Moving 360 into HD

[TacoTaru]

So my fiancee and I finally broke down and upgraded to an HDTV and I'm wondering if I should just use the three cords (Red, Green, Blue) that came with the AV cables on my Pro or actually break down and get an HDMI cable. Will it be a significant change between the two? Also, I've done some research, but I can't figure out if you have to use the Microsoft official HDMI cable or not; some say no, but you don't get audio? Thanks in advance.

[Arnwulf]

HDMI will carry both audio and video signal, you just don't get the optical output for a stereo receiver if you run audio separately like some people do (Microsoft's "official" hdmi cable has the separate optical output built in). Component (Red, Green, Blue) is comparable to HDMI, but it's not quite as good. They both get the job done though.

For cheap HDMI cables, go to Amazon.com, I got mine on there for about $2.00 each and they work perfectly.

[Null]

I think the difference is great enough to warrent a purchase. You can find some very cheap. For the most part the price of the cables don't mean much of a difference. You can buy $5 cables and it will look just the same as $100 cables. With that said, I spent something near $200 just because I wanted MGS4 to be as good as it possibly could get. Would've just spent the extra cash on drugs and prostitutes anyway.

[aalryn]

For the most part the price of the cables don't mean much of a difference. You can buy $5 cables and it will look just the same as $100 cables.

As an audiophile/videophile with a very nice and -very- expensive home theater (about 15k in all), and a previous owner of a home theater installation company; I can say that this is QFMFT!

The quality of speaker cables is based on gauge. A thicker wire carries more current. It's physics. You can pay TOP dollar for monster cable (which is actually very laughable high end) or other brands which cost their weight in gold, or you can go to HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more! and pick up a spool of 10 guage for 30 bucks. The difference is minimal at best and can only be detected on the most precise equipment (not your ears). The tests they do in the stores to make you want to buy monster cable consists of them having the speakers hooked up to 22 gauge wire vs. 12 gauge monster. Guess what sounds better >.>

For Optical & HDMI cables it's even more of a racket. Carrying a digital signal like they do there is absolutely no difference between a 150$ monster cable and a 2$ cable from amazon. none, zero, nada. If you want to confirm this you can check out the wire section of AVS Forum which is a top AV forum where people really care about getting the best picture possible.



But yes if you got a 1080p HDTV then get an HDMI cable. If you got a 720p TV then you can stick with your component cables (red/green/blue).


TLDR;
Speaker/AV cables: HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more!
HDMI cables: Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more

[zoobernut]

Monster Cable is the biggest joke of the home theater industry. For cables carrying digital signals impedance and gauge of wire is the name of the game. For analog signals it is a little bit more complicated but not much.

Personally I use Audio Quest and Tributaries speakerwire and inter connects for my home theater but I stick to cheap generic for the HDMI cable.

Side question for Aalryn what setup do you have? What are your electronics/speakers/cables?

I used to work in an independent high end home theater shop for a while so I am curious.

[aalryn]

Benq 10000W 1080p projector
105" da lite drop down screen
Denon AVR888 Reciever
4x Infinity L40
1x Infinity IL36C center channel
2x Infinity IL10 side speakers
Polk Audio PSW505 sub
Toshiba DVD
PS3
Xbox360
PS2 for nostalgia

All of my speaker cables are from monoprice 10 gauge to all 7 speakers
all of my hdmi cables (hdmi switching receiver) is cheap from amazon
all of my other interconnects are monster ; ; (bought them before i realized how fooled i was)

oh and i have another 42" 720p HDTV hooked up as well for when I dont want to run the projector.

[Isiolia]

HDMI will carry both audio and video signal, you just don't get the optical output for a stereo receiver if you run audio separately like some people do (Microsoft's "official" hdmi cable has the separate optical output built in). Component (Red, Green, Blue) is comparable to HDMI, but it's not quite as good. They both get the job done though.

For cheap HDMI cables, go to Amazon.com, I got mine on there for about $2.00 each and they work perfectly.

Slight correction, MS's HDMI kit (and other kits intended for the 360) include the HDMI cable and a second adapter that plugs into the AV out port that has composite and optical audio outs. However, this is basically just the audio part of the composite/component/svideo/vga cable, so I would suspect that you could just as well use one of those (I dunno, I have an Elite, so it came with the HDMI stuff).

That's really only a concern if you're unable to fully utilize HDMI audio. IE, if you're just hooking the system directly to your TV and using the built-in speakers, then just run an HDMI and you're set. If, however, you're running the audio to a receiver that doesn't have HDMI, or that only functions as an HDMI switcher, then you'll need to use the regular AV breakout to hook up optical or whatnot if you want 5.1 sound.

Alternatively, you could test and see if the TV's audio out passes a 5.1 signal back to the receiver, though it may not. If so, you could use HDMI to the TV, then the audio out back to the receiver and not need the breakout cable.

[zoobernut]

Benq 10000W 1080p projector
105" da lite drop down screen
Denon AVR888 Reciever
4x Infinity L40
1x Infinity IL36C center channel
2x Infinity IL10 side speakers
Polk Audio PSW505 sub
Toshiba DVD
PS3
Xbox360
PS2 for nostalgia

All of my speaker cables are from monoprice 10 gauge to all 7 speakers
all of my hdmi cables (hdmi switching receiver) is cheap from amazon
all of my other interconnects are monster ; ; (bought them before i realized how fooled i was)

oh and i have another 42" 720p HDTV hooked up as well for when I dont want to run the projector.

