HDMI Splitter (Decent)

Caporegime
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Hello all

Couldn't think of a better place to put this, so here goes:

I'm after a HDMI splitter, what we need it to do it split the output on to two monitors (mirrored) as opposed to splitting the output from two devices on to one monitor....

Hope that makes sense...I've seen several online ranging from £3+, but can't make out if they support splitting to two monitors or not.

Thanks all :)
 
bought one of these


Cablesson® - 2 Way HDMI SPLITTER BOX 1x2 Port (1 x 2) (1 input 2 output) - Active Amplifier - v1.3c ** 3D Enabled ** 1080p Full HD - Display HD on 2 TVs - Free Shipping
24.95 but works with no probs (use it to split hd signal from ps3 between big telly and bedroom telly)
 
Any other takers on this? Will need a good 3+ physical ports now...

Don't want to break the bank though mind :p
 
I also have one of those Neet splitters working off my sky HD box. No problems so far. Not the cheapest but it does come with a power adapter. I'm not sure the cheaper passive (or off the hdmi 5v work that well). Anyway mine throws the 1080i 50Hz signal over 30M and through a passive switch and it arrives with no picture issues.

You can daisy chain two of these to get 3 identical outputs. You can also buy 4 way splitters for 50-60 pounds, maybe even cheaper. Or get a matrix. Messing with hdmi isn't all that cheap, although I did get some neat little repeaters for £4.50.
 
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Hm thanks guys, idealy I need atleast 3 output (Sky / Blur-ray / Media station)

Although the media station isn't used THAT much

EDIT: To clarify, can this have two seperate sources going tot he telly? IE Sky if it;s on, and a Blu-Ray when it's needed? Not both at once obviously :p

Basically the telly only has one HDMI
 
I'm confused now, everything until your last post concerned splitting one output to several screens, but now it seems you want to switch a single screen between several devices.
 
I'm confused now, everything until your last post concerned splitting one output to several screens, but now it seems you want to switch a single screen between several devices.

Aye I did...That was for something else, so thought I'd not create a new thread :p :o

The original problem is solved so thank you. :)

However I also need one to do the reverse (so there is one screen, but two / three devices) Sorry for the confusion

EDIT: Although, I am presuming a switch would be better? ie manual or something
 
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There are lots of switches to choose from.

I bought a £10 Duronic unpowered 3 input -1 output auto switch which works fine but if I were buying another I'd get perhaps a Neet 3 -1 switch with power capability and IR remote. The Auto switching function doesn't work too well with Sky HD as the Sky box leaves power on the HDMI even when it's in Standby.

As it stands I've had to run a bit of wire and a switch to my HDMI switch as it's just easier than faffing about behind my PC to switch the thing over. So an IR remote would have been handy for an extra tenner.
 
I wonder if you'd have been better going for a matrix which is what I use.
Multiple sources to one screen, multiple screens to one source or any combination.

2012_03_27_09_30_42_353.jpg
 
There are lots of switches to choose from.

I bought a £10 Duronic unpowered 3 input -1 output auto switch which works fine but if I were buying another I'd get perhaps a Neet 3 -1 switch with power capability and IR remote. The Auto switching function doesn't work too well with Sky HD as the Sky box leaves power on the HDMI even when it's in Standby.

As it stands I've had to run a bit of wire and a switch to my HDMI switch as it's just easier than faffing about behind my PC to switch the thing over. So an IR remote would have been handy for an extra tenner.

Thanks for the reply :)

So Neet do a 3 in 1 output box do they?

@chipperhead:
Sounds nice...but a tad expensive no? :p I only have Sky HD, a Blu-Ray, and a Multimedia box, the latter two hardly being used
 
So, something like this should be decent enough? And last a decent amount of time?

Neet® - 3 Port HDMI AUTO SWITCH BOX with REMOTE - 3x1 HUB (3 way input 1 output) - 1080p Full HD - v1.3b HDMI Switcher

On the rainforest
 
Apologies for the necro on this one...

