Just went to an old clients house to give him quote on an upgrade to a new projector and system. Frustratingly he had purchased this [Link: amazon.com] on a whim to see if he could limp it along and integrate the xbox 1.

After telling him about content protection, HDCP etc etc he asked if we could just give it a try. Skeptical and feeling a bit cocky I said, sure!.....Sure enough it worked. Just fine. Picture was fine, Xbox1 passed everything. Netflix, HBO, Games. Power cycled it a few times to see and it booted every time. Baffled I switched it to his blu-ray player and it passed. Finally tried his X1 box and worked fine. WTF?

How come a $600 HDbaseT kit is a total crapshoot but this $30 "hack" piece works just fine? obviously its "illegal". but it works. Now im off with an hour of labor and no upgrade (until it doesn't work)

I've used similar gadgets. Could be the same hardware as yours. Usually, there are no manufacturer's markings. When I use them, there are lots of disclaimers.

Here is an article about HDFury being sued by Warner Bros and Intel (HDCP) for a device the removed all of the content protection. All manufacturers know how to do this. All of the content protection they demand doesn't put any real revenue or profit back to Hollywood. It's their rules and if you skirt their "laws" it can put you out of business.

[Link: engadget.com]

These guys lost to the tune of $5.2M. Look at how much money Kaliedescape put into their seemingly endless lawsuit with Hollywood- and they were absolutely trying to do the right thing.

Yes, you can find devices like this everywhere. I would not want to be the company producing them and taking that risk.

I had to use HDFury with a component switcher for an HTPC. Client provided. Worked for a year or so then died. Got a new one and its been working for over 5 years now.

Off topic but since Jeff is here...
Same system is using a Zektor HDMI (1X8 i think) selector. System was installed in 2007 and the Zektor piece is still going strong.

1) I will say two things about the legal aspect of this crap. Hollywood is clearly violating our 'fair use' right (laws dating back to the 70's) everyday with all this BS.
And obviously anyone can sue anyone else for anything they like. If you are an 800lb gorilla, you can usually win.

2) Everyone of these boxes I have seen, did NOT have a good picture on it. There was obvious smearing, edging, or other problems with the picture (sometimes all of those). The only one I ever seen do a perfect job, was the HDFury. But of course it was much more expensive. Lesson = you get what you pay for.
I would have another closer look at that picture on the projector. I would be willing to bet money, there is artifacts and/or problems being introduced by that cheap crap box. Or maybe the projector is looking so bad, no one can tell  anymore?

Saving money is more important than picture quality. This is one reason why there are so many cheap TV's.

I've got one of these in an old installation using buried component video. It would be a major, major project to move to another connection type. (ancient construction, real plaster, plaster crowns.) It's an elderly lady.

Maybe I'm more pessimistic, but I think this should be reconsidered:

You don't always get what you pay for. Much more often, you don't get what you don't pay for.

What he said...Simple response from us is don't do it. Plenty of people do just like Jeff said.

If it works, it works. It is not like the goons are going to be coming to the home of anyone who bought one and is using it. They will not go after CIs who buy them on Amazon and install them. They may go after the shady companies who make and sell them.

I have had to use these products before to "limp along" old YPbPr distribution systems where the client did not want to replace all of the TVs, video matrix, audio matrix, add HDMI extenders, replace pre/pro and projector, etc. But his Vudu player died and we needed to put in a Roku. The picture looks like crap. But it does work.