Xbox 360 HDMI Cable with Optical Output - Page 2

Say the 360 is on and you're playing a game. You pause the game, switch the TV's input over to your cable box to look at something on TV for a moment. Then switch back to the 360....bam, it reboots just as if you just turned the power on. Some folks don't care, as they never do that sort of thing, while it drives others crazy. Depending on which camp you're in, will determine whether you need to do the jumper snip mod or not.

FWIW, I have 2 of the Monoprice dongles and haven't had any issue with optical cable retention. YMMV.

P.J.

This thread just saved me $40. I got to it through Google, signed up to view some pictures, and fixed all of my problems.

I (completely platonically and non-homosexually) love you all.

To explain, I modded my HDMI and VGA cables to fit in together, wrapped them in electrical tape, and plugged them in. Works AMAZINGLY. Thank you so much!

One thing to look out for with a modded VGA cable is that there are a couple of pins that are common to both the VGA connection and the HDMI connection and this can cause issues. Specifically pins 21 and 23 on the AV connector are used for plug n play for both a VGA monitor and they're also present in the HDMI connector for the same purpose and also to allow HDCP comms. If you ever hookup both the HDMI monitor and the VGA monitor at the same time, there could be some confusion on the part of the 360. Barring that, the unterminated stub due to the multiple connections on those 2 pins can cause signal integrity issues. In my case, it was the dreaded "blink" where the picture would drop for split second and then come back. This was caused by signal integrity on the plug n play/HDCP comm path. Some equipment is more tolerant than others. So, if you're not seeing any issue, then you can safely ignore all of this.

P.J.

Sorry for bumping an old thread but I am having this issue and I can't find information on it elsewhere.

I pried off the casing for an audio adapter so it will fit simultaneously with the HDMI cable. I connected the HDMI cable to a DVI male-HDMI female converter and into my monitor on native 1680x1050 resolution. I have my laptop connected to the monitor's VGA port and the audio adapter is connected to a male red/white RCA to female 3.5mm connector and into a set of speakers.

Randomly, when playing a game, I will have a blink of 1-2 seconds where the screen is black but the audio and game are still going. This is problematic and I'm starting to worry whether it is the console or the set-up. Is the issue with the monitor, the xbox, the hdmi cable, or the set-up???

The xbox in question is a 4gb xbox 360 slim, and it's hooked up to a 22" Samsung SyncMaster T220 monitor.

Thanks in advance..

I think have a similar setup for my PC monitor. A desktop PC is hooked up to the monitor's VGA port while my 360 is hooked up with a HDMI-to-DVI cable. And the audio adapter connects the 360 to a RCA-to-1/8" adapter to PC speakers.

The audio adapter is slim enough so you shouldn't have had to remove the external casing.

did this start happening recently or always?

the only big difference in my setup is one end of the cable is HDMI and the other end is DVI. i didn't use any gender changer or converter.

I just bought the xbox off craigslist so I haven't been able to test it on any other set-up. I got the console four days ago and it has been doing it since. It might be important to note that with the HDMI-DVI adapter it is a very tight fit in my monitor, so that the HDMI cable quickly makes a 90 degree turn right after it plugs into the DVI adapter. Is this putting too much stress on the HDMI cable or DVI port? I bought this audio adapter off amazon:

amazon(dot)com/gp/product/B001S5CCF2/ref=oh_o01_s00_i01_details

One of the top comments is to remove the external casing, so I did. Maybe this is an older edition that doesn't fit well with the HDMI cable?

I didnt know they had HDMI/DVI cables. If the stress is the culprit I should pick up one of those

I'd never make a cable bend 90 degrees.

the audio adapter looks like a normal adapter. it didn't fit with the hdmi cable? it should've. the guy's instructions were for converting a regular VGA or component cable by removing the casing so that that cable can be plugged in with the HDMI cable. the whole point of selling the audio adapter was so you didn't have to hack up a VGA or component cable.

i think this is the hdmi-dvi cable I have. works great and really cheap:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

I see what you mean. I hacked up my audio adapter for no reason . I'll get the monoprice cable you mentioned and see if it helps.

Does my issue have anything to do with what P.J. was talking about the pins on the VGA cable, or does the audio adapter already fix that? Assuming the issue isn't solved with the new cable, would my next step be contacting microsoft for warranty?

Thanks!

your issue doesn't have to do with PJ's pins on the VGA cable. the VGA cable issue was if you use the VGA cable as your "audio adapter" and you switched TV inputs, it could cause the 360 to reboot.

but you're using the audio adapter instead of hacking a VGA or component cable.

is your 360 called Display Discovery video setting set to "on"? have that set to on as well.

does this problem happen with any other TV or monitor?

