Mar
12
Add HDMI Switching to any System
Filed Under HDMI
People who spend any time at all talking to me in person are often surprised to find out I’m not a proponent of constant equipment upgrades. Even as someone who sells A/V gear for a living I really don’t see the need to toss out gear that’s in perfect working order, there’s always time for upgrades and replacements down the road. That said, two of the biggest changes to happen to home theater gear in the last few years were 1080p displays and HDMI switching for A/V receivers. While I can’t help with turning a 720p display into one capable of displaying 1080p I can help with the HDMI switching issue.
Assuming you have a recent AVR without HDMI switching (but would like to add it) and a universal remote-control and your source equipment is equipped with optical and or digital coaxial audio outputs, the process is actually quite simple. First you’ll need a HDMI switcher with an infra-red (IR) remote control, I told you it was simple… Monoprice sell’s these for as little as forty dollars but search around for “IR HDMI switcher” you never know what you might find.
Ok, with HDMI switcher in hand, the audio cables ran to their respective inputs (sans video cables) on the receiver, all that’s left to do is hook-up the switcher and program the remote. Hooking up the switcher couldn’t be more straightforward, run one HDMI cable to your display and then the individual cables to your source devices.
Once everything is connected you’ll program a macro to turn on the television, receiver, sources and most importantly switch your display to the HDMI input and switch the HDMI switcher to the correct input. Yeah there are a few moving parts in this setup but if you tackle it in stages it shouldn’t pose much of a problem. This is also a great way to expand the existing amount of inputs available to you as well as adding HDMI video switching to a component only receiver.
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