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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 585 |
| | Posted: | | | | Anyone have any real experience with any of these? I'm having a hard time deciding on which one to get. For every glowing review I read of one where they claim they had no loss in HD picture quality there's another review with someone slamming the same device because they had wavy lines or strange shadows in their pictures.
I was looking at the ones by Pelican, but then I read some comments that getting an un-powered switch is better because those don't mess with the video signal. I see these things ranging from $20 up to $200+ and I'm figuring it's probably one those things where you get what you pay for, but if I can avoid going crazy high end I'd rather do that.
Anyway, so is anyone actually using one of these for HD or have you tried any? | | | "Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men" - Douglas Bader
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 550 |
| | Posted: | | | | In the past, I have used cheap non powered ones and honestly never saw a difference in picture quality though I didnt try to get HD quality. The quality of the cables I used made a difference, but not the switch box. I would tell you it was, but it is so cheap it doesn't even have a brand name on it. Just a 4 input, push button one.
One thing I would consider is one that does digital adio (optical) as well.
I was looking at a pelican, but don't need it now. One thing I have heard is that the power you plug the switch into can effect it. It likes to be grounded.
Probably not much help. | | | Schultzy - http://www.michaelschultz.net
grenactics - The art of skillfully fraggin one’s opponent with the use of grenades or other compact explosive devices that are thrown by hand or projected. |
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| Registered: June 12, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 2,665 |
| | Posted: | | | | I just ordered a second one of these: Philips USA PH-61148 4-Way HD Component AV Selector a couple hours ago. It's unpowered and while it says 4-way it's actually 3-Way for Component: (borrowed this summary from an Amazon review) Quote:
Input 1: S-video, Video, Audio-L, Audio-R
Input 2: S-video, Video, Audio-L, Audio-R, Y, Pb, Pr
Input 3: S-video, Video, Audio-L, Audio-R, Y, Pb, Pr
Input 4: S-video, Video, Audio-L, Audio-R, Y, Pb, Pr
Output: S-video, Video, Audio-L, Audio-R, Y, Pb, Pr I bought the first of these in May (at Wal-Mart for $20[?] when Amazon wanted $40 though the one i ordered from Amazon today was down to $27) when i got a Wii, which had to share a component connection with the DVD player. When i got the HD-DVD in November i used the 3rd component connection. I ordered a PS3 40GB last night and decided to split the other TV component input which is currently dedicated to the FIOS box. I looked at the Philips USA 4-Way AV Switcher with S-Video and Component which i found at Wal-Mart & Best Buy for $20[?] but it had a power supply and i didn't understand why i needed a powered one unless it had a remote control, which it didn't. So i just ordered a second of the one i had. It has big buttons you have to manually press down (and hear nice authoritative "chunk" sound). I've had no issues with the video quality. | | | | Bad movie? You're soaking in it! |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 2,372 |
| | Posted: | | | | Tweeter has the same one I have. It seems to pass the signals through just fine without any noticeable picture issues. I have my HD DVR, X-box 360 and PS3 hooked up to it, all going to the single 1080i input on my HDTV(yeah... I know, it's old  ) It is a bit of a low-tech solution compared to other options but it does work quite well. And as tweeter says it does have a nice "chunk" sound when switching sources  |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 585 |
| | Posted: | | | | Cool, thanks for the info guys. I'm in the same boat as far as old TVs go so all I have are 2 component inputs. Currently my HD cable and HD DVD player are using them and if I wanted to go Blu then I knew I'd have to get some kind of switch box. Though, on a fluke I decided to just do a quick check around to see if I could find the high in demand and seemingly forever on backorder Samsung BD-UP5000. Everywhere I checked, out of stock, back ordered, coming in Feb, etc. Until I hit Circuit City's website. It claimed one of my local stores had one in stock and I could order it online for in-store pickup. So I did. Right after I placed the order I checked the website again and it showed the store was "Out of stock" so apparently I got the last one. I'll be picking it up tonight (if they really do have it). I've been reading some mixed info about this particular player but I have faith Samsung won't abandon the product and will release a firmware update in the next few weeks as they seem to be promising now. I hope...  | | | "Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men" - Douglas Bader
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 2,372 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Vega: Quote:
I'm in the same boat as far as old TVs go so all I have are 2 component inputs. : Mine has three, but only one of them is 1080i. The others are 480p  Have fun with the new player  |
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| Registered: May 17, 2007 |  Posts: 53 |
| | Posted: | | | | Try one of these
http://www.joytech.net/5/products/xbox360/4/106/Control-Center-540C.htm
Can label each input and it is remote control, optical and two RCAs for sound duties.
