Home theater audio optical cable surround sound help?

Need help setting up surround sound for Xbox?

• I have this home theater speaker system here, or if not this one then one almost identical to it: http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-S6300-7-1-Channel-Theater-Receiver/dp/product-description/B003IT49LG So I'm trying to set up my Xbox to have surround sound using this receiver, but I'm clueless on how to do so. According to the Xbox support site (http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-360/audio-video-setup-and-use/connect-sound-system), I need an optical audio adapter and a standard stereo audio cable. So I found an optical audio adapter [http://www.amazon.com/Optical-Audio-Adapter-Xbox-360-Cable/dp/B0042UQLM0%5D, but I don't know what kind of "standard stereo audio cable" to get. I don't even know where to plug in the other end of the stereo audio cable to my receiver. Anyone who can help will be greatly appreciated.

• Answer:

  There are a few different versions of the XBox 360. The first generation machines didn't have HDMI or an optical output, so that's why an adapter cable was needed. Your links aren't working for me so I can't see what you checked. The slim and the Elite XBox 360s have them though. Which version have you got? If you can get an optical output from your XBox 360 then you don't need the stereo phonos. Just plug the optical lead in from the 360 to the Onkyo kit, then make sure you assign the input on the Onkyo (see manual - 'Assign Inputs'). Next, set up the XBox 360 menus to make sure that Dolby Digital 5.1 (A.K.A. DD5.1) is enabled. The optical connection will now take care of stereo and multichannel audio from the console to your receiver. Later consoles can do sound via HDMI. However, there are reports that the results are a bit flaky. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Optical seems to work very reliably, but the choice is yours.