360 as it is now supports HDMI

[timothySon]

http://xe360.com/article/Xbox_360_Accessories/3768.html

http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product_id=802523

Well, during my monthly run through ebgames to check for any previews to write. I found an interesting item come up to display while searching.

GameStop Universal Premium HDMI Cable

At first glance, I said to myself “what, HDMI is not possible for the Xbox 360.â€￾ I also do not claim to be a techno guru with the T.V department but that what they were selling. I was searching around the xbox forums to see if this is old news and an interesting tidbit led to quote from anandtech posted by Nielo TM:

"Originally we assumed the chip below was a TV encoder, but we've since found out that the TV encoder on ATI's Xenos GPU is identical to what is on the ATI Radeon X1000 series of PC graphics cards - meaning the Xbox 360's TV encoder is located on the Xenos GPU itself and makes use of ATI's Xilleon display engine.â€￾

"The display engine also features the hardware that actually drives the display output, and Avivo has a number of enhancements here. Dual 400MHz 10-bit per component DAC's remain, as in previous graphics implementations, however this time the TV-Out display engine has been lifted directly from ATI's consumer electronics Xilleon processor (this engine can be found to be driving the displays of many Sony televisions, for example). The last generation of Radeon products only integrated a single link, 165MHz, TMDS transmitter for DVI output, however Avivo products will feature two integrated dual link transmitters, hence two digital panels can be independently driven to 2048×1536 @ 75 Hz or 2560x1600 resolutions."

Click Here to read the whole article by anandtech.

To reiterate what the above quotes mean is that the Xbox 360 is capable of producing digitial image/audio output. Hopefully I'm not breaking old news to everyone but it is still going to be a interesting view of a Xbox 360 HDMI Cable. The GameStop Universal Premium HDMI Cable is schedule for release on December, 1st 2006 for 99.99 dollars (not surprising).

 

[Dot50Cal]

Err..99 dollars? Why on earth do companies expect us to pay such rediculous prices? You could get nearly two games for that price. Snake Oil is thriving I see..

Anyway, I dont really see him mentioning it for 360, AFAIK PS3 will have support for it so why wouldnt you think it would be a PS3 cable?

 

[timothySon]

Err..99 dollars? Why on earth do companies expect us to pay such rediculous prices? You could get nearly two games for that price. Snake Oil is thriving I see..

expect Madcatz to duplicate the cable for $30

 

[timothySon]

Err..99 dollars? Why on earth do companies expect us to pay such rediculous prices? You could get nearly two games for that price. Snake Oil is thriving I see..

Anyway, I dont really see him mentioning it for 360, AFAIK PS3 will have support for it so why wouldnt you think it would be a PS3 cable?

did you even go to the EB website? it says for the xbox 360 platform.

 

[pipo]

I thought the 360 had a custom encoder build by the WebTV people?

 

[oeLangOetan]

Click Here to read the whole article by anandtech.

How dare they say it's anandtech while they link to beyond3d

btw, I thought that the output was analogue and I was expecting HDMI in a future revision of the x360

 

[MuFu]

How dare they say it's anandtech while they link to beyond3d

Heh, wtf? Probably just a typo - this is the article they reference. It also says:

At the rear of the console you've got the AV cable port (left), a single USB port and an Ethernet jack:

Unfortunately in the first version of the Xbox 360, that AV cable port appears to be strictly analog. Microsoft has indicated that they may support HDMI at a later point in time, but that may require a new revision of the motherboard - assuming there is no digital video signal carried over the AV port. On the flip side, ATI has had a history of placing TMDS transmitters on their GPUs, so it may be possible that a digital video signal is present at this connector today, although if it were we don't understand why Microsoft wouldn't offer a DVI/HDMI cable option now.

 

[Slay]

It's not a mater of what the GPU is capable of, but rather what the AV conector on 360 is capable to output, and there is NO WAY that the current 360 design can output digital video, the only thing you can do is to build an adapter/cable that has an ADC build in order to convert the analog signal, but doing so would not gain anything in image quality, just the convinience to plug 360 in an HDMI only TV, and of course you can't implement HDCP using this converter, here are the pinouts for both 360's AV out connector, and HDMI.

