New XboxHD+ boards no longer require project Stellar to work

[dtomcat]

As title suggests... a new announcement was made today that the new xboxHD+ boards will no longer require project stellar to work.

https://makemhz.com/products/xboxhd-legacy

[Bowlsnapper]

3 hours ago, Dtomcat18 said:

As title suggests... a new announcement was made today that the new xboxHD+ boards will no longer require project stellar to work.

https://makemhz.com/products/xboxhd-legacy

They saw the writing on the wall and finally understood that they were hurting both their business and their reputation by doing what they were trying to do... and that other people were going to release something like this which would make their encoder almost unsellable, since a LOT of people don't seem to be interested in Stellar and would rather go with either an Xblast or an OpenXenium... that's my understanding, at least. Looks like the encoder is priced... "competitively" as well.  I'm glad to see it happen. I may still decide to wait and support Nemesis, however. Probably worth the extra few bucks, in my opinion.

Good for the consumer. Thank you, Tomcat.

Edit: I now realize that this is an MCU addon for the encoder. removing the need to get a Stellar... however... they could just start selling the old design again which includes the MCU... but hey! why do that when you could charge more?

[MadMartigan]

Isn’t this the same news that @ModzvilleUSA posted a month or two ago? Maybe Dustin finally realized he couldn’t corner the market. 

[RMM]

2 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

They saw the writing on the wall and finally understood that they were hurting both their business and their reputation by doing what they were trying to do... and that other people were going to release something like this which would make their encoder almost unsellable, since a LOT of people don't seem to be interested in Stellar and would rather go with either an Xblast or an OpenXenium... that's my understanding, at least. Looks like the encoder is priced... "competitively" as well.  I'm glad to see it happen. I may still decide to wait and support Nemesis, however. Probably worth the extra few bucks, in my opinion.

Good for the consumer. Thank you, Tomcat.

It is still not a stand alone mod like the original design.  This new version will require a "legacy" board $25 in place of the stellar modchip plus you need the XboxHD+ $60 so that would be $85 total for this new HDMI mod instead of $160 if you were forced to buy the Stellar.  I think many people will be happy with that.

I'm not a big fan of the 2 board solution but I can understand why this route was taken.  Instead of making 2 different versions of the XboxHD+, you make just one and allow the users to pick the Stellar modchip if they want it or if they want to use their own modchip you buy the legacy board.  I think that is a good compromise.

[Bowlsnapper]

2 minutes ago, RMM said:

It is still not a stand alone mod like the original design.  This new version will require a "legacy" board $25 in place of the stellar modchip plus you need the XboxHD+ $60 so that would be $85 total for this new HDMI mod instead of $160 if you were forced to buy the Stellar.  I think many people will be happy with that.

I'm not a big fan of the 2 board solution but I can understand why this route was taken.  Instead of making 2 different versions of the XboxHD+, you make just one and allow the users to pick the Stellar modchip if they want it or if they want to use their own modchip you buy the legacy board.  I think that is a good compromise.

Ah okay. I thought it was a standalone HDMI encoder. Seems odd though. Why not just make ONE encoder that works with everything? Why should people have to buy something extra to supplement an IC that can exist right on the PCB of the HDMI encoder just like before?

[RMM]

7 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Ah okay. I thought it was a standalone HDMI encoder. Seems odd though. Why not just make ONE encoder that works with everything? Why should people have to buy something extra to supplement an IC that can exist right on the PCB of the HDMI encoder just like before?

I agree.  Im not a big fan of it but I do think it is a move in the right direction.  85$ vs 160$ and no forced Stellar usage.

[RMM]

10 minutes ago, MadMartigan said:

Isn’t this the same news that @ModzvilleUSA posted a month or two ago? Maybe Dustin finally realized he couldn’t corner the market. 

It is different.  Modzville's news was regarding Cerbios being worked on to support the old XboxHD+ design.  Why that is important is because if anyone develops a new HDMI mod with the same type hardware, Cerbios should work with the newly released HDMI mod.

[Bowlsnapper]

11 minutes ago, RMM said:

It is different.  Modzville's news was regarding Cerbios being worked on to support the old XboxHD+ design.  Why that is important is because if anyone develops a new HDMI mod with the same type hardware, Cerbios should work with the newly released HDMI mod.

Meaning that it should work for this design, since the MCU is being hooked up to the HDMI encoder and making it the old encoder. Thankfully, other ones should be released soon and this will be a dead issue.

14 minutes ago, RMM said:

I agree.  Im not a big fan of it but I do think it is a move in the right direction.  85$ vs 160$ and no forced Stellar usage.

... After that fact being shoved in their face repeatedly.  I would say it's being done in bad faith, but It's better than nothing.

God, forgive me. I try, I SWEAR I do...

[NeMesiS]

Obsolete in less than 24 hours....

Merry Christmas...

[Bowlsnapper]

30 minutes ago, NeMesiS said:

Obsolete in less than 24 hours....

Merry Christmas...

         

Merry Christmas to you! Maybe I should call you Santa.