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27" iMac Video Input With Xbox 360?

miltonbull said:
Hey everyone new user here, I have two questions about the Kanex XD for imac 27.
When i play on my xbox 360 can I change the brightness of the screen with my keyboard? I know the sound can be changed but havent seen anything about brightness.

Second question: I know the sounds goes through the displayport and into the iMac but if I plug in some other audio reciver into the xbox toslink port(or what its called) will I get the sound through that port och will display port take it?

Sorry if my english is hard to understand, not my native language.
Click to expand...

Brightness changes for me and I believe when Toslink is activated it will only push the audio through that way, not both. And if both, just mute the iMac. Goodluck;)
 
I am going to ask what may seem like a stupid question to some.

I have a PC (with HDMI port) which I wish to connect to my 27" iMac (2010) serving as an external monitor. I have no wish to play games on the machine. Can I do so using the Kannex or the Atlona HD 620? Reason why I asked is that the literature seem to suggest using them for video sources such as Blu-ray, PS3 etc. No mention of PC (except when you read up on Atlona DP400).

Anyone can clarify??
 
I'm not sure if I ever followed up with my review of the Atlona. It works great. Highly recommend if you can justify the price. To me, this makes most sense vs buying a new TV or if you've got limited space in a bedroom/dorm/man cave.

I also picked up the Kanex XD at Macworld, and I'll give that a shot.

http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=11490
 
I just ordered one of those Belfan adapters from ebay as well, will let everyone know how it works when it arrives.

In the mean time, I was wondering how I would switch to the minidisplay port input while in bootcamp (Windows 7). I know it's cmd+f2 in OSX, but I'm unsure about how to switch within Windows.

Thanks
 
I love my Atlona!

I've had the Atlona AT-HD620 for a few months. I use it to play games form XBOX 360 and PS3 on the 27" iMac, it works great! The price is higher, but if you want the best looking picture and no lag or audio issues like some have reported from other less expensive adapters, then it's worth the extra money. Most Xbox 360 Games are in 720p and some PS3 games in 1080p, but regardless they look great upscaled to 2560x1440. Usually the quality of HDMI cable doesn't matter for most practical purposes (I wouldn't use any HDMI cable under $30 ever, just a personal preference), but I noticed a difference when I used an expensive HDMI cable from AudioQuest. It cleared up the picture quite a bit and gave me deeper and richer color all around. If you just want to play games and don't want to be picky about which adapter then I'd get one of the others, mainly because they are less expensive.

If picture quality is important to you then you might want to consider getting the AT-HD620. They also have another adapter that does the same thing that the Kanex, Belkin or Dr Bott do. It's called the AT-DP300 IT cost the same as any of the other adapters, but it has some advantages. It can scale resolution and convert as well. (From their Website) *The advantage of the scaler, is all incoming resolutions can be scaled up or down to the required output resolution, which will allow users to send the highest resolution available, e.g., 1080p and get the best video output results. Another advantage is the DP300 will work with Apple 24-inch display at the native resolution of 1920x1200.

Hope this helps anyone looking into a convert/scaler for their iMac or ACD.
 
dagomike said:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=11490
Click to expand...

Good review. Thank you.


I realise this idea is only going to appeal to someone whose needs are similar to mine. I'm not proposing this for everyone, but...

... I realised a few months ago that I needed to scale my AV setup down. I'm moving into junior doctor accommodation in August (final year of med school), and there's no way that I can take my 32" TV, my 27" iMac, and my Xbox 360 into a room of that size.

Instead of spending £100 on a cable or switchbox, I spent £90 on Windows 7 and Boot Camped my iMac. Now, I play games on my computer through Steam. They're almost always cheaper (BioShock 2 was £13.99, Plants vs. Zombies was £2.85, Fallout: New Vegas was £22.99), and they run at 1080p/1440p - not because they're upscaled, but because my iMac is tons more powerful for gaming than my Xbox!

