Xbox 360 HDMI AV Cable
by Microsoft Software
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List Price: Our Price: $24.99 You Save: $25.00 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Video Game Reviews of Xbox 360 HDMI AV Cable
Customer Review: It is what it is - and that's it!
Summary: 3 Stars
This unit from the evil empire that is Microsoft is a simple product that does exactly what it says it does. It is not a converter for non-HDMI Xbox 360 units.
The HDMI cable is a standard HDMI cable that you can get from any old website for a lot cheaper. Almost ALL HDMI cables are gold plated and even if they aren't, it's still a digital connection and doesn't matter. I work for a company that makes receivers and other audio/video equipment - believe me, spending $100 for an HDMI cable doesn't make it THAT MUCH BETTER than a $6 cable from the web! Until more receivers and systems can handle the other options that HDMI will eventually provide, regular cables are fine.
Now that I'm off of that tangent, the audio connector is needed for those who don't have HDMI receivers. Thus, you would only be able to hear the volume from the TV itself and most flat panel LCDs and Plasma displays don't have great speakers. The dongle is good so that you could hook it up to a stereo or sound system via the analog cables or optical digital cable and hear games in their native surround sound. Though, with most A/V receivers, the audio is better through HDMI than optical or analog.
So, in short, if you don't have a stereo receiver, get this unit. If you do, get yourself a regular HDMI cable from a discount website and you'll be fine!
Customer Review: Works but MS is just adding unnecessary expense
Summary: 3 Stars
So, this cable should only be required if you need to use optical out or RCA audio outputs along with HDMI and don't want to use the component cable hack that requires cutting (you can read about that online). So, you pay an extra $50 or so penalty to MS for those of us who want/need to use the optical audio out and still get a high quality image (HDMI).
The cable works just fine but 3 stars for the price and the fact that we need the cable in the first place.
Customer Review: Completely misleading, this doesn't work on all XBoxes
Summary: 1 Stars
If you have an XBox with an HDMI connector, you probably don't need this product. If you have an XBox without a built-in HDMI connector, like I do, this product seems perfect but instead it is completely worthless.
See, Microsoft sells adaptors that go from an XBox to standard RCA A/V outlets. They're fine. And they sell adaptors that go to S-Video. They're fine. And they sell adaptors that go to component video. They're fine. Those are all fine because they work on all XBoxes. This is the one that I really wanted, an adaptor that goes to an HDMI outlet, for my TV. It's not fine. It sucks. It doesn't work on either of my 2 XBoxes. And there is nothing in the description of this product that might give any hint of that. There ought to be a warning 5 feet high that says, "if you think you have an XBox that needs this, it won't work!"
PrimeBigTime said it best when he said:
> Microsoft decided to place the HDMI port on the back of the [Xbox 360 with HDMI]
> so close to the other video/audio outputs that the dongle for the component video/audit
> actually BLOCKS the HDMI port. That disallows you from running an HDMI cable for video
> while using the shipped dongle for optical audio. The
> dongle you are buying simply extends your audio outputs so that you are not blocking your
> HDMI port. Simple, and stupid, because if they just redesigned their cables in the first place
> they wouldn't need to sell this accessory.
>
> This is a ripoff because they package an HDMI cable with it. Most of us already have HDMI cables!
>
> Do yourself a favor and get the audio dongle from this package separately, which you can do
> on eBay for about $3.00. Yes, $3.00.
Customer Review: Newer 360? Don't get this
Summary: 2 Stars
Does what it should, but not worth the money. If you have a newer 360 with the HDMI connection right below the audio/video connection, simply pry apart the plastic surrounding the audio/video connector that came with your 360 and plug back in. Take the 2 audio red/white and hook to your receiver, ignore the yellow. Buy a simple and cheap HDMI cable from Amazon and hook up to your HDTV. With the plastic gone, both will now fit easily, without needing this. Total cost for me yesterday was an HDMI cable for about $5.00 which included shipping. Works awesome.Customer Review: The Only Audio Dongle Available if You Need It
Summary: 5 Stars
If your sound system setup can simply read the digital audio through an HDMI cable, then you can buy and use any HDMI cable which should cost significantly less.
However, if you need to split digital audio separately from HDMI such as to a receiver that has only HDMI pass-through, then you need this dongle if you want to use HDMI for the video. This is the only cable that doesn't block the HDMI port. It as a digital optical out on the dongle.
If you only need the RCA output, then I suggest you just plug the HDMI into your TV and then use the RCA out from your TV. But given reports of some problems with digital out from TV, you might not want to leave it to the TV to send the digital out as it might be PCM, not full Dolby/DTS even though the HDMI does it. Some setups detect or are set to send PCM through HDMI when connected to a TV that doesn't have its own Dolby Digital or DTS decoder, which might explain why you end up with only PCM out.
So the dongle works perfectly. The HDMI cable works as best as I can tell. I am very happy with it. The price is steep, but it might be your only choice. So just try to find a deal.