Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have purchased a few Gefen products in the past and find them to be of generally high quality. This experience let me to purchase this switch over other models by lesser known competitors.
The switch is designed to allow the sharing of up to 4 devices using HDMI onto two output HDMI ports. There is also a coaxial digital cable allowing the sound from the selected device to be distributed into an external amplifier. Enough HDMI cables are included to connect the 4 devices to one output device. Copy protection is passed through, which is supposed to eliminate the "blank screen" problems on some devices.
The picture on my 50" Panasonic plazma set was excellent - I could not tell any difference using the switch from viewing the original signal just out of the device.
This solution seems simple on the surface, and most devices worked, but my installation was not entirely without problems. I was able to share an Apple TV and an HDMI DVD player with no problems. I have an amplifer that can accept HDMI, so I initially started by trying to run one of the outputs into the amplifier to capture the sound. This worked for the two above devices.
However, when I attempted to add an HDMI cable box into the picture, things got complex. I began getting HDMI copy protection errors, and the screen went blank. I called Gefen, who gave me excellent support throughout the process, but it did not seem that we were going to get it to work in this configuration. Finally we decided to connect to the amplifier using a coaxial digital cable instead of HDMI, and the problem cleared up - almost.
In normal operation the switch works fine for all my applications. The only place I am having a problem is when I want to record from my DVDR. In this case, I am simply using "RCA" cables to connect from the satellite box into my DVDR, selecting the DVDR on the switch to see the program and recording onto a DVD. Although this should not have generated any copy protection notice, because the composite cables were being used, it again cropped up, and the only solution for recording was to completely bypass the switch.
I believe that there may be another way to accomplish this without problems, but I ran out of troubleshooting time and have put it off for now. Perhaps other reviewers can add further comments here, because this is a useful product, and were it not for this problem I would have been able to give it a higher rating.
Gefen EXT-HDMI-442 4x2 HDMI Switcher
Pros: Allows HDMI switching between 4 devices. Can monitor selected device on two separate HDMI ports. Separate output for digital sound. Excellent picture quality.
Cons: Some digital copy protection issues. Clunky remote.
Synopsis: Works as advertised for most applications, but be careful with DVDR/PVR devices.
Rating: 3 1/2
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