Connecting Various HDMI Devices to an Early HDTV
Earlier HDTVs usually tend to have only 1 or 2 HDMI ports, and this puts the early adopters in a rather awkward position today, as there are so multiple HDMI systems to be plugged in, yet so few HDMI ports available.
In order to connect your many HDMI gadgets to your HDTV, one of the ways, obviously, is to upgrade to a HDTV which right now commonly has 4 or more HDMI ports, but that also results in considerably lighter weight of your wallet.
A more economical way is to use an HDMI switch, which can connect many HDMI gizmos to your HDTV via a single HDMI port.
What Is an HDMI Switch, and What Does It Do?
An HDMI switch (a.k.a. HDMI switcher, HDMI selector) obtains HDMI data from several HDMI sources and directs the data to your HDTV, occupying only 1 HDMI port. It will serve as an agent to accept multiple HDMI data for your HDTV, despite that your HDTV has only 1 or 2 HDMI port(s).
Equipped with an HDMI switch, you can hook up various HD sources to your HDTV, such as:
* Blu-Ray player, HD-DVD player, DVD player with HDMI output;
* PS3, Xbox360, Wii with HDMI output;
* HTPC, or computers with HDMI ports;
* HDTV box, satellite dish network, HDTV recorder;
* HD camera, or HD Cam recorder;
* Any other equipment capable of outputting HDMI signals.
See How Easily It Works
There are 3-port, 4-port, and 5-port HDMI switches, and those uncommon ones with even more ports. The most typical and most competitively priced ones (due to mass production) are 3-port HDMI switches.
On a 3-port HDMI switch, you will see 4 HDMI ports: 3 input ports receiving data from 3 of your HDMI sources, and 1 output port sending signals to the HDTV. There is generally a LED light on every input side to display which source is chosen.
An HDMI switch generally gives you automatic switching, and allows you to override and manually pick your source; some enhanced HDMI switch will have a handy remote control to help make switching HDMI much simplier and easier.
Automatic HDMI switching
A decent HDMI switch will have to have this automatic switching feature.
Whenever you switch on an HDMI source, the HDMI switch will automatically choose this source. If you choose to switch on another one, the HDMI switch will switch to this second source. If you switch on another, it’ll jump to this third device.
Normally, it is smart enough to work out all right and take care of most, if not all, of your switching needs.
Manual HDMI switching
The above-mentioned auto-switching feature may not always work when there is one or more HDMI sources “always on”, such as an HDTV recorder or a satellite network box, which you perhaps don’t turn off that often, and is, therefore, always turned-on in the background.
If so, you will must manually select your desired HDMI source.
An HDMI switch with manual overriding feature would mostly have a button on it, which makes it possible for you to manually pick your desired HD source by pressing it.
For instance, if the switch is currently on Input 1, your pushing the button once will let you pick Input 2, pushing it again allows you to change to Input 3.
A remote control would be a lot more convenient when you could just sit back and relax on your couch, and select any input by pressing on the remote, than walking over to the switch and push a button on it.