Using HDMI pass-through to play Xbox 360 via Xbox One

[Mystictrust]

I wasn't quite sure how to title the thread, so I'm sorry if it comes across as misleading.

I've been thinking of there being the possibility of using the HDMI-in port on the Xbox One to plug in the Xbox 360. In lieu of using a set-top box/DVR/cable-box/etc., this would allow you to easily switch back and forth from your Xbox 360 and Xbox One games using one interface, without switching inputs on your TV, and without using an extra HDMI port on your TV if you're limited. Obviously, not a possibility for everyone, and I'm sure there will be people saying, "What's the point? Why not use them both separately?" but possibly being able to overlay your existing Xbox 360 games on top of an Xbox One interface could have some pretty cool/convenient implications.

Marc Whitten was actually posed this question in an Engadget interview and had a fairly interesting reaction to this, to say the least. A Cheshire cat grin from ear to ear and a little hinting at interoperability between both the consoles tells me that Microsoft could be working hard behind the scenes to see if they can implement something like this... I guess unless that was the first he'd heard of it and he thought it sounded like an amazing idea :winktongue: Obviously, Microsoft is not done with the Xbox 360 and there's no way I am giving mine up... I have a ton of games on there to play, and without any cable box to connect to the Xbox One, I would stand to benefit from this a lot

I've transcribed the conversation below, alongside a link to the video:

Interviewer: "... you're buying an Xbox One and you're worried about that stuff not transferring over ... I have friends that might be weary of purchasing an XBLA game right now because they know that it won't go to their next console and they're already planning to buy that ... so there's HDMI CEC on Xbox One for instance and I'm wondering, am I able to plug in a 360 via HDMI to my Xbox One and then play it through the Xbox One?"

Marc Whitten: *starts to grin and smile* I think those are great ideas and we should talk about them more in the future.. *huge smile and lots of head nodding... ending in a huge smile that lasted so long you could think the video froze for a second*

Interviewer: That's an interesting answer

Marc Whitten: You know what? The thing I'll tell you is, you're right the platform is not backwards compatible. We believe everybody's going to still have a lot of Xbox 360s, we think it's going to be a great place to buy games, to play games, to sort of interact with your community... and I want people to feel like that the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One work really well together. So I'll sort of leave it at that, but there's a lot of things I think you can do there, both in LIVE and making sure that's one community, and frankly even more directly how those products can work together

"Xbox Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten interview (E3 2013)" - Videos - Viddler (starts at around the 14:50 mark)

 

[Keith Wallace]

So I guess the question here is: what would it accomplish? All this would do is make the Xbox One another middleman to the TV, wouldn't it? It wouldn't actually become the device handling the computations and taking controller-based input, would it? It wouldn't allow you to make use of the second-generation Kinect to play Xbox 360 Kinect-enabled titles to get a more-precise Kinect gaming experience on the Xbox 360, would it? To me, the idea just sounds like you're streaming your 360's images to the One, and then to the TV. In that case, I ask why you wouldn't just switch the input on your TV to the 360 and avoid what sounds a little weird to me.

 

[MerlotC]

Sounds like something is in the works anyway. Would be nice if somehow they could get the new controllers to work on the 360 so I wouldn't have to have a pile of controllers laying around.

 

[SnailUK]

Interesting.

I wonder what the performance of HDMI CEC is like. Maybe its actually fast enough to pass all the data through, so you can use the One controllers, to control your 360. That would be cool.

 

[Polychrome]

please please please please please please please

Darnit, I really want this rumor to be true!

 

[martinmc78]

Hopefully they do sort something out - I mentioned this in another thread - It just seems odd that they wouldn't have some way of the 360 and the One interacting otherwise why go to the trouble with the redesign so it fits in perfectly with how the One looks

 

[Mystictrust]

So I guess the question here is: what would it accomplish? All this would do is make the Xbox One another middleman to the TV, wouldn't it? It wouldn't actually become the device handling the computations and taking controller-based input, would it? It wouldn't allow you to make use of the second-generation Kinect to play Xbox 360 Kinect-enabled titles to get a more-precise Kinect gaming experience on the Xbox 360, would it? To me, the idea just sounds like you're streaming your 360's images to the One, and then to the TV. In that case, I ask why you wouldn't just switch the input on your TV to the 360 and avoid what sounds a little weird to me.

I wouldn't imagine it would be able to use the new Kinect, although maybe possibly it could use the new controller? Either way, I can think of a few scenarios where it would work out for me:

• No switching TV inputs
• I don't have any more free HDMI ports on the TV. I wouldn't have to get up and constantly swap out cables behind the consoles.
• If communication on Xbox Live stays segregated between consoles, I could potentially still get messages or have audio chats with my brother on Xbox One (he's selling his 360) while I'm playing a 360 game. We do this a lot when we want to chat, no matter the game we're each playing.
• If we can use the new controller, well, the new controller is superior so I'd rather use that than keep swapping out controllers
• I might be able to easily switch/transition to an Xbox One game at any time. When done with the 360, I can use my media remote to turn it off
• Just like you can watch live TV through your cable box and have a Skype video call or something on the side, what if I could do the same with my 360 game to one side and a Skype video call on the other? I WILL be using that feature. Or I could snap internet explorer for game hints, or... would be awesome... if I could snap Xbox Music off to the side and play some tunes. If the cable box can be connected and multitask with the system, then maybe the same could be done with the 360 connected.
• BONUS: Play my Xbox 360 games while waiting for SmartMatch to find a game for me to play on Xbox One

