So I used to have an older 360 without an HDMI port, and I hooked it up to my computer with one of
these that came with an adapter to plug the audio cables into the computer speakers, and it worked like a charm.
I'm going to be buying a new 360 soon, and I noticed that the HDMI ports are now standard. My monitor has an HDMI plug, but since the sound is apparently transmitted through the cable, and my monitor has no speakers (not that I'd want to use built in ones if it did), I don't see how I can use my computer's speakers with the xbox and the computer monitor.
is there some kind of setup that would facilitate this? I would just use the old cable I referred to, but I can't find the first-party cable I used, and all of the third party imitators have pretty bad reviews, with comments about ghosting problems. My TV is old as hell, and I can't even play some games on it (looking at you, dead rising) due to resolution issues. On the other hand, I have a very large 1080p monitor, so this is really the only acceptable way I can hook it up.
If anyone has ideas, I'm all ears.
Posts
The end.
Though depending on your speakers, you may need a RCA (red/white) converter. You can buy one at radioshack or any place that sells wires.
So, that plugs into the traditional AV port for the 360? So the HDMI gives you your video, but the older AV port (which I assume the new 360s still have) will give you your audio through that? And then I assume you'd need something like this to plug the speaker cable into.
Blurgh that's annoying having to buy two cables. Especially because the new systems don't come with the HDMI cable, and it's like $40.
Steam | XBL: Elazual | Last.fm
$40 HDMI cables? You need to learn to not buy cables at big box stores. You're getting ripped off.
monoprice.com is your friend for cables.
You HDMI to the monitor for the video. You use the adapter out of the component slot for optical or RCA (red/white) audio. This is the setup I use for my XBOX to TV and Astro A40s (or a receiver if I used one).
All told, the parts you need are $10-15 total.
$40 is on amazon, which usually has pretty good prices. And I'm not buying third party cables. I've been burned too many times on shitty third party HD cables to go that route.
okay, monoprice looks legit. I guess I'll just stop using amazon for that, then. There are a lot of resellers on there selling cables that are verifiably worse (take em apart and look at the shitty solder jobs/glue coming off etc). Monoprice is way more reasonable.
Steam | XBL: Elazual | Last.fm
An HMDI cable is an HDMI cable is an HDMI cable. It's all digital. You'll see a difference in analog cables sometimes, but don't let companies like Monster or Microsoft fool you into thinking it's their way or you're going to get burned. You bought into the hype.
Monoprice is extremely legit. It's where everyone on these boards will tell you to go for cables.
If you're paying $40 for an HDMI cable on Amazon.com, you're buying from the wrong people. I use Monoprice for LONG cables (like my 35 foot HDMI to DVI cable for my television), but if I want an HDMI cable quickly, I get free next day/free two day from Amazon.com.
$6.48. And it's not the cheapest either, and it comes with ethernet which you won't use.
Cables are where places like best buy make their money. Not in the TVs. The markup on cables is insane. They're not hard to make. And HDMI either works or it doesn't. There's no inbetween with digital unlike analog.
I think I've actually seen a little bit of "in-between" once before, where there was this weird little pattern of red dots that you could coerce to appear by bending the cable. Ironically, though, this WAS with a first-party cable, so again, it's really not related to brand.
To answer the bolded question: The HDMI does do sound and video, but only if the receiving monitor had built in speakers. For example, I run the 360's HDMI hook up to my television and use the old a/v port sound adapter to connect my speakers. Sound comes from both.
At any rate, monoprice is a really good resource. There are a lot of little cables and converters I hate having to hunt down, so it's nice to have a place with them all organized neatly for reasonable prices.
Steam | XBL: Elazual | Last.fm
It's just as much (if not more) the cable manufacturers than it is places like Best Buy. A few years back I saw Costco selling an HDMI cable kit for $40 - my understanding of their pricing model is to take a uniform margin percentage on all products (i.e. everything they sell is priced at "what we pay for it, plus X%"), meaning they were overpaying for the cables to begin with.
2) You buy the adapter listed in the second post. It will convert your component port from the 360 into a Red and White option for separate speakers.
3) Plug the HDMI cable from your 360 into your monitor. You now will have video on your monitor.
4) Plug the Red and White ports into your speaker cables. You will now have sound coming out of your speakers.
I forget if it is the new or old XBOXes that had trouble with this, but yeah, you crack off the plastic outer casing on the component audio out if you need to. It'll still work.
I have a reg. XBOX and it and the HDMI fit fine so maybe it's a slim problem?
If you never intended to use that cable, then it's no loss to try. That's my current set up with a (non-slim) 360.
Details on breaking the AV cable are found under 3.3 in this thread: http://www.avforums.com/forums/xbox-360/236980-frequently-asked-questions-xbox-360-faq-v7-0-a.html