There are two main problems with HD Fury. First, it has a left shift problem that shifts video images to the left a little. While the maker of the HD Fury has a later version claimed to have solve this left shift problem, they cost too much and most of time I don’t miss the “missing” left side so I just live with the problem.
The second problem has to deal with something called EDID. EDID is a data stream format used by HDMI devices to report its capabilities to sources so that the source will only send material such as 1080i video that the device is capable to handle. The problem is since the old TV predates HDMI, it has no EDID to pass on. HD Fury instead passes 1080p as its capabilities and therefore the problem as the TV can only handle 1080i. A source like Blu-Ray player will think the TV can handle 1080p and therefore sending 1080p to the TV. It is very easy to see things will fall apart quickly. Again, the maker of the HD Fury has a later generation that suppose let user select the right resolution to report instead of fixed on 1080p. Luckily, most, if not all the Blu-Ray players have a manual resolution override to send 1080i instead so this has not being a big problem to me up until now.

Connecting a HDMI based HTPC to HD Fury on the other hand, is problem as there is no easy resolution through remote or front panel on the PC. If HD Fury reports the TV can do 1080p, at initial startup, Windows will read the EDID from HD Fury and set the resolution to 1080p and the TV screen will be all scrambled. One solution of course is attach another monitor via DVI or VGA to the PC and change the resolution but this is not very practical if needs to be done every time to turn on or reboot the PC.
The maker of the HD Fury offers a solution to re-program the HD Fury’s to report 1080i instead of 1080p. To do this, one needs to download the new EDID data and use software called PowerStrip to program the HD Fury. While PowerStrip is available as trial shareware, only the paid registered version is capable to program the HD Fury as an “unofficial” function and there is not guarantee it will work. If it doesn’t the software is none refundable.

Luckily, there is an alternative free solution to the HD Fury EDID problem if the reason to re-program the HD Fury is to connect a HDMI HTPC. The PowerStrip’s maker also makes a free utility called MonInfo. I used the MonInfo to read the 1080i limited EDID file from HD Fury’s people and output it Windows INF file. On the first time the HTPC is to connect to the HD Fury, a second monitor will help to ensure the right INF file is pickup by Windows when it sees the HD Fury as new device and trying to install drive for it. It is important to get Windows to install the INF file we just made as the driver for HD Fury. Once the right driver is loaded, we are all set. Removed the second monitor, that it.

It needs to be mentioned that HD Fury’s left shift problem now is more of an issue with the Windows than previous with HD DVD or BD movies. It also need to mention that a 1080i display is not suitable for anything other than media file play back as regular Windows fonts become too small and too blurry. Windows’ MCE on the other hand works quite well as it uses much bigger fonts.

Download

• MonInfo
• EDID file for HD Fury

After I updated the TV with the HD Fury to accept HDMI signal and the Yamaha RX-V665 for the new HD audio formats such as DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD, it is time to revisit the HTPC setup. Before jump into a new HTPC setup however, media players has gaining popularity in recent years and it certainly has its advantages being more like consumer electronics than PC and possible easier for day to day use in a home theater environment.

After looking into the many available media players on the market such as WD TV Live, I was disappointed to found out none of the sub $200 players are capable to act as DVR. In other words, if I get one of these players, I still need the PC to record TV program. Another problem these media player is most of them are not capable to handle HD audio formats. Take TVIX 6620N for example, I have considered it because it can function as DVR. The problem is the TVIX is not only very expensive but also not able to pass through DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD. For something cost close to $400, I expect more. In addition, TVIX’s local dealer has a rather unfriendly return policy and all the unhappy user feedback on the web make me to give up even give it a try. Then, there are the equally expensive Dune players that seem to be able to handle the DTS-HD HA and DD TrueHD but there is DVR option available. For the price those TVIX and Dune guys ask for, I can build a HTPC and be able to handle both DVR and HD audio.

While it is true, the HTPC can have a lot of issues, lacking proper remote friendly UI is just the most obvious. On the other hand, all those media players seem have their own set of problems too. One just has to search the web to see for example so many unhappy users about them too.

