Using standard HDMI cable + getting separate audio on your 360

[Kushan]

All right kitties, some of you may (or may not) know that most 360's all come with HDMI ports these days. Great!

However, only the elite comes with a special HDMI cable that will allow you to get separate audio from the 360.

What does this mean?

Well, say you want to use HDMI, but you're plugging it into a monitor that has no speakers. How do you get audio?

Or maybe your HDMI TV doesn't have optical out, but you've got that nice 5.1 system there and want to use it.

Maybe your HDTV DOES have optical out, but it doesn't support the full 5.1 Dolby doo-dah the component cable does.

What do you do?

Well, the obvious answer is to plug in the component cable that came with your 360 AND the HDMI cable at the same time. This would work, except that Microsoft deliberately made the component cable a bit too fat to fit in beside a HDMI cable, so you're forced to buy their (very) expensive, official HDMI cable.

Or are you?

Well, a lot of you know that you can just break the case off of your component cable to make it fit. It looks a bit nasty, but otherwise it works and you can still use your component cables if you really want to.

Except there's one problem with this, that I'll detail later.

For those of you who DON'T know, opening the component cable's case is easy, you just pop a screwdriver or knife in the side, wiggle it around a bit and twist. It's just like making love.

Here's a nice image showing what to do:

It takes a fair bit of effort to crack it open so don't be afraid to get a little tough with it.

Now you can connect that to your 360 at the same time as a HDMI cable to enjoy the separate audio it gives (Just make sure the switch is set to "TV" mode if you want optical audio).

But, I DID say there was one small problem with this. It may not be a problem to most people, but it certainly was to me. Now, whenever you switch channels/inputs on your TV or monitor, the 360 will restart itself automatically, no matter what you were doing. This is due to how the 360 works - when the HDMI cable is "turned off". the 360 switches to the component, but this requires a restart. Luckily, there's a way around this as long as you're willing to hack your component cable just a little bit more (And probably render it useless in the process, but at the end of the day the component cable costs about 1/6th the price of the official HDMI cable).

All you have to do is cut a single wire inside the cable. Don't worry, this is very easy to do. The trickiest part is GETTING to the cable.

Start off by looking at the sides of your metal chunk of component cable. You'll notice that a larger piece of metal "overlaps" the other bit of metal. Wedge a screwdriver under it and pry it open. It's not stuck or screwed down, it's just a bit tough.

There's a bit at the side the optical port is at as well, so be sure to pry that out as well, until you can lift the whole thing up.

It should look a bit like this:

Now you'll notice that the (now warped) piece of metal is attached to the cable itself. You CAN clip this off, if you like, but I didn't need to in order to get to the wire I needed (it was just a bit more fiddly).

Should you decide to clip that bit of metal, you'll get something that looks like this:

Don't worry, we're nearly done!

Look at all of the wires going to the port that plugs into the 360 (that big metal bit you've been bending). If you look very closely, you should be able to see a small black wire that loops back into it. It doesn't go into any other part of the cable or the little circutboard on the metal bit, it just loops out from one of the pins and back into another pin just beside it.

This is the wire you want to cut. Note that when you cut this wire, you'll be rendering your component cable useless as a video output, but it'll still output sound just fine!

If anyone wants me to put a picture up to help them here, let me know and I'll show you mine.

Once you cut this wire, you're done, you can reassemble the component cable as much as you like (i.e. squash all the metal bits back down), plug it into your 360 along with the HDMI cable and your 360 will no longer restart if you change channels!

Job done =)

Note: Images borrowed from both engadget and here.

[DJ Sven]

So I have a question, if I were to do this, would the component cable interfere with the video output on my HDMI?

[Dom]

So I have a question, if I were to do this, would the component cable interfere with the video output on my HDMI?

No, HDMI isnt susceptible to interference (as its digital data).

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Yeah.. and component is analogue, so even though they have something in common (AV), they have absolutely nothing in common signal-wise. >.>

[Massiveterra]

Whoa, 3 years for 1 comment

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Hey, you still need to do this to get HDMI+Optical on an Xbox. :laugh:

[Massiveterra]

I bought this used for $5 :laugh:

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

*laughs* Not bad. Is that an official accessory?

[ahhell]

*laughs* Not bad. Is that an official accessory?

I have one and that does look like the official one.

[green_link]

*laughs* Not bad. Is that an official accessory?

yes, my xbox (elite) came with one. the whole time i read this i was think about this accessory and "asking why not use it instead?"

[philcruicks]

*laughs* Not bad. Is that an official accessory?

