cables and adapters

I am not sure what everyone is talking about needing another cable, my HD pack came with a cable. There is no optical cable for 5.1 dolby digital, but for [amt] what do you expect. The cable that comes with it allows you to hook up the component video and stereo. Currently all XBox games only output 480p, so all this talk about 1080i is non-sense. The first game that rumor has it will support 1080i is Madden Football. 480p though looks incredible though and this product is a must have if your TV/projector supports component video. The Monster solution may provide a bit better quality solution, but that in no way diminishes the value of this.

But from what I've seen the Monster Cable pack runs $60 and requires a special $35 optical cable to get dolby digital. The MS HD pack runs $20 and uses a standars optical cable which can be picked up for under $20.

Microsoft has given us a very powerful and versatile game machine in the Xbox!!! The basic system is great, but with all the extra accessories we begin to see and appreciate the true power under the Xbox hood.

The High Definition AV Pack allows us to improve and get a glimpse of the Xbox's potential. This Pack only gives us in a normal TV environment, 480i (480 interlaced horizontal lines), component video with 2 channel stereo.

NOTE: you must have a component video receiver!!

Now the magic begins!!! If you have a HDTV w/component progressive scan (480p) & VSS (Virtual Surround Sound) or DTS (Digital Theatre System) standby because the Xbox's power is about to begin.

Component video - a 3 wire (w/grounds) UNSHIELDED CABLE; (Y) - Luminance (Brightness), (Pb) - Crominance (Color-Blue) & (Pr) - Crominance (Color-Red). By separating your Blue & Red colors provides a more pure signal to your TV/HDTV where it is combined through comb filters for the sharpest picture presentation. Basically provides either a 480i (interlaced-analog) horizontal lines or 480p (progressive scan (line doubler)horizontal lines.

NOTE: You must have HDTV & DTS for the 480p and digital 5.1 to be unleashed. Games are 480p (outstanding picture quality) where as movies are only 480i (normal DVD presentation- excellent picture).

A great economical accessory to enjoy the Xbox power !!!!

I saw this in the store the other day and decided to try it out since I have a 53inch HDTV. I wasnt expecting much but I was really suprised at the difference in pictures vs. the standed AV cable that came with the XBOX. After hooking it up, I went to my XBOX control panel to enable 1080i. While I didn't see much difference in Rainbow Six 3, when I popped Madden in, I immediately noticed a difference. The picture seems a lot crisper and sharp, I must say I am plesantly suprised. I then decided to try NCAA football. With the standard AV cable I always found NCAA to be rather grainy and sort of blurry, but after playing the game with the HDAV Pack, the game looked much much better. No more graininess, the picture is as clear as can be. I will have to play Halo for the 100000th time to see if I notice a difference in that as well.

This product is worth all 1,999 pennies that it costs. For those that say you can't tell the difference I don't know what to say. Remember to enable it in your XBOX control panel or it won't work. I'm not sure how this works with regular TVs if at all, so that may be your problem too.

This is a must have for HDTV owners.