Hello. Unfortunately my A/V receiver is broken and I am fighting with the company right now to get it repaired. My TV is mounted on the wall, with one HDMI connection going from the TV to the receiver, and then all my devices are connected to my receiver. With my receiver not working, I have lost connection for all my devices (i.e. PS3, Xbox, PCH, etc...). I have the XtremeMAC 4-1 HDMI switch, but there seems to be compatibility issues, as the only device I can get to work on that is the Xbox. My tv has 3 free hdmi ports, but since it is mounted I cannot get to those. Does anyone have any recommendations on a good HDMI switch (3-1 but preferably 4-1) as a hold over until I get the issue with my receiver resolved (I plan on hooking up my PS3, PCH, Xbox, and Cable box to the switch)

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Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I've got the 5x1 switcher from Monoprice:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... 1&format=2

I bought it due to lots of good reviews on AVSforum.com and others. I haven't hooked it up yet though, so can't speak to compatibility issues with your devices. For ~35 bucks it's hard to go wrong. I recommend you Google search on that one, there's a ton of reviews out there.

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Alex Kuretz
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This is the one that I bought a couple of months ago from Monoprice. It's a 4x1 HDMI switch. Nothing sophisticated and can be controlled by a Harmony remote if necessary. I haven't had any handshake issues and it's 1.3b certified. However, your mileage may vary as handshake issues are dependent on the equipment you have.


http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... 1&format=2

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

Thanks guys. I did a search of google, and kept ending up back at Monoprice. That one that Richard suggested I actually have sitting in my shopping cart at monoline, so for $35 it is worth taking the plunge. It seems many of the reviewers had the same devices hooked up as I would as well. At some point I hope to have the receiver issue sorted out, so the key is not to spend too much on a switch that will hopefully be temporary

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Monoprice rules. I have purchased well over $400 of stuff from them in the last 6 months. I moved earlier this Spring and Summer and had to do a fresh AV install. I bought all new cabling and over 600 foot of speaker wire from them as well as 400 foot of CAT 6 from them. You cant go wrong. I figure I would have spent close to 2 grand on what I got if I would have paid big box prices. As a matter of fact, my DVI to HDMI 10 foot cable came today which I am going to use to connect my new Samsung 32 inch LCD television to my desktop to use as my new monitor. I figured purchasing a regular LCD TV was a better value over a dedicated computer monitor especially with the way the LCD TV prices have plunged this year.

I agree completely if that New LCD TV Has PIP and a built-in Dolby Mixer.

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Thanks for Sharing,
~SirD~

Thanks everyone for the replies. I put in my order a few days ago for the switch that Richard recommended (http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... 1&format=2), so hopefully I should get it today to test out (also getting my Blu Ray copy of the Incredible Hulk to test out as well!!!). Also, I got a message last night from the company that I bought my Receiver from that broke 10 minutes after I set it up, so hoping to have good answers all around today!!!

Not to get too much off topic, but one thing a learned with online shopping that I thought I would share. I was looking to purchase an A/V receiver and had the Pioneer Elilte VSX92TXH in mind. I did a lot of research online comparing prices to the B&M stores. I came across several places online that had much better prices (about 40% better), then narrowed it down even further by reading many many customer reviews of those stores. I finally narrowed it down to a site called lcdtvs.com, which had a great price, no tax/shipping, and very good customer reviews. I placed my order, and got a call from them a week later that they were all out of the VSX92 and were upgrading me to the VSX94 for free, how great was that!!!! I also purchased a 5 year warranty from Repairtech along with the receiver, so I was all set.

Now here is where the caveat is, it turns out I was actually purchasing the receiver from I guess one of their affiliates ButterFlyPhoto.com, of which I had originally crossed them off my list due to some very mixed customer reviews, but so far so good. I finally got a chance to set up my receiver about 20 days after I purchased (I was on vacation and I had to purchase speakers as well). Everythinig was working well, and then 10 minutes after the receiver just shut off, my guess a bad power supply, and has never turned back on. I called the extended warranty company, who claimed that the unit must be in working condition for 90 days before the extended warranty kicked in, otherwise it is the responsibility of the vendor to replace. I called ButterflyPhoto who claimed that they only replace up to 14 days, but also that Repairtech was wrong and it was their responsibility from day 1. This was 2 weeks ago and I am still going back and forth with each company..

So I thought I did everything correct, read every review I could get my hands on and did all the research, and still got burned...which led me to buying an HDMI switcher until I can get this resolved...

