HDMI Converter Recommendations

[lnx64]

I've been using the RadioShack HDMI to composite converters, and it's worked fine for me, even supports Bluray players and Roku.. Too bad it doesn't have S-Video on it though.

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by user181

That's the problem I experience with certain OTA broadcasts. Is there any insight as to why that occurs?

No idea. Being that 4:3 is the native aspect ratio of our TVs, you'd think there wouldn't be issues...but here we are. If you find a workaround I'd be very interested to know what you did.

Originally Posted by user181

I just ordered one of these converters:

http://ebay.to/2ttYFIm

Whenever it arrives, I'll share my observations of its performance.

I think that might be the same one I have - you just found a better price!

I haven't used it with anything other than my current setup, so I'm curious to see how it performs with a true vintage set and a different HDMI source.

[lnx64]

I believe the aspect ratio problem happens because the device sending the HDMI output, might have the wrong aspect ratio setup inside of it. I ran into this problem initially with my HDMI converter, but fixed it by selecting 4:3 and 480i. Any 720p or 1080i setting, was forcing 16:9 output from the device itself (and not the fault of the converter). I verified this with an HDMI monitor, only 480i was properly doing 4:3.

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by lnx64

I believe the aspect ratio problem happens because the device sending the HDMI output, might have the wrong aspect ratio setup inside of it. I ran into this problem initially with my HDMI converter, but fixed it by selecting 4:3 and 480i. Any 720p or 1080i setting, was forcing 16:9 output from the device itself (and not the fault of the converter). I verified this with an HDMI monitor, only 480i was properly doing 4:3.

Interesting. I may have to play around with the settings on my Apple TV and see if that fixes it.

On a (somewhat) unrelated note, I was having issues with color saturation on dark images, which lacked detail and appeared completely black. Tweaking the HDMI Hi/Lo settings fixed this. So it's entirely possible the aspect ratio issue could be resolved in a similar manner.

[lnx64]

Yep, HDMI devices have two different ways in representing intensity. 0 to 255, or 16 to 235. You want to use the latter, as that will allow the composite output of the converter to be more close to NTSC, otherwise it will be dark.

These devices simply fill the frame, so even if it's outputting 1920x1080, if the adapter even has the ability to downscale (unlike my Radioshack one), it will still be squashed into the 480i output. So it's up to your device to have the proper aspect ratio setting selected. IF it doesn't have it, then you might be out of luck, no matter what adapter you use. My Roku streaming stick won't do 4:3 on HDMI no matter what I do, so 4:3 content have black bars on the left and right side, however my PS3, even on the HDMI output (ignoring the fact it does have native composite output), DOES do 4:3 on HDMI, and it looks identical to its own composite output.

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by lnx64

Yep, HDMI devices have two different ways in representing intensity. 0 to 255, or 16 to 235. You want to use the latter, as that will allow the composite output of the converter to be more close to NTSC, otherwise it will be dark.

Good to know. There's a third setting, YCbCr, which I haven't tried yet. Any idea what that does?

These devices simply fill the frame, so even if it's outputting 1920x1080, if the adapter even has the ability to downscale (unlike my Radioshack one), it will still be squashed into the 480i output. So it's up to your device to have the proper aspect ratio setting selected. IF it doesn't have it, then you might be out of luck, no matter what adapter you use. My Roku streaming stick won't do 4:3 on HDMI no matter what I do, so 4:3 content have black bars on the left and right side, however my PS3, even on the HDMI output (ignoring the fact it does have native composite output), DOES do 4:3 on HDMI, and it looks identical to its own composite output.

Turns out the Apple TV only outputs in 16:9, and there's nothing I can do about it. Which sucks, but is also understandable, given that 4:3 isn't a standard format for digital TVs. The zoom function makes it more tolerable, though.

I did find a very clunky workaround to the 4:3 aspect ratio issue, however. By loading a video on my phone or laptop, then mirroring it on my Apple TV, I can zoom in on my phone/laptop until the video fills the TV screen.

I wonder if it would be possible to take one of those HDMI converter boxes apart and modify it so that the picture height and width can be adjusted manually...

[lnx64]

For the YCrCb option, HDMI supports both RGB and YCrCb video encoding. For your adapter however, you wouldn't see a single difference so that won't matter really. It'll make a difference however on large flat panel TV's, but I usually recommend sticking with RGB.

For the other question, I don't think you can adjust that in the converter. They don't really do those kinds of things.. They just paint the picture exactly as it comes in, no adjustments. It might be more feasible to see if the AppleTV itself can be modified to have 4:3 output.

I want to say that, some AV receivers that had HDMI ports like my Pioneer, CAN in fact modify the picture coming in via HDMI, and then send out an HDMI signal that modified with different height and width, but that'd be an even more clunky setup. (At least you could get surround sound though.)