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[Xbox-Scene]

XCM HDMI Blaster Posted by XanTium | August 26 15:27 EST | News Category: Xbox

XCM-USA announced the XCM HDMI Blaster: * Finally an HDMI converter for older (hdmi-less) consoles that brings the analog signal into the digital age. * Converts your old analog signal to the new High Definition standard digital signal (HDMI). * Compatible with Nintendo Wii, Playstation 2, Original Xbox consoles and more! * Experience the Brilliant, Colorful and Sharp video output on your HDTV. Pictures will be posted in about a week and Pre-Orders will begin in about 2 weeks on www.Extreme-Mods.com Official Site: http://www.xcm-usa.com

[DMAddict]

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Converts your old analog signal to the new High Definition standard digital signal (HDMI).

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Pictures will be posted in about a week

Hope they can speed up the conversion time.  

[TehBanStick]

If this lets me keep it plugged in to each console at all times, I might have to look into this.
I notice no price anywhere which scares me a bit.

[vicious6969]

How is this different to the Mad Catz HDMI adapter?

That also converts the older Xboxes to a 1080p HDMI signal.

I have one of these and it works, well at least my TV tells me I'm getting a 1080p signal.

I've played HD movies in 1080p and they look good although you could probably put them in 1080i for all I know..

[DjSnake86]

Do you think you will get a better video quality?

[LockmanSal]

QUOTE(vicious6969 @ Aug 26 2008, 06:00 PM)

How is this different to the Mad Catz HDMI adapter?

That also converts the older Xboxes to a 1080p HDMI signal.

I have one of these and it works, well at least my TV tells me I'm getting a 1080p signal.

I've played HD movies in 1080p and they look good although you could probably put them in 1080i for all I know..

its not 1080P digital , its still analog , the only way to get Digital is using HDMI , and 1080P is not really 1080P its just 720P stretched out to 1080P at least on XBox360 and PS3 games.

[Devedander]

QUOTE(LockmanSal @ Aug 26 2008, 05:22 PM)

its not 1080P digital , its still analog , the only way to get Digital is using HDMI , and 1080P is not really 1080P its just 720P stretched out to 1080P at least on XBox360 and PS3 games.

This post is all very confusing...

First off HDMI only carries digital signals by defiintion... you cannot send analog over HDMI.

Both the mentioned Mad Catz and this posts products are specifically for providing HDMI on older xboxes that don't have an HDMI built in.

By stretched out do you mean scaled?  Stretched out doesn't really make sense when talking about resolutions like this.  Either way I am pretty sure that while not all output from the 360 is in 1080, some of it certainly is truly 1080.

I just have to wonder what exactly you meant by most of what you said and what exactly your point is... to me this does seem to be very much like the mad catz device...

[brandon_r87]

QUOTE(Devedander @ Aug 26 2008, 07:18 PM)

This post is all very confusing...

First off HDMI only carries digital signals by defiintion... you cannot send analog over HDMI.

Both the mentioned Mad Catz and this posts products are specifically for providing HDMI on older xboxes that don't have an HDMI built in.

By stretched out do you mean scaled?  Stretched out doesn't really make sense when talking about resolutions like this.  Either way I am pretty sure that while not all output from the 360 is in 1080, some of it certainly is truly 1080.

I just have to wonder what exactly you meant by most of what you said and what exactly your point is... to me this does seem to be very much like the mad catz device...

He's right, although he doesn't quite word it correctly. What he means is that the picture is just getting converted to digital from an analog signal, so it isn't truly output in digital by the 360. So you're not going to get a boost in picture quality. This should be apparent when they mention that the HDMI blaster works with the Wii, which isn't even capable of outputting HD or digital at all. And as far as the "stretching" goes, he's right that the games aren't true 1080p, they are being scaled. Most are 720p native resolution, and some like Halo 3 are 640p resolution (they get better lighting effects this way, for those not in the know), so when they get scaled, they might actually look worse. I think textures get worse, but models look better if you scale it up. This product is a waste of money, it's a non-improvement that sounds like an upgrade to most consumers. Snake oil.

Also, the Mad Catz or any other similar product works the same way. If your 360 doesn't have the HDMI port, then it isn't capable of outputting a digital signal and you're just converting the existing analog signal.

[brandogg]

Well there are 3 XBox 360 games that run in 1080p native - IIRC they are Virtua Tennis 3, NBA Street Vol 3, and *possibly* Virtua Fighter 4, but I may be wrong about that one. Anyway, it's for people that want/need to use HDMI (as in all they have is a digital monitor, without component input, or even VGA).

[spinemangler]

Well, I am pretty sure the MadCatz converter still sends a native 1080p signal, just converted from analog to digital.

There is no scaling, as the 360 puts out a 1080p signal naively through component.

As far is this thing, I don't see a point unless its cheaper than the MadCatz product. The MadCatz converter is 80 or 90 bucks, which is a little pricey. If they can hit the $50 price point, I would be on it in a second. Not really for the boost in image quality (which wouldn't be much), but for the ability to use one of the 4 HDMI ports on my TV instead of one of the 2 component.

[guruknowledge]

My LCD has vga so i use the 360converter. my tv also only outputs 720p max any way and it looks great.
  I also have HDMI in the back. I don't really see the difference with my friends xbox360 elite running 1080p HDMI they both look good. But there is no real noticeable difference too us.

So if you have a old xbox360 and your LCD/PLASMA supports VGA. That to me is deffintely the way to go you will see the difference.

[Tobias Redfield]

For that price your half way to buying a new xbox with built-in HDMI anyway....

[ProphetOfPain]

QUOTE(brandogg @ Aug 27 2008, 05:49 AM)

 Anyway, it's for people that want/need to use HDMI (as in all they have is a digital monitor, without component input, or even VGA).

I mean, I know money is an issue and all.. but what a shame to have to spend money to use your analog signal into an HDMI port instead of just getting a 360 with HDMI out.  It's kind of like driving a ferrari with bondo on it.  And of course i'm only saying this because of the difference between the two...

[designgears]

oh yay, more upscaling crap...  for all interested, the video will likely look worse then usual.

[gimpydingo]

I doubt this product will truly do anything but allow you to plug the 360 (or other consoles) into an HDMI port on your TV/Receiver and allow it to upscale to 1080p. But without additonal hardware support to assist in the conversion from analog to digital I am not sure what this will really do. I have a Yamaha receiver that takes any analog input  (compostie, s-vid, component, etc...) and upscales/outputs to HDMI. Since the receiver has specific hardware to do this, the image quality on consoles such as the Wii, PS2 and other non HD gaming platforms, looks sharper/richer colors and the 360 has a deeper contrast to it. So hopefully this will do something more than just outputting to HDMI.