HDMI Switch 4k, HDMI Splitter Switch 5 In 1 Out HDMI Switcher with IR Remote Support 4K 60hz, 2K, 1080P, 3D, HDCP 2.2, UHD, HDR for PS 3/4, XBOX One/360, DVD Player, HDTV, Projector

Product Information

If you need an HDMI switcher but want to avoid getting bogged down in details, our experts suggest you buy the Kinivo 550BN HDMI switcher. It has the right price and amount of inputs and it just works. If you have a 4K Ultra HD TV and 4K source components, the switcher must also be 4K compatible. If you need to pass HDR-encoded or 3D video signals, your HDMI switcher must have those capabilities. Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake in the “production readiness stage” while fans will have to wait longer for Control 2

If you need a lot of inputs, you'll have to deal with 1080p/1080i output. For the price, we'd like to see 4K support, especially today. But, with eight inputs, it's about the only game in town (and the only one we recommend). So a switcher lets you switch between different HDMI signals, while a splitter lets you split one HDMI signal out to several screens.

One of the most annoying things about TVs is the limited number of ports to connect things like streaming boxes and game consoles. An HDMI switcher gets around this, adding more ports by letting several devices share the same cable into your TV.

First, you need to make sure your HDMI Switcher supports 4K and HDR (as do the PS4 Pro, PS5 and XBOX Series X). Some HDMI switchers come without a separate power supply – instead, they get their power from the HDMI devices you connect (which are usually connected to either the wall outlet or your TV’s USB port). But how will you switch between these three devices? There are three options, depending on the HDMI switcher you buy:However, the upgrade to visual quality with the mClassic engaged isn’t night and day, either. That isn’t to say it’s not a meaningful, worthwhile upgrade, though. For Animal Crossing, even some relatively light anti-aliasing and upscaling significantly cleans up the image and cuts down on jaggies. Considering the game is generally fairly minimalist aesthetically with lots of clean edges and bright colors, the increase to color vibrancy makes the whole world pop, while sharpening effectively brings out some extra detail from textures. A switch takes multiple sources, in this case two game consoles and a laptop, and sends them to a display. Main image: Univivi, TV: LG, Screen image: Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

Manual Switching with a Remote: You still have to switch between the connected input ports manually, but at least you don’t have to get up from the sofa, as you have an IR remote that controls the switcher. But most importantly, I want tweakable settings. On PC, there’s a piece of software called ReShade that does what the mClassic does: adds post-processing effects to games. The thing is, though, with ReShade, you can choose from a huge list of effects, tweak their settings to an extremely fine degree, and get access through a convenient on-screen display to a ton of different performance metrics. It’s basically an easy way to make any game you’re playing look great, and it’s sort of the third-party, community-led version of NVIDIA Freestyle. So even though that can still happen with a manual switcher, at least you have the power to decide on the fly which device should be in the front – while an automatic switcher might drive you crazy by constantly jumping between the wrong devices. There's also the possibility of a firmware update opening up some hidden capabilities, as we saw with Nintendo releasing Bluetooth headphones support– four whole years after the console first launched. HDMI is the most common audio/video connection in use. However, TVs may have as few as one or two HDMI inputs. If you have a lot of HDMI-equipped source devices, such as an upscaling DVD/Blu-ray/Ultra HD Blu-ray player, cable/satellite box, media streamer, and game console that all need to be connected to your TV, there may not be enough HDMI inputs, but don't panic.

HDMI splitters: One source, multiple TVs

Automatic switching: The switcher senses which device is active at the moment (your Fire TV is sending a video signal, for example), so it automatically switches the output on your TV screen to that active device. While it sounds convenient, this automatic switching is far from perfect, and the switcher will often get confused with devices that “snatch” the port even when they’re seemingly idle. Connecting a gaming console to your TV is one of the main reasons people buy an HDMI Switch. However, while there should be no issues with the original PS4, the older XBOX, and most other gaming consoles – the PS4 PRO, PS5 and XBOX Series X do raise some concerns. This means the two HDMI ports on one side can serve as either Input or Output, and the same goes for the single HDMI port on the other side. So you can connect two devices to one television, OR connect one device to TWO televisions/projectors.