I currently have an Oppo and PS3 and plan on buying a Xbox360 (w/ the HDMI ) sometime later this year. The problem is my receiver only has 1 optical in and my TV only has 1 HDMI in, so I need some sort of switch. I would prefer one that could do both and found this....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1157067584966
Psyclone HDMI Switcher
Model: PSC47

but before sinking the money into it I thought I'd ask to see if anyone had any experience w/ it and liked it, or if there were any other recommendations out there. I've found a few HDMI switchers but few seem to have the audio as well. The only other one I've found so far was about $100 more (although it did support coax digital audio as well).

TIA

http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...d=10110&style=

Monoprice.com has all your answers.

The monoprice ones are the best value - but they don't carry the optical audio simultaneously. If he does go with the monoprice, he wants the 4x1 (Rev 2.5) since that doesn't have the issues some people have reported with the PS3, right?

Unless I'm missing something, monoprice does not have a combination HDMI & Toslink switcher. You'd have to buy each one separately.

I ended up getting:

Manual Toslink switch:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

HDMI 4x1 switch:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...ormat=2&style=

But, I think I would have gotten the combo switch, although it's about $145 more.
At least I can use my Harmony remote with the Monoprice HDMI to change to the correct input for each activity.

My 5x1 has never given me a single problem with my PS3.

Also have the 5X1 monoprice, never had a problem with my PS3. BTW, also works with the Harmony 880, which makes for seemless switching. My wife, kids don't even know I added it.

Thanks for the recommendation but I really think I want something that does both HDMI and the audio. No other recommendations? Have people at least heard of Psyclone before, I haven't? Do they have good products?

I'm not quite sure why you'd need an optical switcher if you get an HDMI switcher. Is the issue that you'd have a source with DVI out that you'd convert to HDMI? If not, the audio should be passed on the HDMI signal.

And to further complicate things on the HDMI-only side, here's a hot deal on a 3x1 remote controlled HDMI switcher:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...580&adid=17662

($29.25 and free shipping)

Well the Oppo is just DVI so that's one issue. I don't have HDMI on my reciever so if I want surround sound out of the games/movies I have to switch the audio into the digital input on the reciever right (also I have to admit I'm not that familiar w/ the tech/specs, does HDMI carry a surround audio signal)? I mean if there's some other way of doing it I'm all ears. I'll check but I don't think my TV has an audio out to feed the reciever from the HDMI signal. If it does that'll certainly make things easier/cheaper

I'm in the same boat. My receiver has optial, but no HDMI. TV has DVI but no HDMI.
So if I want to go HDMI for my Cable, 360, and HD-A2, I guess I have to get the 2 splitters IDrinkMolson mentioned. (or the one Buy.com has on sale)

Optical split from receiver to all 3 devices, DVI to HDMI then split to all 3 again.

Geez. Maybe I should just stick with all components

delete

Humm yea...not sure I follow either, but maybe I'm missing something.

I have a old Voom box for OTA HD and it is DVI or component for video and coaxial for audio. I plug the HDMI thru my switcher via a HDMI>DVI converter and the coaxial directly into my receiver.

I also have a V. D1 DVD player that has DVI for video and optical for audio. Same thing, DVD player into HDMI switcher thru a converter and optical directly to receiver.

Lastly my PS3 is HDMI directly into switcher with optical to receiver.

I use my harmony to do all the switching for the PJ, hdmi switcher and receiver. So tho is sounds like a pain, it is pretty seemless.

My receiver has no HDMI, so with the switcher I have one HDMI running to my project. I also have s-video for dish receiver and component for future useage.

Sounds like your receiver has multiple optical inputs... mine just has 1.

I have a Sharp DLP projector that is DVI only. I have a receiver that has NO HDMI inputs.

I have the Monoprice HDMI switch so I can connect to the projector with an HDMI-DVI adapter. I run all the audio straight to my receiver. Simple.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=204972580

Heard good things about this.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=204972580

cheap stolen from deal site.

I guess I'm not making myself clear enough... I have a PS3 (w/ HDMI), I'm hopfully going to be getting an Xbox360 soon (also w/ HDMI), I have an Oppo (which does DVI -> HDMI) and I just rediscovered/re-remembered the multi disk player I have also has HDMI. Eventually/maybe I might get some sort of TIVO/DVR or cable box (although my TV is cable card ready so I'll probably just use that for the latter). All of these components also have optical out. On the input side I have a plasma TV w/ HDMI in (and I just confirmed it does have an optical out ) and a 6.1 receiver w/ no HDMI and only audio inputs (of interest wrt this issue) are 1 optical and 1 component. My desired set up would be to have everything go into the HDMI/audo switch and then the HDMI output go to the TV and the audio to the receiver. So I thought the all-in-one switch that I linked to originally was the best solution. However now that I know the TV has an optical out if someone can confirm for me that HDMI will pass on the 5-7.1 audio so I can use the HDMI only switch and then feed the audio from the TV to the receiver I would appreciate it, or is the ability to pass the audio like this component specific? If it helps aside from the Xbox and the Oppo everything else is Sony products.

Speaking of the Oppo I guess in the above set up since that's DVI -> HDMI I'll have to figure out some other way of getting the audio from it to the receiver. Are the new Oppos HDMI (I haven't looked recently)? Alternatively I guess I could get a single optical audio switcher...

Any any help/input is appreciated.
Thanks

If you must switch optical as well, then perhaps that Psyclone is your best bet, despite the price. Although, if you are willing to pay that much for a switch, you may want to put that money towards a more feature laden receiver.

I also want to mention that I sincerely doubt your TV will pass the audio from an HDMI input device over the optical.

As my friend Mr. Salty would say, we do need to know your equipment to be sure.

Couldn't you test this easier and more specific to your hardware than anyone else? It sounds like it would work to me.

I am beginning to agree. I may be easier to upgrade the receiver that will have th outputs that you want.

Oh..yea...mine has no HDMI but several optical/coaxial. hummm

The main problem is everything is disassembled right now. The living room is being painted so I had to pull everything apart and sorting through the cables is what made me think there has to be a better way of doing this When everything is being setup I'll test it, but I was hoping the answer could be found before hand.

The TV is a Sony Plasma KDE-37XS955. It's the model right before the Brava series came out. Consulting the manual was of no help (imagine that ). It mentions the optical out supports Dolby digital/PCM, and the HDMI supports audio (but it doesn't mention anything about dolby/any audio standard). The only other source that might support dolby though is the cable card. So unless it passes the signal on I can't imagine what the point of the digital out would be unless it's just for the stereo out on the TV

Just because it passes a broadcast signal doesn't mean it will pass an input signal. Salty made that point clear in one of his posts, which I believe was also a Sony model.

I still maintain your best bet is to put that $200 towards a receiver upgrade. It sounds like yours is quite old. The Onkyo 605 is $400 with a plethora of inputs and two HDMI in, and you can always get a cheap switcher from MP to give you more options if need be.

I upgraded the receiver.. I got the onkyo 605.. solved all my problems with switching.

Jacob

I may just have to wait and muddle through w/ what I got then. I'm having a hard time justifying the Xbox360 (considering I just bought the PS3) the package Amazon put together is tempting me though

WRT the receiver, I currently have a STR-DE697, it's about 4 years old now (just a guess I really don't know off hand, I know it predates the TV which is about 2 years old now). I found the STR-DG910 http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921665061947 looks like it may be decent enough... the specs don't seem to match the pic though (the specs mention a front optical input that I'm not seeing on the pic, but it's a bad quality pic). Anyone familiar w/ this model? The MSRP is $500, Amazon currently has it for ~$370 (although they also say the MSRP is $600). So a little more expensive than the original switcher I was looking at but this may last me longer... yeah that's it... that's the excuse

BTW if I do use this, putting the HDMI directly into the receiver like this, will I get multichannel audio? Unless I missed it that question didn't seem to have been answered...