Headphones with 360

[Nermal]

Hi everyone

I finally took the plunge and bought a 360 but I'm afraid that I'm having some problems. My first issue was that I hooked it all up, booted up, looked at the pretty menus, and all was fine. Then I actually tried to play a game and it asked me to switch to 60 Hz mode, which isn't compatible with my EyeTV. So I'm a bit annoyed at Microsoft for not clearly stating that you need 60 Hz support in the first place, however the end result is that I now need a compatible display and headphones.

First of all, headphones. There's a headphone port on the controller, but when I connect the included headset I get no sound. A quick look online reveals that it's apparently designed for voice, not game sound. Is that correct? Is there a setting somewhere that can send game sound out of that port?

Now for the display, which I would connect using the VGA cable. Presumably if I bought one with integrated speakers and a headphone port then I'd be set, but I'm having great trouble finding such a thing. My brother's 5-year-old Philips 17" has a headphone port, but the newer models seem to have gone backwards in this regard, and only offer a sound input (ie. for the speakers) and not an output.

With all of the cables and adapters that came with the Xbox, I can get the sound out to a standard (3.5 mm?) male headphone plug (which seems to be what most displays want). If I was to get a female-female "connector" that let me put my headphones next in the chain, then presumably I'd get sound that way. However, unless I'm missing another option somewhere, there would be no way for me to adjust the volume. Again, is this correct or do I need to dig around some more?

My current "solution" is a borrowed VGA display for the picture, and EyeTV for the sound. Hopefully you guys will be able to help me get a less dodgy setup. Thanks for bearing with me, I'm new to this and my descriptions probably leave a little to be desired

 

[0098386]

Yup the controllers port is just for voice communication in games. There's no direct way to plug headphones in, you'll need to have the 2 phono cables feed into something and then output through headphones. A cheap amp/hifi should solve this. You could even run it through your mac at the cost of a phono to jack convertor.

I don't know about monitors with sound output.

You don't need to use EyeTV for sound. I forgot the name (hopefully someone knows!) but there was an app that play sound from the line-in on a Mac. I used it for a while. Garageband can do this (make a voice track, select line-in) but that's quite a cumbersome method.

 

[Nermal]

Thanks for that, I completely forgot about the line in! It's a step closer in the meantime

 

[Nermal]

Well, I have everything working now; I'm using the VGA input on a new 20" widescreen (and have my MBP connected via DVI and can switch between them). I'm using the "LineIn" app to redirect the sound through my headphones. My only complaint is with the "designers" at Apple who thought that it would be a good idea to cram all the ports so close together that a simple Y-adapter in the line in port will block off the USB and headphone ports

 

[0098386]

My only complaint is with the "designers" at Apple who thought that it would be a good idea to cram all the ports so close together that a simple Y-adapter in the line in port will block off the USB and headphone ports

Yup! Don't I know it! Had to go out into town one day specifically just to buy a jack extension cable, one that wasn't a few metres long.