HDMI 360 Pro's missing audio dongle?

[goji]

^ no it does not. Optical simply doesn't have the bandwidth to carry over the larger amounts of data the new formats hold. The only way to do this is through an HDMI cable or via multichannel analog connections (DVD-A or SACD).

You do not need a 1.3 device for the new formats, 1.2 and 1.1 will suit you fine since the audio in HD-DVD has to be decoded at the player level due to the formats architecture.

Additionally, In the early days of HDMI and the whole HD debacle, it was rumored that you would have to have HDMI to "unlock" the HD audio and video for copyright protection between appropriate HDCP compliant devices; thankfully that has been abandoned until the next format revision.

[Justin03248]

I wonder why MS didn't bump it up to 1.3.

[goji]

1.3 spec wasn't finalized at the time MS was developing the 360 Elite. Sony who sits on the HDMI board however had inside resources, and that is why the PS3 is 1.3 compliant which happened to ship months before the 360 Elite.

[-Anthony]

Will the console even allow you to have both an HDMI and AV cable plugged in at the same time ?

Am thinking of cutting off some plastic on the AV cable.

[magik]

Will the console even allow you to have both an HDMI and AV cable plugged in at the same time ?

Am thinking of cutting off some plastic on the AV cable.

The Elite comes with the necessary cable and you apparently have to buy the cable for the other SKUs. See my earlier post.

[-Anthony]

The Elite comes with the necessary cable and you apparently have to buy the cable for the other SKUs. See my earlier post.

No, lol, I already have a Pro with HDMI (Halo 3 is around the corner). My question would be if I were to cut off some of the plastic on the VGA cable and it was able to fit with an HDMI would it work ?

Does the console "accept" both outputs or will it give me an error ?

[magik]

No, lol, I already have a Pro with HDMI (Halo 3 is around the corner). My question would be if I were to cut off some of the plastic on the VGA cable and it was able to fit with an HDMI would it work ?

Does the console "accept" both outputs or will it give me an error ?

Yes, both outputs will work. But I'm not sure if cutting off some of the plastic would work, I'd be very careful. ;)

[-Anthony]

Yes, both outputs will work. But I'm not sure if cutting off some of the plastic would work, I'd be very careful. ;)

I read somewhere some kid did it. Ill do it next week and let you know.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Keep in mind: Most people won't even be using HDMI. Especially those not buying the Elite model.

Regarding HDMI 1.3 - isn't the only difference support for Dolby TrueHD? Since the 360's sound hardware doesn't support that, and none of the games include it - I don't see it being a big deal that the port doesn't support it...

The only use I could think of would be for HD-DVD playback. But again, I'm pretty sure that would require new sound hardware in the 360 so it'd be a bigger change.

[goji]

Keep in mind: Most people won't even be using HDMI. Especially those not buying the Elite model.

Regarding HDMI 1.3 - isn't the only difference support for Dolby TrueHD? Since the 360's sound hardware doesn't support that, and none of the games include it - I don't see it being a big deal that the port doesn't support it...

The only use I could think of would be for HD-DVD playback. But again, I'm pretty sure that would require new sound hardware in the 360 so it'd be a bigger change.

Its a little more than that, however 1.2 would be great if MS didn't cripple its abilities. The 360 HD-DVD addon would be stellar if it allowed for the transmission of MPCM over HDMI, instead it only allows for stereo PCM to be sent over.

No players on the market at this time allow for the bitstream or the actual TrueHD etc files to be sent to a receiver/pre/pre for decoding; its pointless as the player per format specs has to decode these files.