Display Discovery is enabled. I haven't gotten the chance to test it with any other TV or monitor as I don't have a TV or another monitor to test it on. (I'm in college). I'm going to have to go home over break to test it out at home. I'll update when I find out whether the new cable fixes it, or if the issue persists on my home TV.

I can't get Dolby Digital 5.1 as the digital output on one of the newer 250GB using HDMI and an optical cable. It worked fine on my older xbox with component and the optical cable. Is there a setting somewhere I'm missing? I have my receiver set up to receive the optical.

Thanks

The cable hasn't come in yet but I found that if i switch my desktop lamp on or off, the screen will do the aforementioned black flash. Out of the two power jacks I have in this corner of the room, one of them is plugged to my refrigerator and the other one is plugged to a surge protector that is connected to everything else: Laptop, Monitor, Speakers, External HD, Printer, and Desk lamp (fluorescent bulb). Do you think it has something to do with reaching the limits of the energy output of the wall jack? Even with the light off, the screen will still flash once every few hours, so maybe there there is more than one culprit.

When the xbox isn't on (plugged to laptop via VGA), this does not happen.

bump

I just got the cable today and it doesn't do it anymore.

Thanks for your help!

good to hear your problem is gone!

If I'm reading this forum thread correctly, and please correct me if I am wrong - even newly purchased 360s like mine (250GB holiday bundle w/ fable3 and Halo ODST) you cannot hook up both HDMI and optical audio outputs and get both to work (as in my case). I get stereo audio through my TV via the HDMI connection, but no evidence of any audio being pushed out the optical cable.

In order to achieve this, I have to buy yet another cable from microsoft or monoprice to achieve this function - even though both HDMI and optical outputs are provided on the xbox itself. This is ludicrous to me, my PS3 allows this function to occur and even gives me the ability to change the video/audio options - per connection type - in the setup menus.

If Sony can do it, why can't Microsoft? I can't be that difficult of a thing to program into the hardware or the menus. Even my Tivo will allow me to do this without much trouble.

Yes, the easiest thing to do would be to replace my aging 15 year old receiver with a shiny new model that supports HDMI switching and pass through - but I guess to fix the problem with a $3 cable from monoprice (though they will charge me $5 to ship the darn thing) this will get me through.

that is incorrect. the new 360S has an optical port onboard.

the thread you are reading is mostly talking about the old 360. the old 360 did not have an onboard optical port. so you had to get an audio adapter if you wanted HDMI with optical output.

but if you got a component cable or a VGA cable, those cables did have the optical port. but the casing on the cable was too big so you couldn't simultaneously plug in an HDMI cable and the VGA or component cable. So the bulk of this thread was if you didn't want to buy an audio adapter or didn't have the audio adapter already, you could remove the casing on the component cable or VGA cable and use that cable for your optical audio while still using the HDMI for video.

so you spent a lot of energy to rant about something that doesn't apply to you.

^^^ Exactly. 360s has no problem output both.

Has anyone done this, use component for audio and hdmi for video, only to experience the audio to be very, very quiet.

After fixing the rebooting issue, I noticed that the sound is almost unexistent, making the whole process rather pointless. My speakers work well with anything else, and when the HDMI isn't plugged in and I've tried with 2 separate cables. One being an audio/hdmi dongle.

I'm a bit confused by your question... Component is for video, not audio. This thread was specifically about using optical for audio and using HDMI for video. This is widely done and as far as I know, no issues with audio levels have been reported. The audio level coming out of the optical output is the same whether using component for video on the same cable or HDMI on another cable.

Sorry, I'm really not the best with this stuff. I meant to say the optical for audio.

As soon as my HDMI for video is connected to my monitor, the sound goes really low. I just do the tape method, covering pins 28 to 30 I think to stop the rebooting, but yeah, the sound volume drops when it's connected.

I actually just went to retape my audio dongle in attempt to fix this issue, but then I started getting the reboot issue again. So I just actually began using my default cable, and taping it, and I thought I'd mention that there are only 6ish teeth showing when looking into the female adapter part which connects to the xbox (sorry if this is unclear). I covered the 2 bottom left and it works, but the volume again is quite low.

If you're using the official Microsoft HDMI audio dongle, then you definitely shouldn't be taping over any pins. The MS dongle is already wired correctly and there won't be any pins in position to tape over. 3rd party HDMI audio dongles probably won't have pins that actually need to be there (monoprice excepted). If you're using a real component/HDTV AV cable, then and only then, should there be a need to tape over pins.

In any case, it should have no effect on the volume of audio via the red and white RCA connectors (analog audio). I'm at a loss as to what adapter you have based on the description of looking into the female end of the connector and seeing only 6 pins, two of which are at the bottom left position. Bottom left 2 pins, assuming it's the 2 leftmost pin positions with the wider end of the connector at the top, are the correct pins to cover.

P.J.