Owners of the newly revved Xbox 360 Premium with HDMI or the upcoming Halo3 edition may find their new baby lacking in the sound department because neither model comes with the same audio adapter bundled with the Xbox 360 Elite.While this may not matter to those who get their sound from the HDTV’s built in speakers, it will matter to owners with separate surround sound audio systems. The Elite’s audio adapter is a dongle with RCA and optical output ports.If you want that same kind of output option on your new 360 or Halo 3 console with HDMI, you have two options: Buy the $50 Xbox 360 HDMI AV Cable, or switch your HDTV’s audio setting from internal speakers to external output (providing yours has it; not all HDTVs do). Now the audio coming from the 360’s HDMI connection will get redirected to the audio output ports and connected surround sound speakers.
sigh…..now I dont know what to do! I want diginal audio, hdmi would be nice…also want a new machine with zepher….aarrg. the never ending game of $50 more and $50 more….etc.
not zepher – Falcon…
Confused…what if I dont own an HDtv yet? I want to buy the 360 with the HDMI connection (for when i do eventually get an HDtv), but my current TV does not accept HDMI. I thought that this version of the 360 would come with the standard AV dongle, an HDMI cable, and ports for both. Am i wrong?
@Jeff
The Xbox 360 Premium with the HDMI connection does not come with an HDMI cable or optical audio adapter. It does come with the HD AV adapter that has component video (up to 1080p if your TV supports it…most now do) and this adapter has an input for an optical sound cable to connect to your surround sound. I’ve personally compared both the component and HDMI video out from my new console and can’t tell the difference on my 42″ Sharp Aquos 1080p display. Hope that helps.
My solution: A $5 Gameshark multi-system component video cable from Best Buy. It fits fine with my HDMI cable. Take that, Microsoft!
I tried rerouting the audio as mentioned above and the audio output its not 5.1 at all. In my opinion i think microsoft did a bad choice when not providing the adapter on their Halo limited edition. Limited means just that. I guess microsoft is not really consumer oriented.
I def. want my full 5.1 I guess I’ll just hook up my XBOX component video status on my 55″ HD it only does 1080i anyways then bust the optical to the 5.1
The only job the audio adaptor does is fit in with the HDMI cable. The standard adaptor is too wide – not a good reason to spend $50
If you split the case off the standard adaptor you still get the optical out port on it and the HDMI cable will fit down the side.
Just what Mik said. Take the standard supplied HD component cables and split the adapter box with a screw driver. It will take some force but the box is not attached to the cords at all. It will eventually pop off and you can peel the other side off. This slide the now silver and slimmer adapter back into your xbox and attach the HDMI cable at the same time. And you can use the Optical out.