360 Optical Dongle

[daboy3000]

My 360 is connected to my TV via HDMI and the sound is connect via optical which is plugged into the xbox using the normal comp. cable. If i switch channels on my tv to the xbox channel it automatically restarts the box, this is due to it swapping the AV out from having both cables plugged in. Does anyone know if i buy an opticle dongle whether this will fix the problem?

Like this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Official-Xbox-360-Optical-Audio-Adapter-Cable-Dongle-HD_W0QQitemZ260505151567QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_VideoGames_VideoGameAccessories_VideoGameAccessories_JN?hash=item3ca751284f

[Damage Inc]

As far as I know this isn't a problem as such, it is the way the 360 and HDMI is designed. I am fairly certain using the dongle would make no difference as you are still sending the video via HDMI.

[RichB]

Odd, I always turn on my tv first then the xbox, I use the dongle, but never had problems when switching to another AV channel on the tv

Are you set up with some some hdmi link (via the tv)?

[Tom Whitaker]

You need the official Microsoft dongle or you can hack your existing cable. I posted this once before...

Sure I've put this somewhere else before... to get picture over HDMI and sound over optical (which I have to do and Ian will too, hence my posting it here) you either need the (bob) dongle from MS, or you need to remove the plastic casing from your component cable so that both it (with an optical out connector) and the HDMI cable can physically fit into the slots. I followed http://www.chadledford.com/?p=50 and ended up with something like this, albeit tidier and better insulated with nice black tape.

Image here - http://www.chadledford.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/xbox-001.jpg

However, when you do this, if your 360 is on and you turn your TV on (or flick away from and then back to the 360), the Xbox gets confused. It appears that it detects the component cable first, then the HDMI connection, and thus re-does the HDMI handshaking, which requires a reboot. I'm starting to hate HDMI so.

According to posts 103 and 111 on http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13334757, you can do something to pins 26 and 28 inside the connector (and also set the TV/HDTV switch to TV) to effectively disable the video output of the component cable, so there's no other video connection for the 360 to detect, and thus the HDMI connection stays active the whole time and there's no re-handshaking/rebooting.


Since then I've done the pin snip, which works to stop the channel change reboot thing, and also hacked all the cables off the end of mine and covered it in electricians tape and it still works fine.

[daboy3000]

Thanks Tom, i think for the sake of £12 i might just buy the dongle, according to that forum in your post, the dongle doesn't suffer from the same issue and knowing me i'll just end up with a broken cable if i try and sort it myself.

Although i will try sticking some tape over the pins first.

[lettuce]

Question, why are you using a digital optical cable, when the HDMI cable carries sound aswell?

[Tom Whitaker]

Yeah - the first part just lets the plugs both fit in the socket, the pin snip is what stops the rebooting. For £12 maybe it's not worth the hassle especially as you destroy your existing cable which you might want to keep for other TVs (at least if you hack the spare bits off to keep it small/tidy) but when I did it they were £35-40!

Lettuce - Not sure, but for me... I connect to a projector that has a DVI video input using a HDMI to DVI cable coming out of my amp. But my amp has a funny issue - when it detects that it is sending picture to a device/connection that doesn't support audio, it treats the incoming signal from the Xbox as a video-only signal and refuses to decode the audio. In my setup, if I disconnect the HDMI-DVI cable from my projector the audio suddenly starts coming out of my speakers - if I reconnect it to the projector I get my picture but the audio cuts out. Rrrrrubbish!

[Out for Justice]

Question, why are you using a digital optical cable, when the HDMI cable carries sound aswell?

I think his amp (like mine) is old and doesn't have an HDMI input.