HDMI Xbox 360 Pro missing audio adapter, what to do?
by Christopher Grant 
{ Aug 31st 2007 at 2:16PM }
There are two solutions for those of you with external stereo systems that don't support HDMI: 1) Buy the $50 HDMI cable with adapter or 2) switch your HDTV's audio setting to reroute audio from the internal speakers out to the stereo, as described by Joe Hutsko. If your setup requires the $50 adapter (with HDMI cable!), you can either consider the Elite and its massive hard drive for only $50 more or just hit eBay for someone else's leftovers. Just sayin'.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mike @ Aug 31st 2007 2:26PM
wow. This is really old news.
I bought the elite cause I need the audio adapter. This just increases the value of the elite.
I dont know why anyone ever buys a premium. You can buy an elite, sell the 120gb hdd + hdmi + adapter and then buy a 20gb drive. Doing this will leave you basically with an hdmi equipped premium thats black, and you having paid $100 less then an actual premium console. There is no value at all in the premiums because of what I described above.
Christopher Grant @ Aug 31st 2007 2:42PM
You realize using the words "old" and "news" in conjunction with one another is a ban-able offense. I'll let this one slide ...
It was new to me and, I presume, thousands of Joystiq readers. We never covered it, it's a slow day, so there you go. In the future, if you think a specific post is old, please keep your thoughts to yourself. :D
CaptNink @ Aug 31st 2007 2:45PM
Can I get an 'Amen' to Christopher Grant. :D
Captain Jody Anthony XVIII @ Aug 31st 2007 3:04PM
oh chris grant, you are like the prime minister of laying down the law.
AlanRickman @ Aug 31st 2007 3:11PM
Stop sucking up and get back on topic. He has a point.
Almack64 @ Aug 31st 2007 3:18PM
Alan it seems (based upon your profile) that you've just become a Joystiq member (correct me if I'm wrong) so you really wouldn't get all the inside jokes connected to sucking up to the Awesomely amazing C. Grant.
hvnlysoldr @ Aug 31st 2007 3:19PM
You do not besmirch Mario hat wearing Metal Gear Awesome Snake.
Neon Jebus @ Aug 31st 2007 4:25PM
I didn't know this was 'old' news as I haven't heard about it at all. Since I am looking into buying a new system soon I guess I'll just go for the Elite. I need the larger hard drive anyways.
ill trooper @ Aug 31st 2007 5:41PM
Mike, that is a lame solution.
Who has time to 'sell the 120g hard drive and cable' on Craig's list, buy a new hard drive, etc... You act like that's a feasible solution to this problem when there are probably 7 people in the nation that would even bother.
I like to see people get greyed-out for crappy solutions like the one you offered.
mike @ Aug 31st 2007 6:09PM
well you dont know how to sell properly then. I can just about anything in 1 day. I just make a post on the RFD forums, and 2 hours later some1 is knocking on my door to pick the product up (providing I give a good price of course, if I want more money it takes a while longer).
And if you use ebay its as simple as listing and walking away until the auction is over. Not very difficult.
konajinx @ Sep 1st 2007 1:21AM
"Plane" stupid, indeed.
Synner @ Sep 1st 2007 8:34AM
Is Saying Something is old news seriously bannable? Wow, forum nazis. Probably gonna get banned myself for questioning now. Just curious why some of the most phenominal jackasses here can go forever before getting banned, but saying old news is like the instant banomatic?
phattie @ Aug 31st 2007 2:26PM
So, you need a dongle for:
-wifi
-HD-DVD
-digital audio
-hdd data transfer
Sounds like MS really thought it out well.
modified @ Aug 31st 2007 3:35PM
So they basically give you....what's the word....options? Not everyone needs/uses those things.
Slaziman @ Aug 31st 2007 3:44PM
Or they could've bashed it together and have a failing system, I prefer the current situation.
Luke @ Sep 1st 2007 12:02AM
Agh your right....One of the real things that bothers me so much about the 360 is that there is no built in Wifi.
And I don't want to pay 100 dollars just for a stupid
wifi adapter that probably costs Microsoft under 20 bucks to make... And I don't want to run a 100 foot
Ethernet cable through my house either. Sony and
Nintendo where smart enough to through in a cheep wifi
card....I love the feeling of being able to move my Wii any where in my house and always having a wireless internet connection. Call me picky but I just think its plane stupid not to have built in wifi... Id be curious to see what route 360 owners do to get there internet connection hooked up to there Xbox 360s. Because I'm planning on buying a 360 this year and I want to know whats the smartest move.
