up to a dedicated Panasonic plasma.

If you want perfect motion, relatively good black level, accurate colors and perfect pixel geometry plasma is the only way to go these days; you need a progressive scan display to read the text in a lot of new games (720p is upscaled and interlaced on HD CRTs), sadly. The other nice thing about plasma is you can get a high-end PDP for far less than a local dimming LED backlit LCD; even the low-end PDPs deliver better gaming performance than top of the line LCDs.

If it doesn't support it, they need to make it known well before hand. Not doing so should be (if it isn't already), reportable to trading standards.

Game companies try to get away with so many things these days it should be a criminal offence as knowingly selling faulty goods already is, Games should come under the same catagory considering how big the industry is and how wide spread the problem is.

I have a thread with a poll. Go to my thread vote yes they should fix it on the poll cause I have a sdtv too and it really pisses me off. We don't all have the money to buy HDTV's and people don't understand that university costs alot, rent, e.t.c. so no buying a HDTV is not an option and bethesda coming out with a fix in the settings is an option.

My thread: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=1280349&st=

Vote on the poll if you have this problem! Lets get bethesda to fix this problem seeing as alot of people have it.

I did a little bit of digging through my huge collection of Xbox 360 games. The newest game I could find that listed 480i/p as supported resolutions was Forza Motorsport 2 (2007).

Assuming publishers would still list 480i/480p on the back of the box if the game were designed to be run in SD, this means SDTV has unofficially been unsupported by game developers for the majority of the Xbox 360’s lifespan.

I have to imagine they simply stopped printing “[480i/480p/]720p/1080i/1080p” because it was taking up a lot of real estate on the back cover (particularly on the sloppy boxes that are written in English, Spanish and French). If this is not the case, however, then Bethesda CAN legally claim that the feature list on the back of the box indicates that SDTV is unsupported.

Yeah but my tv has always displayed every Xbox 360 game I've played on it perfectly, screen cutting-wise, no matter what it said on the back of the box. I read and learned a lot about this game in the time since they first announced it, and not once did I see or hear anything from Bethesda about what resolutions Skyrim would support on consoles. First time I read that was right AFTER I had the game in my hands.

Aspect ratio has nothing to do with screen resolution. We've already been over this. The supported resolutions on the back of the game just mean that they support HDTVs, which is obvious. Every single game I have has that on the back, including Oblivion (2006, when HDTVs were obscure), which does not show 480p or 480i, but still supports a 4:3 screen ratio, not just 16:9, just like every other game I have. There is nothing on the back that shows that the game only supports a 16:9 ratio television, which should really be mentioned to the consumer before they buy it. It seems like a pretty important thing to mention. I don't see why it's not there, every other requirement is listed, why not your television, if you're intentionally not going to support a certain screen?

And to the Window 95 argument, there's a difference between your computer hardware being outdated (which is obvious why they don't support it), and having a TV not being supported.
The hardware in every single xbox 360 is the same, where as computers can have different hardware. Obviously they're not going to support a 95 computer, and thus they show requirements for the PC version of the game. Even then, there are settings you are able to adjust to make the game be able to work on your computer (graphic options, resolution, etc). We're asking for essentially the same thing.
This is not a hardware issue. This is a developer intentionally making a choice to ignore supporting a certain aspect ratio and not mentioning it to it's customers. You're right, ME2 had small text, but it was still able to fit perfectly on my screen. I don't see why Skyrim cannot, or should not, and once again, I'm not sure why anyone is against adding the option to adjust the HUD to your screen.

If bethesda said they can't do it, then why complain like this still?

They haven't said anything. We're still waiting for a public statement.
Even then, I for one would like an explanation why. They should make sure their customers know what they're getting into.

Oh maybe I'm mistaken then, I was referring to what I remember was an email response saying they can not fix the issue.

That email was a response to someone asking about the small text, not about the screen cutoff. Besides, other users have gotten replies stating that Beth ARE working on it. And every email I've sent to them they just ignore what I'm saying and give me a canned response that sounds like a robot wrote it.