Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Inexpensive HDMI Switch - where was this 4 months ago!

Warning: A/V club level geekdom

I have an older Samsung 61" DLP television which only has one DVI input. I also have a killer Harmony 880 remote that my lovely wife gave me for Father's Day last year (more on the 880 in a future post). This remote is great for creating macros for switching from one activity to another. I used to have a DVDO switch to handle going from TiVo to Comcast DVR to DVD player and back. That acted up on me due to a new Comcast box so I found a person for whom it would work on Ebay.

This left me with a horrid problem, I had no way to switch video inputs directly using discrete codes (the Samsung TV was too old for that). The least expensive solution was an HDMI switch. I was able to get this switch for about $140. Since I only have two HDMI inputs though, I really only needed this. (Hat tip: Gizmodo) Where was this 4 months ago?? I hate dropping too much money because products that should exist come out 4 months too late.

What I like most about this is the "No external power needed" element. I have two full daisy-chained power strips full of plugs behind my TV - so this is a big plus. At least mine is 5 x 1 and I have room to add my Blu-ray player - once they become reasonably priced.

Yours for $99.99.

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