At the end, I went back to the HTPC option. After the failed trial with XFX GeForce 9300, I have settled with MSI 785GTM-E45 motherboard but only to find out it cannot do HD audio either. The great thing about HTPC is it is expandable and I am not depends on the media player companies to make good on their product. In this case, I added an ATI 5450 graphics and now my HTPC can do both DVR and handle HD audio. To me, this is a better choice by far than any media player on the market today.

Follow up:

• As of 4/15/2010, TVIX now has an “updated” 6600N+ selling in China using an “updated” Realtek 1283+ chipset that they “hint” will support HD audio down the line but as of today even this “new” upgraded 6600N+ still does not support DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. People who brought the “old” 6600N seems out of luck ! If you think TVIX’s customers got short change, the US dealers did not even mention this “new” model!
• Also as of 4/15/2010, it seems models from Dune has problems with many Blu-Ray disc.

HDMI has become more and more important. Not just because HDMI simplified A/V connections, equally or even more important is the evil HDCP DRM. Without HDCP, the DVD players are not allowing to upscale video beyond 480P; even I have paid the full price for the DVD movie.  Without HDCP, the Blu-Ray players are not able to output HD audio.

Anyway, in order to get upscaled video for my old Mitsubishi VS-60111, I used the HDFury gizmo to convert DVI to RGB. The problem is HDFury only has one input and I have more than one HDMI devices.  Since my old Pioneer AV receiver does not have any HDMI connection, it is obvious I need a HDMI switcher. After searching on the web, I settled on the Monoprice HDMI switcher. At $20+tax+shipping  for a refurbished unit, it is a low cost option with very low risk.

When I receive the unit, the packaging is better than I expected. Although I brought the refurbished one, it came with retail box.  Package came with the following,

• The unit itself
• Power supply
• Remote
• Remote battery

What was really surprising is the unit is made of metal casing instead of plastic that is common to device at this price range.

Setup and connecting the unit is straight forward. Connect all the input and output HDMI and then the power supply and it works! I have tried Toshiba A3 HD DVD; Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-Ray; Oppo 980H DVD and LG RC797T all works without any problem. While some people may prefer auto sensing switch, I prefer the manual remote way of the Monoprice unit as I may have more than one device on at the any given time.

It is very important to note that this Monoprice is a powered switch meaning the input is buffered and amplified. Since some HDMI devices are very picky, a none powered HDMI switch may fail to work. Case and point is after I got the Yamaha RX-V665, I thought I can remove the Monoprice HDMI switch from the signal chain, I was wrong. Apparently HDFury is so picky that the output stage of the Yamaha RX-V665 does not have enough driving capability to drive the HDFury and the TV was not able to get stable video signal to lock on. As soon as I put the Monoprice switch in between Yamaha receiver and the HDFury, the TV picture came back as good as ever.

Bottom, this unit is an excellent value. Even right now I am only using the switch as powered buffer, it is well worth for the price just for this function alone. If you are looking for a HDMI switch, this unit should be a top choice.

Setup for a basic player like the NB530MGX is simple and straight forward enough one probably does not even need to look at the manual.

In my setup, for video, I connected the HDMI port to a powered HDMI switch, which in terms connected to a gizmo called HDFury that convert HDMI to component video and it is connected to an old Mitsubishi VS-60111 using RGB input. Since the Magnavox has component video output and my old  TV and receiver both has component video input, why do I want to go through the trouble to use HDMI switch and converter? The answer again is due to the evil empire of the studios and their HDCP DRM scheme. If the content of a DVD disc is “protected”, which probably include over 99% of the DVD sold in US, the player cannot upscale it through component video. 480P is the max. resolution allowed. This means if you only have an old HDTV that was manufactured before this evil HDCP day; you would not get the full function of this player that you have already paid for. If you think this is bad, the same evil empire is working even to eliminate 1080i component video output even for Blu-Ray playback.

Since my old receiver does not have HDMI connection, I have to use the digital output from the player to the receiver. Again, this means I will not be able to enjoy the full function of even the basic player because the player will downgrade the sound track before it sends to the digital output.

After everything is connected, power the player and the TV screen is….jumping and fuzzy lines. Have no fear. This is only due to the HDFury is telling the player it can do 1080P while as the TV can only do 1080i. No big deal. Just use the “HDMI” button on the remote with the display on the front panel of the player to cycle through and resolution selections and the player is ready to play.

From standby to eject the tray is surprisingly fast. It only took 15sec from the time I hit the eject bottom on the remote till the player wake up and eject the tray. This is much faster than the Toshiba A3 HD DVD player and on par with many low cost DVD players. It is certainly not the snail pace of even high end early Blu-Ray players.

Video quality for Blu-Ray is probably as good as can be expected from an old RPTV. What is surprising is the upscaling quality of the regular DVD. We have three players has upscale capabilities, a Oppo DV-980H DVD player, Toshiba A3 HD DVD player and this Magnavox NB530. Both the Oppo and Toshiba have good reputation on their upscaling. In my setup, I think the Magnavox is just as good as the Toshiba and better than the Oppo. But here is the problem of HDCP again. If you do not have HDMI, you will lose this great upscale capability of the player even you already paid for it. The image quality of a carefully mastered recent DVD upscaled to 1080i is very good. Depends on your TV and viewing distance, one may be hard pressed to see the difference between regular DVD and Blu-Ray. Can I see the difference? Yes, I can. Would I pay more for Blu-Ray movie? Well, if it is $1 or $2 yes. But I certainly will not pay 50% more let alone 2X or even 3X more for Blu-Ray movies.

This player does have an annoyances issue on playing old 4:3 “full screen” DVD and that include those fake none anamorphic “widescreen” DVDs. The player will not automatically adjust the aspect ratio and the video image is stretched. You have the manually goes into the setup menu to change the aspect ratio. 

Audio wise, since I don’t have HDMI capable receiver and the player does not have multi channel analog output, I would not be able to test out the lossless sound tack on some of the Blu-Ray disc. As far as regular DVD quality level playback, it is about the same as most average DVD player out there.

This is a Blu-Ray profile 1.1 player which means it does not have network connection for BD Live. Personally after reading all the horror stories on the web about the stupid BD Live, I think I will miss that junk function.

Overall, I would think at $98 is a worth well purchase and I am happy about it. In fact, I feel pretty good I passed Fry’s $199 one day special for the Sony S360 and waited for this one instead.

p.s If you need HDMI cable, don’t wast money on those retail stores want to sale one to you  for $49 or worst. Good quality cable does not mean you have pay high cost. I use one from monoprice.com and only paid $4.74 plus shipping for a good 10ft HDMI cable. You can choose diffent cable color that make cable management easier.

Download Here 

from techlore.com

This manual also covers VS-50111,  WS-48311, WS-55311, WS-65311, WS-55411, WS-65411 and WS-73411.

Many CRT based HD Rear Projection TV(RPTV) such as the Mitsubishi VS-60111 were make before the HDMI days with only component video inputs. The problems is those stupid and greedy studios are not allow DVD player makers to upscale the video content sending out through component output. Anything more than 480P has to go through the HDMI output with HDCP handshake! While we believe these greedy studios have infringed our rights as customers to view what we have been paid for with best possible result, the reality is those of us with old component input only HDTV are out of luck. 

One solution of course is to buy a new TV but this is a waste when the old TV still works ok. We also have seen some people claimed that since the DVD contents are 480P to begin with and the TV has built-in upscaler so taking 480P output via component video is no worse than getting upscale output from the DVD player. Well, to some TV with good built-in upscaler, that may be true but not for ones like the Mitsubishi VS-60111. We have tried a few DVD from oversea that are without the stupid HDCP restrictions, the 1080i upscale result from either the Oppo 980 or the long discounted Toshiba A3 HD DVD player are far superior than viewing the 480P output on the VS-60111.

 In search of a solution, we came across this HDFury. The original HDFury will take a DVI input and convert it to RGB output and also provided the needed HDCP handshake to allow up to 1080P signal to pass from the player to TV. A newer version called HDFury 2 takes HDMI connection instead of DVI and output to either RGB or YUV instead of RGB only. The HDFury 2 supposedly also has a whole bunch of new features over the original version but also cost about $100 more. Reading posts from various forums seems clear that people from the main reseller of HDFury or HDFury 2 here in US subtlety and not so subtlety implied that one not only should buy HDFury 2 but more importantly should but either one from them, the curtplame.com.

