can any input translate to any output? my stupid sony reciever can only output the same signal as source, so i have just as many outputs as inputs...stupid!

@EMoShunz: The Onkyo TX-SR705 looks like it might be a good solution for all the inputs (SD and HD) to go to a single HDMI output. And for $649 you get a hell of a lot more for your money than Gefen's $500 weak offering.

@Windhawk: that's great. i was also looking at getting a dlp with tonnes of inputs and just outputting a single toslink/spdif

Does the 705 really upscale HDMI inputs to 1080p?

Still, I agree, I'd be more likely to go with an upscaling receiver, since I'd still need one for multi-channel audio anyways.

For $500, that thing better work really freakin' well. I don't wanna know how many inputs or outputs it has. I want to know how good the resulting image is.

Please check out the Gefen Forums before even considering this product. Not a lot of positive feedback on their Scaler Products.

[forum.gefen.com]

having a separate up-converter helps eliminate video lag, by converting low res interlaced video signal, to native progressive scan video, so the hdtv's converter doesnt have to use its own built-in (slower) up-scaler. Because its faster, the image could possibly be of worse quality, maybe thats why people don't think too highly of it.

this product is most useful to gamers that play a lot of rhythm and music games, fighting games that need frame responsiveness, and willing to sacrifice image quality for responsiveness.

I want something that will take the hdmi output from my digital cable box and have two ports for output. One hdmi out to my tv and a firewire port out to my computer so I can digitize hd on my mac.

dreaming, I know.

NES in 1080p, i'm sold!!

@Scott: The same people who play the "rhythm and music games" would spend an extra hundred bucks for a receiver that has a built-in upconverter/upscaler for all the inputs, instead of this one which only gives you 1 component, 1 s-video, 1 composite and 2 HDMI. Most mid-high end receivers these days have component, s-video and composite on each channel, and will spit out any/all of the above.

@EMoShunz: I was looking at receivers a week ago, and saw that a bunch of the lower end Sony ones do that. I kept moving up the model line until no one was complaining about having to run HDMI, component and composite cables to their TV. Looks like the STR-DG910 (as opposed to the 510, 610, 710, or 810) should do it.

Right now it's just under $400 on Amazon. To me, that would make a lot more sense than this thing.

still singing the same ol' song over here. need a device that can accept a single hdmi 1080p input and output two hdmi cables with the same signal. I need this cus my current surround system can't accept 1080p so I am forced to use optical for sound.

Anyone notice it makes a big to-do about HDCP compliant inputs, but gets a little vague about the output? Please oh please oh please say that is passes output without HDCP. I really need a box that can flip off HDCP on HDMI so I can pipe it to an HD-SDI converter.

@Luke: agreed. you lose the up conversion, but i suppose you could just pass through an upconverter...so many freaking components...what happened to giz's all i want alienware all in one :P

Gefen makes a ton of splitter boxes people mentioned above. I have used this converter before and the upscaling is great. It has a lot more control and does a lot better job than my Sony Bravia. Think about maximizing a DVD playing on your computer. If you have a big screen, like 2000x1080, the picture from the DVD usually looks pretty bad, regardless of your video card....the scalling is just bad. Using a separate scaler...that was designed to only be a scaler, will always give you better quality than a built in scaler. The same goes for those upsampling dvd players.

also, "most receivers" do not cross convert...thats where the big bucks come in. Hell, most of the low to mid end ones dont even pass audio over HDMI, and even less of them pass their on screen menus over anything but composite.

$500 would be a low-end upscaler - upscaling boxes can easily run into the $2k range depending on what scaler it uses.

Most A/V receivers should be able to cross-convert within the same domain - my A/V receiver can convert composite/svideo to component, and I know others can to. However, only the expensive ones will do a analog-to-digital conversion (i.e., any video -> HDMI) conversion - the cheap ones convert analog and switch HDMI.

worthless product,

How does a upscaling work anyway... does it calculate new pixels, where they would be missing when making a picture bigger. If so, would it not be the same effect as viewing a upscaled low res picture on on a LCD... And we all know that sucks...

If you have a HD/BR/xbox/Ps3 player, just plug the video directly in your TV/projector, and gain less signal loss, than if ran it trough the Amp...

Try the Onkyo TX-SR605, for $400 it does everything this device claims and more, convert analog sources to HDMI and decode all the latest in lossless audio formats.

Yes, it calculates new pictures, and everything modern has a scaler. Your LCD monitor has a scaler, probably a very cheap one (considering the price of LCD monitors these days, really cheap), to handle non-native resolutions. Your HDTV has one to do the same thing, since plasma and LCD TVs have the same issue (all HDTVs must, since they either upscale (720p -> 1080p) or downscale (1080i -> 720p).

DVD players often have upscalers as well, to give you the high-def image.

Scaler prices vary a lot - from super cheap (used in bargain priced LCD monitors) to $2k easily (standalone). Crappy scalers look like crap, while good scalers can give you the "almost high-def" look (think - 4+GB 720p torrent look). Considering how good upscaled DVD players are (or the Toshiba HD-DVD players, which have great scalers as well), it's not as worthless as you think.

All you need is something with a good scaler. $200 LCD monitors skimp on that area.