360:

1 Red Gnd
2 Green Ground
3 Red (Cr in HDTV mode)
4 Green (Y in HDTV mode)
5 Composite Gnd
6 Blue Ground
7 Composite (Sync in RGB mode)
8 Blue (Cb in HDTV mode)
9 H-sync Gnd
10 V-sync Gnd
11 H-sync (VGA Mode)
12 V-sync (VGA Mode)
13 Audio-R Gnd
14 Audio-L Gnd
15 Audio-R
16 Audio-L
17 Switching voltage (for SCART pin-8 )
18 CBL-ID1
19 Blanking Signal (for SCART pin-16)
20 CBL-ID1.1
21 Unknown
22 CBL-ID2
23 Unknown
24 CBL-ID2.1
25 Optical - Audio (SPDIF)
26 CBL-ID3
27 Optical - Gnd (SPDIF)
28 CBL-ID3.1
29 Optical - +5V
30 See J2B1 or J8C1

Setting Cable ID:
ID1-1.1 = VGA mode enabled
ID2-2.1 and ID3-3.1 = RGB (SCART) mode enabled
ID3-3.1 = HDTV (Y/Cb/Cr) mode enabled
ID2-2.1 = Composite (TV) mode enabled

HDMI:

1 TMDS Data 2+
2 TMDS Data 2 Shield
3 TMDS Data 2-
4 TMDS Data 1+
5 TMDS Data 1 Shield
6 TMDS Data 1-
7 TMDS Data 0+
8 TMDS Data 0 Shield
9 TMDS Data 0-
10 TMDS Clock+
11 TMDS Clock Shield
12 TMDS Clock-
13 CEC
14 No Connect
15 DDC Clock
16 DDC Data
17 Ground
18 +5V Power
19 Hot Plug Detect
20 SHELL

 

[pipo]

Since the encoder handles the scaling, I doubt this is going anywhere...

 

[timothySon]

Then i guess this only further semi confirms the 3rd SKU with collaboration from Directv by Microsoft.

 

[Rangers]

Then i guess this only further semi confirms the 3rd SKU with collaboration from Directv by Microsoft.

It doesn't confirm anything. It's a generic cable most likely placed in the 360 section by mistake. It's been discussed before.
________
Katvlarop

 

[Guden Oden]

Then i guess this only further semi confirms the 3rd SKU with collaboration from Directv by Microsoft.

That might have been true, had it been a MICROSOFT $100 cable, but since that isn't the case it simply doesn't mean anything other than somebody goofed; just like with all the previous times some company or other claimed to be selling HDMI cables for the 360 (Amazon, Liksang, maybe others).

 

[A176]

reconversion anyone? analog-digital external box?

hey, the 'nyko intercooler' exists, so consumers might actually think of picking up a convertor.

 

[cthellis42]

expect Madcatz to duplicate the cable for $30

Expect Monster to duplicate the cable for $275.

Expect no one to really understand the cable anyway.

 

[patsu]

reconversion anyone? analog-digital external box?

hey, the 'nyko intercooler' exists, so consumers might actually think of picking up a convertor.

Why can't you just plug the Xbox 360 to a HDTV using a component/RGB cable ? Why convert and risk loss in quality ?

 

[J_Saint]

If that $100 360 HDMI cable is legit then I hope MS isn't expecting people who buy the $200 HD DVD add-on to drop another $100 on a cable that may "unlock" more of the format features like native Dolby TrueHD or DD+.

 

[Colourless]

It's possible it contains an ADC and a TMDS transmitter which would justify the price.

 

[Iron Tiger]

It's possible it contains an ADC and a TMDS transmitter which would justify the price.

But the price is hardly justifiable if quality is reduced, and it doesn't add support for higher resolutions (1080p, or even 1080i for monitors).

 

[Brad Grenz]

If that $100 360 HDMI cable is legit then I hope MS isn't expecting people who buy the $200 HD DVD add-on to drop another $100 on a cable that may "unlock" more of the format features like native Dolby TrueHD or DD+.

Such a cable that is built to convert analog signals to digital for transmission over HDMI wouldn't even be capable of such advanced features. All it could possibly do is pass through the standard digital audio signal, but the raw bandwidth for lossless sound won't be there.

 

[A176]

Why can't you just plug the Xbox 360 to a HDTV using a component/RGB cable ? Why convert and risk loss in quality ?

[if] its true all signals coming out of the 360 are analog; a digitial cable is there just for show.