Connecting an XBOX360 to a PC monitor

bunga_aj

bunga_aj

bunga_aj

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Hi guys, I don't know if any of you will have any experience with connecting a 360 to a PC monitor but I've been thinking about implementing this for a while now and it's all a bit too confusing for my simple mind!!

I have a Samsung 22" Pebble (SM2232BW) widescreen monitor.

The monitor has x2 DVI ports at the back. I can find plenty of HDMI -> VGA adaptor cables but not so many HDMI -> DVI? Is it as simple as finding one of those and plug & play?

From various forums and product reviews, I've read that it might be necessary to buy a seperate cable for audio as well but I assume this might only be for HDTV's as they will obviously have speakers whereas this monitor doesn't? I have my own seperate sound system.

Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.
 
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Remove the competitor link.

Does your sound system have an optical in? if so it's a simply matter of using the HD/AV connector on the xbox to the sound system and a HDMI cable from the Xbox to the PC with a HDMI to DVI splitter, you can even get cables which have one HDMI and one DVI head. Just search for HDMI to DVI on google.
 
I use the official XBox 360 > VGA cable with sound coming through PC speakers.

Could you not use this with a VGA > DVI adapter?
 
HDMI to DVI should be more common than HDMI to VGA lol

But to answer your Q, yeah I think a simple HDMI to DVI adapter should work, the only ussye you'll have is no audio. You'll have to use either the official adapter or mod a component/composite 360 cable to fit (basically requires you to remove part of the casing so it fits with the HDMI plugged in as well
 
Thanks for the quick replies guys. Sorry about the link, it's removed now.

Fenris - I have no idea if it has optical in mate. I'm not very technical at all (as you may have guessed by this point!!)

My speaker/subwoofer system is: Creative Inspire 7.1 T7900. I also have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer - Fatal1ty Professional Series 7.1 Sound Card. I can't find product links for either of these on overclockers anymore, sorry.

Do you have any idea how I would go about connecting up audio from a 360 to those? The speakers themselves are plugged into the panel on the back of the subwoofer but my green/black and orange audio jacks obviously go into the soundcard ports at the back of my PC.

Reaper - I had thought of that as I currently use a CRT monitor as well and have to use a VGA/DVI adaptor to get it to work with my graphics card (GTX 260). It kind of sounds like one too many adaptors though haha. Can anyone shed any light on this methods suitability?

cokecan - Should I already have the official adaptor or would I need to buy that seperately? I bought a 360 arcade if that matters?
 
i think you only get the adapter with the elite's dont you??

This is what I'm talking about:
5ddf10.jpg


This fit's in under the hdmi cable and provides you with optical and L&R audio out while using HDMI for video
 
I think those speakers are analogue (no digital decoder) so you'll only get stereo out of the xbox using the red and white phonos, and no bass.
You MIGHT be able to set your sound drivers on the PC up so that the optical out on the xbox runs into your sound card on the PC and then your PC decodes it and pumps out the 6 channels to your speakers, but it's not something I've tried.
 
bunga_aj said:
I have a Samsung 22" Pebble (SM2232BW) widescreen monitor.
Click to expand...
I have the same monitor and I'm sure mine has 1 DVI and 1 VGA... I run mine with the official VGA cable and use the optical out for sound on my z-5500's.

I'll check when I get home from work.
 
Cokecan - Thanks dude. I will check when I get home if we have that. I'm assuming that it can be bought seperately if not and then can use in conjunction with a seperate HDMI -> DVI cable for the video output.

Monkeyspank - I moved house recently and have a helluva lot less space to implement surround sound properly so I've stuck with just two speakers, basically 2.1 instead of 7.1. Surely that would make things stereo in my case anyway? lol. Would you suggest I go with cokecan's plan and check for the official adaptor?

Eggyoke - I definitely have two DVI slots on mine. The real problem here seems to be audio though as effectively, I've found some reliable HDMI to DVI cables now. How did you get sound working on yours dude?
 
if your monitor does have 1 VGA and 1 DVI as Eggyoke says then you can simply use the official VGA cable, this has the VGA connection plus both L&R phono sockets and an optical audio output all in the same cable
 
bunga_aj said:
Monkeyspank - I moved house recently and have a helluva lot less space to implement surround sound properly so I've stuck with just two speakers, basically 2.1 instead of 7.1. Surely that would make things stereo in my case anyway? lol. Would you suggest I go with cokecan's plan and check for the official adaptor?
Click to expand...

Well, I think your speakers get the bass channel ( the .1 bit of 2.1) from a different pair of inputs (I think bass and centre channel are paired), so you'll just get 2.0 i.e. Left and Right, no bass.
Will sound V tinny with those speakers as they are meant to be used as a set. Would work though.
Could be wrong about this, am not familiar with those sets but if they are as PC orientated as I imagine then the above will be true. They could have a 'mode' or something that creates the bass channel out of just L+R

And yeah, that adaptor would work, but..

First thing to check though is that your monitor doesn't have a VGA input because if it does, just get the official VGA cable which has the L+R audio outputs as well.
 
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cokecan72 said:
if your monitor does have 1 VGA and 1 DVI as Eggyoke says then you can simply use the official VGA cable, this has the VGA connection plus both L&R phono sockets and an optical audio output all in the same cable
Click to expand...

I'm 100% positive that they're both DVI slots on my monitor, unlike Eggyoke's. Reaper mentioned earlier in the thread using a DVI to VGA adaptor and putting the official VGA cable in that way?

I already have one of the little DVI to VGA connector/adaptor things as I'm running an old CRT monitor at the same time that comes with a VGA cable.

Would that work or would there be issues connecting a HDMI to DVI cable to a DVI to VGA adaptor all at the same time?
 
Are they DVI-I or DVI-D DVI ports? DVI-I allow analogue signals ("VGA") through the DVI ports which means you can just use the VGA/DVI block to use VGA on your DVI port.
 
lol this is starting to get complicated.

Not sure if a HDMI to DVI then DVI to VGA adapter will work. It might do? As far as I'm aware the 360 doesnt use HDCP with the HDMI so it might do?

Using a HDMI to DVI cable direct to your monitor should work, but as you know, you'll need the extra cable to get audio.

Using the 360's offical VGA cable connected to a DVI to VGA adapter in reverse (the ones you normally get with graphics cards) probably wont work because the DVI connection is DVI-I which supports both analogue and digital connections where as the DVI connection on a monitor is usually just DVI-D (digital only). They both have a varying number of pins to stop you plugging the wrong kind of connection into the wrong socket. The connection it self would also be the wrong way round, female to female lol
 
Kreee - They should be DVI-D as cokecan points out

cokecan - You're damn right this is getting complicated haha, unnecessarily so I might add! You'd think doing this would be made easier?!

Buying the 360 audio cable is not a problem but it would be nice to have bass too! Monkeyspank seems to think that I will lose the bass doing this?

The weirdest thing is, every single review I find of my monitor displays them as having x1 VGA slot and x1 DVI but I'm absolutely positive mine has x2 DVI. Very annoying indeed.
 
Most dual DVI monitors have a DVI-I and a DVI-D port, I don't think cokecan is right.

His comment about the female-female issue is wrong too as the 360 VGA cables come with a male-male adapter.

Check your manual.
 
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I thought this was confusing earlier this morning.. now my heads fried! hahah.

I really don't know anything about cables. My knowledge goes as far as "this end of the cable has the same shape as this hole here, so it must be for it!"

You guys have very kindly indeed thought of some great stuff and identified many issues/problems and possible options to go forward with but there seems to be a conflict in ideas developing and I'm like the lost animal in the herd. I need sheparded! haha.

If at this stage you had to make a choice about how to best connect the console to the monitor & have everything in working order (including audio) how would you do it? What products would you need (links if at all possible?) and what connects to what etc etc. I really am a complete simpleton on this topic lol.

Thanks so much for everything so far guys.

EDIT: Also, I will check tonight regarding what cables came with the 360 arcade and also double check those ports on my monitor but I'm cast iron sure theyre both DVI.
 
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You need to find out if your monitor has DVI-I sockets before anyone can make any recommendations, check your manual.
 
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