New 1080p "hd Fury", HDCP stripper for all lcd panels through HDMI to VGA + others Options

[zx168]

i'll test it some more today after i get home.
this how the connection setup

ps3 > hdmi 2 dvi-d cable> hdfury (dvi-d 2 vga) > short extension vga > vga

the monitor that i currently used is sun 24" GDMFW9010

 1080p.gif ( 48.45K ) Number of downloads: 83


picture taken with phone camera

[Cold Steel]

I ordered one from Curtpalme

[Cold Steel]

I received it today. Fast shipping from overseas.

[Cold Steel]

I hooked it up to my current projector using the vga input today. My PS3 fired right up with no problems. I am using this cable setup.
HDMI to DVI cable to HDFURY which was attached to my monitor on the vga port.
It says 1080p currently used. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.
I noticed right away my picture was out of scale on 1080p. I was missing a lot of it.
When I changed it to 720p my picture was in scale, being projected properly.
I had a regular DVI to VGA (not HDFury) and it wouldn't come on. So the HDFury works great in my opinion.

The 1080p out of scale was to be expected because my 19" Gateway only has a resolution of 1440X900 .

[Cold Steel]

1080p Offscale






This post has been edited by Cold Steel: Jun 14 2007, 04:33 AM

[Cold Steel]

720p to scale











My screen needs to be taller for all the picture to fit the screen on some of the Blu-Ray movies and others. Each DVD is recorded in different ratios. Some fit perfect others are a little tall.
When I get my 17" 1080p (1920X1200) lcd panel and controller it will fit my 6' X 11' screen properly. I'll post some more pics then.

This post has been edited by Cold Steel: Jun 14 2007, 04:37 AM

[kal]

Hi guys!

I'm the webmaster of curtpalme.com responsible for getting the direct power-buy in place over there... if anyone has any questions about the HDfury feel free to ask here or send me a PM!

Kal

[nubie]

Hi guys!

I'm the webmaster of curtpalme.com responsible for getting the direct power-buy in place over there... if anyone has any questions about the HDfury feel free to ask here or send me a PM!

Kal

Maybe you should post in the marketplace/trading post area.

@ Cold Steel, what is happening to the aspect ratio of the signal? Is your display a true 16:9 ratio?

If you connect it to a non-HDCP source, will it still work?

Is it powered with a AC adaptor? Can I put it at the other end of my 25' VGA cable already in place going to my projector? Will the signal stand up?

Gateway has an HDCP compliant 17" 1280x720p native resolution monitor for $200, in Circuit city. I played with one on Monday.

If your equipment can't do 1080p/i it doesn't make any sense to run 1080p/i. Since the consoles and players make 720p already, it is much smarter to pick a native 720p or 1080p route and stick with it, instead of having non-native resolution all the time (it does effect the quality of what you are seeing).

So either get this box and do 1080 native, or pick up a full-on native 720p monitor and a component transcoder box for $50-60, that way you can do component 720p and HDCP 720p.

I see this box has a purpose, but for the money it isn't a good idea. To save on hassle of already integrated equipment by plugging this in I can see the usefulness.

The HD panels we would use when planning a new build or retrofitting an old DIY have HDCP compliant controllers available in the real 1080p/i panels.

$150 isn't bad, but it is money better spent towards a proper solution on a build in the planning stages.

If of course you have a pre-existing 1080p/i setup and HDCP gear that warrants it, more power to you. (does the PS3 have 1080 or 720 available on the Component cable? Wouldn't that basically achieve this result without the need to put the signal through an unecessary external digital to analog conversion? I thought that HDCP flags weren't set yet, so they couldn't disable the analog outputs?)

Edit, I just checked out the forum on the hdfury release, it seems to have some fairly severe problems, especially shifted image caught my eye, if your display can't get it back in line it is pretty bad news for you.

I wish that the people selling could be completely honest about all features or non-features of a device, but they won't mention negatives, even if known, boo.

