Do you have more HDMI source components than you have HDMI inputs on your receiver or television? No problem just install an HDMI switch so you can feed more than one source into a single input. Right?
Well, yes, but I have gone through a lot of trouble automating my home theater with the amazing Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote. So it was important to me to be able to automate the switch as well so that I could select either my Blu-Ray player or my DVD/SACD player automatically when I selected them in a Harmony "activity." I didn't want to spend more for a remote operated switch than the DVD player cost me and many of them cost more. The answer, I thought, would be the Monoprice HDX 201E which is priced at a very reasonable $32.50.
This unit provides two HDMI in and one HDMI out. Once you connect the cables and plug in the power supply, the unit is ready to go. As you power on the source components, green lights appear on the front panel for each input that is energized. You can switch back and forth either by pressing buttons on the front of the unit or using the tiny remote control to select the input you want by number. When you select the input a red light begins flashing under the input number on the front panel. That's all there is to operating the switch.
Programming the unit into my Harmony 880 was simple and trouble free. I could operate the unit as a device from the Harmony or automate things so that the unit would turn on and off and select the right input automatically in an "activity" macro. The result was exactly what I wanted.
Any negatives? Nothing serious. I was a little bothered by the flashing red light that continues all the time that the unit is use. I'm glad it is located to the side of my TV in an equipment rack rather than under it where it would be distracting. I would suggest that it be made with the indicator light steady instead of flashing.
If you have even more HDMI sources than I do, then Monoprice has larger units with more inputs in the same series of affordable products. The Monoprice HDX201E is affordable, easy to use and easy to program into the macros in your universal remote. That's a great value in my book.
