Can both the digital and analog output on the Xbox 360 be used at once?

Solution 1:

I found a forum thread that suggests that you can do this: use the HDMI XBox cable to carry the picture through an HDMI-to-DVI converter, and then use the other XBox cable to carry sound (red and white wires).

However you may need to remove part of the connector base of one of the XBox cables so that both will fit in the XBox at the same time; apparently the 2 cables may not fit together at the same time.

Here is another thread discussing a similar idea. To research this, I Googled "hdmi to dvi adapter sound"

Solution 2:

If you specifically bought an xbox 360 HDMI cable it comes with one of these. Essentially what it does is it plugs in above the hdmi cable and allows you to have both analog (red and white) as well as digital (fiber optics).

So your HDMI cable will fit nicely into the back of the xbox, then this specially flattened audio adapter will fit above it, this will allow you to plug both wires in at once. I have been using mine for years to route my xbox sound through a set of headphones, and my surround sound without using the speakers on my TV

It ends up looking something like this: (I hope my crude drawing helps)

--------------
              |[]    Xbox 360 Audio adapter to RCA to Speakers
              |
   Xbox 360   |[]    HDMI to DVI Adapter to Monitor
              |