You should get an HDMI switch if you’d like a hassle free way to connect several HDMI source devices one input in your HD TV. HDMI Switches are also referred to as HDMI Switchers, HDMI repeaters, or HDMI selectors. In case your Television only has one or two HDMI ports, then not a problem. Simply use an HDMI switcher and effortlessly swap between multiple HDMI sources by pressing a button. There is no longer a need for unplugging and plugging in so that you can switch between different devices.
Hook up a number of different HDMI sources to your TV at the same time. Even when your Tv only has just one HDMI port. Amongst many of the HDMI sources you can connect are:
HDMI Cable or satellite digital tuners, DVD players with HDMI, Blu-ray players, computer systems with HDMI, Xbox 360, PS3s, HTPC, Media players, High Def video cameras, etc. Any system that you own that features an HDMI output you can hook up simultaneously with an HDMI switch, providing you have at least 1 HDMI input on your Tv.
Listed below are essential things to contemplate before making the purchase of an HDMI switch.
1. What Number Of Ports Do You Need
As an example, a 2×1 HDMI switch has 2 ports that you can plug 2 different HDMI sources to switch between. A 5×1 HDMI switch has 5 different ports and can switch between as much as 5 seperate HDMI source devices.
A 50 Port HDMI switch seems great, but it is pretty useless if you don’t have 50 source devices to work with with it. The best HDMI switch would be the one that will fit all of the source devices you will ever need.
It appears like the most chosen HDMI switch stands out as the 3×1 because people find it a great value plus they just have 3 HDMI source devices to use.
2. Check to be sure it supports Dolby True-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Have a look at the specs for the HDMI switch to make sure it supports resolutions of up to 1080p. This includes regular video resolutions like 480i along with HD resolutions like 480p, 720i, 720p, 1080i and 1080presolutions.
You want support for these resolutions since they are the most common used today in just about every type of media.
Right now there are also a few advancements to HDMI switches you may be interested in .
3. Just how is an automatic switch better compared to the manual HDMI switcher ?
Automatic HDMI switchers will choose the source device which you power on automatically. But what if you have more than 1 source device turned on simutaneously? In such cases, it will select the last device switched on. For instance, if you have 3 switched on and you choose to switch on a 4th device it will instantly switch to the 4th one. After that you can press the button on the remote or the switch to to alternate between your devices.
Manual switching
When you have a couple of devices powered on all the time, then manual switching is really a better option to use.
HDMI switchers are all capable of manual switching which can be easily done by simply pushing a control button to switch to different sources.
4. Is an HDMI 1.3b Switch Up To Scratch?
Yes, virtually all HDMI devices available just have features from HDMI version 1.3b and earlier.
Although HDMI 1.4 has been released for over a year, there is still just very few products which support the new standard. Therefore, there aren’t any HDMI switches available on the market that have support for 1.4 at present, but there’ll be switches which support it soon so keep an eye out.
Thus a great HDMI switcher should have the right number of ports you will need, have many digital audio and video formats, automatic and manual switching abilities, and must support a minimum of HDMI 1.3b .
If the HDMI switch you are looking at delivers these characteristics, then you will make a excellent choice.
Click here to see where I get my HDMI switches / Selectors