Most crossover games released for the PC and 360 are Games For Windows certified, which means the wired 360 pad works perfectly. By buying Windows, I have essentially bought a 'better Xbox'. When I move to my new room in August, the iMac is coming with me, and the TV and 360 are staying with my parents.


Some folks won't have any reason to do this. But if you're not wedded to the Xbox console itself, consider it. For me, it was a cost-benefit win; I lost being able to play Halo, but I gained the ability to play (almost) everything else with my 360 pad, with significantly better graphics, and a single 'footprint' on my desk. Not to mention the games that don't come out on consoles.

Worked for me. I'm beginning to wonder whether I even need to keep my 360, now.
 
dh2005 said:
I'm beginning to wonder whether I even need to keep my 360, now.
Click to expand...

You're exactly right on the Xbox 360 side of gaming. Most of the games do come out on PC, and I've been using steam with Windows 7 on my Mac for a while. It's much more cost effective than paying the premium for most games on the 360. Steam has some great Sales!

Most of the games I play on console with my Atlona, be it 360 or PS3 are exclusives, anything that isn't I buy through Steam. The nice thing about using Steam is that there is no restriction as to how many machines you can install your games on. They can be played on any capable PC (Windows Installation), and now Steam is out for the Mac as well, even though Open GL is currently not fully supported (at least the most recent iteration of Open GL) in Mac OS X and Direct X is much more robust for gaming on the Windows side currently.

The iMac can take most any current video game and play it at at least 1080p resolution while maintaining Medium to High Graphic Settings. I've played Crysis on mine, but had to play at 1920x1080 resolution because the video card has issues with under-clocking when it gets hot at 2560x1440. The only other game I've had issues with playing at 2560x1440 was Dragon Age Origins and only after 30-60min of playing. It begins to get choppy and lag when the iMac gets hot.

The only bad side of gaming on the iMac is using Apples built in automated fan control under Bootcamp. It doesn't raise the fan speed high enough when the system is taxed heavily. Any Mac runs hotter under windows. The Mac Pros don't suffer from these issues that much because their components aren't crammed into as small of a space a the MacBook's or the iMacs. In my experience using a a fan control method, through the command line in windows, to raise the default fan speed for the three fans in my iMac tends to keep it cool enough to play most games at 2560x1440.

Here is where I found the fan control method I'm currently using: MacFan This is currently one of the only and simpler methods that supports controlling fan speed in the current iMacs under windows. There are other windows side alternatives, but they only work on Apples laptops (Lubbos fan control). Instead of having to input the same commands time and time again in command prompt, I just created a batch file that you can click on and it will run the commands for me, which increases the default fan speed minimums.

Overall gaming on my iMac through Steam on Windows, on my PS3 or Xbox 360 has been a great experience. It shows that there are many options for using your iMac to game. However, it almost costs the same upfront to get an Atlona AT-DP300, or similar adapter (you can find them for around $100-$125 on Amazon) as it would to get a Copy of Windows for your iMac. So unless you need to save space and don't use, or don't plan to continue to use, a gaming console I would go with Windows Gaming on your iMac. If the extra clutter of cables and a gaming console or two doesn't bug you, and it's your preferred method of gaming then buy an Atlona AT-DP300 or equivalent converter/scaler to use with your preferred console on your iMac.
 
Just got the Belfan from Ebay.

Works great, all new wrapped in box. Just tested it out with a laptop and watching vids, in the next couple of days I'll be buying an Xbox with hdmi ouput.:)
 
dh2005 said:
Good review. Thank you.


I realise this idea is only going to appeal to someone whose needs are similar to mine. I'm not proposing this for everyone, but...

... I realised a few months ago that I needed to scale my AV setup down. I'm moving into junior doctor accommodation in August (final year of med school), and there's no way that I can take my 32" TV, my 27" iMac, and my Xbox 360 into a room of that size.

Instead of spending £100 on a cable or switchbox, I spent £90 on Windows 7 and Boot Camped my iMac. Now, I play games on my computer through Steam. They're almost always cheaper (BioShock 2 was £13.99, Plants vs. Zombies was £2.85, Fallout: New Vegas was £22.99), and they run at 1080p/1440p - not because they're upscaled, but because my iMac is tons more powerful for gaming than my Xbox!