I'm not sure if MS make it anymore but yes that is an official adapter, the "Xbox 360 HDMI AV Adapter" I have one as well.

really useful, its the same connection as the component cable, but the chunk of plastic is smaller so you can fit an HDMI cable in its port as well.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

I remember the old Xbox 360 Elite's came with some sort of adapter but I didn't know it was something you could buy separately.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003Q958RW/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000CESLIM&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1439M61F5ZABPCQ53H39

It looks like an official MS product but I've never ever seen one in a proper retail store.

:o

[DJ Sven]

Let me rephrase, just to be clear, I want to run hdmi for video, and component for audio. Will having both plugged in at once create problems if I do this mod? I have a 200 watt PA speaker I want to use to **** off my neighbors :devil:

[neoadorable]

yeah i remember when Kushan posted this...good times. he hasn't really been very active lately, i miss him and his bouncy avatar :unsure:

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Let me rephrase, just to be clear, I want to run hdmi for video, and component for audio. Will having both plugged in at once create problems if I do this mod? I have a 200 watt PA speaker I want to use to **** off my neighbors :devil:

I'm.. not sure actually.. I've never run HDMI and component together. That would just get you 2 video signals anyway. :blink:

I've run HDMI for video and phono for audio before. That worked. :p

[satukoro]

All right kitties, some of you may (or may not) know that most 360's all come with HDMI ports these days. Great!

However, only the elite comes with a special HDMI cable that will allow you to get separate audio from the 360.

What does this mean?

Well, say you want to use HDMI, but you're plugging it into a monitor that has no speakers. How do you get audio?

Or maybe your HDMI TV doesn't have optical out, but you've got that nice 5.1 system there and want to use it.

Maybe your HDTV DOES have optical out, but it doesn't support the full 5.1 Dolby doo-dah the component cable does.

What do you do?

Well, the obvious answer is to plug in the component cable that came with your 360 AND the HDMI cable at the same time. This would work, except that Microsoft deliberately made the component cable a bit too fat to fit in beside a HDMI cable, so you're forced to buy their (very) expensive, official HDMI cable.

Or are you?

Well, a lot of you know that you can just break the case off of your component cable to make it fit. It looks a bit nasty, but otherwise it works and you can still use your component cables if you really want to.

Except there's one problem with this, that I'll detail later.

For those of you who DON'T know, opening the component cable's case is easy, you just pop a screwdriver or knife in the side, wiggle it around a bit and twist. It's just like making love.

Here's a nice image showing what to do:

It takes a fair bit of effort to crack it open so don't be afraid to get a little tough with it.

Now you can connect that to your 360 at the same time as a HDMI cable to enjoy the separate audio it gives (Just make sure the switch is set to "TV" mode if you want optical audio).

But, I DID say there was one small problem with this. It may not be a problem to most people, but it certainly was to me. Now, whenever you switch channels/inputs on your TV or monitor, the 360 will restart itself automatically, no matter what you were doing. This is due to how the 360 works - when the HDMI cable is "turned off". the 360 switches to the component, but this requires a restart. Luckily, there's a way around this as long as you're willing to hack your component cable just a little bit more (And probably render it useless in the process, but at the end of the day the component cable costs about 1/6th the price of the official HDMI cable).

All you have to do is cut a single wire inside the cable. Don't worry, this is very easy to do. The trickiest part is GETTING to the cable.

Start off by looking at the sides of your metal chunk of component cable. You'll notice that a larger piece of metal "overlaps" the other bit of metal. Wedge a screwdriver under it and pry it open. It's not stuck or screwed down, it's just a bit tough.

There's a bit at the side the optical port is at as well, so be sure to pry that out as well, until you can lift the whole thing up.

It should look a bit like this:

Now you'll notice that the (now warped) piece of metal is attached to the cable itself. You CAN clip this off, if you like, but I didn't need to in order to get to the wire I needed (it was just a bit more fiddly).

Should you decide to clip that bit of metal, you'll get something that looks like this:

Don't worry, we're nearly done!

Look at all of the wires going to the port that plugs into the 360 (that big metal bit you've been bending). If you look very closely, you should be able to see a small black wire that loops back into it. It doesn't go into any other part of the cable or the little circutboard on the metal bit, it just loops out from one of the pins and back into another pin just beside it.

This is the wire you want to cut. Note that when you cut this wire, you'll be rendering your component cable useless as a video output, but it'll still output sound just fine!

If anyone wants me to put a picture up to help them here, let me know and I'll show you mine.