This post has been edited by nubie: Jun 14 2007, 05:30 PM

[kal]

I know these questions were directed at Cold Steel, but since the questions are generic/factual, I thought I'd offer up some facts:

What is happening to the aspect ratio of the signal? Is your display a true 16:9 ratio?

The HDfury doesn't change the AR as it doesn't change the resolution or refresh rate of the incoming signal. It simply applies HDCP decryption if needed and converts the DVI-D signal to RGBHV analog.

If you connect it to a non-HDCP source, will it still work?

Yes.

Is it powered with a AC adaptor?

No. It's powered by the +5VDC on the input line. If your input line is longer than 15m (16') then you'll need to supply external power. There's a DC jack on the side of the unit for this.
The DC jack on the side of the HDfury must follow all these requirements:
- Provide REGULATED (+/- 5%) 5VDC power with 0.5A max DC current
- Deliver the power through a small 0.65mm diameter center pin / 2.6mm outer diameter DC plug (like the one often used in cellular phone AC adaptor)
- Provide the correct polarity with 'plus' on the OUTER part of the plug and 'minus' (ground) on the small center pin of the DC jack.
Trying to use an AC/DC adaptor that doesn't follow all these three requirements may destroy the HDFury. This external HDFury powering option is only needed in one or both the following situations:
- The DVI or HDMI cable is using thin gauge copper wires and its length exceeds 5 meters (16 feet).
- The DVI or HDMI source is unable to deliver the 0.5A maximum current over its HDMI or DVI pin #14. This situation often occurs when HDFury is used with cheap DVD/HD players at 1080p60 mode.

Can I put it at the other end of my 25' VGA cable already in place going to my projector? Will the signal stand up?

You mean have the HDfury drive the 25' VGA cable to your projector? No. You can't do that.

Keep the analog cable between the HDfury's output and the device it is connected to as SHORT as possible. In other words, only use the HDfury plugged directly into a display device, or use one of the 3 very short optional extender cables that comes with the HDfury. Failing to do so will result in a lesser than optimal image quality. Reason: The HDfury was not built to drive cables as it does not have an output stage. If you can't keep the HDfury close to the display device keep the cable short by plugging it into your scaler passthrough, transcoder with passthrough, your switcher, Extron booster, or any other device with an output stage meant to drive longer cables.

See futher below for what I do to get around this as I also have a 25' VGA cable to my projector...

Gateway has an HDCP compliant 17" 1280x720p native resolution monitor for $200, in Circuit city. I played with one on Monday.

If your equipment can't do 1080p/i it doesn't make any sense to run 1080p/i. Since the consoles and players make 720p already, it is much smarter to pick a native 720p or 1080p route and stick with it, instead of having non-native resolution all the time (it does effect the quality of what you are seeing).

Correct. For fixed-pixel devices you really need to try and run them at their native resolution.

So either get this box and do 1080 native, or pick up a full-on native 720p monitor and a component transcoder box for $50-60, that way you can do component 720p and HDCP 720p.

Careful with the cheap transcoder boxes. Most of ones in that price range are junk and have black pedestals that float all over the place... This is the one that I and most HT enthusiasts use: http://www.crescendo-systems.com/rev_transcoder.html (no affiliation). The guy who builds them (Kim) really knows his stuff. His RTC-2200 model has gamma correction too which is very nice. I plug the HDfury directly into the RTC-2200 VGA passthru so that I can get a little gamma boost out of it, and the RTC-2200 *is* meant to drive long cables so I didn't have to change the cabling in my HT to accommodate this as I already have a good quality (bettercables.com) 25' VGA -> 5BNC cable to my projector.

(does the PS3 have 1080 or 720 available on the Component cable?

No. That's in fact the primary purpose of the HDfury if you talk to the guys who built it - it's primarily for the gaming scene. They often like to quote that the HDfury "solves the PS3 black screen problem".

