Product Description
HDMI port is on your HDTV or receiver but not on your Xbox 360? Problem solved with the mad Catz HDMI Conversion Kit. Now you can finally play your 360 games the way they were meant to be experienced: in true 1080p HD. Simply plug the adapter into the A/V port on the back of your 360 and run the included HDMI cable from the adapter to your HDTV and you're ready to play. The optical audio port provides an alternative setup solution and everything you need to get Full HD output from your Xbox 360 is right inside the box. Convenient, simplified HDMI connectivity makes the mad Catz HDMI Conversion Kit the ideal choice for getting the most from what your console has to offer. mad Catz promises innovative, quality products for all your gaming needs.
Read more Mad Catz HDMI Conversion Kit - HDMI conversion kit
My setup consists of a computer monitor with a single HDMI input and capable of 1080p resolution. This monitor connected to a HDMI switch box which enables me to switch inputs between my PS3 and computer.
I was excited about getting this Mad Catz hdmi converter for my 360 because it is a first generation 360 and no hdmi connection existed. (If you're reading this, you probably already know that.) Of course I was also eager to plug more HDMI devices to this 5-port switch. Haha!
Now the converter doesn't quite work as expected, but it does indeed work. Unfortunately for me, both the 1080i and 1080p resolutions projected from my old 360 draw an intermittent if not mostly blank (black) screen, while 480p and 720p work at full speed.
On the plus side, in these resolutions the converter produces as good, if not slightly better picture than the 360 VGA cables I had been using. Yet, it surely isn't the 1080p sharpness that my wallet and I would prefer.
As for the cause of why this coverter won't produce high quality HD, perhaps the culprit is the Oricore HDMI switch box I have it hooked up to - But then why do my other devices (the computer and PS3) run perfectly fine 1080p resolution?
It is likely because the Mad Catz device is performing a task that this version of the 360 just was meant to do.
Pity.
I initially had trouble with this as my NEC Plasma was reporting "illegal signal" when I turned it on. Everythign I tried couldn't get it to display.
However, in the MadCatz instructions, it says that you can turn the Xbox 360 console on, then immediately press Y button and pull the RIGHT trigger. This puts the console into a display reset mode.
This worked and I could see a 480p image on my TV.
Turns out that my TV Was having trouble with 1080p specifically, so it wasn't a problem with the MadCatz, just something with my TV + 1080p + HDCP.
I left it in 1080i and it still displays better than through component.
I upgraded a VGA cable that I was using into my 32" Bravia KDL-32XBR6 LCD tv's pc input, and I noticed an immediate difference. The resolution was still 1080p (both VGA and HDMI output 1080p signals, however the VGA is an analog signal), but the image was much crisper. I thought previously that it wouldn't make a difference, but I was wrong.
I was worried when I saw the other review that stated that it was only 1080i, but it is not, the system is set at 1080p and the tv itself reports it as 16:9 1080p. I did however get mine on ebay for much cheaper than this is advertised here, but if I wasn't able to get that, I would have still bought it (and would buy it again).
Since I mounted my plasma over the fireplace, I wanted to run all my A/V components through an HDMI switcher, including my Xbox 360. This product performed as expected (video output through HDMI), but I had to try a couple different ports on the HDMI switcher to get the video to work (probably not an issue with this converter). My only complaint is that the video is noticeably brighter (too bright) through this converter than it was through the original component cables. Kind of pricey, but cheaper than buying a new Xbox to get HDMI output.
This thing is about as useless as converters come. I wasn't expecting true 1080p imagery, but my real attraction to this product was the promise of HDMI 1.3 capabilities for my Xbox 360 (and, more importantly, my HD DVD addon). For those unfamiliar with HD - the HD DVDs have TrueHD and/or Dolby Digital Plus tracks. These are uncompressed, and thus much richer than the usual Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks that come on standard def DVDs. Unfortunately, with HDMI 1.2 (which is what the Xbox Elites and Arcade models are equipped with), these signals are being compressed; only with HDMI 1.3 will they run as intended into an HDMI A/V receiver. So long story short - this product made it sound like I could finally listen to uncompressed audio with my Xbox360 HD DVD addon.
