Using an Apple iMac as monitor for an Xbox 360

I was searching for some information last night on how I would go about connecting an Xbox 360 to a 27" iMac and after hours of searching I found a solution.

The iMac (and I'm speaking specifically about the 27" version) has a mini-displayport connection on the back which allows mini-displayport to mini-displayport connections only. Apple have made this decision as they seem to only want MacBook users to use the iMac's screen as a second screen and don't want to allow the screen to be used for other purposes.

Dr Bott is a website distributing Apple products primarily in the US and it turns out they also produce a little adapter device which can convert a HDMI signal into a mini-displayport signal. A simple cable converter would not be enough since the iMac would still detect that the signal is not coming from a mini-displayport device.

The Dr Bott DGVL however outputs a signal that emulates the correct signal for mini-displayport and allows 720p HDMI signals to be displayed on the iMac's screen. This is great news, and is exactly what I was looking for. It's not 1080i/p but 720p is good enough for me and that's what I use on our 37" HDTV anyway.

I'm going to be looking at getting one of these in the coming months and will post an update when I get it running.

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