Sharing Monitor/Speakers between a PC and a 360

Evangir

Thread title says it all really.

I'm looking to make an inexpensive upgrade to HD gaming, as my current TV is a cheap 27" Toshiba on its last legs. What I'm considering is upgrading to a nice 22" monitor (probably a Samsung), and then sharing the monitor/speakers using a KVM switch. What I'm not sure about is how to connect the red/white audio connections from the 360's VGA HD AV cable to the rest, since KVMs that support audio only have the speaker/headphone jack from what I've looked at so far.

Are there any products out there specifically that I could use to make this work?

embrik

How about one of these?

(Edit: Scary, it's Product ID 666!)

robaal

Tou might not even need the switch thing - many monitors have more than one input that you can switch between from the OSD; in such case you could connect the X360 sound output to the sound card's line-in socket and you should hear it along with your PC sounds (though you can mute "wave" in the mixer to get rid of most of them).

Evangir

embrik wrote: »

How about one of these?

(Edit: Scary, it's Product ID 666!)

That's perfect. Thank you.

Would you (or anyone) be able to recommend a good KVM /w Audio? I'm looking at the Belkins but I've heard they have issues with automatically switching back and forth, in addition to a lengthy delay.

embrik

IMHO, I/O Gear makes the best KVMs, though they can be a bit on the pricey side. However, they always include the cables, whereas Belkins usually do not.

Manic205

I have an Audigy 2 soundcard, and all I needed to get my 360 in there was a $3 RCA-adapter thing from Fry's Electronics. Dual monitors with a 360 and a gaming rig, both using my surround sound, is just bliss.

Evangir

Thank you everyone for the great advice. Tomorrow I'll be able to pick up the 360 VGA cables and the RCA adapter from Best Buy, and give this a shot before buying a bigger monitor. Should be much less of a headache than I expected.

Serule

I currently have my 360 sharing my 22" Samsung LCD with my computer; it's pretty sweet. Many LCD monitors (including mine) have 2 inputs - one VGA and one DVI. My PC is hooked to the DVI port, and I bought the official 360 VGA adaptor to hook my 360 to the VGA port. To switch between PC and 360, I just push the 'source' button on the monitor.

Make sure your monitor has two ports: one VGA from the 360 + one of whatever your PC outputs (DVI in my case, but I think some monitors have dual VGA inputs).

Sound was a little trickier, but still pretty easy - the 360 VGA adaptor *includes* an audio adaptor that takes your red/white audio RCA cables and spits out one 3.5mm cable, which then plugs into the "line-in" of your soundcard. Since my PC is on the floor, my cable wouldn't reach, so I had to buy an extender, which was $6 at Best Buy.

Note that most LCDs are actually 16x10 aspect ratio, and 720p is 16x9 aspect ratio. You can choose a 16x10 aspect ratio in the 360 dashboard, but the only game I have (Dead Rising) just fills the whole screen anyhow, so it shows some slight stretching (about 11%) in the vertical direction. Other games may properly letterbox it (slight black bars at top and bottom), but I cannot verify.

Long story short - all I needed to buy was the 360 VGA adaptor and a 3.5mm extender cable (and 360+monitor of course). You won't need the extender cable if your PC / 360 / LCD are all next to each other.

thej3w

The Xbox 360 VGA cable comes with the RCA adaptor already. You don't need to purchase them. I recently got a VGA cable and it came with everything I needed for hooking it up to my computer and monitor.

Manic205

thej3w wrote: »

The Xbox 360 VGA cable comes with the RCA adaptor already. You don't need to purchase them. I recently got a VGA cable and it came with everything I needed for hooking it up to my computer and monitor.

The first party one does not, and cost me $40. Yesterday at Target I happened to see a VGA kit for $15 that also had the RCA. Damn.

Serule

Manic205 wrote: »

thej3w wrote: »

The Xbox 360 VGA cable comes with the RCA adaptor already. You don't need to purchase them. I recently got a VGA cable and it came with everything I needed for hooking it up to my computer and monitor.

The first party one does not, and cost me $40. Yesterday at Target I happened to see a VGA kit for $15 that also had the RCA. Damn.

My first party VGA adaptor included the RCA adaptor.

Evangir

Picked up everything today, and it looks absolutely incredible. I had no idea what I was missing using a standard def TV. The only problem? The blood audio cable is too short! It came with the correct adapter (and was first-party), but is overall about 2 feet too short. Oh well. An easy fix.

Manic205

Serule wrote: »

Manic205 wrote: »

thej3w wrote: »

The Xbox 360 VGA cable comes with the RCA adaptor already. You don't need to purchase them. I recently got a VGA cable and it came with everything I needed for hooking it up to my computer and monitor.

The first party one does not, and cost me $40. Yesterday at Target I happened to see a VGA kit for $15 that also had the RCA. Damn.

My first party VGA adaptor included the RCA adaptor.

I know mine totally didn't...