Review on Kanex XD

There is no way of complaining about performance of the device but what disappoint is that there wouldn’t be a need for this device if Apple hadn’t made it necessary adding up to the burden of the already high pricing iMacs. Kanex HD bridges the gap between the mini Display Port of the 27-inch iMac from Apple and the HDMI based video devices. It means that you can convert the 27-inch iMac as a home entertainer. It is priced at around $150.

Hardware components include a silver colored metal box measuring 1.2 inches high, 2.2 inches wide and 3.25 inches in depth. Setup requires a few steps but there is no software installation included in the process. The device comes with power cable, HDMI and mini Display Port cables.

You need to be sure that the device you are connecting is set to 720p as the input resolutions is default to 720p in iMac. One reason for such a limitation is that it requires a lot of processing power. The higher the resolution inputted, the harder it is to do. In case of the 1280×720, it is exactly half of 2560×1440 and therefore it requires only a pixel replication. Once resolution output is established, all you need to do is connect the cables in order. It is as follows. Connect the HDMI device to Kanex HD, connect the power cable and at last the mini DisplayPort cable to iMac from Kanex XD. It is necessary that the iMac should be on when connecting.

It is possible to adjust screen brightness and volume using the keyboard and is also possible to toggle between the OS X and the external signal using the F2 command key. Wide range of devices including PlayStation 3, Blu-ray Player, satellite cable box, HD camcorder and even Xbox 360 when tested resulted successful. Audio passed out without any trouble but only stereo output is available from iMac. There are some issues when switching between devices as it did not establish a stable signal when switching to satellite cable box. However doing it manually will not create any problem.

Kanex XD is not the only adapter available in the market. There is one available from Altona Technologies priced at $150 and very soon, Belkin will be materializing soon. It is advantage for customers as their prices will be lowered without any sacrifice in performance.