Once you cut this wire, you're done, you can reassemble the component cable as much as you like (i.e. squash all the metal bits back down), plug it into your 360 along with the HDMI cable and your 360 will no longer restart if you change channels!

Job done =)

Note: Images borrowed from both engadget and here.

Personally, I had this same problem, but I spent a couple bucks on an XBOX360 HD AV cable. It was less that five dollars I think, including shipping. Regardless, it works fantastically with my turtle beaches and surround sound.

[philcruicks]

So I have a question, if I were to do this, would the component cable interfere with the video output on my HDMI?

Don't bother with a mod it's probably gonna be more hassle than its worth,

?5 gets you an official adapter designed to do this. I've had mine for 2 years, and its been perfect...I haven't tried the optical on it yet but the phonos work great....I'm guessing the difference is if you have surround sound the optical will give you the 5.1 an xbox is capable of....again the mod won't. (I don't have 5.1 hence I haven't tried the optical.)

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=xbox+360+av&_sacat=0&_odkw=xbox+360+hdmi+av&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

http://www.amazon.co.uk/XBOX-HDMI-CABLE-OPTICAL-ADAPTER/dp/B003Q958RW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302007821&sr=8-1

ebay, Amazon...there's loads around.

or ?20 get you one BNIB http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-HDMI-Cable-Audio-Adapter/dp/B000VUVCK6/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1302007821&sr=8-6

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I bought this used for $5 :laugh:

I bought the same thing, in fact I believe I was the one who told Massiveterra about it. :laugh:

It looks like an official MS product but I've never ever seen one in a proper retail store.

I am 95% sure it definitely is not an officially endorsed MS product.

I basically purchased it for my headphones, since they needed an optical, so I run the HDMI and Optical at the same time for Audio, and it works no problems at all.

[philcruicks]

I am 95% sure it definitely is not an officially endorsed MS product.

I basically purchased it for my headphones, since they needed an optical, so I run the HDMI and Optical at the same time for Audio, and it works no problems at all.

lol, I'm 99% sure it is...my one like this one has the little Microsoft silver sticker same as the official component one and I'm 99% certain I saw it on the xbox/MS store websites when I was 1st looking for it...was just ?20 or something and I got it from ebay for ?5

and its on the wiki page as an official accessory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_accessories#AV_Connectors_and_Cables

I think they've just stopped as most modern monitors (with HDMI) now have a headphone output you can connect the speakers too as they realise people will try to put audio through the HDMI.

[Emn1ty]

Let me rephrase, just to be clear, I want to run hdmi for video, and component for audio. Will having both plugged in at once create problems if I do this mod? I have a 200 watt PA speaker I want to use to **** off my neighbors :devil:

That is what this is about. It will work but if you change the output on the screen/tv from the 360 your 360 will reset. This is to keep that from happening (although that seems to happen even without the component cable plugged in).

[philcruicks]

That is what this is about. It will work but if you change the output on the screen/tv from the 360 your 360 will reset. This is to keep that from happening (although that seems to happen even without the component cable plugged in).

With the MS adapter I can change my inputs around and my xbox doesn't reset, so anyone concerned about that get the actual MS adapter.

I've tested this on 3 or 4 different TV/monitors over the years and worked fine on all of them.

[Neo003]

I made one of those which OP showed in tutorial, worked like a charm. But since then I've upgraded everthing so don't need any of those.

[Aergan]

I didn't follow or know about the tutorial but I've made one from an Xbox VGA cable. using a pair of pliers and some ducktape. Works very well.

Xbox 360 comes up with: HDMI+A

Turning of display discovery stops the Xbox 360 resetting after changing the TV/Monitor video source.

[Neo003]

Turning of display discovery stops the Xbox 360 resetting after changing the TV/Monitor video source.

I forgot but I think there's a black loop wire which does the trick of 360 restarting if display was turned off of change of source. Again when I did this we were still using pre-nxe and it worked with nxe too.

[Aergan]

I forgot but I think there's a black loop wire which does the trick of 360 restarting if display was turned off of change of source. Again when I did this we were still using pre-nxe and it worked with nxe too.

Yeah, unfortunately you do need to do the "black wire trick" with some display panels. Like my new Samsung BX2450. :<

With a Dell ultrasharp before, the Xbox 360 didn't care as long as display discovery was turned off.

I've had to rip my self made adapter apart again to solder a 1cm loop inside which was a bloody pain as I exproxied it together.

Link to photo: Xbox 360 Home Made Audio Adapter