cables and adapters

I scoured the Web to find info on the Advanced AV Pack with no luck. I called several stores, got a different answer from each one, all of which turned out to be wrong. So here's the real scoop: The Advanced AV Pack has an S-Video output, a standard RCA-type analog video output, RCA-type analog left and right audio outputs, and an optical audio output. An S-Video cable is included. My TV doesn't have S-Video; I bought it purely for the Dolby Digital 5.1 output, which is absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! It's definitely worth it for the digital surround sound alone! Remember, for Dolby Digital sound you'll need a Toslink optical cable, and an Xbox game (like Ghost Recon) that supports Dolby Digital.

The Advanced AV Pack offers a audio and video upgrade over the standard pack that comes with the XBox system. The standard pack has composite (RCA) video output and standard audio output (also uses RCA cable.)

The Advanced AV pack allows Dolby Digital sound (you will need a separate optical cable and a Dolby Digital receiver with an optical input), and offers a s-video output for better picture (if your TV has s-video inputs.)

Both are dramatic improvements over the standard pack (if you have the matching TV and stereo equipment.) If you only have 1 of the 2 available, it is still worth the price- the picure and sound difference are both significant.

The only problem I had with this product is that because my reciever only has one optical input and one coaxial input it meant robbing my dedicated dvd player of it's precious optical input. The xbox sounded very good playing games, but suddenly movies lost their impact. So unfortunatly I disconnected the xbox's optical output and reconnected it to the dvd player since it plays movies much clearer. The xbox is now connected via standered stereo plugs, on my reciever I merly put the xbox on dolby pro logic and the surround experiance was still very good. For a short while though the sound was very good,if you have a spare optical output this is the goods of xbox. And if some of you are wondering why I didn't get the high definition pack it's because my flat screen tv only has one component video reserved for the dvd player.