Getting sound to 360 using Monitor, HDMI & optical?

DanTheMan · 6 May 2009 at 23:52

Going to order a 360 and some Z-540s tomorrow and they will be used with my Dell 2409W, I'm confused as to how exactly I'll be getting sound.

If I get one of these HDMI AV cables:

Will it just be a straightforward connect?

Kreeeee · 7 May 2009 at 00:12

Yes, or you can easily mod the standard component cable to provide audio and use a normal HDMI cable.

DanTheMan · 7 May 2009 at 00:13

Kreeeee said:
Yes, or you can easily mod the standard component cable to provide audio and use a normal HDMI cable.

How do I go about doing this and does it look ok or like some bodge job gone wrong?

Kreeeee · 7 May 2009 at 00:20

http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?t=803048

DanTheMan · 7 May 2009 at 00:39

Cheers Kreeeee, think I'll succumb to the money grabbers at Microsoft and spend £22 on the HDMI AV cable

Kreeeee · 7 May 2009 at 00:40

Here's mine anyway:

Took about 3 minutes to do and let me use a £3 HDMI cable

DanTheMan · 7 May 2009 at 00:47

On second thoughts, I'll try that first and see how it lasts. Already got a few HDMI cables lying around.

Anybody know if the Z-540s have optical as I can't seem to find anything on google?

Hyper · 7 May 2009 at 00:53

I am using pretty much the same setup, Dell S2409W connected to my 360 via HDMI.

Using one of those optical out things from the back of my 360 to connect it to my Z-5500 system.

No complaints here, cracking sound and vision and easy enough to setup.

DanTheMan · 7 May 2009 at 23:53

Just removed the casing and metal from my component lead now and removed all the wires, it was easy.

Doesn't look as bad as I thought and will be fine with some black tape around it.

Cheers Kreeeee

Kreeeee · 7 May 2009 at 23:58

No problem

I never bothered with black tape... may do that now actually.

Did you make sure that you cut the black looping wire? If not the 360 will reset when you change TV channels

DanTheMan · 8 May 2009 at 00:27

Kreeeee said:
No problem

I never bothered with black tape... may do that now actually.

Did you make sure that you cut the black looping wire? If not the 360 will reset when you change TV channels

I did cut it yes but seeing as though I'm playing through a monitor I don't think it would've made much difference?

Kreeeee · 8 May 2009 at 01:17

It's to do with the HDMI handshake, so swapping to VGA and back to HDMI would cause the same issue on some monitors, but not something you have to worry about now

DanTheMan · 9 May 2009 at 00:58

How gutted am I. Just received the Z-540s and they haven't even got optical. Looks like I'll have to fork out for that HDMI cable.

*EDIT* - Just realised my monitor supports 1080p through VGA. Why didn't I think of this before? ~.~

Kreeeee · 9 May 2009 at 02:06

Ah pants, if you didn't cut the cables you could have used the standard red/white phono stereo cables

DanTheMan · 9 May 2009 at 02:57

Kreeeee said:
Ah pants, if you didn't cut the cables you could have used the standard red/white phono stereo cables

Silly of me to assume really.

Anyway I can just use the adapter that came with the speakers to get it working properly and everyone seems to agree that VGA is the superior picture when compared to HDMI with the 360.

Kreeeee · 9 May 2009 at 03:06

Who's everyone? A load of people used to on these forums, but the general consensus on AVFourms (they generally know a lot more on things like this) is that it very much depends on your TV/monitor. Neither are ever bad though so VGA will be fine