The idea of using the Xbox One as "the middleman to the TV" is the same as they've positioned for live TV - no need to switch inputs, just use the Xbox One interface for all your needs. It's basically just about convenience. I know I can get up, swap out my HDMI cables, switch inputs on the TV, pick up a 360 controller, and play at any time. It's all about convenience. If I can turn on my 360 with my media remote, power on my Xbox One with my voice, and play my 360 games without changing inputs or walking behind the TV, then I'm all for it. Everyone has a different situation that is nice for them

 

[Keith Wallace]

I don't get what you're saying about snapping. Skype and Internet Explorer are already on the new Xbox, so why would you need to stream from the Xbox 360 to do that things? You can snap a game and Skype together on the new Xbox already, so using the 360 to do it makes no sense. I don't have anything against the concept, it just seems that not switching inputs isn't a big-enough advantage, in my mind. The part about running out of inputs is a good point, though. I only have 2 HDMI ports on my HDTV, and they are taken up by me 360 and PC (meaning I can't use my DirecTV box with HDMI).

 

[Mystictrust]

I don't get what you're saying about snapping. Skype and Internet Explorer are already on the new Xbox, so why would you need to stream from the Xbox 360 to do that things? You can snap a game and Skype together on the new Xbox already, so using the 360 to do it makes no sense. I don't have anything against the concept, it just seems that not switching inputs isn't a big-enough advantage, in my mind. The part about running out of inputs is a good point, though. I only have 2 HDMI ports on my HDTV, and they are taken up by me 360 and PC (meaning I can't use my DirecTV box with HDMI).

I think that came across wrong. Yes, you can snap a game and Skype together on the new Xbox but not on the 360. If this method allowed for it, I would have that functionality while playing my Xbox 360 games through my Xbox One. This could allow for me to have a Skype call with my brother snapped to the side of the screen while playing Skyrim (as an example)

 

[Reflexx]

I'm guessing it will be much more than just being used as an HDMI pass-through.

There would probably be a major software update to the 360 that allows it to know when it's connected to an XBOX ONE. It would give the XBOX ONE complete control over the UI, while making its entire game library available to the ONE.

So on the ONE, your XBLA games would still show up there. Any disc you have in the 360 will be listed as an available game to play.

Kinect games will use the new Kinect, but won't necessarily take advantage of advanced features that they're not programmed to account for. But they can take advantage of clearer images and better voice recognition.

To the user, picking an XBOX ONE game or picking a 360 game won't look different in UI.

 

[Polychrome]

I'm guessing it will be much more than just being used as an HDMI pass-through.

There would probably be a major software update to the 360 that allows it to know when it's connected to an XBOX ONE. It would give the XBOX ONE complete control over the UI, while making its entire game library available to the ONE.

So on the ONE, your XBLA games would still show up there. Any disc you have in the 360 will be listed as an available game to play.

Kinect games will use the new Kinect, but won't necessarily take advantage of advanced features that they're not programmed to account for. But they can take advantage of clearer images and better voice recognition.

To the user, picking an XBOX ONE game or picking a 360 game won't look different in UI.

One of the features of HDMI people tend to forget about is that it can be used as a high-bandwidth network connection. You can get HDMI routers. You'll notice some network devices, such as a Verizon Network extender, have HDMI ports. Some cable boxes and Blu-ray players can be controlled by the TV. It'll be interesting to see how this works.

 

[ncxcstud]

This sounds really cool, however, It wouldn't help if you wanted to let the XBOX One to control your cable/satellite receiver AND a xbox 360... unfortunately there aren't enough HDMI inputs for that...

 

[Mystictrust]

This sounds really cool, however, It wouldn't help if you wanted to let the XBOX One to control your cable/satellite receiver AND a xbox 360... unfortunately there aren't enough HDMI inputs for that...

That's for sure. This is the type of situation where you would have to choose either "Play my old 360 games through the Xbox One interface" or "Watch TV through the Xbox One interface"

 

[Reflexx]

Has there been some confirmation that there is only one HDMI port?

 

[NaNoo123]

Just watched a vid and he went through the ports while showing the back, 1 hdmi in

 

[Mystictrust]

Has there been some confirmation that there is only one HDMI port?

What do you mean? There are up-close pictures of the Xbox One system clearly showing one port labeled "HDMI in" and one port labeled "HDMI out"

Edit: Now this has got me thinking of some kind of HDMI extender device, as in, do those things exist? I could have a TV box and an Xbox 360 plugged in to each end of this extender that is plugged in to the Xbox One. Only one could operate at a time, but that would still allow people to (in the case of being able to use a 360 AND a cable box) not have to switch cables or be forced to make a choice.

 

[ncxcstud]

Has there been some confirmation that there is only one HDMI port?

Only one HDMI In and one HDMI Out. I think that is pretty certain since we have pictures of the back of the system..

 

[Reflexx]

Hmmm.... I wonder what their 360 solution is. Either/Or doesn't seem like much of a solution.

 

[ncxcstud]

Could it be the WiFi direct stuff?

 

[Keith Wallace]

Could it be the WiFi direct stuff?

Maybe WiFi direct would lead to some form of software emulation? You have the Xbox 360 running the game, then using WiFi direct within the Xbox One (if the console itself has it) to stream it to the Xbox One? It's still a really dumb matter though, in my opinion. It would only be a meaningful thing if disc-swapping wasn't necessary on the 360. It seems like it would be more of a goofy gimmick than anything.