OK, I believe I read through and did not see this answered, but you may not be getting a Dolby Digital signal becasue you may have to assign it on the receiver itself. I have a Denon 3802 and you have to assign on the Digital inputs screen what the setting is for. For example, on my Xbox I assigned the Optical 1 to the TV/DBS, this may or may not be the problem since I have not seen you respond to say you definitely have DD 5.1 now. Play a game like Halo and you will know for sure that you have DD 5.1 or the opening storm sequence in Ninja Gaiden which shakes the walls a little.

I didn't say I wanted the optical cable packed in. Just that the connection should be built into the machine for optical or digital coax output for 5.1 sound. That apparently doesn't drive up cost as the digital audio outs where built into the PS2 and GC which cost the same and $100 less than the x-box respectively.

I don't mind buying an optical cable, but I shouldn't have to buy an additional accessory on top of the required cable to get 5.1 sound.

Still lame as the PS2 and GC had digital audio outs built in and cost the same or less than the X-box. But your right, not having 4 controller ports on the PS2 is lame, though I don't care as I only play single player games anyway.

Agree totally here, I just want my game systems to play games. It costs hardware companies around $20 a pop in DVD licensing fees to add DVD movie playback, and any cost is likely to get passed on to the consumer. Movies look much better on stand alone players than on game systems (though the X-box is much better than the PS2 in this regard) thus I have no use for DVD play back in my consoles and I"m glad MS made it an extra feature rather than tacking the cost on to the systems.

I'm just overly paranoid as I've had three PC HDs die on me, and never had a problem with any flash memory, SD cards etc.

All crap I don't care about. The loading times is nice, but load times are still fastest on the GC which has no HD, so an HD is necessary in that regard. Custom soundtracks don't interst me. I only play, for the most part, platformers, role playing games, adventure games and a few actions games. In these the sound and music are part of the game design and I want to hear the original stuff. I can see the value for extreme sports games and things like that, which have crappy pop alternative soundtracks, but I don't play that crap so it's not a concern for me.

Downloadable content is a great thing, but I have no internet access at home, and don't plan on getting any in the foreseeable future, so it's a moot point for me.

Again, I only play single player games, so not relevent for me.

I see where all these things are worthwhile to many, maybe even most gamers. But for my money, all I need and want to pay for is a system that plays games and can get 5.1 sound and component hookups without having to buy anything additionally besides the respective cables.

The GC does not have digital audio outs built in. In fact there is no way to get digital audio out at all from the Gamecube, either with or without an adapter. I think Nintendo really screwed up in this regard.

Gamecube has no digital audio out, no DAC for component video, no AC adapter built in (the AC adapter is an external brick as you all know). Nintendo really made the GC bare-bones. Which is why it's so tiny and inexpensive!

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Gamecube has no digital audio out, no DAC for component video, no AC adapter built in (the AC adapter is an external brick as you all know). Nintendo really made the GC bare-bones. Which is why it's so tiny and inexpensive! [/B][/QUOTE]

Actually it is only brand new Gamecubes that do not have the ability for component video(I believe). Nintendo took this feature out for the reason to cut costs. I have a DAY1 gamecube and if I wanted to I can order from Nintendo a component cable set to go with my gamecube.

Also of note everyone, where has this thread gone. The original post asked about how to get DD5.1 on his Xbox, not what we hate or don't hate about what the companies have put inot their systems or not. It is safe to say, for the most part, that everyone bought their systems knowing what it could or could not do as far as capabilities.

Actually I didn't My main consideration when choosing was what games would it play, all other considerations were secondary quite frankly (and why it's taken me over a year to actually hook the Xbox up to the receiver ). Case in point since I ordered the PS2 online I wasn't even sure what to expect and was a little annoyed/dismayed when it showed up w/o the capability to save games w/o purchasing another device/module

Hey lit us know how you like 5.1 in your games when you get it all set-up.

Money wise the xbox is 10 times the value of the PSX2. I mean how many memory cards would you need to buy to make 8 GB's? I like what the xbox offers hardware wise myself it's a much better value. I'm not saying Xbox is a better system but for what you get it's a much better value hardware wise.

PS. Lit me know if this is a console bash. Don't see it could be I mean really any moron could see hardware wise xbox beats all consoles right now.

Well do, it's going to be a little while though as I'm going to wait until the rewardzone points from the receiver purchase "cash out" and the coupons are sent

I had no idea you needed the A/V pack to get 5.1 sound when I bought the X-box. I figured you'd just need an optical cable, just like the PS2, since the X-box came out after the PS2 and was highly touted as the best hardware. Seems silly to leave that out IMO.

So quick question then. My tv is the JVC AV 27D500 (http://www.jvc.com/product.jsp?model...2&archive=true) which has both S-Video and Component Imput. Right now my DVD player is hooked up to the s-video and optical audio to the reciever. So i plan to get an optical splitter to hook both xbox and dvdplayer to the optical in of the reciever.

Can i get the advanced AV pack and hook it up to the component input? The resolution seems strange in the specs..700, isn't the next standard number above 480 720?

I have to admit, that while it does sound better, it isn't much better than the pro-logic surround I use for my GC and PS2 in most games. I guess many games just don't have the sound programmed that well.

Then again, I'm far from an audiophile.

ALL Gamecubes do not have a DAC for component video, regardless of when or where you bought it. The older gamecubes have a digital out, so you can hook up a component cable to it. Newer gamecubes do not have a digital out, so you cannot hook up a component cable to it. The component cable that you buy from Nintendo has a DAC inside of it, which is why the Gamecube costs less and the component cable costs more. It's also why you can't buy the component cable from anywhere else except Nintendo.