I understand about not needing surround to use surround sound headphones. I just meant that I'm getting the headphones because right now, I *don't* have a surround sound setup. (We moved, I left the old surround sound setup in our old house cause it was waaay outdated.)
I guess, my main question, is how the setup goes.
I have an older model xbox 360 running through HDMI. The xbox does not have an optical out. I want to be able to run my Xbox through the tv normally (audio and video over HDMI) most of the time, but when I fire up the headset, I want to be able to turn the tv volume down, but get full surround sound over my headset. So, I guess I need to buy an optical adapter for my xbox. The question is: If I buy the adapter, say, something like this:
Amazon.com: RCA Audio Cable Adapter for XBOX 360 + Slim: Electronics and keep my wireless headphone base plugged into it via optical, will that mess up my HDMI audio to my tv? Does the xbox send sound over the optical and HDMI at the same time? That's what I want. I just want to be able to turn the tv volume down, turn on my headphones and have surround sound there without messing up my HDMI audio and video connection to the tv.
For example, if I had the tv going, and I turned on the headphones, would the tv still be playing the sound AND my headphones playing the sound? This way, if I was playing in a room with friends, I could be hearing surround, but they could at least hear the tv. We could still hear each other talk over xbox live anyway.
edit: I'm actually looking at the turtle beach x42's, despite some poor reviews, ...I have at least tried on some turtle beach headphones and they fit well.
edit #2: My tv does have an optical out, but I think that using it will mute the television sound. I've heard that Samsung tv's do this, but that Sony tv's do not. Not sure what the truth is. Will have to do some research. ...I was trying to avoid using the optical out on the tv as I thought running direct from the xbox out to the headset would reduce any potential latency.