360 HDMI/component cable hack--the part they don't tell you

[Bill]

HDMI apparently does a handshake with its display device. The Xbox has a very inconvenient "feature" of rebooting whenever the display reinitializes the HDMI port. eg: If you're playing xbox via hdmi then switch to TV, when you switch back, the xbox will reboot. On some displays (like my new monitor) the handshaking completely freaks out the xbox and sends it into an endless reboot loop even when I just leave the input selection on HDMI.

After some serious digging in some really long threads on other AV forums I found a solution: you chop a black looping wire. This effectively kills the component portion of the cable turning the connector into, more or less, an optical "dongle."


When you pry open the metal box, the little looping black wire is pretty obvious. Snip snip.




At this point, the "cable" portion of the connector is no longer active. Slice slice to ditch the three feet of vestigial wiring.




Copious amounts of electrical tape.




PRO.





Anyway, I thought I'd PSA and explain the easy fix that took me a decent amount of looking around for because I had absolutely never heard of it. Maybe it will help someone.

Well, ttyl.

[ilikeandross]

i did the same thing a while ago but i didnt need to cut that wire thing. all i did was rip the plastic casing off and got a rca to 3.5mm adapter and hdmi to dvi converter and plugged it in to my monitor.

[logie]

Thanks for the walkthrough

Good information to know!

[Malne]

So you're only using it for audio and running component video then? I'm confused...

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Malne

So you're only using it for audio and running component video then? I'm confused...

The "AV port" provides only optical audio.
Video is through the adjacent HDMI (seen in the pic.)

edit: Sorry, I should have explained in the OP that the issue has to do with initializing HDMI then initializing the component video. Eliminating the component video from the equation doesn't allow the xbox to go into loop mode switching back and forth between the connections (even though component isn't plugged in) endlessly rebooting the xbox. Its something along those lines, and issue is only present in some displays, with some HDMI selectors, and with some Xboxes(?) There are a lot of variables but this is the surefire way to fix the reboot looping if you do happen to run into it

[joemama]

I've switched back and forth from HDMI to watching tv numerous times and have never noticed an additional handshake or reboot.

[instanoodles]

OMFG that has been pissing me off for such along time and I didnt even thing there was a fix I thought it was some stupid hdcp crap. My friend has an lg lcd tv and it doesnt not reset on him when changing inputs but on my sharp it does.

[Biospider]

Tagging this.

bought a 42" plasma today (first hdtv, woo!) and realized this. It is fucking RETARDED. There are FIVE connectors on the 360's fat ass. They managed to set them up so the optical connector cannot be used (stock) with HDMI. Why the optical out isn't directly on the console to begin with is beyond me. Idiots.

My TV has an optical out which I'm (right now) using to route back the signal to the receiver. Sadly, it doesn't register as a true 5.1 Doldy, only "Surround Movie II", which is alright... but a step backwards.

I don't have that "reset" problem, but I will definitely try to crack open that giant of a plastic casing to free up my HDMI port while using optical audio.

edit: please link to your info

[instanoodles]

so does anyones still work after the dashboard update? mine was working fine then I got the new dash and I get no signal from the optical port anymore.

[Perry County]

If I ever nab a newer 360 I'll keep this in mind. My TV supports 1080p over component, so my older 360 can do that just fine (for games) and watching movies with the HD-DVD add-on doesn't really need more than 1080i...and I'm too poor to afford a good audio system anyway...

...ramble ramble...

...if I ever get a new 360, I'll keep this in mind. Dot folder.

[growler]

I'm going to have to do something because I can't use my HDMI->DVI adapter with audio out

[el aye]

Originally Posted by Biospider

Tagging this.

bought a 42" plasma today (first hdtv, woo!) and realized this. It is fucking RETARDED. There are FIVE connectors on the 360's fat ass. They managed to set them up so the optical connector cannot be used (stock) with HDMI. Why the optical out isn't directly on the console to begin with is beyond me. Idiots.

They do it so people buy their branded HDMI kit for like $50

I also have optical out on my TV and just do that to the receiver. I get the same problem as you, though.

[Biospider]

Originally Posted by el aye

They do it so people buy their branded HDMI kit for like $50

I also have optical out on my TV and just do that to the receiver. I get the same problem as you, though.

This is what I'm doing for the time being. Panasonic TH42PZ80.

HMDI from 360 to TV, optical out from TV to receiver. The receiver doesn't register it as 5.1 (which I find weird), but it's multichannel all the same. Until I move stuff around the TV, it's gonna stay like that.

[Dazz]

Does the HDMI port on the 360 not supply audio as well? I'll be getting my new tuner setup on Monday and was going to use HDMI, but I might just do this hack if it doesn't.

[Biospider]

Originally Posted by Dazz

Does the HDMI port on the 360 not supply audio as well? I'll be getting my new tuner setup on Monday and was going to use HDMI, but I might just do this hack if it doesn't.

I haven't reasearched this properly, but plugging it directly with the optical cable gives me the "Dolby Digital" type of signal. 5 channels and LFE (low frequency effects).

If I run it through HDMI, it sounds the same (from what I can tell) but I have to set my receiver to "Pro Logic II - MOVIE". I don't know if there's loss of quality or resolution between channels, but it sound alright to me. Sounds are all redirected to the good channels. I played Bioshock after setting it like this, and it sounded like 5.1 even though it didn't register as such.

Forgive the crappy explanation, but I'm not really comfortable discussing audio set up - I've only ever toyed with the one, on my own.

edit: to answer your question more directly - 360 HDMI SUPPLIES AUDIO

edit2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_P...y_Pro_Logic_II - From what I gather, if I feed a 5.1 signal into Pro Logic 2 decoding, I'll get at 5.1 output. Good to know.