Most crossover games released for the PC and 360 are Games For Windows certified, which means the wired 360 pad works perfectly. By buying Windows, I have essentially bought a 'better Xbox'. When I move to my new room in August, the iMac is coming with me, and the TV and 360 are staying with my parents.


Some folks won't have any reason to do this. But if you're not wedded to the Xbox console itself, consider it. For me, it was a cost-benefit win; I lost being able to play Halo, but I gained the ability to play (almost) everything else with my 360 pad, with significantly better graphics, and a single 'footprint' on my desk. Not to mention the games that don't come out on consoles.

Worked for me. I'm beginning to wonder whether I even need to keep my 360, now.
Click to expand...

I'm considered doing this for some time now, but unfortunately when my iMac was replaced via Applecare it was replaced with the entry level 27" model. If I was building new I would go with the more powerful graphics chipset like I did in '08 when I opted for the 8800GS in the 24" I made.
 
Thanks for the feedback, gents. Pleased to see that I'm not the only one who sees the value in this.


neoelectronaut;

So, which card do you have in yours now? The 5670? That's not terrible. If your choice is between using that or buying an adapter to connect your 360, you could almost definitely run Steam games at 720p with that card. They wouldn't look any worse than the 360 games - probably better (although I have no definite evidence for saying that).


ryanhaver;

Thanks for the tips. I don't know whether it's an irresponsible position to hold, but given that my iMac has AppleCare, if I thrape its life expectancy using Boot Camp and it dies sooner, provided it's within the warranty, I won't mind one bit...!

Mind you, it would be useful to strangle every last inch of power out of this thing... you say that games perform better when the fan runs harder?
 
ryanhaver said:
Here is where I found the fan control method I'm currently using: MacFan This is currently one of the only and simpler methods that supports controlling fan speed in the current iMacs under windows. There are other windows side alternatives, but they only work on Apples laptops (Lubbos fan control). Instead of having to input the same commands time and time again in command prompt, I just created a batch file that you can click on and it will run the commands for me, which increases the default fan speed minimums.
Click to expand...

Okay. I've downloaded this, now. What speeds would you recommend?

Just to clarify, before I do anything... will this improve gaming performance? Or simply make the Mac run cooler?
 
Just ordered the belfan from eBay,i Will Post a full review in a couple of days. if it holds up to other reviews it would be a great deal,a hdmi converter with all the cables and a small profile for only 39.99 with free shipping?

we shall see.i will test with an Xbox 360 and Sony blue-ray player as well as another PC.so expect a review in a day or two.
 
dpaudio settings not saved on reboot

When I follow the directions as described below, the audio output of the Xbox is shifted to the USB speakers. However, upon reboot, the output reverts back to the internal speakers. This is the terminal message I get when the changes are made. Any ideas?

2011-02-08 08:43:27.712 System Preferences[312:80b] FSFindFolder failed with:-5000
2011-02-08 08:43:31.960 System Preferences[312:80b] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2011-02-08 08:43:34.677 System Preferences[312:4e03] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2011-02-08 08:43:34.677 System Preferences[312:4e03] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2011-02-08 08:43:34.695 System Preferences[312:3103] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2011-02-08 08:43:34.753 System Preferences[312:4e03] FSFindFolder failed with:-5000
2011-02-08 08:43:36.893 System Preferences[312:4e03] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2011-02-08 08:44:21.911 System Preferences[312:1707] NSDocumentController's invocation of -[NSFileManager URLForDirectory:inDomain:appropriateForURL:create:error:] returned nil for NSAutosavedInformationDirectory. Here's the error:
Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=513 UserInfo=0x2000fb300 "You don’t have permission to save the file “Library” in the folder “empty”." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=13 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Permission denied")






avihappy said:
OK, after poking around, I figured out how to run the audio through any audio device you want. It turns out that the DP audio in is actually done by a tiny app running in the background. However, it doesn't obey the audio preferences because it is runninng as another user. So type this command in the terminal:

sudo -u _dpaudio /Applications/System\ Preferences.app/Contents/MacOS/System\ Preferences

Then hit enter. A copy of System Preferences will open up. Go straight to the audio section and select the output sound card you want to use. DO NOT TOUCH ANY OTHER SETTING, THESE ARE NOT YOUR USER SETTINGS. After, close the system prefs and the terminal and the audio should now output via the audio device you chose!

