Madcatz Xbox 360 HDMI Conversion Kit, Taking Preorders

GameStop is now accepting preorders for Madcatz' new Xbox 360 HDMI Conversion Kit. It's an add-on that's meant to replace component outputs in older, non-HDMI Xbox 360s to support HDMI. While Madcatz promises that the kit will allow full resolutions up to 1080p, the privilege will cost you $90. Yeah, that's quite a bit of cash considering that it's 20% of the price of a new Xbox 360 Premium bundle.

We're guessing that not too many people will take advantage of Madcatz' latest accessory, but with as stingy as television manufactures can be with HD input options, there's certainly some segment of the 360-owning population who will benefit.

Preorder [via gamingnexus]

I may very well be one of the only people with this problem, but HDMI-enabled devices are a total pain in the ass for me. That's because when I bought my television there weren't many out there with multiple HDMI in ports, so mine only has one. And I have a cable box, PS3 and Xbox 360 Elite that all use HDMI. So I bought the only switcher I could find at the time, a 2-1 splitter, and just manually swap cables, which is a pain in the ass.

Walking around CEDIA today I stumbled upon RT Com, a company that specializes in HDMI switchers and splitters. What caught my attention was this nifty set-up: One Playstation 3 playing on six high-def televisions at once. Once there they I spotted an 3-1 remote controlled HDMI switcher for $130, not bad, not bad at all.

CEDIA Day in Photos

CEDIA was most definitely my type of show. While Gizmodo's Brian Lam was practically dry-humping the endless rows of high-end cabling, theater seating, hydraulic desks (which I tagged the Upskirt 2K because they had booth babes riding it up to eye level), I found very little gaming wise to talk up.

There were some funny exceptions, like the 103-inch high-def television being used to play Wii Golf, a sales rep standing by cringing with every wild swing of those involved. The endless supply of PS3s being used to show off high-def video. The HDMI splitter being used to feed video from one PS3 to six high-def televisions. I'll be writing all of that stuff in a bit, including my being pwned by a pro-gamer on Halo 2, but for now check out the gallery and revel in the non-gaminess of it.

Brave NeoGAF member and Kotaku Defense Force lieutenant "wonderkins" was bold enough to crack open the chassis on his brand new Xbox 360, one of the newly released Premiums with HDMI output. This inside look at the gory internal workings of the newest Xbox 360 is now largely assumed to be off the "Zephyr" variety, following the motherboard and heatsink form factor of the Xbox 360 Elite. What's that mean? The latest hardware release from Microsoft is most likely not of the "Falcon" 65nm manufacturing spec, meaning the arrival of cooler, smaller, hopefully more reliable CPUs is still unknown.

On the plus side, wonderkins did provide a photo of the new Premium's DVD-drive, the quieter BenQ variety. More shots of the hardware in the gallery below and at the original NeoGAF thread. Thanks to wonderkins for the original photos.

The Falcon and the Snowman: Greatest Movie Ever or The Greatest? [NeoGAF]

Good news, brick and mortar store shoppers! Because as we broke earlier, the new HDMI-equipped Xbox 360 Premiums are clearly marked for your consumer discretion. And one photobucket philanthropist has posted exactly what these markings look like. As you can see in this side by side, the Premium's list is WAY longer than the Core's with the addition of HDMI.

Also, when the current "Zephyr" chips are replaced with new, smaller, cooler "Falcon" technology, that will be right on the box as well:

Microsoft: HDMI Coming to Premium 360s

Cooler 360s Coming This Month or Next

Opposable Thumbs is reporting that a new batch of Xbox 360s, with built-in HDMI, 65nm processors, quieter DVD drives and resolved heating issues, will be quietly hitting shelves last this month or next month.

The story, which cites an unnamed source, says that the new 360s will be quietly rolled out, but that there will be something on the box that calls attention to the new HDMI out feature.

The story doesn't say anything about a price increase on these new versions of the 360, so I assume that the recent $50 price drop will still apply, otherwise Microsoft would be pulling a Sony and instead of discounting their console, they'd be having a fire sale to get rid of their buggy stock... no pun intended.

360 Cores and Premiums with HDMI? An Inside Source Spills the Beans [Opposable Thumbs]

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Elite Pre-orders Coming To Gamestop Thursday

Rein: Microsoft Made an HD Mistake

Clip: Xbox 360 Elite Just Sitting There

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New HDMI, Black 360 Coming Next Month

Game Mag Says Black Xbox 360 Is Coming

20GB PS3 At 200 Inches With Thousand Dollar Cable

Satchell: HDMI 360 Just "Experimentation"