Recently got an old playstation 3 from a friend and I've decided to hit up some jrpgs I missed from last generation. The thing is I don't have a TV and need to play it on my computer monitor. My monitor has an HDMI jack and will display the video just fine but I am wondering if there is a more elegant solution to getting audio than using a red white yellow AV cables and using a 3.5 mm adapter to get audio out as described in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc9p68_PYuQ . Should work just fine but I don't want to clutter my desk with wires if I don't have to

I was gonna get the Audioengine D1 before I decided I'm not gonna bother with consoles anymore. You can connect the optical cable from the PS3 to it and the USB from the computer and then it should switch between the channels automatically.

Unless your monitor has an audio output or speakers, I'm afraid that using those RCA wires is the simplest and cheapest way.

Monitors have pretty bad sound. I don't just mean the speakers. The headphone jacks too. I was pretty disappointed after I bought my monitor with the intention of using the jack for consoles.

It's going to be expensive to do this any other way and unless you have a very well-set-up surround sound setup you won't even notice the difference.

Probably what that video shows is the way you should do it.

If you're using headphones instead of speakers, you'll probably need an amp for that too, to control the volume.

I have my PS4 hooked up to my PC monitor and the sound is connected to my PC via optic cable. Then I set the SPDIF IN in recording devices to Listen (or turn on monitoring if you have Oxygen HD Audio drivers like me). With this method, I can listen to my computer and my PS4 through the same pair of headphones at the same time.

But as Ezekiel said before me though, there's no volume control. Starting up games murders my ears until I can get to the options menu and turn down the volume using the game options. The PS4 has no system volume setting and I don't think the PS3 does either but I never looked for it. If a game has no volume in the options, then I have to settle for playing it with my monitor speakers. I find the big budget games almost always have volume options.

I think this is the most convenient solution if you plan to have your PS3 in the same space as your PC. You should probably get a headphones amp though.

@andrack: @flippyandnod: @ezekiel: @crimsonjesus: @ezekiel: thanks guys.

Audio setups are never elegant. The method you described seems like the best you can do with what you have.

My PS4 transmits sound first through the HDMI cable into the monitor, then out of a digital out cable into a digital-out-to-red/white converter box, followed by red/white cables to a couple input jacks on my sub, which then transmits to the speakers. It's hardly perfect, but it gets the job done, and there's the bonus of the volume control for my PC also controlling the PS4 volume. If I wanted to spend fanatical amounts of money, I'd have an awesome sound setup that could accommodate more than 2 channels. The big problem is that the more elegant you want your sound to be, the more expensive it's going to be.

As far as wire clutter goes, it's a part of life. You can use nails and velcro ties if you want to get crafty with it.