Synner @ Sep 1st 2007 8:36AM
You DO know you can buy any other USB dongle right? You people keep crying about wanting your slower connection and really keep beating a non-issue
Nick @ Sep 1st 2007 9:48AM
Couldn't you just plug the HDMI to your reciever and then output your video to your TV via another HDMI connection? You get the best audio through HDMI and TRUEHD and PCM codecs through HDMI. You can't get that with optical or digital, limited to DD+.
But I suppose everyone doesn't have a reciever with these capabilities or want to spend 200 to get it.
FrankTheCrank @ Aug 31st 2007 2:30PM
Sorry guys, I don't own a 360.
But if I understand this correctly, in order to get optical audio out, I have to buy an adapter?
Why didn't they just throw it on the back?
GunForHire @ Aug 31st 2007 2:33PM
Only if you're using HDMI. All the other connections (VGA/Component) have an optical audio out on the cable themselves.
copa @ Aug 31st 2007 3:16PM
So do I understand this is an either/or thing? I don't have the option of sending HDMI video to my TV (for upscaling DVD's), and optical audio to my receiver for Dolby Digital goodness?
Christopher Grant @ Aug 31st 2007 3:39PM
Right, unless your TV outputs the audio which you can send back to your receiver. In my experience, most TVs only output stereo, which means if you want digital audio, you would need the adapter.
felixlighter @ Aug 31st 2007 3:55PM
When I send the audio to my television via HDMI and then output it to my receiver it only outputs stereo. I find it weird because when I'm watching an HDTV program over cable with dolby digital 5.1 audio my television outputs that signal just fine using the same optical output. I have an Elite so this isn't really an issue for me because I have the dongle but it would be nice to remove at least one cord from the bird's nest behind my television. It's a Sony SXRD, I wonder if I'm missing something.
phattie @ Aug 31st 2007 5:24PM
The TV doesnt have HDMI pass through.. which is what you need to get the 5.1 audio from the 360 to TV to stereo... just use the optical out dongle.
mr nimblewick @ Aug 31st 2007 2:32PM
I read this site every day and I'm confused by all the 360 shenanigans and product changes. What hope does an average consumer have?
...
Does an average consumer care about something like this...?
GRANTED @ Aug 31st 2007 2:44PM
glad to here im not the only one thinking that. too many add-ons required to get the 360 working at its full potential. and most can't be 3rd party.
Lord Chako @ Aug 31st 2007 2:47PM
No. Because your average consumer will plug component cables directly into the television, audio and all.
Ska Oreo @ Aug 31st 2007 2:52PM
No they don't. That's why shit like this doesn't matter.
James @ Aug 31st 2007 2:49PM
Wow and people made a big stink about the PS3 not including a standard HDMI cable.
This problem will affect anyone with a new TV(with HDMI) and an older receiver(without HDMI). So if someone like me would want use HDMI and have audio come out though my 5.1 surround sound setup I would need that special dongle that sounds like they don't even sell separately.
My question is could you use the component cable to get the optical audio out and still use HDMI for video. Or does just using the component video cable lock the console into using component out.
The reason I would want to use HDMI over component video is so I could watch upscaled DVD's or view things in 1080p as my TV will not accept 1080p over component.
Tucker @ Aug 31st 2007 3:08PM
Of course, you could also use the VGA cable, unless your TV doesn't have VGA inputs. I've been happily running 1080p over VGA since, well, the patch that added 1080p came out.
Simon @ Aug 31st 2007 3:04PM
The best part to me is, knowing this I went and bought a 360 Elite last week. Got it home, opened it up, had 2 HDMI cables instead of 1 HDMI and 1 audio dongle.
Had to return and exchange it; figures it was that cable, not something I didn't care about like the headset.
Simon @ Aug 31st 2007 3:06PM
Oh by the way, the reason that you need the special audio dongle is that in Microsoft's infinite wisdom they placed the HDMI port so close to the regular AV port that you can't fit any of the other AV cords in there.
Smooth move.
kinshadow @ Aug 31st 2007 3:32PM
That is probably on purpose so "imbecile consumer" doesn't plug both in and wonder why one is not working.
