Mad Catz Ultra AV Kit (1 Viewer)

[Mike_HT]

Any catch....Are they crappy quality? This looks like it comes with everything I need (svideo and optical audio cables included). I'd spend $19 + an optical cable if I got the Advanced AV pack vs. just $29.
Anyone else use this?
Mad Catz Ultra AV Kit

 

[Arthur Legardo]

I bought one of these when the X-Box first came out. No matter what I did I never got a Dolby Digital signal through it from the X-Box. I ended up exchanging the X-Box several times over one weekend through different retail outlets of the same chain hoping that it was the console that was at fault but to no avail - still no Dolby Digital, just DPL2. After a couple of weeks I found out that the Mad Catz units were faulty and that Mad Catz had allowed owners to return them for a "functioning" unit. Well by then I had returned everything (console, games and Mad Catz AV pack) wanting to wash my hands to the whole X-Box fiasco.
I dove back into ownership of an X-Box once the price reduction as announced and immediately bought a Microsoft brand Advanced AV Pack and everything has worked fine ever since. Once bitten, twice shy I guess.

 

[Mike_HT]

So the MadCatz would be fixed now, which would be good...but I am now tempted to follow your path and go for the Microsoft brand. I'll give my brother a call, says he can get a discount at Best Buy. Maybe then I could even afford Monster Cables
Thanks for the advice and sorry to hear about your bad experience. Glad all is well now.

 

[Jim Spencer]

I purchased one of the Mad Catz Ultra AV Kits in Nov 2002 and it works perfectly, and its at a great price for what you get. I'm sure you can get it for a better price than $29.99. I paid $30 Canadian funds for mine, so I would think you should be able to find it for $20 US funds.

 

[Arthur Legardo]

Maybe then I could even afford Monster Cables

Hmm, that brings up another pet peeve, proprietary components. I was checking out the Monster Cable packaging one day and I noticed that if you wanted to utilize an optical input on you receiver with the Monster Cable connectors (s-video or component) you'd have to buy a special Monster Cable optical cable! It turns out that there is a special "mini" connector that Monster uses on their cables in order to get Dolby Digital/DTS on your X-Box.

 

[Mike_HT]

Just wondering what optical cable you purchased to use with your AV pack?

 

[Arthur Legardo]

I bought the cheapest one I could find, I think it was $30 CDN. After the Mad Catz/X-Box fiasco earlier I was feeling quite jaded so I went the "cheap route". Anyway I couldn't see myself spending $50 for a single cable for game console.