hhhhancock

I bought an LCD TV a couple of years ago and it has only one HDMI output. I now want to buy a Blu Ray player but I'm wondering if there is any sort of splitter available so that I can connect both the BR player and my Sky HD box to the TV. Something that recognises the signals from each unit and switches automatically would be preferable.
Any advise would be much appreciated.

GoggleboxUK

Neet® - 5 Port HDMI AUTO SWITCH BOX with Remote - 5x1: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

That's about the best on the market but if you don't mind flipping the switch yourself you'll get a cheaper version.

This one is more basic but should meet your needs:

"There's always something"

hhhhancock

Thanks Googlebox, the second option looks ideal but a tad pricey compared to:

HDMI Male To 2 HDMI Female M F Splitter Adapter Cable on eBay (end time 05-Sep-09 10:43:01 BST)

Found on Ebay, obviously not the superior build quality of the Thor item but it appears to do the same thing.
I did read an article about HDMI cables that indicated that there is absolutely no point in getting expensive cables when a basic cable would suffice.
The theory being with digital transmission it either works or it doesn't so gold plated connections etc. make no difference. If so this presumably applies to the splitter.
What are your thoughts on this?

GoggleboxUK

This is an argument where both sides are correct.

I've referenced this article whenever the subject comes up because it gives you all the facts and lets you make up your own mind about whether you want to spend £4 or £40 on a cable.



A couple of weeks ago some colleagues and I spent an afternoon with Jeff Boccaccio. Jeff is an industry acknowledged expert in digital communcations; not just HDMI. He's the guy that lots of manufacturers go to to make sure they've got their HDMI circuits and cables designed correctly before spending $15,000 a time to get a pass/fail from the people who certify for HDMI.

Jeff flew over from the states to do a series of road shows about why HDMI either works or doesn't. He brought with him $250,000 worth of Tektronix test gear to show us what happens to signals in the digital domain. We're not talking about a room full of gear here - it was just two bits of gear!!!

What he taught us over the 4 hours we spent together is too detailed to recount here. You can get a flavour of what he said by reading some of the articles linked to his bio. All I'm going to do is cover a few points applicable to bprecey's experience...

HDMI certification - It's a Pass or Fail - that's it!

A product could scrape by or pass with flying colours, but neither the manufacturer or us will know. That's kind of scary when you think that there's a +/-10% tolerance in component variables off the production line.

1m cable passes HDMI certification - but the sticker goes on all lengths

Most short interconnect work, but a Pass could mean it only scraped through at 1080p 8bit colour. A 2m of the same interconnect might fail but we'd never know because the packaging shows the result for the 1m that was tested.

Capacitance & Induction cause 'pickyness'

We spent a bit of time looking at how individual cables might work OK with some source and display combos but not others. Similar issues can occur going via a HDMI switching amp.

200 Chinese cable/interconnect manufacturers

That's a staggering number. Some are large professional outfits, but many are small operators "working out of a shed with a dirt floor". If you ever wondered how it's possible to make a HDMI cable that retails for £3.99 then here's part of the answer.



Food for thought

"There's always something"

christoph404

An HDMI signal to my knowledge is a purely digital signal with no analogue element at all, just a binary code so I would say that is a correct deduction to make in saying the signal either gets there or it doesn't and the cost of the cable or manufacturing quality doesn't make any difference to the quality of the image on your TV screen. In the same way, an expensive USB cable connected from your PC to your printer isn't going to give better quality ink-jet prints than a cheaper cable connecting the two. Just buy the cheapest HDMI cable you can find and forget what the sales folk will try and convince you of, the "expensive HDMI cable equals better picture" theory is a complete con.

mariocki

3-way at £10:99 from Play (temporarily out of stock) :

Play.com (UK) : Limit HS301 3 Way HDMI Switch : Electronics - Free Delivery

5-way also available at £17:99:

Play.com (UK) : Limit HS501 5 Way HDMI Switch : Electronics - Free Delivery

You crazy idiots - my name's McGill!