MadCatz's Xbox 360 HDMI Conversion Kit up for pre-order
By Darren Murph 
posted December 19th 2007 6:10PM
posted December 19th 2007 6:10PM
Well, what have we here? No, seriously, what is this thing? Considering the absolute dearth of information given on GameStop's pre-order page, we're left to surmise that the Xbox 360 HDMI Conversion Kit exists (er, will exist) simply to allow those who purchased their Xbox 360 before the days of built-in HDMI to utilize one of the dusty HDMI sockets on their TV / receiver. Granted, we're sure hoping there's more to this thing than that, or else we're left wondering who's desperate enough to drop $89.99 to free up a single component input.Update: Turns out this thing does indeed support 1080p, and it'll come with "free" HDMI and optical audio cables, too. Check out the PDF here. Thanks, PerfectVirus!
[Thanks, David]
BONUS! Includes HDMI & Optical Cables
• Convenient right-out-of-the-box
• Everything included inside – just plug and play
So in other words for about the same price as your average HDMI cable from Monster you get:
- a converter
- an HDMI cable
- an optical audio cable
Sure you can purchase HDMI cables cheap on line, but walk into a bestbuy and about the only thing on the self is premium Monster cables.
Pfft for an extra £10 you can get the Joytech Component switch
The xbox 360 will do a max of 1080i over component.. If you want 1080p on the older 360 VGA was the only option, and MANY HD sets do not support 1080p very well over VGA. So Yes there might be a reason to get this..
I must have a unique 360 then as mine supports 1080p over component...
1080i max is ONLY for HD-DVD addon. Not for dashboard or games.
Aw sorry, looking up info it appears that yes after one of the updates it supports 1080p over both VGA and component however some TVs might still have an issue with the frequency it uses as it is an analog signal.
WTF! you are getting the HDMI, Optical cables and the converter for 89.99. HDMI you get for around $20 a good one like 9ft, the optical like $10 the converter runs you like $50. I say this is a deal if it works like the real HDMI on the new 360's, so why complain people.
The interesting question will be whether it uses the Component output of the 360 or the VGA output - will it be subject to the upconversion limitations of the component output? The only people who really need this are those whose component inputs do not take 1080p but whose HDMI do. (sadly my projector falls into this category but I already bought a new HDMI 360)
I'll just hope that my launch unit goes blooey soon, so i can send it in and receive an HDMI-equipped console.
I haven't seen a post yet that's been accurate.
This is only worth it IF...
Your TV is 1080P, over HDMI.
Your TV does not do 1080P over component.
Your TV does not have VGA or sucks over VGA. Many TV's do not allow any settings of color/processing/etc when on VGA.
Then, you can get 1080P over HDMI, and have your processing/color etc settings active.
This is NOT as good as a real xbox with HDMI as it will be converting from analog to digital in this kit, then sending it to the TV digital, instead of digital > digital.
Assuming that this kit has a decent A/D converter/scaler it won't hurt to use it on a TV that can take 1080p over component or a good vga just to get the xbox into HDMI, for example if you use a switch/receiver and only want to run one cable of HDMI to the TV. That would be a rather limited scenario.
So yeah. Basically, it's worthless and you should stop worrying about "needing" HDMI or even really 1080P via the xbox as none of the games are, and the HD DVD addon is OK but the audio support is terrible compared to a set top player which you should be using instead anyways if you are this picky about your connection.
That is all. :)
Well, to clarify somewhat. The 360 currently supports 1080p over component for the 360 dashboard and for games. Only for those 2. The HD-DVD player is limited to 1080i over component. Regular DVD movies - played through the 360's internal drive - are not up-converted at all - they play at native 480p over component.
All of these are intentionally restricted by Microsoft because of legal issues which pertain to component video. These do not apply to HDMI and VGA, which will both support 1080p across the board for all applications. Component cables are perfectly capable of carrying full 1080p signals, but these capabilities have intentionally been restricted by Microsoft for the 360 hardware, when playing back copyrighted material.
This HDMI converter should theoretically get around those restrictions - assuming it uses the digital VGA signal and converts that to HDMI, there should be no issue. So we should be able to enjoy 1080p HD-DVD and up-converted standard DVDs on our 1080p TV's.
I don't know if it's worth $89, but it's pretty f*****g good!
I really hate it when people post wrong information; it happens all too often and usually because someone is just regurgatating something someone else said (irl or online). The 360 can/DOES (if you want it to) output a 1080P signal over component video, including video from it's optional HD-DVD drive! While the souce may, or may not, actually be 1080P (such as the fact that MOST of the games are not rendered at 1080P, but 1080i or 720P... and in some cases even lower), the signal is not a problem. Already pointed out is the fact that not all televisions support 1080P over component (which was actually a fairly recent improvement, as some older "HD" sets not only couldn't do 1080P, but couldn't even do 720P... as my first 55" Samsung had two component connections, one that supported 1080i and 480P, the other supporting only 480P and 480i... yes, very very sad, but that's what you get when you're an "early adopter".) I think I'm done ranting for now... I don't usually even post... I just want more individuals out there to do their own research (I could give a crap if you listen to me, if you're willing to look it up for yourself... in which you'll just find that I'm right anyway lol). Thanks for your time =)
My question is will DVDs be upconverted with this? If so it'd be worth it to me so I can ditch my upconverting DVD player. But I'm so desperate to ditch it that I've thought about connecting my pc with hdmi and my xbox with vga (my tv is only 1080i).
Sorry but this isn't HDMI, its component crammed into HDMI cable, component doesn't carry audio where as HDMI does, that's the only reason to upgrade. This device has separate audio (just like component), this isn't HDMI.
I have the original premium Xbox. I also have the HD DVD addon.
Because i don't have HDMI i can't do 1080p or and upscaling.
Will this allow me too?