I've got a duplicator which looks identical to the Neet one, theres plenty of them on fleabay and ive been using it to split a signal from my HP Microserver between a 32" 720p TV and a secondary port on one of my monitors which rarely connect to it these days but it was handy with a USB switch/splitter to go from PC to microserver if i needed to do extended messing on there.

Anyway, new Sony TV and it fills about 90% of the screen. remove the duplicator and its full screen. This now makes me think the previous issues ive had on my last Sony tv where it was really hard work making it accept its native resolution (1366 x 768) and was a real PITA.
Through TV settings alone i can make the image fill about 98%, however while that might seem acceptable any 3D footage is completely unwatchable, the mesh between the image is way way out, about 4" out of sync on a 47" display
It was working perfectly all last week in another room, but that wasnt with the duplicator.

So what im here asking for is whether or not anyone is using it with a PC input, because it works fine for Sky, but i dont want it for Sky i want it to duplicate a PC signal. I just dont want to buy another only to find out that its an unfixable issue, regardless of where the fault lies (PC or duplicator) because if it doesnt work its no relief.
 
This is to do with differing native resolutions on the two displays.

HDMI devices use something called EDID to telegraph their capabilities. So when you make a direct connection between a Blu-ray player to a TV, the TV tells the Blu-ray player what resolutions it can accept, and whether it is 3D capable or not, and also info about acceptable audio standards. Using a splitter with two dissimilar displays causes a bit of a problem for the source.

If one display is 1080p 3D capable that accepts 24/48/50 and 60Hz refresh rates, but the other is a PC monitor that expects say 1280x1024 @ 60Hz only then the source has to go with the lowest quality signal. It can't output two different resolutions out of one HDMI socket. Then there's the problem that TVs don't react well to PC resolutions.

The simple free solution to this is to disconnect the least commonly used display and then to force the system to rescan for EDID. This is done either by rebooting the source device or disconnecting the HDMI cable. You have to be careful with the latter though; some devices don't like hot disconnect/connects.
 
I ended up using some cheap passive thing which switches between the connected ports via a button, cheap, but it works at least.

Would rather a box with a remote still :p
 
Lucid, unfortunately this still happens when theres only 1 HDMI output connected. It could have made sense at one point, but sadly its had multiple reboots from driver cleans and reinstalls to try and get it to rethink what its outputting.
The monitors are 2048x1152 but in the past ive forced the desktop to be 1366x768, however the weird thing is i need a specific tool in order to create that profile in window registry, because when i told it to do 1366x768 it'd come up with something like 'unsupported signal' on the TV.
These days i tend to connect in through teamviewer, and i think thats what i'll have to do here, its been a while since ive used the duplicator and USB switch (thats not been plugged in for a good while now) but i'd still rather have it available if possible.
I guess i'll just leave it direct to the TV and use the duplicator for the PS3 as its handy for racing games using a wheel if ive got the monitor infront of me, and not looking up (the tv hangs above the monitors).
 
I'm not clear whether you're talking about the TV or the monitors now. I'd have thought that the monitors would be fairly simple. They need a signal that equals the native resolution of the screen.

The TV is a different kettle of fish. The video processing in most TVs won't support much (if anything) beyond the standard HDTV timings:

525 (480) / 60i, 60p
625 (576) / 50i, 50p
750 (720) / 50p, 60p
1125 (1080) / 50i, 60i
1125 (1080) / 50p, 60p

Many of the lower resolution TVs won't accept a signal at their native resolution either. So the TV might have 1366x768 pixels, but you can't drive it at that because the scaling hardware doesn't recognise the signal.

I've also come across screens that only map pixel perfect at 59.94Hz which is the correct refresh rate for what's nominally described as 60Hz. Then there are the real odd ones like old Fujitsu plasmas which have to be driven at 60.01Hz for some bizarre reason.
 
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