FALSE. In terms of audio, this converter gives you two options. 1. You can use the HDMI cable for both video AND audio, however you will only get a STEREO signal (2 speakers and a subwoofer) from the HDMI audio out, or 2. You can use HDMI for video and optical cable for audio, which leaves you back at square one - compressed audio. I have no idea what Mad Catz means when they say that this product is HDMI 1.3 compliant, because it is clearly not, and the fact that the HDMI audio out can't even produce a 5.1 signal (even a compressed one) is just ridiculous. One of the great benefits to HDMI is the ability to run video AND audio over a single cable, reducing clutter in the back - but this piece of junk pretty much demands you still use two (HDMI for video, optical for audio).
As far as video is concerned - slightly sharper image over component cables, however this kit also has way unbalanced white levels, resulting in major loss of detail in bright scenes (I put in the Dawn of the Dead remake - Ving Rhames' shiny bald head simply disappeared into the bright sky behind him). And of course they didn't offer any way to fine tune this on the Xbox side - the troubleshooting guide tells you to turn down the brightness on your TV. Why should I change my settings, which are perfectly fine for everything else (including my current video output for Xbox), to adapt to your substandard product? The brightness is clearly the fault of the converter kit, not my TV or even the actual Xbox. My PS3 is running on HDMI 1.3 and it looks beautiful - I didn't have to change a thing.
I also noticed that the unit got very hot - as I was disconnecting it in order to pack it back up and get my money back it was EXTREMELY hot, so prolonged use may even damage your Xbox. This issue hasn't been reported elsewhere, so maybe it was just a faulty unit - but the other issues I reported are common in nearly all of the other reviews.
So the only way I could recommend this product would be if you didn't use your Xbox much, didn't care about audio and didn't mind blown out whites on your games/DVDs. And if you don't care about all of that, you probably don't even care that this product even exists. Anyone who really cares about what HDMI can offer you for high def entertainment would be appalled.
This is something that I had been waiting for when I decided to upgrade my TV in size from a 22" to a 46", also from 1080i to 1080p. Since I had the old pro console without an HDMI port in the back I still wanted to make use of the 360's 1080p capability. This conversion kit was the solution. Unfortunately the one I received might have been defective. As I turned everything on after the connections were made, it started out flickering my TV screen with static and green flashes before any image came out. Then when it finally did produce an image, it would distort the screen by producing multiple images of my 360 dashboard and would sometimes lose the whole image.
After three tries with similar results I decided to read the instructional pamphlet and it said to first turn off all power and disconnect any A/V cables, connect the adapter 1st, connect the HDMI to the adapter 2nd, 3rd connect the other end of the HDMI into the HDMI port on the TV, 4th turn on TV and last turn on 360. It must be done this way for everything to "initialize properly".
Well I didn't do it exactly like that initially and did it again the right way, it worked after a few hiccups. Though I tried it the next day and ran into the problem again. I finally had enough when it made my 360 get 4 red lights (not the red ring of death which has 3) so I plug my component cables back in and I'm returning this thing.
Pro: Noticed a higher quality in video on MadCatz HDMI conversion kit (using other cables that what was included) compared to the Monster 360 component AV cables.
Cons: Defective, at least mine was, I might exhange it for another. Price is high and the HDMI cable was too short! Only 3ft long, had to buy a 6ft Philips 1.3 HDMI cable at WM (under $35) which I didn't mind buying because I'll need another one eventually when I upgrade my A/V reciever to one that has HDMI ports.
not being able to find any reviews for this thing, and curious to know how it actually works, i just picked this up to see what the actual performance is like...
i currently have the microsoft vga cable, running 1920x1080 @ 60fps on my TV, but it's competing with my home theater pc that also utilizes the single vga port, so i'm using a KVM at the moment to toggle between the pc and the 360.
i also have the 360 HD-DVD add-on, so here are my findings:
using the vga cable:
HD-DVD = 1080p
DVD = upconverted to 1080p
Games = 1080p
using the MadCatz adapter:
HD-DVD = 1080i JUST LIKE USING COMPONENT
DVD = 480p JUST LIKE USING COMPONENT
Games = 1080p JUST LIKE USING COMPONENT
so even though it's being advertised as full HD 1080p, it's really just a glorified component-to-HDMI converter (NOT vga-to-hdmi) and you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO WATCH HD-DVDS AT 1080P WITH THIS ADAPTER.
then again, with blu-ray most likely winning the hi-def war, maybe that doesn't even matter anymore... :-P
EDIT: Needless to say, this is going back to the store, right away...
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