Does the 360 output 5.1 over HDMI?

[Famous Graham]

As the topic really - I'm looking at getting an AV receiver that has a few HDMI inputs so I can connect everything to the HDMI socket on my monitor. Although the Sony I'm looking at accepts 5.1 over HDMI, I just realised I don't know if the 360 outputs 5.1 on HDMI in the first place.

Anyone know?

[lizardking]

Can't help much but mine goes like this...
HDMI to tv and toslink cable(optical) to 5.1
But i do have an Elite. Not sure whether the arcade/middle of road one have HDMI output

[Famous Graham]

Yah, but my point is I just want to use an HDMI cable to a receiver (which then goes to the monitor). No other cables.

Up until recently, HDMI didn't support 5.1 audio, just stereo. Now it does. But I don't know whether the 360 is outputting it on the HDMI port in the first place.

[Steve Evil]

Famous Graham said:

Yah, but my point is I just want to use an HDMI cable to a receiver (which then goes to the monitor). No other cables.

Up until recently, HDMI didn't support 5.1 audio, just stereo. Now it does. But I don't know whether the 360 is outputting it on the HDMI port in the first place.

I think it does, as in the manual it gives you the option of using the additional toslink adaptor if you need it.

[Maty]

Not sure about the HDMI side of things as I didnt think the 360 had a HDMI port on it, I am most probably wrong though!

I have a normal 360 and I also bought a Sony receiever. First of all I used one of these leads to connect the 360 to the VGA socket on my TV;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Xbox-360-High-Definition-C...

Obviously this is just for the picture, it also has RCA leads which you can plug directly into your TV should you not want the 5.1.

Then for the 5.1 sound....

I connected one of these leads to a socket on the VGA cable (where it plugs into the Xbox itself) and then into the Optical port on my reciever;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Madcatz-Optical-Cable-Xbox...

Works a treat for me!

Edited by Maty on Tuesday 29th September 14:55

[Famous Graham]

[Maty]

Famous Graham said:

I know exactly how you feel! Thats what I was like when I bought an AV Receiver.

If you have a VGA socket on your TV (PC monitor connection) and you receiver has an Optical In then you can do what I said above!

[Steve Evil]

Famous Graham said:

This should answer your question as I said earlier:

http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/xbox360/hard...

[Tiggsy]

I have my PS3 and Xbox plugged into the amp via HDMI only (the only thing that needs an optical is the sky HD which is plugged in with HDMI AND optical as sky cant get 5.1 down the HDMI lead)

[Famous Graham]

Maty said:

Famous Graham said:

I know exactly how you feel! Thats what I was like when I bought an AV Receiver.

If you have a VGA socket on your TV (PC monitor connection) and you receiver has an Optical In then you can do what I said above!

Actually, I was referring to you not reading the posts

1.

1 cable.

1 HDMI cable.

No others.

That's it.

I know you can buy an adapter from MS for 35 quid or something, route audio to amp and video to monitor/tv, but that's not what I want to do. Just one HDMI cable from 360->receiver. The receiver has 2 HDMI inputs, 1 output. That then goes to the monitor.

Edited by Famous Graham on Tuesday 29th September 15:25

[Famous Graham]

Steve Evil said:

Famous Graham said:

This should answer your question as I said earlier:

http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/xbox360/hard...

It does indeed I did notice your post earlier but I hadn't had a chance to check out whether they might simply have been implying that "if you need it" meant not wanting 5.1, if you follow me.

link said:

enables a single cable to deliver HD video (up to 1080p) and multichannel surround sound to a TV or an audio/video surround receiver.

Perfect, ta.

[mrmr96]

lizardking said:

Can't help much but mine goes like this...
HDMI to tv and toslink cable(optical) to 5.1
But i do have an Elite. Not sure whether the arcade/middle of road one have HDMI output

I do this too and the output from my speakers is definitely 5.1 and I have a bog standard X360.

Since the data goes 360 > TV (via HDMI) > Amp (via optical) I guess that the HDMI _must_ be carrying 5.1.

[Famous Graham]

mrmr96 said:

lizardking said:

Can't help much but mine goes like this...
HDMI to tv and toslink cable(optical) to 5.1
But i do have an Elite. Not sure whether the arcade/middle of road one have HDMI output

I do this too and the output from my speakers is definitely 5.1 and I have a bog standard X360.

Since the data goes 360 > TV (via HDMI) > Amp (via optical) I guess that the HDMI _must_ be carrying 5.1.

Lizardking's post implies using the adapter on the 360 that sends two cables out - one HDMI to the TV, one separate optical cable to the amp. So the audio on the HDMI isn't being used at all.

If you're connecting the telly to the amp for sound, then you're right (and you're lucky enough to have a telly that passes through multichannel on HDMI, which often isn't the case)

[mrmr96]

Famous Graham said:

mrmr96 said:

lizardking said:

Can't help much but mine goes like this...
HDMI to tv and toslink cable(optical) to 5.1
But i do have an Elite. Not sure whether the arcade/middle of road one have HDMI output

I do this too and the output from my speakers is definitely 5.1 and I have a bog standard X360.

Since the data goes 360 > TV (via HDMI) > Amp (via optical) I guess that the HDMI _must_ be carrying 5.1.

Lizardking's post implies using the adapter on the 360 that sends two cables out - one HDMI to the TV, one separate optical cable to the amp. So the audio on the HDMI isn't being used at all.

If you're connecting the telly to the amp for sound, then you're right (and you're lucky enough to have a telly that passes through multichannel on HDMI, which often isn't the case)

Oh, ok. I didn't read his post like that.

In any case, my setup definitly carry's the sound to the TV via HDMI, and then from the TV to the amp using toslink and it's definitely 5.1. So on that basis the HDMI does output 5.1.

It's pretty handy having the passthrough feature on the TV as my amp isn't very clever (designed for composite, not even component!! Bit old but the audio side is ok). It means that whatever source (Sky,360,ps3,PC) is being fed to the TV by HDMI, the audio is automatially sent to the amp. So I don't need macros on the remote to change source, just flick the TV over and the Amp stays using TV as the source.

[Famous Graham]

As I mentioned, your setup answers my question (as did Steve's link), so thanks