Wednesday, 21 September 2011

The HDMI Switcher Adds Enjoyment To Home Entertainment Centers

By Hong Tengata


As we slowly build our home entertainment center we eventually realize that the centerpiece of our system which is the high definition television can only be connected to one device. So we have to decide how to connect multiple devices which could be a gaming PC or a DVD player to the flat screen without doing it manually like unplugging the cable from one device and transferring it to the other. It is possible to do it this now automatically by using a device that sits between the TV and two or more sources. The device is called an HDMI switcher.

Switches that work this way are nothing new. We had A-B boxes way back then in the early days of personal computers that makes it possible for two PCs to share a printer. When one computer needs something printed, a switch was rotated and one PC gets exclusive use of the printer. The A-B box is obviously manually operated.

The basic HDMI switch box has a similar function to the old A-B box. It has two ports for incoming connections and one port for output data. So as an example, our gaming PC and DVD player will be connected to the two input ports of the switch while the high definition TV is connected to the output port. The main difference with the switch now is that manual operation is not required.

Auto-sensing is one of the most important features of the modern switch. It replaces manually selecting what port gets exclusive access to the HDTV. The gadget detects what device is sending signals to the switch and then it activates the port the gadget is connected. This contributes to a seamless entertainment experience.

We can also select what input port has priority. By making this possible, we avoid the contention that happens when two or more devices are feeding data into the device. As soon as the port with priority receives data, it is given exclusive access to the output port. We override the priority setting typically by using a remote control.

Entertainment devices that are HDMI compliant are the norm right now. It is not uncommon to have more than three such devices in our homes. To enable us to enjoy these devices more, they have to be connected together in a seamless manner. The HDMI switcher make our devices work better together. When the switch is missing, connecting more than one device to our TV screens would be such a big hassle.




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