mrhdmiswitch's Journal

HDMI Switches - Which are the Best?

HDMI Switchers are a good way to add numerous HDMI source devices such as xbox 360, Blu-ray players, cable digital tuners, to a single HDMI input on the TV. In case your Television only has one or two HDMI ports, then no hassle. Simply use an HDMI switch and quickly change between multiple HDMI sources by pushing a button. There's no longer any need unplugging and plugging in for you to switch between different systems.

Easily hook up several HDMI sources to your TV. Amongst a number of the HDMI sources it is possible to connect are:

High Definition Cable or satellite set top boxes, DVD players with HDMI, Blu-ray players, computers with HDMI, Xbox 360 system, PS3s, HTPC, Media players, High Def video cameras, and many others. So long as you have a single HDMI input on the Television, it is possible to hook up any of these systems to the HDMI switch and connect them all to your TV at the same time.

You need to certainly evaluate the following before choosing an HDMI switch.

1. What Number Of Ports Do You Want to Add?

As an example, a 3x1 HDMI switch has 3 ports and can swap between HDMI signals from three different source devices. A 4x1 (4 port) HDMI Switch can switch between 4 different sources and so on.

You should buy an HDMI switch which will include the amount of ports you think that you'll be using. A 150 Port HDMI switch sounds awesome, but it is pretty useless without 150 source devices to go with it. The best HDMI switch would be the one that will fit all of the source devices you will ever need.

It seems like the most chosen HDMI switch would be the 3x1 because people find it a great value plus they only need 3 HDMI source devices to use.

2. Make sure that it has support for enhanced multi-channel digital audio formates like Dolby True-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Check out the specifications for the HDMI switch to ensure that it supports resolutions to a maximum of 1080p. Including regular video resolutions like 480i and HD resolutions like 480p, 720i, 720p, 1080i and 1080presolutions.

This is important mainly because most of these video formats are normally used in HDTV broadcasts, High definition gaming, and Blu-ray players.

There are also some more functions that you might find worth paying a little extra for.

3. Difference between automatic and manual HDMI switches

HDMI switches with automatic switching will select whichever source device is turned on automatically. If you have more than 1 device switched on, then it'll select the latest device that you powered on. Say you have 3 HDMI devices and you turn a fourth device on; it's going to change to the 4th device for your convenience. The button on the switch or remote may be pushed and it'll switch between all devices that are powered on.

Manual switching

Automatic switching might not always be your best option in case you have a couple of HDMI devices turned on at all times.

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 version 1.3b Switch Suitable?

Because a large majority of HDMI devices out there are designed for HDMI 1.3b versions and earlier, an HDMI switch that has 1.3b will work fantastic.

Since the launch of HDMI version 1.4 in '09, we have seen very few products that have support for it thus far. Subsequently, there's not any HDMI switchers available on the market that have support for HDMI v1.4 at present, but there will be switches which support it soon so keep a good eye out.

Therefore a good HDMI switcher should have the appropriate number of ports you will need, have many digital audio and video formats, automatic and manual switching features, and must support a minimum of HDMI 1.3b .

You'll choose a very good HDMI switch given that it's got many of these features.

Click here to see the place I buy my HDMI switchers .