Yes, but we've found barbaric ways to overcome that blockage. I have mine going HDMI to the display (internal speakers disabled) and optical to the A/V receiver.

Brianluvdvd... apparently so...

again, in my defense, b/c i got the PS3 first and knowing that the PS3 got all the sockets/connection ports on the back of the console, i "expect" similar concept on the X360 (actually, to be honest, the X360's component cable is the first cable i ever encounter with additional sockets/ports).

It's not a "poor" judgment that if you don't see it on the console, it's not there... Oh, the picture does wonders, if anybody still miss that, oh well, i don't know what to say

I think that's what Pinata did... crack up the component cable and "free" up the HDMI cover so that you now can use the optical socket. Anyhow, i don't really know why you want to do this, unless the HDMI's audio can't be used, i.e. it's via a DVI port to the source. In that case, yes, you would want the optical socket for digital audio...

Remember the IPTV stuff that was leaked back before the last Dashboard update?

Check this out:

http://microsoftmediaroom.com/

Looks pretty cool, but did you catch that "You will be charged $1.00 for a 5 MIN rental of BMX 8" on the video - just before the mid-point? Is that like a "PPV demo" or something? Seems like that would be free.

If they can offer a fraction of the channels that I have now, I will drop Comcast like a hot potato.

I am about to dump Charter. When is this supposed to be available?

That looks like it could be really good. Is it a separate box that integrates with the 360? I guess it would have to be.

Does anyone have any idea why achievements that I received today would not list a date acquired? I was playing Half Life 2 today and this is what shows us.

Where Cubbage Fears to Tread
Defend Little Odessa from the gunship attack.
5
Acquired

Hallowed Ground
Escort Gregori safely through the church cemetery.
5
Acquired

Zero-Point Energy
Get the Gravity Gun in Black Mesa East.
5
Acquired 1/7/2008

Revenge!
Destroy the hunter-chopper in Half-Life 2.
10
Acquired 1/7/2008

Heavy Weapons
Get the airboat's mounted gun.
5
Acquired 1/7/2008


I did notice I lost connection to XBOX live while I was playing. Kind of strange. The only other time I noticed was when I beat Call of Duty 2.

That is why. If you are not logged into Live it will register the achievement but not the date and time.

Well that sucks. Oh well not so good for my OCD.

Did anyone get their 'Live at Five' free points for being Live subscribers for five years?

I'm guessing that's not going to happen, even though I've been in since the beta.

I got my free 500 points and the Founding member gamer pic two weeks ago.

So did I. About two weeks sounds right.

The points went out the day after the Linkin Park GHIII pack came out if that helps.

I think the 360 is all you need. And a hard drive.

I didn't get my 500 points either. Been on Live since day 1.

Didn't you have to sign up on some website to get those points ? They made us do the hard work if we wanted the points.

How will they deliver the content? Over ethernet?

I signed up for something, but I don't remember the details. I remember thinking it didn't look like a 'real' MS site, so maybe I didn't sign up.

You'd think they would send an email to those who qualify.

I got an email when the promo started 11/16/07 that sent me to the webpage to fill out, and another on 12/21/07 containing the codes for the 500 points and gamerpic.

Is live totally screwed for anyone else tonight?

The XBox site is not working and my gamercard won't come up on my desktop

Yeah, it just took me about ten minutes to navigate to marketplace and buy a song, and the other one didn't work at all.

My gamertag is working again on my desktop (for what it's worth).

I played a little CoD4 around 8:30 last night, and XBL was the best it has been in weeks. Very easy to sign in and find matches. It was completely fuxored a couple of hours earlier, though.