[xxxPeanutxxx]

Hi Guys and Girls. I need your help.

Not sure if this is the right section as it's about my setup, but mostly the 360 so here goes... I have a PC and a projector. Both living together in harmony. However I have just picked up an xbox 360 and tried adding it to the equation and there seems no way to make it play nicely with my current set up.

I'll give you all the hardware first.
Then my current setup,
and then what it is I'd like to achieve. I'll give as much detail as possible so please bare with me!

In my room I have my custom built PC using an ASUS Maximus IV Extreme motherboard, with a MSI Nvidia 460 Cyclone Gfx card. So it's inputs and outputs are:
2 dual link DVI
1 mini HDMI
1 optical SPDIF output
7.1 anolog audio outputs (6 mini stereo jacks 3.5mm, blue used as line-in)

I Also have an Epson EH-TW3200 projector. It's a full HD projector, does a great job, but doesn't have built in speakers. It's inputs are:
2 HDMI ports,
1 S-Video input,
1 component video input,
1 D-Sub PC port,
1 3.5mm mini-jack (Trigger out)
and an RS232 control jack.

And finally, an xbox 360 MW3 special edition, which has:
1 standard xbox 360 av port
1 hdmi
1 optical SPDIF output
5 usb ports

Right, now I have the hardware out of the way, here's my current setup.

Until now I've just had the PC and the Projector and it was fine. I connected from dvi to hmdi on the projector (no sound needed as my headphones plugged into the PC.) This gives me simple stereo sound.

I've just got the 360 and am having problems with the sound. I can't plug the headphones straight into the 360. So after doing some research I've trimmed the plastic notch off the composite cables and plugged that into the xbox and used a RCA to 3.5mm converter and plugged that into the line in (blue 3.5mm) port on the PC. 2 problems with this. 1- This gives me mono sound, (right ear only,) but for now I can cope with that until this is sorted. 2- whenever I change HDMI sources, the xbox 360 tries to change it's own video source to the AV port and resets the xbox so it can sync. These are problems I'd like to eliminate. (there are lots of threads on sorting out the resetting problem, but hoping to take this cable out of the equation so I don't need to resort to taping pins or cutting wires.)

With me so far? Good. So, I've done a lot of reading up on this, and it seems what I really need is an av receiver, but these are incredibly expensive and I'm looking for a solution that's not going to cost me hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Is there a cheap amplifier that would do the trick? All I really want is to have sound from both going to my headphones in stereo, both at once if possible, but I'd settle for one at a time if it's going to save me a lot of money.


Another option is getting myself a pair of Turtle Beach x500's. This has the wireless base station. If I understand correctly, I could hook my 360 and PC up to that, with a optical switch. However, this also has it's downfalls. 1- the headset costs a lot of money, are there cheaper av receivers? 2- I'd only get sound from either the PC or Xbox at a time, not both like I have now.

I don't mind spending money on a bit of kit, I just don't want to spend hundreds if I don't have to, and if I do have to I'd prefer to make the right choice about what to spend it on. That's where you guys come in.

I'm not bothered about surround sound, I share a house so I need to keep the sound low, so headphones is the answer. (and some cheap speakers I use when I'm watching a film with someone else.) Also doesn't need to be a wireless audio solution. I sit pretty much next to the PC/xbox so a wire isn't too bad.

Sorry it's a big post, but I need the help. I work in IT so I'm very computer savvy but not so much when it comes to av equipment. Hooking up PCs to projectors is about as far as my expertise goes in that matter.

Regards
Peanut

[niall campbell]

I think you need to think about things

To me its common sense to buy an AV amp. They have several HDMI inputs and 1 OUTPUT , to your projector.

To me the Onkyo range is king. However others will say other makes are. The make is up to you

Onkyo HTS3505 Black | 5.1 Package System inc. Speakers excluding DVD player | Richer Sounds

However I wonder why you need your PC in the equation. Instead of buying graphic cards etc every 18 months , just go down the xbox route of playing games and using your xbox as a media centre. I would go down the route of buying a NAS and store your media on there. Just convert your Videos to something your xbox & other devices can handle.

Put your PC on , press the BIG X in the centre of your controller , scroll right to MEDIA , select Video , xbox scans your network , select PC and your Video folder. Thats how a NAS would work.

WD My Book Live Personal Cloud Storage 2 TB Network Attached Storage: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

you need to go down the HDMI cable input route , save yourself a lot of grieff in the long run............& thats HDMI 1.4

[xxxPeanutxxx]

Thanks for the reply.

However the PC is a must in the equation. I don't want to get into the whole which is better, PC or Xbox? debate, but in my personal opinion an xbox is better for driving games, and fighting games, and a few other types of games but the PC is far better for everything else, the games are so much cheaper via steam, and in the steam sales I can get 30 brand new games for the price of a new xbox game easily. I don't have to worry about discs being scratched, or swapping discs every time I want to play, I can browse the internet, chat with friends, do some work, and lots of other stuff. So I'm stuck with the PC, the xbox is just an addition and will be used more for social gameplay, with friends etc.

The amp you listed looks really nice... it's also really expensive... there's no way I can justify paying that kind of money just to get sound in both ears. There has to be a cheaper way. Can anyone else offer any help?

Is there no such thing as a simple base station that takes multiple audio sources and lets me plug some speakers/headphones into it? or some kind of adapter that lets me convert an optical out to something with a 3mm jack on it?

regards
Peanut

[niall campbell]

ok no problem , just an idea thats all !!

as your projector takes component wires , then use the two wires from it to use for your sound

Xbox 360 High Definition Component AV Cable (Xbox 360): Amazon.co.uk: PC & Video Games

a cheap hi-fi that can take the two wires for left/right sound should do

[niall campbell]

1 Box Home Cinema Systems from Richer Sounds

go to richer sounds and get something which accepts sound input from the component cable

[xxxPeanutxxx]

That would do it. However wouldn't solve the xbox rebooting issue when I changed video sources. Need to get away from using the xbox av port for that and stick to either hdmi and/or optical sound.

However thank you for that link, looking at richer sounds I found this...

ONKYO TXSR309 Black AV Receiver

It's the baby of the onkyo range but with 3 hdmi inputs and 2 optical inputs it looks promising. It's also a LOT cheaper. Would this do what I need it to do?
HDMI from PC to projector for video.
Then Optical from PC to Receiver.
and either HDMI from xbox to receiver passed through to Projector (but still getting sound from receiver.)
or HDMI straight from xbox to projector and optical from xbox to receiver.

God, still sounds complicated but if that works it should save me a lot of hassle.

Is that onkyo likely the cheapest option I have? Or will there be a similar box with less fancy features, I only really want the hdmi and optical, or even just the optical at a push.

Regards
Craig

[niall campbell]

Both PC & Xbox would be HDMI to AV amp.

Then 1 cable from AV amp to projector.

[niall campbell]

Thats if your PC outputs sound via HDMI

[niall campbell]

http://www.uk.onkyo.com/en/products/tx-sr309-35373.html

It even has a headphone socket bottom left on the front.

The hdmi output from xbox carries the sound as should the PC.

You just need speakers.