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

OK, so got the monoprice HDMI switch. All was working great, hooked in my PS3, Xbox360, and SageTV without a problem. Hooked in my cable box, no audio Thought maybe I had a bad wire, so took the same exact wires and cable box upstairs with the switch and tried on my tv in my BR, worked fine, audio and all!!! So i spoke with CS at Monoprice, and they said that the switch may not be compatible with certain Scientic Atlantic cable boxes and tv combinations, so even though the cable box/switch worked fine with my 2006 Panasonic plasma upstairs, it does not work with my new 2008 Panasonic plasma...

So I just ordered another HDMI switch (http://www.accellcables.com/products/sw ... Switch.htm), hoping this one solves the problem since it is probably going to be about 4-6 weeks before I even see my receiver... Why is HDMI so finnicky???

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Why not just hook your cable box audio to the receiver when you get it with a toslink cable?

I am running my Comcast box to my Onkyo 805 receiver that does HDMI switching via HDMI for video but using toslink connection to the receiver for audio. Your receiver should give you an audio source choice for the array of video inputs you have, or am I thinking incorrectly since you are running all of your video sources through the switcher to one HDMI input on your receiver? Do you have multiple HDMI inputs on the receiver which would allow you to bypass the switcher for just your cable box and hook it directly to the switcher giving it a dedicated video source input?

The problem is I don't have a receiver currently. It busted about 10 minutes out of the box, so I had to send it back to Pioneer to get repaired. They told me it would take 4-6 weeks to repair. My tv is wall mounted, and unfortunately when it was wall mounted only 1 HDMI wire was run from the tv to where all my a/v equipment goes. So the issue is I have one HDMI connection to my tv but 4 devices (cable box, PS3, Xbox360, and SageTV). I bought the HDMI switch as a temporary solution until I get my receiver back, but so far I have not found an HDMI switch that supported all 4 of the devices. The monoprice switch I purchased plays all devices except I get no audio from my cable box. I just bought an Accell switch mentioned in my previous post, Cable and SageTV work fine, Xbox does not, and now no audio for my PS3, so I will be sending this switch back today. I guess I am just stuck until I get my receiver back. I will just leave the HDMI plugged into my cable box, and if I want to watch a movie or play a game have to manuualy take the HDMI out of the cable box and plug into the Monoprice switch with all the other devices. This makes me a little nervous though since HDMI wires are so fragile I am afraid if I keep plugging/unplugging the main one connected to my tv that one will bust...

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Damian,

Sorry that the monoprice switch didn't bring nirvana for all of your devices including your cable box. HDMI is indeed finicky where you have to have the right combination of devices, switches, and cables to make it all work. It's definitely not as consumer friendly as it should be. HDMI should be mature enough by now such that we shouldn't be experiencing "early adopter" syndrome any longer. I also hope that revision HDMI 1.3b is the last revision. It's not fun trying to keep everything compatible.

I ran into a similar issue where an HDMI cable that I had working for months didn't work when I introduced the switch in my environment. After spending time with trial and error, changing the HDMI cable seemed to do the trick. What's frustrating is that the cable had been working just fine prior to introducing the switch in my environment. I won't be throwing out the cable because it just seems to be a crap shoot to get the right combination going.

off-topic:

Now as if HDMI is not enough, there's a similar connectivity option like HDMI called DisplayPort on the computer side of the fence. Similar EVERYTHING except that manufacturers of DisplayPort don't have to pay licensing fees to use it unlike HDMI where there's a license fee paid for every consumer device using HDMI.

I simply ask myself why companies make things so unnecessarily complicated for the consumer? Why the licensing fees for HDMI to begin with? Will HDMI now last in the long term because of DisplayPort? Do the headaches of HDMI plague DisplayPort also?

Anyway, sorry for the hijack. As you were.

/off-topic

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

Just thought I would give a quick update. The Monoprice 4x1 I purchased did not pass audio through from my cable box to my Panasonic TV (TH-58PZ800U). As I mentioned before, customer service said that for some of the newer Panasonic models the switch does not work. I ended up putting the switch upstairs in my bedroom, and bought the Accell 4x1 switch. So far this switch has worked fine, with my PS3, Xbox360, Cablebox, and HTPC all hooked in. Some oddities though is that some devices only work on certain ports. For instance, the PS3 only worked on port 4 for me, no clue why???

From reading around on forums, it appears other users have had issues with the Monoprice 4x1 switch, but the Monoprice 5x1 switch seems to correct this

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin