Review on Monoprice Blackbird Format Inputs Converter by Kevin Vanlaere

When it comes to Monoprice, their products can hit or miss when it comes to quality and performance. This product is one of Monoprice's downsides for many reasons. The converter's IR remote control is extremely finicky, to the point of being unusable. The body of the transducer is made of plastic, which makes the whole unit feel light and cheap, especially at $90. The performance scaling of the box in terms of image quality is satisfactory for video playback on a DVD player or Blu-ray player. What speaks against it is the fact that the colors look washed out and lose some contrast. . This upscaler doesn't support 240p, so you won't be able to use most systems released before the 21st century. I tested my PS2 with the component connection and noticed a noticeable input lag. If you plan to use this to upscale the HDMI output, be it a retro clone console like the Retrobit Trio Plus, Retron 5 or the latest generation of consoles like the Xbox 360, PS3 to 1080p then digital upscaling will result in significant input lag for these systems. In summary, the upscaler has terrible physical build quality for its price, does a good job of upscaling video playback devices, and is terrible for both retro and modern games. Upscaler doesn't cost any money and there are far better options out there for the same price.