Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New HTPC + HDMI switch question

Well I finally made the next big step in my HT setup and built a HTPC yesterday.
I also picked up a Xbox Elite and have everything networked together along with two other Windows/Linux boxes.

My first HTPC impression was that it’s way easier to build a computer today than it was 20 years ago. Everything just works, well if you remember to load the audio drivers. Choosing what to buy, however, was a real chore. Here is what I finally bought.

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wis...e=htpc%2Fgaming

No HD DVD player, I’m just not ready to take the plunge yet but this HTPC should be able to play HD without any problems when I go that route. I must admit that I am getting an urge to buy an HD player, projector and screen. I downloaded some 1080p clips and was quite impressed with how they looked. My Samsung DLP would still be my primary computer monitor but a bigger screen and HD would be cool.

A have a question for those of you with more experience/equipment.

I bought a PPA Int’l 4 port HDMI switch since my Denon 2807 has only 2 HDMI inputs. However it was a piece of junk. It wouldn’t pass the Xbox 360 signal and the remote was lower quality than a Cracker Jack toy.

Does anyone know of a quality HDMI switch preferably 4 or more inputs?

Dean, hopefully someone with personal experience can reply, but I've read several reports by satisfied users of the MonoPrice switcher , besides those shown on the MonoPrice site.

I've been hoping someone would post a shopping list for a proven htpc- at about half that price.
I suppose it depends a lot on planned uses. Care to elaborate?

Thanks John unless someone else chimes in with a personal testimonial I think that one is the ticket. One of the customer reviews even said it worked with the Xbox 360 and this one is 1/3 the price of the one I bought locally.

Dean

Originally I was going to build separate gaming and HTPCs. However, I decided for now it was more cost effective and practical to build a combined gaming/HTPC. When I was considering separate boxes I was considering this setup:

http://www.custompcguide.com/budget_htpc.html

Since I decided to put together a combined machine I used the following link as a starting place to make sure what I was building was HD compatible.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=710828

When I planned this machine it was originally just for SD ripping/serving and gaming, but now that I’ve seen some HD clips I’m thinking about upgrading to HD.

As far as I can tell HDMI switchers really suck right now; there's not many that'll work with all your components and there's always one thing that won't work... I'm talking about "cheap" switchers of course... I'm sure someone will chime in with a good one.

Monoprice is a great place to buy from!! Works well for us Canuks also .. Have bought numerous things from them and never had an issue .. Fair prices and reasonable shipping .. Usually takes around a week for stuff to arrive in the Toronto area and I have never been hit with any duties or taxes.. Although I believe all orders were for under $100..

Avdude

Have you seen this?

http://www.octavainc.com/#