Jason B @ Aug 31st 2007 3:09PM
Look, CG explains this pretty clearly in his post but its like this. One of the advantages of using HDMI is a single cable for both video and audio. Its really kinda silly to think that one may use an HDMI cable for video and analog stereo for audio. If you not concerned with high quality audio why bother with digital video. As for the optical audio having been removed, in most cases a the TV can be used for audio pass thru to your receiver or your receiver will natively accept HDMI audio.
Whether you can use the the component cables optical audio I would have to say you must be able to as the dongle that is now excluded plugged into the same port the component cable does.
It basically comes down to this for the premium (which includes a component cable) the dongle is redundant as I understand it.
Ty @ Aug 31st 2007 8:22PM
"in most cases a the TV can be used for audio pass thru to your receiver or your receiver will natively accept HDMI audio."
Most TVs do not allow pass through of digital audio from any source other than the digital tuner. HDMI audio isn't sent from the TV to the Audio reciever in most cases, sad but true.
"or your receiver will natively accept HDMI audio."
Realisticly, only if it was purchased in the last few months. Most gamers are middle class as far as income is concerned, but top notch character wise, not wealthy enough to be buying ALL new gear every 3-5 years.
"Whether you can use the the component cables optical audio I would have to say you must be able to as the dongle that is now excluded plugged into the same port the component cable does."
Someone on here said that the AV cables wouldn't fit into the slot once an HDMI cable was connected to the port below it.
dsub @ Aug 31st 2007 9:52PM
It's not just analog audio. The optical digital connection is on there to. Say what you will, but I'll take Dolby Digital 5.1 through my HT system over "Virutal Surround Sound" through my TV's speakers ANY DAY of the week. Hell, I'd even rather have analog Pro Logic II through the stereo outputs than standard TV speakers.
Duh.
James @ Aug 31st 2007 3:14PM
Still, at least it comes bundled with HD cables.
James @ Aug 31st 2007 3:16PM
Umm. Why has my avatar vanished and why can't I log in to change it back?
James @ Aug 31st 2007 3:17PM
WTF! It's back. nevermind.
I'll use this post to say I'm glad they've got to HDMI since this free's up the Component ports on my TV.
Jumbo McNasty @ Aug 31st 2007 3:30PM
I have an extra, is this worth money...kewl!
Evan @ Aug 31st 2007 3:42PM
Forgive me because I don't have an HDMI-equiped 360, but...
Doesn't it still come with an analog video cable with audio outputs? Why can't you use the analog video cable's audio with the HDMI cable?
Chris @ Aug 31st 2007 3:50PM
I was thinking the same thing.
Slaziman @ Aug 31st 2007 4:00PM
Not to bash, but if you read the whole thread someone said the HDMI port and the normal AV port are to close together.
Evan @ Aug 31st 2007 4:06PM
If that's the only problem (too close together), I'd save myself $50 and take a knife to the connectors.
James @ Aug 31st 2007 4:31PM
Man this just makes me want to be finished work for the day so I can play my 360.
Rask @ Aug 31st 2007 5:41PM
is it just me or does this seems to just be a major oversight on Microsoft's part..
dsub @ Aug 31st 2007 9:48PM
no. If it were an oversight they wouldn't package the audio connection with the 360 HDMI cable. This was done on purpose. Think about it. If you don't have a surround sound system that supports HDMI audio, then you need this piece. So if your buying an HDMI cable you might as well get the one from MS that comes with the connector right? It's a win-win for MS. I'm content using component for now. I got one of the new Zephyr 360's, but I'm waiting until we get a 360 audio connector traded in at gamestop before I hook it up with HDMI, because I need an optical output for my audio, like many other people.
To be honest, that's really the only people who will be affected by this. If you don't have a surround system then you can just use the HDMI to carry audio to your TV's speakers.
John @ Aug 31st 2007 9:07PM
Has anyone tried taking a dremel and carving out the extra plastic on the regular A/V adapter??? its the same thing as the dongle just has a cable coming out of it(plus its slightly bigger as per people on the xbox.com forums), but I wonder if a a little dremel surgery to the in box A/V cable would work?
Jack Straw @ Sep 9th 2007 3:29AM
"Has anyone tried taking a dremel and carving out the extra plastic on the regular A/V adapter???"
Yep, I tried and it works. You have to shave a good chunk of the middle out but it's all plastic casing; the cable should still work fine.
HDMI video going to tv, optical out coming from dremeled A/V cable to receiver. Life is good.
dsub @ Aug 31st 2007 9:44PM
I don't see why they can't just make a patch that allows you to use the audio outputs on the included AV cable.