Customer Reviews

RCA Audio Cable Adapter for XBOX 360 + Slim

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I have a perfectly functional cable, which works great when used with an HDMI cable, but it took about 5 minutes of soldering. If you aren't comfortable with this, don't buy this product, as it likely won't work correctly out of the box. If you do purchase, you can fix it by following the steps below.

NOTE: If you break your Xbox, it's your fault and only your fault. If you burn your house down or your finger with a soldering iron, it's your fault and only your fault. Proceed at your own risk.

1) Check the cable... there is a chance it will be wired correctly when you get it. If so, lucky you :-) Make sure you try changing the TV HDMI input to another input, then back to the XBOX. If the XBOX resets, sorry, you need to plug in your soldering gun.

2) Open the plastic on the end of the plug that goes into the Xbox. You might need to tape it closed later, as it tends to break. Not a huge deal, as this won't kill the plug, just make it a little less attractive. Set it aside.

3) Remove the copper outer casing on the plug. This is the trapezoid thin metal outer part of the plug, with no wires connected to it. Slide it off the end of the plug by inserting a blade to release the two plastic tabs in the rectangular holes. Try not to damage this part if possible. Set it aside.

4) Get lined up to which pin is which. You need to focus on pins of even numbers 18 - 30. I have added a customer image to the product for reference. The easiest way to find these is to look at the wire side of the plug, find the three wires in a row (the optical wires) on the wide side and look at the 7 on the narrow side on the same end.

5) Remove the hot glue from these pins gently using a razor.

6) Make sure there are no connections between or to the last three: 26, 28, and 30. If there is a connection, desolder it. Mine didn't have any, but it is important you check this.

7) Jump (place a blob of solder) pins 22 and 24.

8) Jump pins 18 and 20.

9) Check your connections. This can be done with a continuity meter. 18 and 20 should be connected, 22 and 24 should be connected, and also check for lack of connections between the two groups and 26, 28, and 30.

10) Time to check your work. Your Xbox should not reset when changing HDMI inputs away from and back to your Xbox, and the optical plug on your adapter should be glowing red. You should get sound through the cable. I did this to get 5.1 optical so that I can hear someone behind me just before they shoot me in the head in Halo: Reach.

11) If there are still problems, recheck your work and use Google. You're on your own.

12) Did you remember to unplug your soldering iron? Are the curtains on fire? Why did you think a windowsill was a good place to put a hot soldering iron?

13) If it works, time to put everything back together. Replace the hot glue if you have some to keep things from touching, slide the copper cover back in place, and replace the plastic casing. You may need some tape or glue here. Easiest thing to do is wrap it a few times with electrical tape, stretching it to keep things nice and tight.

14) Game on. Please leave a comment if this worked for you. Sorry about those curtains dude, but things could have gotten much worse. Good thing you had that fire extinguisher handy. Some Halo will take that off your mind. It's hard to think about burnt curtains when a Covenant Mothership has you pinned down.

EDIT: Looks like the seller might have removed the reference picture...

This cable does the trick with one major flaw. It is not wired correctly and the xbox360 will reboot if you switch inputs on your display.

For example, if you have a cable/satellite box in tv hdmi input 1, and the xbox is on tv hdmi 2, then if you switch from the xbox to watch tv and return to the xbox the xbox will reboot.

This is a known problem on lower quality cables because they are missing a ground. This cable can be modified, but you have to crack open the casing, and solder in an additional wire. This is not a tv or setup problem. Its a known issue and you can easily find more info on it on the net.

This problem makes it very difficult to pause a game for long periods and return to it. So i have to give this a low review, because a cable either completely works, or it doesn't work at all...

I actually use this in conjunction with a pair of Turtle Beach X4's. I am fortunate to own an Onkyo 7.1 Surround Sound system (can be found for a great price if you dig a little online) however there are certain times, usually at night when she is asleep on the couch, that my wife just prefers I use headphones will gaming. So since my Onkyo receiver is capable of doing both HDMI Audio and Video, I use the optical connection on this adapter to go straight into the Turtle Beach receiver. So for that purpose, it works like a champ.

