XBox and Surround Sound

Riker's Beard · Post by **Riker's Beard** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 2:22 pm

A lot of folks around here talk about the surround sound systems that they have their XBox hooked into. I'm curious as to how this is done--are people running them through stereo receivers with Surround Sound support, through TVs with surround sound, or some kind of third party peripheral? Plus, I've noticed there are no jacks on the Xbox for hooking up sound directly out of it (i.e. for use with Surround Sound headphones).

So, can anyone here enlighten me? I'd kind of like to set up a surround sound system for the ol' console....

CharlieDelta · Post by **CharlieDelta** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 2:35 pm

the surround sound connections are on the AV hookup dongles. the advanced AV pack and high definition AV pack both have a digital optical output that connects to receivers that support the input. They may also have another connector, I don't remember.

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 3:39 pm

As far as I know, the digital optical output on the advanced or high def AV pack is the only way to go with the XBox for 5.1 DD Surround.

Mike

dedewhale · Post by **dedewhale** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 9:34 pm

I just took the red white and yellow cables and plugged them directly into the srround sound sterio receiver. Worked like a charm since it had a connection specifically for gaming systems. Simple

Riker's Beard · Post by **Riker's Beard** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 10:48 pm

Thanks guys! I checked out the high def AV pack and that's probably the way I'll go (component video into the TV--YAY).

Dedewhale--if you did that, what connections were going to your TV for video?

dedewhale · Post by **dedewhale** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 8:59 am

mind you I am not very technical but the yellow wire is video and I had two choices....either run it directly into my tv (i have 4 spots for extra components) or run the yellow into the my receiver which has a video location. Since the xbox cable has all the wires (color wires connected), I ran it into my receiver to make things simple. I then ran a video out wire (monster cable) from the receiver to the TV ( which handles video for my dvd player and xbox). I have my dvr audio running through the receiver and the video connected right to the tv. Hope that makes sense

I bought the Panasonic Home theater 5.1 which has a very clearly marked back telling what components go where. Solid system for the price

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panasoni ... tDetail.do

Jancelot · Post by **Jancelot** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:02 am

Dedewhale - it sounds like you're not getting true surround sound though with that set up. You need an optical cable to get it. Using the red & yellow RCA cables will give something like Dolby Pro Logic. It doesn't have a true center channel and treats the back channels as one. So it's more of a 3.1 with 5 speakers setup. I'm not knocking it, as I'm sure it still sounds great, but I just wanted to let you know as you said you weren't familiar with all the setup stuff.

And the yellow wire is for composite video hookups. If you could up it to an s-video cable you'd probably see improvment in your picture quality. Composite cables (ones with red, green and blue just for the video) are the best but only newer televisions have them and even then not all of them do.

dedewhale · Post by **dedewhale** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:28 am

Jancelot wrote:Dedewhale - it sounds like you're not getting true surround sound though with that set up. You need an optical cable to get it. Using the red & yellow RCA cables will give something like Dolby Pro Logic. It doesn't have a true center channel and treats the back channels as one. So it's more of a 3.1 with 5 speakers setup. I'm not knocking it, as I'm sure it still sounds great, but I just wanted to let you know as you said you weren't familiar with all the setup stuff.

And the yellow wire is for composite video hookups. If you could up it to an s-video cable you'd probably see improvment in your picture quality. Composite cables (ones with red, green and blue just for the video) are the best but only newer televisions have them and even then not all of them do.

hmmm, thanks for the info I might try it. All I know is my darn xbox games are very loud and that is good enough for Halo 2....but at some point I am sure I will end up going to the full kit and kabootle!