I just recently hooked up my XBOX 360 in my truck to my Avic N3. It works, and picture looks pretty good (kinda small though). The problem that I am having is with the sound. Any kind of sound whether it be Movies, Games, or Music... it creates a static noise that is rather annoying, and definatly takes away from the effects of the subwoofers in the back pounding your chest in HALO as you are shooting and blowing things up! lol

Anybody have any ideas?

I heard actually right after my post, its possible with the Avic's that the Alternate INPUTS are not properly grounded. I was told an effective solution would be to solder a small gauge wire to the outputs (possibly just audio) to a groundable source. Just enough to ground the audio inputs from the XBOX360 to the AVICN3.

Before I attempt this, any ideas on this being legit, or any other ideas to solve this issue?

i have no idea about the alternate inputs but i am curious how u made a 500 gb 360 hd....i know u can take laptop harddrives and use them just have never heard of a 500 gb one

Ahhh! Yes, I hope to get a sticky for this, as it took me FOREVER to figure it out! Its actually a long strenuous task, but well worth it. This way you can play any song, any band, and movie, any game... and NEVER have to take the NAVDISK out.

I bought a USB interfaced 500 GB HD

Formatted it to mac filesystem

Downloaded a Windows to MAC file transfer software

So now I have my XBOX360 (which IRONICALLY reads the mac filesystem!!! This is for IPODS, is my assumption) connected to a 500 GB external HD (formatted to HCS+?). Then transfered all my mp3's, movies, and pictures to the external HD. And now, all my music can be listened to in my truck on the fly, w/o any change of cd or dvd.

NOW, my only problem is.. STATIC from the inputs on the AVIC N3

I might add, this is only to STREAM music and movies through the XBOX into the AVIC N3. You cannot SAVE GAMES onto this HD. I plan on doing the task you mentioned to increase HD space at a later time.

well first off, DO NOT connect some ground to that as described. If pioneer intended that they would have given you a ground. If theres a problem with your unit, send it in for repair before ****** (I edited the word) rigging it. The audio is an ac signal, thus possibly introducing a bit more noise since the converter may or may not be good. for the sake of trouble shooting this, try sitting in your garage, with an extension cord plugged into the 360 for power, and connect a/v as you would for the n3, see if you get that static. If not, you can blame your ac/dc converter.

Well, taking tillithz's advice... I did not connect any grounds yet. I dont think its a problem with the unit after what was done, or a problem with the XBOX. With the idea from tillithz, I decided to plug the XBOX 360 into an oulet in the garage, and then connect it to the AVIC-N3. This was extremly successful! I put in Tiger Woods '07... and it was so peaceful! And the birds chirping sounded so real w/o any background noise! And when you hit the ball from the tee... the subs POUNDED on ball contact! It was really a beautiful sound...

... Needless to say it's not the AVIC N3, and its not the XBOX360. The only thing that is left in my eyes, would be how the inverter provides the power for the XBOX360... and that current travelling through the sound. Now, another thing I should mention... I had another inverter, by another company I bought to TRY to use my XBOX (regular) to see how it would work, and that was staticy as well...

There has to be something to drown out the noise the inverter is making.

Ideas VERY welcome.

well you could try getting the power from the battery, even if its just as a test. maybe the wiring through the car can help. if it works better then you can run your own wiring.

Well, its a possibility I will want to do this anyway...> However, not sure exactly how to go about doing that. Dont they sell harnesses to add onto the batter to wire additional components? Ideas on this would be GREATLY appreciated.

Another idea, they have some isolators to ground out inverters I hear. Have no idea where to find them, or if they really work... anybody heard of these?

you know, you could also try it with the vehicle NOT running. but you can pick up a cig lighter attachment at pep boys or wherever and just hook it up temp like.

the inverters I have used were both...

A. Cigarette lighter

B. Battery hook-up

Both converting to hook up the XBOX 360 directly.

Both creating static in the sound (not the video though)

Well, I have been given a few ideas to fix this issue. Some say placing the inverter so close down the line to the alternator and engine may cause this to occur. And they advised getting 4 gauge cable... running it from POSITIVE post to rear of vehicle. Then connecting it to the positive terminal of a Kinetik battery (100 farad battery). Then running the inverter off of this battery. The in-line connection will allow the Kinetik battery to recharge, while also powering the XBOX 360 through the inverter BEHIND an additional battery. This hopefully will detour the noise coming from the alternator.