It will of course also work if you have a receiver that only does HDMI video but not audio as well.

The only thing I will say is when I purchased this a few months ago, I recall paying no more than $15 for it, and that included shipping, so buyer beware, it appears that some people are taking advantage of the fact that this is a somewhat hard to find item. However shop around if need be, as a $34 asking price is just absolutely uncalled for.

I've also recommended this to two people who had various different home theater setups that required the optical audio connection but they used HDMI for the video, and they both had no issues with this adapter and it worked flawlessly for them.

I bought a turtle beach headset (wired) and wanted to keep using my HDMI hookup for my TV. Well I needed this for the job, and it does the job perfectly. Just plugged it into my xbox, plugged my turtles into the audio side, and I had sound.

A little annoying that I had to do this in the first place, but not the product's fault.

When I bought my first Xbox I couldn't believe that it didn't come with a head phone jack. What would it have cost the manufacturer? Maybe 5 cents? Unless your monitor comes with an audio out, and what HDMI or DVI monitor does, I guess Microsoft figures you don't need sound at all. What is even sadder, Microsoft doesn't provide an add-on adapter that you can buy from them. They charge plenty of bucks to buy a pet for your avatar, but you can't buy audio for your machine! Thankfully, for the cost of a good hamburger, this adapter takes care of all the Xbox audio shortcomings. After connecting your monitor via the HDMI port, just plug this adapter into the port normally occupied by the cable that comes with your Xbox, connect your stereo headphones and you'll hear your game in all of its glory. Soon, you'll forget that there ever was a problem.

I never write reviews, but I wanted to warn people about this product from Eforcity. I bought it because I wanted to avoid paying the ridiculous $50 for the Microsoft version of the optical audio adapter because they already screwed 360 owners by not making the component/optical fit while using HDMI on non elite models.

So I went for this much cheaper option and was sorely disappointed. While the product is not defective per se - you can get optical out while using HDMI inputs, this adapter has a major issue. Every time you change the video input to another source HDMI or otherwise, such as a PS3 or Cable your Xbox 360 will restart. This is due to a HDCP handshake issue because the generic cable is not wired correctly.

So if you are planning on using this cord and want to have the ability to say play a game for awhile and quit at a point before you can save and then switch over to watch some TV and then switch back where you left off you will be quite angry to find yourself back at the dashboard screen when you come back with all of your progress lost. It's really frustrating and probably enough for me to cave in and pay the $50 M$ is asking for.

BUYER BEWARE

1) This device does not fit into its socket when the HDMI cable is plugged in. Read the other 1-Star reviews on this product to find out how to resolve that.

2) Once I did get this to fit along with the HDMI cable it did not function.

If I could give this 'zero stars' I would.

I purchased this for my kids SLIM 360. I didn't really know what it was, just that everything I had read said I needed it to work with his Turtle Beach head set. Our problem was that we wanted to use the HDMI on the 360, but couldn't with the Turtle Beach and the connector that came with the 360. Both just would not plug into the back of the 360 at the same time. This little thing is slimmer than the connection that comes with the 360 and thus allows the HDMI port and this to be plugged in together. Then we simple use the AV Red/White for his Turtle Beach and then run the HDMI connection to the TV for the video quality.

I purchased this product because my PX21 headset would not work properly with my XBOX. The first problem I had was I could not use HDMI and the headsets big connector. Then when I finally got both of those connected the picture would only come through in 1080i. The only solution was to ditch the component cables and buy this device. Now I just connect it to the XBOX, and plug the audio cords into this, and the HDMI into the Xbox. Since buying this device, now I can listen to the XBOX either through the headset (games) or through the tv (movies). It really has made it much easier owning the Turtle Beach headset (which I do not recommend for the Xbox anyways). If you have any problems pairing the Xbox with the PX21's, this is the way to fix it.

Works but has a problem. Or maybe it's the Xbox but it's a none annoyance. When this is plugged in and you have an HDMI cable as well and you change inputs on the TV, it reboots the XBox blowing away any game. There is a fix out there on Youtube that I have to track down. It's a simple snip of one of the connector wires I believe.