What Happens when

[tunawookie]

I've been talking to a few buddies at work about getting some new gear, and none of us knew this answer. If my HDTV only has 1 HDMI input, what do I do if I have more than 1 piece of equipment with a HDMI out? (cable box/DVD player) Do they make hubs like USB?

[topspeed]

You can:
1) Get an AVR that has HDMI switching
2) Run your DVD player via HDMI and your Cable via component. I doubt you'll see any difference.
3) Find someone that makes a HDMI router. Google it. Someone, somewhere must make such a thing.

Hope this helps.

[edtyct]

Gefen makes the most celebrated HDMI switches, and they are more reliable than HDMI switching in receivers at this point. But be prepared to run extra digital audio cable; HDMI audio is still a work in progress. You can find these switches at places like Ram Electronics, Pacific Cable, and Copperbox. They'll run you upward of $300, last time I noticed.

Ed

[tunawookie]

I've got an Onkyo receiver, but it doesn't have HDMI inputs, only component. I've never understood how video switching through my receiver work. Can somebody explain it (in simple terms) how that all works? I'm guessing it won't make a difference in signal quality?

[edtyct]

Simple, really. Not every receiver will implement switiching with the same manuevers or video formats, or at all, but many receivers have multiple video inputs and a single video output to your display. One way or another, the user switches between these video inputs as necessary or, in some cases, the receiver senses the input accessed on its own. Voila.