Kanex XD HDMI to Mini Displayport adapter

[BrutusMaximus]

I have the 27" iMac, and i've been curious about getting one of the adapters since they have come out. Price is dropping on them, 90 bucks now, would be cool to play xbox on the iMac.

I'm curious if anyone has one, and how often they use them?

 

[Hellhammer]

Remember that they only work in 2009-2010 27" iMacs with mDP, not in the 2011 models with Thunderbolt. You are also limited to 720p.

 

[Andythed]

Hi,

I have a Kanex XD for use with my iMac and PS3.

For gaming it works really well, picture quality is very good and looks great on the iMac.

Yes, it does only output 720p, but pretty much most games are only 720p anyway. Personally, I dont think 1080p gaming on a PS3/Xbox is a big deal, its a computer game and there is not as much detail as real life. I dont think developers can use the potential of 1080p on the current generation of games machines.

Pros
Works well
Looks nice
Makes extra use of a screen you paid a lot of money for

Cons
720p
Expensive
Have to plug in each time
Adds wires to the imac which is pretty wireless
Blu ray is not great


The reason I have it is because I do not want an imac and a TV in my bedroom. I wanted to use the iMac as a complete all in one- computer + tv + hifi + games.

Havnt used it much for bluray Seems ok, but when comparing to a HD its not the same at all.

Andy

 

[BrutusMaximus]

Andy, thanks for the detailed response.

My iMac is a 2010, so it will work with the Kanex. I assume the price is dropping rapidly on the adapter since Kanex announced they were making a thunderbolt version. I remember it being around 175-199, now its 96 on amazon, which makes it more affordable.

I used to have a little samsung 26 (720) thats been on the fritz lately, that was just for the 360. been weighing the options for the adapter or a new little tv for my 360.

one question though, how come you dont keep it plugged in?

 

[Andythed]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

For some reason you have to turn the kanex on before the MDP is connected.

If you turn it on with everything already connected it won't work.

That's what the instructions say. Have tried keeping it connected with no luck.

 

[BrutusMaximus]

aw, well thats pretty lame. this could influence my buying decision...