I bought mine just before xmas and it works really well. All inputs HDTV compatible. |
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| Registered: June 12, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 2,665 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting tweeter: Quote:
I just ordered a second one of these: Philips USA PH-61148 4-Way HD Component AV Selector a couple hours ago.
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So i just ordered a second of the one i had. It has big buttons you have to manually press down (and hear nice authoritative "chunk" sound). I've had no issues with the video quality. I received my second switcher yesterday. Something internal was broken and none of the four buttons would latch down (no "chunk" sound). If i held the button down i could get a signal but it would go away as soon as i released it. Fortunately Amazon has a good return policy. It's already in the box with their free (since it was defective) return label. Hopefully i'll have a new one next week. (Wish i'd seen kgudge's note before i bought the second one. I don't own an Xbox but that looks like a nice switcher which my Harmony could have controlled) | | | | Bad movie? You're soaking in it! |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | Reputation:  | | Posts: 5,918 |
| | Posted: | | | | Best Buy has component switch boxes in stock. |
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| Registered: June 12, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 2,665 |
| | Posted: | | | | Just after i sent the note this morning i opened e-mail and found a note from Amazon telling me they couldn't replace the Philips Component Switcher (i didn't follow why but whatever) but they were happy to refund the money to "one of our best customers". I'm glad they noticed. So i looked for the thing kgudge mentioned and ordered it today from J&R for $99. I just now got around to reading the online manual and realized it will not only switch the component inputs but also switches digital optical audio (kgudge's note said that but it only now sunk in)! This is great because when i added the PS3 over the weekend the DVR got bumped to 2-channel input on the receiver as i was out of digital inputs. As a bonus (if you can hardwire it to an Ethernet source) it will act as a wired network hub for 5 devices. Very sweet! Looks like i will have to train the Harmony remote to deal with it but i can deal with that. Now, if only it came in black.  | | | | Bad movie? You're soaking in it! |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 5,918 |
| | Posted: | | | | My component/optical switch also switched a LAN connection instead of functioning like a hub. Only bad thing about it. |
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| Registered: June 12, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 2,665 |
| | Posted: | | | | According to a review i read this one is a full time hub. I don't really need that functionality but it's nice to know it's there. | | | | Bad movie? You're soaking in it! |
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| Registered: June 12, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 2,665 |
| | Posted: | | | | After i bought the http://www.joytech.net/5/products/xbox360/4/106/Control-Center-540C.htm in January i switched all my component devices to it. I had a PS3, Toshiba A30 HD-DVD, Wii and older Sony DVD player connected. All were component with optical (except the Wii) audio. Turns out Harmony had it in their database of devices so i got wired and working quickly. However...i pretty quickly noticed that high bit rate HD scenes were overwhelming it. Anything with big explosions or fast transitions from moderately lit to bright scenes would cause the video to lose sync for a second. My screen would suddenly say Component 1 in the corner of a gray screen just like it does if there is no signal present. Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are set to push 1080i signals. A good example is the jump cuts between scenes at the beginning of Independence Day. They can repeatably cause this. I finally pulled out the older, simpler Philips USA PH-61148 4-Way HD Component AV Selector and ran the HD video sources thru it and the issue went away. Now the Joytech 540C only controls the DVD & Wii. Actually it still has the optical audio for the HD and Blu-Ray because i have one more optical device than i do Optical In ports on the receiver. Thank goodness for the Harmony. | | | | Bad movie? You're soaking in it! |
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