A lot of devices disable the component outputs when scaling rez's higher than 480p. For example: All of Toshiba's HD-DVD players will not play standard def DVD's over the component cables at anything higher than 480p. HD-DVD's play just fine at any of the resolutions over component, but if you want a single player solution for both HD-DVD and DVD, you can't use component if you need to scale DVD's higher than 480p (which everyone HAS to do since nobody would own an HD-DVD player if their display device didn't do higher than 480p).

Edit, I just checked out the forum on the hdfury release, it seems to have some fairly severe problems, especially shifted image caught my eye, if your display can't get it back in line it is pretty bad news for you.

Yup. The image will be shifted when you first use it. If you can't fix this in your display, don't get the Hdfury.

I wish that the people selling could be completely honest about all features or non-features of a device, but they won't mention negatives, even if known, boo.

True.

Some other shortcomings that bug me:

- No adjustable gamma boost.
- Can't pick between PC and Video signals (0-255 or 16-235). It's fixed to PC. (Not a big deal).
- No output driver stage so you *have* to keep it very close to your display device or use something meant to drive cables.

These are mostly HT niggles. The target market of Xbox360/PS3 gamers don't care.


Kal

This post has been edited by kal: Jun 14 2007, 05:51 PM

[Cold Steel]

Hello Kal , welcome to LL. Your more than welcome to post comments here and answer questions. After all this is a review.

Nubie my monitor is 16:10 not 16:9.

[freefall]

Thanks for stopping in and clearing a few things up Kal.

[nubie]

Thanks Kal, I may have been a bit too harsh. Basically it is almost cheaper to go native-res with HDCP on-board if you start from the beginning to design or build a PJ, but for already native-res setups and newer HDCP devices being integrated into the system, this is probably the only game in town.

Thanks to Sony being stupid the designer/marketer of this product is set to do a lot of business (why HDCP a video game?? so we can't take high-res screenshots?? Is the nVidia anti-aliasing quality issue that big of a deal?).

I demo'd the Gateway (and eMachines variant) 720p native res displays (the eMachines model is VGA only, but for $5 more I would get the Gateway with DVI HDCP support). They are $200, very nice.

I am aware of the Transcoder issues, in the diy electronics section of the forums there is a neat transcoder chip that has a proper color-space conversion, and costs $8 at Digi-key.com.

[freefall]

How much is the HD Fury pushing the image over ? Is it a significant amount ? If the fury can be used it is a very cost friendly solution. I am on the fence right now. I will either build an htpc or get a stripper. building a nre system to view HD DVD seems a waste. If teh software was cheeper maybe. I have digital cable so I need to have my box anyway. So for me I think just an add on stripper is the best course. Again $500 is too much just to be able to play HD. I have 1080p projector I want the use of 1080p material. I'll leave out my thoughts on Sony and Intel at this point.

[Cold Steel]

Freefall the HD Fury isn't the problem with my overscale. It's just the screen resolution.
1920 is larger (wider) than the 1440 lcd I am using so it goes over by 480 lines of resolution. probably 140 on each side (right & left). The 1080p is just overscaling my lcd.

[kal]

How much is the HD Fury pushing the image over ? Is it a significant amount ?

I can't quantify the amount.... though people with displays that allow for picture shifting seem to be fine. Those that have zero control with shifting will lose some image content.

Kal

[freefall]

Thank you Cold Steel and Kal.
I will be purchasing the Tosh XA2 and HDFury. Sometime this week. Using a wuxga lcd with the g220 controller. Native res. is 1920X1200
Kal there is no way of adjusting this setup for vertical or horizontal position. I am hoping any shifting is only going to be slight. Hopefully everything will workout and eveeryone with the same lcd and controller will have the solution they need.

