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Xbox One's HDMI Pass-Through Can Connect PS4, PCs and More
MojoKid writes "The Xbox One has both HDMI-in and HDMI-out capability. The point of HDMI-in is to allow you to hook up a cable box, with output then running from the Xbox One to your television. As it turns out, however, that's not the only thing the Xbox One can do. Since the HDMI-in port is a standard option, it can accept video input from a PS4 and also accept a video stream from a PC. According to Xbox senior director of product management, Albert Panello, "any application can be snapped to a game... this could be the live TV feed, so if you wanted to play Ryse and Killzone (a PS4 exclusive), you could snap that." Keep in mind, snapping a title to the Xbox One doesn't mean that you can actually keep using Xbox One controllers in the game. If you want to snap in a PS4 game, you still need PS4 controllers. If you want to hook a PC into the Xbox One's video output, you still need mouse and keyboard, though if the Xbox One's controllers are eventually PC compatible, then you might be able to use the same controller on both platforms without doing much more than flipping a switch."
Socket accepts plugs it's designed to accept. What's the story?
This is one of the most trivial articles I've ever seen on Slashdot.
XBone lets HDMI input pass through it for all sorts of HDMI devices, no just cable boxes.
So what.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
I don't see how this lets me do anything that my receiver doesn't. Plus my receiver has 7 HDMI inputs instead of just 1...
I don't understand why there's a story about a video device including a 2-port HDMI switch. Your TV probably has a much larger one already, and if it doesn't you can buy one for like $9 from Monoprice. How is this news?
... does the hdmi still pass through surround sound?
It was later clarified by Penello that the latency of the HMDI input would be too high for gaming, and using it to pass the PS4's (or any other console, e.g. 360) output is not recommended, presumably because of the overlay. Odd, as my AV receiver can overlay it's UI with no more than 1 frame of delay, but if it was only intended for overlaying of TV, then MS may never have bothered to optimise it.
... a slow HDMI splitter.
This is bullshit. "if you want to snap in a PS4 game". This is beeing explained in a way that makes it easy for non-tech gamers to misunderstand and think that the Xbox ONE can play PS4 games or that you can use your PC apps on you Xbox ONE. Which of course is false.
If this kind of trickery is all Microsoft has to contribute, then it is obvious that they know that they have lost the console wars to Sony. End of story.
I look forward to a snapless PS4 experience.
...but only ever on the third try.
Does microsoft snoop on the data passed through?
You are automatically subscribed to the Customer Experience Improvement Program which sends the full HDMI data stream to Microsoft.
That's a really nice feature. That'll allow one to run video to a TV, and stereo to a stereo. After all, who wants to use crappy TV speakers if you're doing HD stuff (games and movies)?
I don't respond to AC's.
Touching the topic, let me ask a video question that I have been wondering for a while. My challenge to you is to find a way to center the 720p image from PlayStation 3 to a 1366x768 screen. My display only supports scaling the image to full screen. Are there external video processors (probably expensive solution) which have this feature, or possibly other solutions to the problem?
This is a great feature for people too stupid to just use the other HDMI input on their TV.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
What does the verb "snap" mean in this context? "Any application can be snapped to a game"? It makes it sound as if something is being done to it, but I get the impression that it's just being passed through (and so the only thing being "snapped" is the video sockets being snapped together).
Is there some technical or colloquial definition that I'm missing here?
*yawn* -- It's been utterly amazing to me that people who troll /. haven't realised that HDMI and HDCP have been circumvented for YEARS already....
HD-Fury
Circumventing HDMI+HDCP has been dead-simple for half-a-decade already, PLEASE try to keep up with the times...
-AC
Then you haven't seen the "WHOA ctrl+shift+t opens closed windows in firefox again"-article some weeks ago.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/08/26/0010239/the-greatest-keyboard-shortcut-ever
Yes, but who will give us the square wheel with rounded corners?
Learn to love Alaska
Classic X-Bone move - XD
Unequivocally the realest of the realz...
WOW ! a "Record In" jack. Is it 1982 again ?
The HDMI output port will produce video and the audio output jack will, in fact, produce audio. Welcome to the 21st century!
Without doing much actual investigating is snap actually picture in picture? That would actually be great as I'd finally be able to dump Directv and just stream the Yankees next year without having to change inputs to see what's going on.
How is this even interesting? Anyone with a receiver has had HDMI pass-through for ages now. My Yamaha receiver has HDMI pass-through and switching, why on earth would I want to use the Microsoft version?
Seriously, there is nearly zero benefit to this (and it sucks more power from the XBOne being turned on while not in use).
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Seems like the implication is that it can do more than just pass through. I suspect it can manipulate the video stream as well. Imagine having live tv you can watch in a game. Locations like apartments, in front of electronic stores, up on a giant screen in times square! I think they've already kind of shown the idea of watching a football game overlaid with your fantasy football league app. Examples Here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/entertainment The xbox can also presumably talk to your cable box, or an alternate media player (xbmc?) through HDMI using CEC. A scenario might be that you're playing a game and your girlfriend comes in and is like "Yo babe my show is on in 5 minutes!" So you can finish up your game and change your video sources' channel and later switch to it. All while hanging onto your xbox controller, no changing remotes or paying for expensive programmable ones. The "snap" verb refers to the windows RT/8 "metro" style. You're not using windows on the system, you're allocating a variable width vertical slice of screen real estate the the other interface. Sounds like it could be pretty cool. I'd want my steambox to be able to do that too.
The ability to use the XBone as a PVR would have been a significant feather in MSs cap; instead they are trying to sell the most minor of features.
The XBone is boned.
Is HDMI getting feature parity with 1980s SCART cables? Back then it was pretty common to daisy-chain set-top boxes. Well, now we only need bidirectional audio-video, although I have a feeling that DRM will get in the way of that.
And plugging two Xbones in a "SLI" like configuration to double the rendering power?
for users who are disappointed that their cable company isn't showing them enough ads. No, but seriously, this feature sucks. You get voice-activated input swapping, but when you go to the Xbone's interface to swap it shows a pane completely bordered by advertisements ala Idiocracy. Who would find such a thing desirable?
I plug my PS4's HDMI cable into my TV instead of plugging it into the XBox One then plugging the XBox One into my TV.
That method will be absolutely necessary because there won't be a XBox One anywhere inside my home, much less near my TV or the HDMI jacks.
They are trying hard to make it sound like Xbox-one is actually doing something.
All its doing is passing the signal through. Hardly justifies a buzzword, does it?
I remember E-mailing Sony years ago when the PS3 was announced and suggesting (as I'm sure others did as well) that they include HDMI switching because multiple HDMI ports were not common at the time.
If you're going to include HDMI pass-through, why not have four HDMI inputs and allow quick and easy switching, maybe with picture-in-picture or all four arranged together at once, and offer users something they don't already have as well as the convenience of not needing another switching device?
This base pass-through feature seems like a gimmick for controlling TV only.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)