Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I purchased a brand new Genia HD GameBox from HDTVonPC through Amazon due to the price being exponentially lower. Long story short....It's in the process of being returned now.
Pros:
1) This will display almost any signal from a video console onto a VGA monitor. That includes 480i which is not traditionally supported by LCD monitors.
Cons:
1) It does not support 16:9 aspect ratio as advertised.
2) It does not come with a remote control as advertised.
3) Quoted from the product box "Add black bar to match with 4:3 and 16:10 panel. No more distortion" This simply is not true. Every single option in the menu and all submenus were thoroughly explored. There is absolutely no option for retaining the aspect ratio of the original signal. Leading to number....
4) Every signal will be scaled to the resolution that you set in the menu. This means the signal will be STRETCHED or SQUEEZED together to fit the selected resolution. This would not be a problem if traditional High Definition resolutions were given as an option, but they are not. So, you will not be able to select 1280 x 720 for 720p nor will you be able to select 1920 x 1080 to give you 1080p. Think of the picture as looking at a 4:3 picture on a 16:9 widescreen LCD HDTV that is not set to aspect or real ratio. Faces get stretched to a weird wide look, etc....
5) Because everything is scaled and there is no way to disable the scaling, there will be a loss in signal quality for all pictures displayed.
6) Some other boxes such as the X2VGA2 by Neoya have two component inputs for gaming systems versus only one on the Geniatech HD Gamebox. I later discovered and bought this competitor's product and am keeping it. However, my only 1080i game had it's black shades displayed in shades of green. So I had to set my Xbox to incorrectly say my monitor doesn't support 1080i so the X2VGA2 would display the 1080i game properly in 720p. My monitor is a 1920 x 1200 resolution DoubleSight DS-263N which supports perfectly even 1080p. The colors were perfect on the HD GameBox in 1080i (albeit stretched to 1920 x 1200).
7) The sound "quality" on the Geniatech HD GameBox can only be described as defective. Even when the HD GameBox is turned off, tremendous noise/interference/static is run through your speaker system. So you have to unplug the sound cable when not using it if you are plugging this into an alternate MP3 jack in your speaker system as I was (Logitech Z-4 speaker system) Also, the volume has to be turned way down low so that all this horrible sound quality noise doesn't overpower the actual video game sound.
8) This HD GameBox runs HOT!!! Even when not actively in use, this thing runs about as hot as a gaming video card in your PC. I didn't feel comfortable leaving it on when not in use for this reason. One has to wonder just how long an electronic device that runs this hot will last over time.
9) Although HDTVonPC has stated they are willing to refund the initial shipping costs, they will not pay for return shipping on this misrepresented and defective (from a sound quality perspective) product.
In summary, if you just need a product that will display 480i on a PC monitor and don't care about picture or sound quality, then this is an ok product for you. If you want a high definition box that will properly display your high definition signal on your high definition LCD monitor, then I suggest you run (don't walk) far, far away from this Geniatech HD GameBox. It does not live up to it's name or advertising.
*** UPDATE: HDTVonPC did NOT refund the initial shipping costs as they agreed to in their email correspondance. So approximately $16 (initial and return shipping) was lost on a misrepresented and defective product. They did say it is their policy NEVER to pay for return shipping even on a defective product. However, they did NOT honor their word of refunding the initial shipping costs either. It became very clear from an unprofessional demeanor (overly casual and disinterested) and specific statements in their emails that HDTVonPC is definately a "Mom and Pop" shop. They don't do RMA #'s and it took me almost two weeks and several emails for them to answer the simple question of what address to send the return to. Detailed return instructions were requested in the first email. Also, the product box initially shipped to me was pretty banged up due to it being "packaged" in a completely unprotected normal priority mail envelope (product itself was undamaged). On the bright side, I guess HDTVonPC could have been worse by trying to blame this damage on me and not accepting the return, but I did bubble wrap it to minimize this chance. This is not a good vendor to choose for any of your needs. This product rating of two stars does not take into account HDTVonPC being the vendor (which would have lowered it). It's based solely on the product itself purchased at a cost of below forty dollars.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Mygica HD Game Box Video to VGA Converter/Switcher - Play Game on PC LCD Monitor, Support Resolution Up to 1920 X 1200