[computercowboy]

Thank you Cold Steel and Kal.
I will be purchasing the Tosh XA2 and HDFury. Sometime this week. Using a wuxga lcd with the g220 controller. Native res. is 1920X1200
Kal there is no way of adjusting this setup for vertical or horizontal position. I am hoping any shifting is only going to be slight. Hopefully everything will workout and eveeryone with the same lcd and controller will have the solution they need.

my understanding is that you will be just fine. the g220 handles 1080p input just fine and has more than ample resolution to display the whole picture, the problem as I unerstand it is with wsxga monitors not having the ability to display all of the 1080 image.

[freefall]

Thanks CC....no one was really clarifying what the issue was caused by. I e-mailed the developer and he assured me everything would work out. He said something about european voltage or something. ......I dunno. Anywho I'll be ordering that in a few days. I need to make up my shopping list for monoprice and order my player as well. It's a toss up between the tosh and a blueray pani right now.

[zx168]

the hdfury work really good on my crt, i can get 1080p fine
but when i hooked it up the the realtek board that i got from johnzo all i get is a blank black screen .
is there a way to get this fix, because i was planning to make my own projector using this kit, with this problem i have to put everything on hold.

the lcd kit works at 1920x1200 with the output from my laptop.

[Cold Steel]

the hdfury work really good on my crt, i can get 1080p fine
but when i hooked it up the the realtek board that i got from johnzo all i get is a blank black screen .
is there a way to get this fix, because i was planning to make my own projector using this kit, with this problem i have to put everything on hold.

the lcd kit works at 1920x1200 with the output from my laptop.

You hooked up a crt to the lcd controller ( I believe that's what i'm reading). I don't think an lcd controller will work with a crt monitor.

[zx168]

You hooked up a crt to the lcd controller ( I believe that's what i'm reading). I don't think an lcd controller will work with a crt monitor.

nope, not like that,
i got the ps3 ith hd fury hooked up to crt
then tried the ps3 with hdfury still attached, hook it up to the lcd controller


no 1080p

so the question is can anything b done to get 1080p on the lcd? firmware upgrade or something to the controller board

This post has been edited by zx168: Jun 23 2007, 04:59 AM

[imichael]

Hi

Can anyone help

I have a Panasonic TH42PW5 - this is a few years old but does not have HD input - It is however a great screen

From the advertising for this HD fury product it appears that this product is the perfect solution to connect HD devices such as a Sky HD satellite box we have in the UK, a PS3 etc to a screen like mine

The manual for the screen seems to state I can view a 1080/60i signal

Is this HD fury the real deal? Will it deliver the same quality as a new HD ready plasma or am I in dreamland thinking that this will give me full 1080 HD

Its just that I have seen so much written but there seems to be a lack of people who have it commenting on whether it works or not

Thanks for any responses

[freefall]

HD fury just adds hdcp so you can view copywritten hd material on a non-hdmi devise. I have one sitting here on my desk. Until my cables come in I can't test it.
Whatever you put through the hdfury as far as resolution goes....you will get out. Check out the hd fury website for more specifics.

This post has been edited by freefall: Jun 28 2007, 09:52 AM

[jonjandran]

Hi

Can anyone help

I have a Panasonic TH42PW5 - this is a few years old but does not have HD input - It is however a great screen

From the advertising for this HD fury product it appears that this product is the perfect solution to connect HD devices such as a Sky HD satellite box we have in the UK, a PS3 etc to a screen like mine

The manual for the screen seems to state I can view a 1080/60i signal

Is this HD fury the real deal? Will it deliver the same quality as a new HD ready plasma or am I in dreamland thinking that this will give me full 1080 HD

Its just that I have seen so much written but there seems to be a lack of people who have it commenting on whether it works or not

Thanks for any responses

No you won't get 1080/60i with the HdFury.

The Panasonic TH42PW5 is a 852 x 480 resolution Plasma. So that will always be the max resolution you will get.

[freefall]

JJ is there any electronic device you don't know about ? I'm gonna start a thread. Stump JJ. lol It'll be like jeopardy or something.