BTW, the DP input actually keeps a log! It's at /usr/libexec/dpd You can get to it from Console.app. It could be veeerryyy useful for troubleshooting.
Click to expand...
 
dh2005 said:
Instead of spending £100 on a cable or switchbox, I spent £90 on Windows 7 and Boot Camped my iMac. Now, I play games on my computer through Steam. They're almost always cheaper...
Click to expand...

Please excuse me the vanity of quoting myself. I'm doing so to let Boot Campers know that Batman: Arkham Asylum (Game Of The Year Edition) is ridiculously cheap on Steam, right now. £3.75, in the UK...

... that is all.
 
I'm not a gamer but I'm sure many of you that have bought and used the various converter/upscaler boxes have used them to watch a Blu-ray or two on the iMac.

My question is: go with a box that downscales 1080p to 720, or go with the Atlona AT-HD620 and upscale 1080p to 1440? What would look better for Blu-ray, AND what would look better if you're using mixed sources from a Blu-ray drive/player (i.e., SD DVDs in NTSC or PAL)?

Anyone have any experience with this? It's a shame that for the price, the Atlona box is not somehow switchable between a downscaled 720 or an upscaled 1440.
 
bluetooth headphones with mini displayport input on iMac?

I'm using Atlona HD620 with 27" iMac for a year now with no problems.
I have both video and audio.
I turn on Xbox, I can hear the sound through my iMac's audio out, all is left to do is to press Command-F2 to switch to miniDP input mode.

Now, I got bluetooth headphones and while iTunes plays nice stereo, when I turn on Xbox I don't hear anything, the sound doesn't go through bluetooth output,
and when I press Command-F2 the whole audio output switches back to regular audio output.

any ideas?
 
venisonslider:

I believe you will see considerably more details with UPscaling if your source is 1080p like blue-ray

and if you need to watch DVD can you just stick it in iMac itself?..any rescaling adds some kind of distortion.
 
alex2010 said:
venisonslider:

I believe you will see considerably more details with UPscaling if your source is 1080p like blue-ray

and if you need to watch DVD can you just stick it in iMac itself?..any rescaling adds some kind of distortion.
Click to expand...

I went ahead and got the upscaling Atlona...I watched a 16:9 PAL DVD shot on film on the 27" and it looked great. It was being upscaled by the player from 576 to 1080, and then by the converter from 1080 to 1440. That's correct for PAL, yeah? I was shocked how good it looked, and I was close to the screen. Looked even better 6 feet away. Wasn't as sharp with a 4:3 TV show shot on video from a PAL DVD, but not unwatchable in any way.

I'm using my Blu-ray player for DVDs that aren't region 1 that I don't feel like ripping or buying an external drive to watch.
 
alex2010 said:
I'm using Atlona HD620 with 27" iMac for a year now with no problems.
I have both video and audio.
I turn on Xbox, I can hear the sound through my iMac's audio out, all is left to do is to press Command-F2 to switch to miniDP input mode.

Now, I got bluetooth headphones and while iTunes plays nice stereo, when I turn on Xbox I don't hear anything, the sound doesn't go through bluetooth output,
and when I press Command-F2 the whole audio output switches back to regular audio output.

any ideas?
Click to expand...

I don't know why it's not working...maybe just because the switching of display sources kills the bluetooth connection. Remember, if you've hit Command-F2 you're going to the converter, which is sending HDMI audio along with the video. Maybe there is a workaround but I doubt it. You'd be better off with some wired headphones going directly into the Mac's audio out, or having a receiver attached that you can attach other wireless headphones to.
 
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