You can get nice surround sound systems for only a couple hundred. I know there's a Sony one on sale right now at RadioShack for $250, and you can find others for a similar price or even lower. And as others have said, it will sound immensely better than pretty much any speaker built into the TV. In fact, I was able to find a Pioneer surround sound system designed for Xbox 360 (whatever that means) for just over $100 online. It's a bit basic, but it sounds awesome and the price was right.
It should work just fine, as long as your PC hardware is up to handling the game. It also helps if you can understand the language the game is in and your PC has all the necessary fonts installed to display characters used in that language (though that is more of a concern for Asian games, and is easily taken care of in most any case).
I know GameStop carries universal component cables that will work on PS2, GameCube, and more. But my understanding is that the system has to be outputting in "high resolution" for the cable to even make a difference, and I'm not sure if those systems do output in higher resolution than the composite cable they come with was designed for. There may be a setting on those systems to get them to do so, I'm not really sure. But this is something that I am also very interested in knowing the definitive answer to, as once I upgrade to an HDTV, I would like to get the best picture possible out of even my old systems.
Maybe call your nearest radioshack, they usually have decent prices for HDMI.TimothyB
RadioShack is just as bad as the rest of them, if not worse (this coming from an employee of RadioShack, btw). They peddle the Monster brand crap in the big shiny box with the extra thick plastic around the cable that they want you to believe will give you a better picture for $100+, when most employees that know what they're talking about (and certainly Monster themselves) know full well that most any HDMI cable is as good as most any other. RadioShack's training materials even state that as a digital signal, it's not susceptible to interference and signal loss. Even their RadioShack brand, which is pretty much just a basic HDMI cable, is grossly overpriced (though still only about half the price of the Monster brand cable). Skip RadioShack, skip any place that charges more than $10 for a 6-foot cable. Check out Amazon.com, or (from what I hear) monoprice.com.
RadioShack sells Sony noise-cancelling headphones for like $50. Check them out, and check the reviews on them. Sony is, of course, a good brand, and it's right in your price range.
Ok so after finally getting the speaker setup unpacked and all the wires connected, I tested the system out by plugging in my Sansa m240 to the analog input and playing a couple songs. First impressions: VERY pleased! :D It sounded really good. I only had the speakers sitting out on the floor and not arranged in their final positions where I plan to use them for games, music and movies, but even unorganized like that it sounded really good. Next I plan to rearrange in order to get the best viewing and hearing angles, then set the speakers up with my Xbox 360 and try it out with some games and movies.
Wow OK, so over a week later and the thing still hasn't shipped. Buy.com still says the order was "Sent to Warehouse." I'm sure it has to do with this being the holiday season but they seriously don't seem to be in any sort of hurry to fulfill my order. Between this and another recent order from Buy.com I haven't exactly been impressed with their processing speed. Oh, here's the product page for the Sansa e260, in case anyone was wondering: http://www.buy.com/prod/Sandisk-Sansa-e260-Rhapsody-4GB-MP3-Player/q/loc/58207/206611716.html. They appear to be out of stock now but they may come back in stock later on. That other order from them I mentioned making was a speaker setup by Pioneer (here: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=204509050) that went out of stock shortly after my order, only to come back in stock a couple days later, with a $20 lower price (of course). They wouldn't give me any sort of price protection refund because I made a request for it 3 days after the order was made (oh how convenient that the speakers were "out of stock" for just such a period before the price was lowered...)
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