Xbox 360 Monster GameLink Component Video & Fiber Optic Audio A/V Kit

Comment: I am not the most knowledgeable A/V geek. In fact, I'm a noob. There, I said it.

Bought these cables along with the XBOX 360 Elite (2009 edition) because it doesn't include HDMI cables, which is rather an odd omission, but whatever. Gave the kid our old 42" 720p LCD TV (Polaroid brand, bought about 2 years ago from a big box retailer whose name starts with W) to go with it. It's a decent TV, but it certainly doesn't have optical audio inputs, and for some reason, fails to get any sound through these Monsters. So, the poor kiddo has to play Modern Warfare 2 without the benefit of full HD until mom figures this out (life sure can be tough, eh? :).

These are lovely cables, and when plugged in they do deliver gorgeous video from our new XBox, but it's not much good with no sound. Apparently, the best reason to buy these is if you have a home theater system with optical audio inputs, however I am fairly sure they're supposed to work without the *optional* optical audio, otherwise it would not be called "optional" right? (Fairly sure, but not completely sure -- remember, noob here.) And yes, we did mess with the audio settings to see if that helped, it did not.

(Note: it's not even fully optical, if by optical you mean, having all the information passed through, from one end to the other, on a beam of light). There's just an adapter that allows you to plug the Toslink audio cable in with a micro-headphone jack, which seems like a waste of perfectly good photons, doesn't it?

I'm going to order the regular HD component audio/video cables (the ones with 6 RC jacks, they look a lot like our Wii HD cables) and hope for the best. I suppose I'll keep these in case we ever decide he needs a home theater system with "Toslink" type inputs in his bedroom, lol. They certainly are nice looking cables, very well-made. I feel bad giving only three stars, but to go over that, the thing has to actually work for me. On the bright side, I learned a bunch of new stuff about A/V cables!

Comment: High quality connector on the XBOX side, and high quality component connectors. In between, a high quality well-shielded cable.

The XBOX can send 1080p (better than 1080i) via component to a TV that supports that.

For owners of the XBOX Elite, which has an HDMI socket underneath the big XBOX AV socket: The XBOX plug on this cable is slim enough that you can also fit an HDMI cable in, and connect via HDMI instead of component if you wish. The optical audio will work no matter the video connection you use. I tried both ways. HDMI provides a slightly sharper image over component, but not discernible to most (and it's a per-pixel sharpness, a edge sharpness, not more detail or higher resolution)

Comment: I bought this cable to use ONLY FOR THE OPTICAL AUDIO. I'm using a standard HDMI cable in my 360 for 1080p resolution and needed an Audio Out option which this cable has. Its not a pure optical audio out but a 1/8" stereo mini to optical audio adapter--no problems though the sound is super clean in my 5.1 system. The fit on the 1/8" mini cable is a little loose, especially if you're orienting your 360 vertically--which is recommended for increased cooling. Simply use a tie wrap to bundle all the cables together to reduce the gravity drag and loosening of the cable. So far no problems.

My main concern was whether or not the bulky plug would allow room for my standard HDMI cable adjacent to it (the AV cable which came with my Halo 3 Xbox 360 does NOT allow for simultaneous use of 2 cables side by side). You need to remove one of the gray tabs on the side of this cable in order to make the 2 cables fit side by side (the tab is held on by a cheap adhesive and can be pried off with a simple knife without damaging anything). Once the tab is off both cables can be inserted into your 360. Its a tight fit but it does work.

If you're happy with 720p resolution then simply use the included component video dangle. But if your TV is full HD and your sound receiver doesn't have an HDMI input then this cable is one option for having both 1080p and optical audio together. Hope this helped. Cya online in my sniper scope @ 1080p !!!!

Comment: This cable is actually worse than the cable that comes with the Xbox 360:

1. It does not have a true digital optical output. All of the photos on Amazon and Monster's website carefully conceal this fact. The cable actually has a standard mini-stereo analogue output jack, so the digital sound out of the Xbox is converted to a cheap analogue connection, and Monster then provides a little adapter that converts this back to a digital optical output. Do you want to convert your CDs to cassette and then back to MP3 files? That's essentially what Monster is doing here, and you don't find that out until you actually open the box and see what's inside. Of course it's cheap for them since they can also sell a standard analogue cable to plug into their output for people who don't have digital inputs on their amplifier, but it's a major ripoff for people who think that they're getting pure digital sound out of their Xbox 360.

2. But it gets worse. The component video connectors are the same as provided for free with the Xbox 360. I own real broadcast quality component cables, so I know what a well-shielded cable looks and feels like. A real, high-quality component cable is as thick as all three of these Monster cables together, and a set of broadcast quality cables of the same length is actually a little bit less expensive than the Monster cable. The Monster cables do not improve the picture compared to the free cables that come with the Xbox 360, and they are almost identical in thickness. The connectors at the end look a little nicer, but the end result is the same on screen. (Unfortunately, I can't find professional cables available with the Xbox 360 plug, so I can't use them with the Xbox 360).

In conclusion, the free cable that comes with the Xbox 360 has the same picture quality (very good, actually) and real optical digital output. These Monster cables have faked optical digital output with no improvement in picture quality. I would be very happy with the free Xbox 360 cables if the optical connection was secure. However, it's a bit loose, so my optical cable tends to fall out. The Monster cable doesn't even have real digital output, however, so it's not an improvement. For now I'll just push the connector back in on the free cables whenever it comes loose. Saves me $60 and keeps the pure digital sound.

Comment: This is another great product from Monster Cable. It hooks up easily and you will have HD component viewing in no time. Attach the fiber optic cable to the 1/8" connector and the other toslink end to your surround sound system and your set for 5.1 surround audio. The cables are nice and solid and should give you years of use.