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. As you would expect, there are many cheap low-quality HDMI splitters out right now. There’s no need to worry, though. In our guide, we bring you top-notch products that are reliable and work well. You can use an HDMI switcher with two HDMI outputs to send the same HDMI signal to two TVs or a video projector and TV, but you can use an HDMI splitter if you don't need a switcher. Orei also fared well in our round-up of HDMI Switchers, and here they are again taking the splitter market by storm. This unit will easily duplicate a single signal to up to four 4k displays (it comes in both two and four output models) If you don’t need to output your source content to more than two displays, then the Zettaguard ZW120 is an excellent affordable option.

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. An HDMI splitter takes the HDMI signal from one source and splits it into two identical sources. HDMI splitters can either be passive, simply splitting the signal, or active, adding some additional power to the split signals to compensate for the loss of cutting a signal in half.With so many streaming services in our lives, we sometimes find ourselves with more TV sets and screens than our streamers can handle. But even if you have more than one screen at home, you don’t necessarily need another streaming device – instead, you can use an HDMI splitter. Most 4K HDMI Splitters support 30Hz, which is enough for most regular video uses – it means you’ll see up to 30 frames per second. No, an HDMI display cannot extend your monitor display. It can only be used to mirror the video and audio to two or more displays. Does a splitter need a power source?

However, with the switch button, you’ll have to choose which output port to use when you’re splitting – so you can’t use both televisions at the same time, unlike with most HDMI splitters. A common error that you might see on set-top boxes and gaming machines is the HDCP Unauthorized Content Disabled message, particularly on the Roku. Like most other media and data cables, the video signal on HDMI cables degrades over long distances. With audio, for instance, the voltage of the signal directly translates to how far the speaker cone is pushed from its resting position and the changes in voltage create the motion of the speaker cone. This means more voltage equals louder sound.Unlike HDMI Switchers, which are often powered by the HDMI devices connected to them, most HDMI Splitters need an external power source.