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Just got my (first) Xbox yesterday.....I thought that this thing had an optical out? =\

*sigh* What level of AV adapter cord do I have to go out and buy now? Is there a cheap, quality alternative to the official cables?

 

[Buggy Loop]

You need this

http://www.monstercable.ca/Canada/productPage.asp?pin=1828

plus this

http://www.monstercable.ca/Canada/productPage.asp?pin=1825

The optical cable connects to an adapter which connects to monster's component cables. A bit a pain in the ass i admit since i went throught that one month ago, but its worth it

 

[DCX]

Just buy either the Advanced or HD pack, both have the optical output but only the HD pack offers component.

DCX

 

[border]

I said I wanted a cheap quality alternative, BuggyLoop =P

Looks like I will have to get the Advanced Pack...

 

[Buggy Loop]

Well i didnt know any other alternatives

Plus, microsoft's HD AV pack from what i've just read is just an adapter, you still need component cables and a fiber optic cable, which unless you want quality, you still need to spend $$ to get anything decent.

 

[LinesInTheSand]

Well i didnt know any other alternatives

Plus, microsoft's HD AV pack from what i've just read is just an adapter, you still need component cables and a fiber optic cable, which unless you want quality, you still need to spend $$ to get anything decent.

You must work retail if you feed into the shit with Monster's horribly overpriced cables...

 

[longdi]

What DCX said.

 

[Buggy Loop]

You must work retail if you feed into the shit with Monster's horribly overpriced cables...

No actually, i worked in the aerospace industry as an electrical assembler and electronic soldering, i've made so many fiber optic connectors before to know that there's a price for quality. If you cant tell the difference, then all the more power and cash to you. I find it funny though that peoples are willing to invest so much in a home theater and yet goes for cheap cables when its time to plug it all up.

 

[border]

I don't have a spare set of red/yellow/white av cables.....does the Advanced pack come with them?

 

[drohne]

it comes with a set of component cables, yeah.

 

[teh_pwn]

I just bought the advanced pack.

It comes with the break out box, Stereo AV with composite video wires, Svideo wire, but no optical.

Screw monster cable. Buy Acoustic Research or something else and use the extra money for a better setup, unless you've got a really expensive setup already.

I remember 4 years ago when some asshole at best buy was trying to convince my dad to spend $100+ on *composite* stereo AV on a $150 DVD player that was going to run on a 10 year old 27" sony TV.

 

[Buggy Loop]

I have a good share of acoustic research cables aswell, for my dvd's component video output and TV's audio output.

 

[Shompola]

unfortunately it won't matter how good your fibre cables are. Because toslink itself is fundamentally flawed. If you insist on buying better cables, spend it on better speaker cables or coax digital cables if your dvdplayer/receiver supports coax. .

 

[WordofGod]

No actually, i worked in the aerospace industry as an electrical assembler and electronic soldering, i've made so many fiber optic connectors before to know that there's a price for quality. If you cant tell the difference, then all the more power and cash to you. I find it funny though that peoples are willing to invest so much in a home theater and yet goes for cheap cables when its time to plug it all up.

How much of a difference is there between the cheap cables and the expensive ones?

 

[Burger]

No actually, i worked in the aerospace industry as an electrical assembler and electronic soldering, i've made so many fiber optic connectors before to know that there's a price for quality. If you cant tell the difference, then all the more power and cash to you. I find it funny though that peoples are willing to invest so much in a home theater and yet goes for cheap cables when its time to plug it all up.

This is what nobody has been able to explain to me.

If a signal coming through the optical cable (or SPDIF Coax) is digital (Either Dolby Digital or DTS) would you not assume that since it is a digital signal, you are either getting 100% clarity (in order to be able to decode it) or 0% ???

The way I think of it is this. If you copy a Zip file from one PC to another, it doesn't matter if you use Gold plated ethernet cables or whatever, as long as you get every byte of information, your ok. If you miss out one single bit or byte of information, you have a useless file. I would assume that a compressed AC3 audio signal works in exactly the same fashion. If you missed a bit of information you would get no sound, or static.

I have used the shittest RCA cables and very good optical cables, the sound coming out of my speakers is the same.

Speaker cables are a totally different matter of course.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I thought there wasn't really an advantage either way with optical or coax. How is coax better?

 

[Shompola]

coax is generally cheaper. coax is generally also easier to maintain as the chances of them breaking is smaller. toslink is glitchy, loss of data is not uncommong of toslink. Btw this is toslink vs coax and not fibre vs coax comparison. There are dvd players/receivers that supports high bandwidth fibre cables, non low budget cables that aren't toslink.

btw toslink is infrared I believe.

 

[boo7z]

on a pure digital signal you are not going to notice a problem, however the quality of cable you use for component video will have an impact on quality (since it is analog).

Still, Monster is overpriced...go to ratshack, buy some RG6 cables and RF to RCA adapters and you got yourself some superhigh quality component cables for a fraction of the Monster price.