I needed to do this anyway for future AMP and powering video equipment in the back... so it was worth a try... I'll let you know how it pans out.

you dont 'need' a cap. I have never seen it applied and used as promised. Though they function in reality and theoretically I have not seen them out perform a system without a 'cap'. 4 awg is a bit much for a single inverter for a xbox360, not to mention the design is geared for rapid discharge and rapid refill if you will. Definitely not something necessary for a simple ac to dc inverter.

This 4 gauge wire, will also bring current from current battery to rear battery. This will power my system (when upgraded) and act as a capacitor for my system as well as power the inverter (powering XBOX360, and External HD), and then split off onto all the video panels, and neons that will be in the back. I doubt i should go any less than 4 gauge on going from one battery to another... A. more can never hurt when it comes to wiring... less, can! B. The standard on battery posts look like a tad bit smaller than 4 gauge... so i would rather go to 4 gauge to be safe. The battery states its used for rapid charge, and power dispursement which I would need to buy a capacitor anyway for the subs... so why not hit two birds with one stone? Also, with this set up... my primary battery can go dead, and i'll still have the other battery to jump off of... And, I can have TWICE the ammount of life w/o the car running....

Good outweighed the bad... Now if I dont get static on the XBOX 360 being set up this way... i'm gonna be on cloud 9!

You need a pure sine wave inverter. Modified sine wave interverters are notorious for causing the noise you're describing.

Also, in another comment... after re-reading... A capacitor, to my understanding, kind of holds a charge and then allows for current to pass through to your amp. In times of HIGH DRAW from your amp... headlights, dome lights, neons, etc... generally fade or dim. Capacitors will store this extra "power" for these times of high draw, and instead of draining down the battery and making the alternator work harder to charge your battery and power the headlights, etc... It will take that draw from the capacitor... Then your headlights stay lit. I have seen a 1 farad capacitor control this before... I'd say having a 100 farad capacitor can only benefit your system in this scenario. Especially after having an XBOX 360 and other components being powered by this same source.

Not heard of these pure sine wave inverters before. What are the differences, and where can these be found?

Get a pure sine wave inverter and you'll be fine. A cap ain't going to fix it.

I just started reading a little about pure sine wave inverters... and your idea seems to be a good idea from what they describe... Any ideas on locations to buy these? Good deals?

they're not cheap and you won't find them at cc or bb

Yeah they run about 160 for a 300 watt inverter. Which would do the job fine.

the neons, the inverter, and accessories like that WILL introduce noise into your system. you 'should' seperate the wiring for those things as much as possible. Since your dealing with audio, you already know how annoying that whine can be. you wouldnt make your connection for your neons, let alone the inverter AT the cap, it would be at the second battery. Also, so you know, if your battery went dead, you WOULDNT have a second to jump off of. UNLESS you used a switch to run your other stuff off of and only when the ignition (car running) was on, but you havent talked about that. So, if one battery were to die, it would also effect the other, you really wouldnt have one battery at say 7 volts and the other at 13 volts, they are interconnected.

the best way to do this install is get the wiring diagram of an xbox 360 and figure out what wires are true 12v...

the big box (power adapter) is really a power supply... it converts house style electricity to 12v standard

so in theroy... your car starts as 12v.. gets converted to house in the inverter... then back to 12v... see the redundancy?

ive seen this done successfully with xbox's (xbox's have the same issue)

the difference is you can get a 12v car power supply and plug it into an xbox main board...

if you're looking for a plug and play solution... then you need to get some sort of 2nd battery that you can disconnect from the main battery to remove engine noise.... then while the ignitions off have both batterys auto bridge to drain some power from the main battery to the xbox battery...

but thats a pain in the arse to set up

xbox360 is waaaay different then the xbox1, hence the power brick itself.

xbox360 is waaaay different then the xbox1, hence the power brick itself.

they are totally the same... follow the same principles...

the way they are built is different.. but they both are built using the same process...

the brick itself will just make it easier if anything because the power supply itself is external instead of internal...