 The problem is at $199-$299 price tag that people at curtpalme.com wants for HDFury 2, it is about 1/5 of new 52” LCD  TV’s price. One has to wonder about demising returns. Is it worth it or better save up for a new TV. Upon further search on the net, we found another retailer monoprice.com for the HDFury. Their price is about $50 cheaper than curtplame.com. While people at curtplame.com will more than eagerly to point out that their version of HDFury 2 came with power supply adapter while others don’t. But extra $50 for a $5 power supply?  Now people at curtplame.com will also point out the extra service they provide, but the bottom line is at $299 or even $199, they have priced themselves out of consideration.

Even after we decided to give monprice.com a try, we still have to decide which version to order. monoprice.com was selling the HDFury for $58.90 and the HDFury 2 for $148. Although from the price stand point of view, HDFury is a no brainer, but they are other considerations. If your TV only has YUV component video input, then the piratical option is limited to HDFury 2 only. But since the VS-60111 has both RGB and YUV input option, the RGB output is actually preferred and so this is not an issue for us. The most important factor in making the choice is the compatibility between the Mitsubishi TV and HDFury. It seems Mitsubishi TVs are very picky about timing signal and was sent from HDFury. Many people have suffered an image left shift problem. A few even suffer both lift and up shift problem and HDFury 2 claimed solved this problem.

A second issue of the original HDFury is the output signal is not strong enough to drive long cable and may require bigger power draw from the DVI connector and thus more likely needs the external power supply than the HDFury 2.

 With these considerations, we thought just on the safe side may be we should try the HDFury 2. But just when we are ready to order, mononprice.com ran out of HDFury 2! While we can wait for the new supply to come in, we thought since monoprice.com has a 21 days return period, we might as well try out the HDFury. If it works great, we saved a bundle. If it doesn’t, we can also return it for the HDFury 2. There are three variant of the HDFury with different type of connection cable. For the VS-60111, we need the “Green” version with VGA to 5 BNC RGB connector cable. Since the Mitsubishi VS-60111 has RCA connectors instead of BNC, we also ordered five BNC to RCA adapters from monoprice.com at only $0.55 a piece. Although we already have a 10ft VGA to 5 RCA RGB cable, since it was stated HDFury can not drive cable longer than the included one, we decided we should stick with the included one using BNC to RCA adapter connectors.

In order to connect multiple HDMI players to HDFury, we also need a HDMI switch. We got a refurbished monprice.com has a store branded 4×1 powered switch for only $20. Because the HDFury need to draw power from the HDMI devices, it is important to use powered switch. To connect the HDMI switch to HDFury, we need a HDMI to DVI cable and got a 28AWG 10 ft one from mononprice.com for $4.92. The two HDMI devices, the Toshbia A3 and Oppo 980 came with their own 6 ft. HDMI cable so we don’t really have to order HDMI cable but since monoprice.com has several choices at good prices, we order two different color ones just to see the quality.

 Monoprice.com fulfilled and shipped the order in about one hour which is better than expected. When the package arrived is well packaged. The cable is of very good quality and one can easily spend 10x at BestBuy for the same type of cable. The HDMI switch almost looks like new and also packaged well. The color HDMI cables are about the same quality as the one included with Oppo, better than the one with Toshiba.

The same can not be said for the HDFury. It is packaged in the plastic blister package as shown on curtplame.com but what really surprise us is there is NO manual! The only instruction is at the back of the pack! Further more, there is NO sign of manufacture origin, NO regulatory such as FCC, CE approval AND there is even NO manufacturer’s name, NO phone number and NO address on the package!! One really has to wonder what kind of company is making this product and how safe it is or can it be legally sale in the US in the first place!

 To try out, first connect the Toshiba A3 without the switch directly to HDFury and HDFury to TV. And it works! Add the HDMI switch in between the players and the HDFury, it still works! While the image does have a slight left shift, it is more like left side over scan than sift as there is NO black bar on the right as some people has seen. Without telling, most of people would not even notice such overscan so we will just going to leave it as is.

 Switching between the two players using the switch’s remote is easy. The TV’s screen will flash a second or two as it needs to re-sync with the source but that is expected. There is NO need to use external power supply. If you need one, the mini plug is the same size as some Samsung Bluetooth headset’s power supply.

Image quality is good and about the same as using component upscale for none HDCP DVD and we are happy. Total cost of the project is $86.57 plus tax and shipping. Not bad to give the old TV a few more years of life.

Buy HD Fury from Amazon