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How Many HDMI Ports Does Your HDTV Have?
harryk asks: "Ok, this is a serious question and one I don't think has been covered, at least not with a quick glance in Google's direction. With all of the media center components that we'll all have in our entertainment racks, the biggest question that I have (actually my wife prompted me on this) is how many HDMI ports does your TV have? With the PS3, my HD-DVD player or up-convert DVD player, and my fancy schmancy new cable box or satellite receiver, how on earth will I connect all of them?"
Yep, zero. None. Nadda. Zip.
a) 2.h er
b) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hdmi%20switc
Well my TV has two. However, many devices, the higher quality ones anyway, have in and out HDMI. For example, some receivers have HDMI switches built into them. Also my DVD player allows you to have HDMI in, and OUT. When the player is on, it shows DVD content, otherwise it goes into pass-through mode.
My "TV" is a projector with HDMI input. The receiver is an upsampling unit that has two HDMI inputs, a series of component inputs, and the obligatory s-video and RCA inputs. It upsamples whatever it gets from non-HDMI sources and shoots it up to the projector.
The two HDMI inputs I have are the HD-Tivo and the DVD player. I hooked a PC to the component input, but the upsampling process made the display fuzzy. I'd get a video card with HDMI output and try that, except both of my HDMI inputs on the receiver are used up. You can buy "hubs" to multiplex the HDMI, but they are very expensive.
Sigh. My next A/V system will have to have 3-4 HDMI inputs, one for the computer, and possibly one for (the as yet unpurchased) HD-DVD player.
Guess that's the cost of being an early adopter.
"How Many HDMI Ports Does Your HDTV Have?"
Better question is: how many have a HDTV set to begin with?*
*Please put your addresses and times you'll be home below.
You act like that's something new. Audio Authority has had 2x1 and 4x1 DVI switches supporting 1080p and HDCP for some time now. Nothing supporting HDMI directly (neither does the one you linked), but HDMI <-> DVI is trivial.
You'll still need an audio mux (I like the 1177), and it doesn't look like AA's cheaper DVI switches support auto-switching, which is disappointing. Still, the IR remote should be convenient enough.
The only benefit to the Gefen item you linked is that it ships with cables for $350, while the AA is cableless at $350. Not that it really matters, since you'll still have to buy an HDMI to DVI cable to use either of them with HDMI sources and outputs.
Or you could spend $3500 and get the AVX-661 set and route 1080p video and digital audio through your entire house via Cat5e!
Only 10? Wuss.
Never give any object more potential energy than you want it to have.
And I plan to keep it that way... Is it really worth selling control of devices you own just for a slightly better display? Any minor (I would argue barely perceptable) gains you might get from upgrading from DVI or component video are completely outweighed by the DRM-potential of the HDMI port.
-Grym
Not a HDTV luddite like most slashdotters...
considering the D in HDTV might as well stand for DRM with the rediculous number of restrictions most people will have to deal with, most intelligent slashdotters are doing a hard thing for nerds, theyre boycotting them.
Already hundreds of thousands of early adopters have been burned because the so called "image constraint" or "down-rezzing" token will reduce their picture quality on most major HD media even though they were promised full resolution.
Even tv's which were promised as fully drm compatible by hollywood and their manufacturer lapdogs mere months ago are being relegated to this ever growing list of "noncompliant" hdtv's which will never really be allowed to display true HD content.
Considering the distinct possiblity that the standards will be changed again in another few months as they have been umpteen times in the past (as the DRM get's cracked before it's even fully off the shelf), the idea of laying out thousands for a supposed "HDTV" set seems less and less compelling.
Add to that the fact that each standards change will result in an increasingly huge maze of expensive and heterogenous cables and the likelihood that the license terms for any newer standards will require compliance with "broadcast flags", at least on cable and satellite, then youre basically paying them to ship off your convenience, time, and fair use rights wholesale.
The confusion, the continually shifting standards, the DRM.
If this were the real estate market, it would be like trying to sell a suburban new yorker a house on a bed of quicksand sitting next to a CAFO fecal lagoon.
It wouldnt matter how much more palacial the house was, or if it came with 3 dozen full time servants and a 50 acre garage of limos, it'll still reek of pig crap and it'll still be sinking into the earth.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Seriously there is nothing good on TV so HD isn't worth it. I don't even think that having a colour TV is worth it. My TV has fake wood veneer on the outside and a pane of glass in front of the screen. Sometimes when I turn it on or change the volume parts of the screen go purple or green. I don't have to go outside for sun light because my TV provides enough Vitamin D through the masses of radiation that it leaks. But I don't care, television is shit so you should only watch it on a shit set.
HDMI is basically dvi (you can get cheap direct adapters since it's pin compatible as well) with digital audio combined.
So it's not an upgrade in video quality from dvi, it's the same thing. As for drm, thats a bit more complicated.
Hmmm... Pie...
Unfortunately, you bought one that isn't HDCP compliant.
4 0183
Bullshit, and I hope you get modded for it. HDCP "works" just fine with the switch.
If you don't believe me,
and you don't believe the part on the web page that says: - Certified to perform at standards set by HDMI(TM)
then maybe you wll believe this other guy's extensive test results:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=6
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
It's okay -- you can buy COPS on DVD now.
Bemopolis
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain