4k, HDR, Atmos HDMI switch - recommendations please

[pressure]

Hi all, I’m looking for recommendations on a reliable hdmi switch.

I want one that will definitely do

• 4k
• Hdr
• Passes through atmos etc without issue (seems to be a frequent failure point even for switches that say they do atmos)
• HDCP 2.2

And preferably

• 18gbs
• Ideally 5 hdmis

Under £100 would be great.

I’d be using it with a NAD T758 which only has 3 hdmis and I have five 4k sources and may get more, so if I can save the £600 versus the NAD T777 that would be great.

Personal recommendations would very welcome!

 

[Joe Fernand]

Can't meet your price 'spec' or Input number (4 rather than 5) but def meet the rest of your requirements - HDfury Vertex² - The Media Factory

Joe

 

[pressure]

Thank you for the helpful suggestion Joe.

Also thank you for all the help and support you have offered so many users of the forum.

If the cheap ones turn out to be a pain I will look at investing in the Vertex!

 

[Joe Fernand]

Cheers pressure

Always good to share a bit of knowledge.

Joe

 

[cesarleeds]

End up here looking for a decent 4k switch.

Thanks for the tip, Joe.

This MadFury product looks amazing, but it actually does much more than I actually need (adding a couple of HDMI 2.0 inputs to a soundbar).

Is there anything, that actually does the job, on a cheaper price spec?

@pressure, did you find a switch that meet your needs?

 

[pressure]

I got this:

XOLORspace 23051 4K 60Hz HDR 5x1 HDMI Switcher 4k 4:4:4 18Gps/600MHZ and Dolby vision with remote control and auto switch

It’s ok. AV quality is excellent. Switching isn’t automatic. you have to press one of the buttons to get the right input,

however it has a profile in the harmony database so at some point I will programme it in and that should be perfect. We’ll see.

 

[Joe Fernand]

'Is there anything, that actually does the job, on a cheaper price spec?' - very hit or miss and the 'USP' of the HDFury products is that HDFiry recognise that every time the devices connected to the switch have a firmware or capabilities update the Switch needs to keep on top of the changes and what you are actually paying for is the in-life support to keep your product working in the long term.

The switch 'pressure' mentions is great value but not perfect and gives you no long term reliability - we talked to the manufacturer and a couple of folk who sell them and whilst they meet an initial 'need' at a great price they are not, for me, a good long term investment.

Joe

 

[Vip]

@pressure

Perhaps something like this might be better (german product - ready to ship in November - does what arcana does but with remote and 3 inputs - and cheaper) It's in german, but google translate will work fine - and it will be available from Amazon UK - (at the bottom of the page - I asked the question).

HDMI Switch mit ARC und eARC Pass | FeinTech
Mit diesem HDMI Switch mit ARC Pass können Sie den Ton externer HDMI-Quellen über eine Soundbar mit ARC- oder eARC-Anschluss wiedergeben. Das ist nützlich wenn Ihre Soundbar nur einen HDMI-Anschluss hat oder Sie weitere HDMI-Quellen anschließen möchten. Der Sound hängt dann nicht mehr davon ab...

feintech.eu




They have 2 versions one for Arc and one for eArc. Click on product manual - that is in english.

 

[Joe Fernand]

'ready to ship in November' - unless I am missing something there is no service/FW port on this Switch and you think it will rival the HDFury Arcana, that completely misses the point with this type of product once it is out in the wild.

Joe

 

[colinstone]

Having just learnt the hard way, I wouldn't go near a switch /splitter without an update port and capability. I'm now getting the Vertex2 and it gets a software update every month or so.

 

[deans6571]

I'm also looking to buy a simple HDMI switch as I have simply just run out of HDMI sockets on the back of my TV (only have 3).

Is there a cheapish one (less than £50) which auto switches when the correct source is turned on?

 

[colinstone]

There is an unpowered one here -

Automatic HDMI Switcher

The One For All Automatic HDMI Switcher (SV1630) allows connection of 3 devices to your TV by using only 1 visible HDMI cable.

www.oneforall.co.uk

But I bought a powered Pro Signal in June which is IR controlled -

https://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg3032/hdmi-amplifier-switcher-4x1/dp/AV27979?CMP=TREML007-005

Now surplus with 3 50 cm Pure HDMI cables to connect boxes -

kenable PURE HDMI 2.0b 2160p 4k UHD TV Braided High Speed Cable Lea...

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is a specification that combines video and audio into a single digital interface for use with DVD players ... [se...

www.kenable.co.uk

.

If you are interested for the lot, I'll put a post in the classifieds.

 

[Joe Fernand]

'auto switches when the correct source is turned on?' - the problem with that plan, no matter how much you spend on a Switch, is that some Sources always leave the HDMI port active which will confuse anything which is sensing a voltage change on the Inputs.

Joe

 

[colinstone]

Joe is spot on. My Sony PJ, quite pricey, completely mucked up a Wyrestorm HDMI switcher box because of its circuitry.

 

[Vip]

'ready to ship in November' - unless I am missing something there is no service/FW port on this Switch and you think it will rival the HDFury Arcana, that completely misses the point with this type of product once it is out in the wild.

Joe

Joe, whilst I appreciate many people would love to tinker with a switch, I just want to plug it in and it work.
I think in the case of Arcana, the reason they were able to produce it in a couple of weeks, was because they are using end users as beta testers (hence, the very need for a service/FW port). An expensive product such as this should just work out of the box. As an end user, I should not be expected to be an unpaid beta tester.

Also, I had a look Arcana and Vertex2 and the support on discord. The support guys on Discord seem very abrupt (and use technical jargon in answering questions, which, let's face it for most end users would go just over their head), and in some cases of HDfury products, unless you send them a file downloaded from the Product, they don't even want to entertain any answers.

I am sure HDfury are great products, but one should not dismiss other products (at least until they are proven not to be any good) even if you are the official distributor for HDFury.

 

[Joe Fernand]

Hello Vip

I doubt any SONOS ARC user wants to install any form of switch but SONOS have forced the market to go down that route or everyone replace their TV with an eAC enabled TV!

'An expensive product such as this should just work out of the box' - which highlights a lack of understanding of the technology you are dealing with where updating and customising FW is a must have for this technology or else you end up with a lot of bricks as devices change around the switch.

I resell HDFury along with plenty other products and yes the support guys are abrupt - the level of enquires and technical detail required to make many systems work means that the Config. file is the best option when resolving a problem. I get the same from them when I ask a question. The impressive bit is when they can resolve 99.9% of issues.

Have a look over on the AVR or LED TV forums here on AVF and you will see eARC is far from plain sailing and those folk are spending thousands of £££ on the latest TV's and AVRs - they don't 'just work'.

I would be amazed if anyone has a plug and play eARC enabler product which will work in all scenarios, hopefully once you have had a chance to test the switch you mention you will provide some feedback.

Joe

 

[Vip]

Hi Joe,

Sonos Arc users are, the very users, I am talking about. They buy Sonos product for the ease of setting up (and of course the quality) - and it just works. Then requiring them to tinker with a switch, just seems odd to me. Actually, I can accept tinkering, if the support experience was exceptional.

Like you say, if even you as an official distributor has to jump hoops to get decent support, that would be a red flag for me personally. I am not saying for one minute the product is not good, I am sure it is.

If I do indeed, get the Feintech switch, I will be happy to report back. At this time it is unlikely, I will as I have Sonos Arc Homecinema with a TV that has eArc and it's all working fine (the question I was asking on the Feintech site was for a friends set-up as he does not have eArc - and he may purchase either Arcana or Feintech - he is undecided at present). I am just about to get another TV/Sonos as well - which will also have eArc. So unless, I have lip sync issues with the new TV, it will be unlikely I will need either of these products.

That said, I do like to keep abreast of new products (and sometimes post if I find something new).

In this case, I posted to help others potentially who may be looking at an alternative.

 

[Joe Fernand]

'and it just works' - as a long term user (I'm still S1) and installer of SONOS I can tell you that is not always the case

I doubt many SONOS ARC customers realised the limitations of the 'HDMI' port on the soundbar and going by the many conversations I have had would far rather SONOS 'fixed' the Soundbar!

The unit you link too looks interesting and hopefully it will work for some folk but not something I would take on as with no option to update FW it has a very limited user base.

HDFury do things there own way and as infuriating as they may seem at times they offer brilliant tech support and products - we have customers using HDFury2 converters ten+ years after folk said there TV and Projector was out of date and should be replaced.

Fingers crossed no lip sync problems when you get the new kit.

Joe

 

[John Goldring]

Hi all,
Thanks for the really useful comments. I have two related questions. I have the Arcana (thanks Joe) and hope to set it up over the weekend. I don't have a HDMI splitter yet. I was wondering if i could use the One Connect box with my Samsung telly. I need to plug the Sky Q box into arcana to get the atmos sound. However, I was wondering if it was possible to plug the firestick and Bluray into the one connect box and connect the HDMI on arcana to the arc on the connect box?

Failing that, I'm going to need to get a HDMI switch. I wish i could afford the vortext but that's not happening sadly. Does anyone know of a less expensive one that will do the Job.

still thinking, what would happen if i removed Sky Q from Arcana and then plugged in something like the bluray or Firestick? I think Joe indicated above that it would need resetting each time. is this the case?

thank
John

 

[Joe Fernand]

Hi John

The HDFury Arcana ought to work with the Samsung OneConnect box - I have not been able to test it out but looking at the connectivity options it ought to work fine:

SKY Q > Arcana HDMI Input.
Source devices (non Atmos) > One Connect box.
One Connect ARC > Arcana HDMI Out.
Arcana eARC > SONOS eARC

Joe

 

[Xabi17]

Don't want to derail the thread but out of curiosity, is something cheap off Amazon likely to degrade the signal? Or just likely to break quickly and not be a worthwhile investment.

e.g. Assuming you didn't need Atmos this seems to be HDMI 2.0b (allegedly). Do you think you could trust that? Amazon product

 

[Joe Fernand]

Plug it in and try It out is the only way to know for sure - with no option for an external PSU it relies on one or more of the connected devices to provide power over the HDMI cable, which is never a great option.

Joe

 

[John Goldring]

Hi John

The HDFury Arcana ought to work with the Samsung OneConnect box - I have not been able to test it out but looking at the connectivity options it ought to work fine:

SKY Q > Arcana HDMI Input.
Source devices (non Atmos) > One Connect box.
One Connect ARC > Arcana HDMI Out.
Arcana eARC > SONOS eARC

Joe

Hi Joe,

thanks for your reply. it worked. I plugged Sky Q into arcana, and then arcanan into the arc of the One Connect box. I left the firestick and bluray plugged into the one connect box. Of course, only Sky Q is Atmos but better than nothing while i wait to buy a new telly. I'm using the curved one from 2014. What is interesting is how the picture quality seems to have also improved. Well, i say improved, it does looks sharper but more importantly, much brighter. I am thinking of playing around with it at the weekend and plugging the Firestick in and moving Sky Q to the one connect box. This way, i will have Tidal HD music (which has some Atmos), Netflix and Prime.

Once again, thanks for the support.

best

John

 

[John Goldring]

Don't want to derail the thread but out of curiosity, is something cheap off Amazon likely to degrade the signal? Or just likely to break quickly and not be a worthwhile investment.

e.g. Assuming you didn't need Atmos this seems to be HDMI 2.0b (allegedly). Do you think you could trust that? Amazon product

hi there,

how did you get on with this?

best

john