We're now well over six months since the launch of the Xbox Series X and Series S, and we've had a chance to get used to some the features that haven't crossed over from the Xbox One generation. There's no Kinect support, for example, no optical audio port, and no 'HDMI In' port to allow you to connect other devices to your console.
You might not even be aware of the 'HDMI In' port's existence, as it was primarily targeted at the early part of the Xbox One generation and its TV-heavy focus, allowing you to connect set-top boxes to your console to watch live TV, as well as even connect other consoles so you could play them through your Xbox One, albeit with lag.
While the obsessive TV focus of those early Xbox One days was always criticised, many fans also took a liking to features such as Snap Mode and HDMI In, and eight years later, there are portions of the community that would really like to see them make a comeback. But how about you? What are your thoughts on 'HDMI In' in particular?
Let us know your experiences with the HDMI In port (and similar Xbox One features) in the comments below.
Comments 25
Miss this on series X. Had my ps4 then switch run through it.
I used it for a while, back when I didn't own a Smart TV. Since I used to run Netflix on Xbox One it was nice to have live TV one click away. I even owned an Xbox Media Remote back then, the Xbox One truly was my main media hub
Now the only media I stream to my Xbox Series S rather than on my Smart TV is HBO Max, because its app is buggy as hell in the TV and it runs much better albeit not flawlessly, on Xbox.
I still use it all the time. I run my Switch through it since my other hdmi ports are taken by other consoles.
I used to run my PC through it. It was fine for a while but it wasnt really simply as pass through, so the resolution was affected slightly. In the end I got a monitor that had more inputs, so run my computer through that instead. It would be a great feature if you're running a tv box through it.
Bit useless for me as I don't watch live TV and most of the streaming apps are on Xbox (except BritBox but that's on barely anything).
Tried using at as HDMI port for Switch but the Input lag was too bad for me to play anything
All the time. In fact it’s why my Xbox One is even still hooked up, I run my Switch through it and play multiplayer games with friends in Xbox Live parties
I've never used it. I will miss optical audio outputs though as I have an excellent AV receiver that can't handle 4k and a 4k projector, so the ability to send audio to the amp and video to the projector is really useful. I've now bought a 4k/60 HDMI splitter with audio output on it though, so that should do the trick.
I am almost ashamed to admit how many times I moved my Xbox and accidentally connected the Console to TV HDMI cable into the wrong port, something that led me to think my Xbox broke and I would just give up on it for months and just play my PS4 until eventually I remember the damned thing had an HDMI in port….
I miss it very much. I realize it seemed that many folks didn't use it (or even know about it) but I found it extremely useful. I was definitely bummed it wasn't included in the Series X - but I've since added a 4K switcher which does the job.
What I really miss the most is the IR blaster. Being able to send IR signals to devices worked so much better than the CEC stuff.
I used it sometimes but for another console added a little bit of lag obviously and for TV you had to turn Xbox One on which seemed a bit pointless. With a smart TV, I don't miss that HDMI input. However, I used my Xbox One and I use my Series X for playing BDs, DVDs and even CDs! 😁 Actually, I was disappointed to find out that my PS4 didn't play CDs. I had the PS4 (jet black colour, jet noise edition) before the Xbox One. Xbox really is fantastic.
I used it at the start to pass the BT Vision box through it and enjoyed using it, even if the OneGuide was never 100% reliable. Once I got rid of BT however in never used HDMI pass through again.
One thing I did use and still miss is the USB TV adapter that connected the TV aerial to the console via the USB port. I used that all the time for jumping between the TV app and Netflix, games etc.
I missed walking in and staying “Xbox on”. It’s not as critical now I have a top notch smart TV but it was a great feature we used every day at the time with Foxtel piped through. Don’t have Foxtel or watch FTA anymore.
Better setup Alexa or something.
it was usefull what i was able to watch tv while playing a game in the beginning when they did away with that feature i stopped using it...honestly i wish theyd bring that back so i can do that on my one X.
I wanted to use it as a DVR but that didn’t end up panning out, iirc.
I used to use it but not anymore. Just get a bigger HDMI switch if need be.
One S has pretty good upscaler so I used it for consoles like PS3.
Used to connect things like Apple TV and other devices to it when my bf and I lived in a RV for five months using a TV that only had 2 HDMI ports. Do not miss that.
used my receiver instead
I do miss Snap. It was helpful to put YouTube up so you can follow through a game walkthrough. I used to use my 360 as my primary TV box with Sky back in the day and fell in love with the Xbox One multimedia push on day one.
Now it does none of those things. It’s not the same machine I bought in 2013.
I don't really understand what the objection was to watching TV through the Xbox, the OneGuide was pretty good and paired with a Kinect/Cortana it was really cool.
I also preferred the tiles UI/menu system shown in that video. I liked the horizontal scrolling, the panel names across the top and I also thought it looked better with the different sized tiles. I'm not a fan of the current Home screen, where you get one row of recent apps/games and then 3 advertising tiles below.
Not being in the USA the OneGuide was pretty useless.
But it was useful to me ONLY as an extra HDMI port for another console as my old TV only had 2! I had a splitter but that was already full too.
It's utterly pointless now since they took away the snap feature and never delivered on the promised PnP. Used to be my favorite toy in Sundays. Turn on the game and play whatever while listening and watching highlights.
My experience mostly consists of plugging into the wrong port and not being sure what happened. But sometimes I think that I should hookup a PS3 to it and get some use out of it.
When I got my Xbone on Halo MCC's launch day I loved the HDMI In feature. I had cable at the time and between Kinect, Streaming apps, and the Xbox Media remote it became the center of my entertainment center the way the console's launch trailer said it would haha. It was awesome to be able to use voice commands to turn everything on, snap TV, and or watch ESPN- and although I no longer have cable and I've replaced the functionality with my Google Home the Xbox One was a neat introduction to building my smart home that I'll always fondly remember.
@robe also it works as a great scaler if you feed it with 1080i.
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