Nice setup. I like denon and have had great experience with the infinity and polk. I have a pair of infinity's that I bought in highschool that are still great. What other brands of speakers did you look at or carry at your shop that you considered before deciding on the polk/infinity? Why did you decide to go receiver rather than proc./preamp and amps?

My setup at home is not done yet but I have a Rotel processor preamp and 2 Adcom amps and a pair of the Paradigm Studio 20's. When I can afford I will finish the rest of the speakers with Paradigm Studio series.

I am more setting up for sound first then doing visual later.

[aalryn]

Nice setup. I like denon and have had great experience with the infinity and polk. I have a pair of infinity's that I bought in highschool that are still great. What other brands of speakers did you look at or carry at your shop that you considered before deciding on the polk/infinity? Why did you decide to go receiver rather than proc./preamp and amps?

My setup at home is not done yet but I have a Rotel processor preamp and 2 Adcom amps and a pair of the Paradigm Studio 20's. When I can afford I will finish the rest of the speakers with Paradigm Studio series.

I am more setting up for sound first then doing visual later.

All of my infinities I've had for some time now. They are a little worse for wear on the cabinets of a few of them from all of my various moves. I wasn't in the financial situation that I am in now when I got them so spending more than 500 bucks per speaker on 5 speakers plus an extra 250 on each side channel was about all I could splurge for, but they perform so well that I can't justify the cost to upgrade just yet. By the time I find something that sounds significantly better I am buying a pair of 2k a piece martin logans, Energy, Mirage, or something to that extent. Not really worth it to replace all 7 speakers. I am running 5.1 with a set of in wall energy speakers in my family room that I am happy with though too. For the sub, I put money on the polk 505 being the best subwoofer for under 1000 bucks. Never distorts, tight impacts for watching movies, hits all of the low notes, simply amazing and I picked it up on amazon on sale for like 260 bucks or something.

As far as the Denon reciever... I like their recievers better than pretty much any brand. I've had harmon karden and onkyo in the past. I've also used yamaha. My harmon karden had reliability issues (which a LOT have), yamaha i simply hated in every aspect. not user friendly, not attractive, basically nothing good. The onkyo i like, but the denon is just slightly better in all areas. Not to mention that the denon has a phono input. I plan on adding at least one tech12 to it to play all of my old records (I was a club DJ when i was 18-23) With the seperate amp/pre-amp setup.. yea it's nice when your driving REALLY powerful speakers in a large room, but as a cost/benefit standpoint it's not the way to go. The denon I got has the HDMI upconvert from all sources, full customability on every channel, and is easy to use. I like everything about it.


My old Install company I sold about 6 years ago, but they are still doing well you can check out the site at :: GET CONNECTED AUDIO & VIDEO - Custom Audio/Video/Network Installation ::

[zoobernut]

Yeah really the only reason I ended up going with the separate pre-amp/amp is because I got ridiculous good deals where I used to work.

Plus one of my adcom amps I bought from a customer for cheap because he was really rich and did not care about it anymore and he replaced his setup with a Denon receiver. I totally agree with you about the Denon's too better than anything I have heard for an integrated receiver.

Martin Logans are amazing speakers. I really like them a lot.

The reason I went with the paradigms is I got a pair of the Studio 20's as a birthday gift. They go for about $800 a pair if I remember correctly.

If you want to stick with a receiver but want something a little bit different than Denon try looking at Rotel's receivers they make some nice electronics as well. They are reliable and very very good quality.

[izembo]

how big is your tv? if its smaller than 40" i wouldnt get the hdmi, as it'd be hardly noticable

[Atreides]

I was under the impression that non-elite Xbox 360's couldnt output via HDMI, or is that not the case anymore?

edit: Yea I was right, only 360 premiums (and elites) made after a certain point can support HDMI, otherwise you're stuck with component. Here's the link:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/08/m...x-360-premium/

[Furtwangler]

I wanted to use HDMI and seperate audio from my 360 a while back so i modded the cable and posted some howtos on here a while ago, if you're a do-it-yourselfer and want to save a few bucks, http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/70250...ml#post2525528

[Isiolia]

I was under the impression that non-elite Xbox 360's couldnt output via HDMI, or is that not the case anymore?

edit: Yea I was right, only 360 premiums (and elites) made after a certain point can support HDMI, otherwise you're stuck with component. Here's the link:
Microsoft officially adds HDMI to Xbox 360 Premium

Original release system boards didn't have it. They added it to the motherboard used in the Elites, which became the basis for all of them. So -now- any new 360 has HDMI on it, and has for a while really.

If you don't have that, then many HDTVs have VGA as a possibility too.

[TacoTaru]

I have a 42" and thanks for the info because the change from my old TV to 1080p was like night and day for gaming ( my other tv was an older 32" CRT TV).

I did run into a problem with my TV and that's on the four corners there are these cloudy things that extend out towards the center and down the side of the TV. From what I found only it looks to be backlight bleeding but I couldn't find if there was a way to solve this other than replacing the TV. Is there a way to fix it or do I just need to get it replaced?

[xopher]

monoprice.com if you want a cheap HDMI cable.

[izembo]

all 360's have hdmi now, even arcades. but yea, go to monoprice, and you probably cant fix the tv backlighting

[Isiolia]

IMO, head on over to AVSforum for the TV stuff, and/or take a picture. Depending on the issue, may be covered under warranty as well.

[ertyu]

I didn't read the thread at all because I don't have much time atm, but I saw the OP say "break down and get an HDMI" as if they are expensive.

HDMI Cable

ALways go to monoprice for all your cabling needs. NEVER a retail store.