Home > Consumer Reviews > Terk HDMI-31 Smart HDMI Switch (3 X 1)

When I bought my plasma TV a year ago, I never imagined that I would want to connect more than one HDMI device. That changed when I bought a DVD player with HDMI and the ability to upconvert DVD's to near HD quality. After first considering spending $400+ on a new receiver with dual HDMI ports, I opted to first try this device for about $65. Money saved. The device automatically switches between the cable and DVD inputs when I turn them on and I now can enjoy the much improved DVD video quality (I had been using composite video on the DVD player) that comes from HDMI. There is no change in the input quality from my cable box HDMI input. There was virutaly no setup involved. I simply unplugged my TV's existing HDMI connection from the cable box and plugged it into the output on the Terk box. Then I ran HDMI cables from the DVD and cable box to two of the three inputs on the Terk box and powered up. That was it. Rather than buy super costly HDMI cables, I purchased two HDMI cables from Abacus 24-7 (an Amazon contractor) at $6.99 each. They work like a charm. Since for audio I use a recevier rather than my TV speakers and my receiver is not HDMI capable, I have connected my receiver to the audio outputs of my cable box and DVD player using digital fiber optical cable and get all the capability of surround sound that I could want. Those optical cables are $5.99 each from Abacus (I found them for $12.99 to $25.99 at Fry's Electronics).

Update as of May 11, 2007. Still working like a charm. I haven't had to do anything to the unit and I basically forget it is there.

Update as of June 13, 2007. I now use my computer as a digital recording device, like a TIVO-type box. I record HDTV over the air using a Terk HDTV antenna and a Hauppauge HDTV capture card. My computer graphics card has a DVI output, so I bought a DVI to HDMI converter cable ($12 at Amazon) which connects my computer to one of the HDMI source inputs on the Terk HDMI-31 Switch. It operates flawlessly. Another reason to have Terk's multiple HDMI connection capability.

I ordered this switcher but it doesn't quite meet my needs. It works great as an manual switch, but beware if you're set on the automatic switching mode. Not all devices terminate the HDMI link when you power them off (such as my TiVo). If you have a device that doesn't terminate the link, this switch won't switch back to it because it triggers based on the inactive-to-active state change of a connection. For example, I put my TiVo on input 1 and my DVD on input 2. When I turn on the DVD, it switched to input 2 as desired. However, turning the DVD off and the TiVo back on DID NOT switch back to input 1 because the TiVo never terminated the HDMI link and therefore didn't trigger the switcher. Bummer. I wound up ordering the 4-port Hdmi Switcher Box w/ Remote Control (1 Year Warranty) instead which solves my problem by using its remote control.

There are switchers out there that comes with a remote, at a cost of $50 or so. But the fact that this unit is auto-switching eliminates the need for a remote completely, and avoided another remote to clutter up my coffee table. The switcher can also be placed out of sight because of this feature.

Just remember to turn off one unit before turning on another unit for the auto-switching to work properly. Works like a champ with no static or green dots. AC adaptor is tiny, making it quite "power strip friendly".

This product works great IF you can turn off unused components. However, if you record shows from your cable or satellite box, you know that the receiver must remain on at all times (as would the DVR if it's a separate component) or you would miss recordings. With a receiver and/or TiVo always on, this switcher won't be able to change inputs to, for example your DVD player or XBox, because it works by sensing whether a signal is being output over the HDMI cables, and thus won't switch if two inputs are active simultaneously.

If you have a complicated setup like this, you should instead buy a switcher with a programmable remote so you can either use the switcher's remote to change inputs or train a universal remote to drive the switcher and other peripherals at the same time.

Just boxed the switch up to ship it back. I am a DirecTV user and I have an HR20 HD DVR that will not pass through the switch. My DVD player works fine through the switch. My HR20 works fine connected directly to the HDMI port on the TV but when I connect the HR20 through the switch the HR20 crashes and has to be uplugged to reboot it.

Bottom line is that the switch seems to work OK as long as you don't have an HR20. I have seen others having this problem as well after researching this online.

I have also read of others using a different switch and the HR20 seems to work fine. Just placed the order for a different brand switch that I have read works for the HR20.