Surround sound on XBox (let me get this straight)

corblimey

I bought a Black Diamond surround system (with multi-region DVD) and now I want to hook up my XBox with surround sound.

As far as I understand it, the DVD player acts as the digital receiver, so I'm without one of them? There are 6 places to put the speaker wires at the back of the player, hence my assumption. Where would I get just a receiver? I assume any half-decent tv shop would be able to help? Won't I also need the Xbox A/V pack?

So then I could just connect the XBox to the receiver with the A/V pack, then hook up each speaker? Simple. If true.

Wertz

Your surround sound amp/receiver needs to have an Optical In whcih you then connect to the xBox with a fibre optic cable to the Optical Out. Set the output to DTS or 5.1 or whatever.

If there is no optical in on the amp/receiver then you're SOL; just use the regular scart and make do with prologic...

corblimey

Thanks Wertz. But assuming the DVD player is the receiver in this case, I need to go out and buy one. So I can just make sure it has an Optical in. yeah, I'm sure the gimboid in the Sony store will know what I'm talking about :rolleyes:

Krusty_Clown

As Wertz said, if your Black Diamond system has an optical input (or digital coax), you just need to get an appropriate cable to connect the two together.

A digital receiver will set you back anything from 150 quid to several thousand, so have a look at your Black Diamond's manual to make sure it doesn't have this connectivity first. If it does, it's a cinch to hook the two together..

What model is the DVD player/surround system? Does it support Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS?

corblimey

Krusty, no idea of the model, but the box it came in definitely said 5.1, if that's any use I've just moved, so all boxes were destroyed, in this case a little too eagerly as I suspect the manual was still inside.

The nice man in the shop (they had other of the same systems in there, so I was able to use that as reference) gave me a phono-to-phono cable and assured me that I could set up the DVD player to play through the TV, then just have the surround sound set up to give me some basic sound through the speakers. He couldn't promise surround sound, but he claimed it would be better than standard stereo.

It appears he was talking through his a**e, although to be fair, without the manual, I'm just winging it.

As an aside, my XBox has no other ports on it (4 controller ports, 1 port that leads to a SCART on the TV and one for power. There's also something that looks like an ethernet connection, so I'm assuming that's the ethernet connection ) so I'm not even sure where the optical cable would go.

This is all pie in the sky, really. I just had the speakers lying around, and thought I could put them to good use.

DrummerBoy

In order for you to get surround sound for the xbox you'll have to buy two different cables. An optical cable as mentioned above and the xbox advanced scart cable found here

corblimey

Ah, gotcha! The cable at the end of the link replaces the one linking the XBox to the TV SCART, and gives me an optical link. Now if I could figure out whether my DVD player (the receiver) has an optical link on it. Can someone tell me what sort of connection I should be looking for at the back of the player?

Thanks all for their help so far, btw.

A Dub in Glasgo

Can you not just lift the thing up and read the model number off it?

I have yet to see a BD Home Cinema system that will accept an optical connection for processing.

MrPudding

It is a small black, squarish port. It will have a little rubber bung in it. Conveniently enough, manufacturers tend to mark them as “optical in” or something like that.

I think, given that you have 5.1 speaker output on the player, it is safe to assume it has built in decoders. Just follow Drummerboy's advice and you will be sorted.

MrP

Jip

You can buy an own-brand advanced scart cable from Game which comes with the optical cable bundled in, cheaper than buying the MS branded advanced scart cable and the optical cable seperately.

Blub2k4

What model of DVD player do you have, you should be able to download a manual or pdf file from the manufacturers.
I have my xbox on surround and it does work and is very sweet.

corblimey

Blub, it's a Black Diamond branded DVD, but I think it's a Mitsubishi. Looking for the make and model online did nothing for me last week.

I took a look (why did it take me so long? It's only in the next room) and there's nothing that says 'optical in' on it, which I guess is kind of strange for a receiver. Maybe not?

Anyway, I'll try getting a cheap stand alone receiver and the A/V cable mentioned by Jip, and see what happens.

Thanks all.

Guy:Incognito

I might be missing something here, but how is buying a reciever going to help, you'll still need to buy speakers as generally all-in-one systems have odd speakers impedence wise (2OHm and the like) which most recievers wont support, and the speakers for the most part wont be a good match for the amp. also since the BD head uniot has no digital in/out you wont be able to connect it digitally which only leaves the old twin phono analogue, which again resigns you to Pro Logic.


After that your black diamond system is no use to you as you'll have a new amp and speakers and your X-Box can play dvds or you'll have to get a stand alone dvd player.

mrblack

Wertz wrote:

Your surround sound amp/receiver needs to have an Optical In whcih you then connect to the xBox with a fibre optic cable to the Optical Out. Set the output to DTS or 5.1 or whatever.

If there is no optical in on the amp/receiver then you're SOL; just use the regular scart and make do with prologic...

****e! I wish I had read your post before I went and bought a DVD receiver home theatre system today in Superquinn :mad: . It said amplifier on the box so I made the assumption it could take input from a TV/video/ Xbox - but it doesn't have any input jacks/ports at all, so its useless to me. Luckily it cost only 89 euro. I have it for sale in boards now! One superquinn home theatre system going very cheap!

A Dub in Glasgo

corblimey wrote:

I took a look (why did it take me so long? It's only in the next room) and there's nothing that says 'optical in' on it, which I guess is kind of strange for a receiver. Maybe not?
.

It is not usual for a system like this not to have an optical in connection. It is not a DVD receiver system, it is an all in one DVD surround sound system. For a DVD receiver system, you will have to pay a hell of alot more to get the flexibility and additional inputs.