Kinivo Premium 301BN High speed HDMI switch with IR wireless remote and UK plug - supports 3D, 1080p (301BN - 3 Port)

I purchased this product to (effectively) expand the number of HDMI sockets on my TV (even a new Panasonic upmarket product only has 3!) I was reluctant to buy any of the 'unpowered' switches which rely on power supplied by the Blu-ray player (or other HDMI source). The amount of power required by these switches is rarely stated and, even if it were, the power available from the HDMI source is even less likely to be known - creating an opportunity to damage the HDMI multi-media source. Fortunately, there are a number of powered HDMI switches which use separate power units embodied in the mains plug - the Kinivo 301BN is one such.The 301BN is a 3 input one output HDMI switch which is solidly built and comes with a remote control to enable users to select a particular HDMI source device. It is supplied with a short but very helpful instruction booklet. Specific media inputs may be selected in two ways (a) Automatic Input selection or (b) Input selection via Remote Control. When operating in Mode (a), the switch searches for a signal from input port 1 to input port 3, stopping when it finds its first active HDMI port.As others have observed, even though a DVD player or other media source may be switched off, it is often the case that their HDMI ports ARE ACTIVE in this state. It is therefore useful to plug the media sources into the powered up switch and (using the 'active port' LEDs on this switch) determine which sources are 'Active' in their powered off state! These sources should then be connected, starting with the highest numbered port, leaving devices whose ports are in-active in the off state to be searched first by the switch. Failure to do this will mean that the automatic input selection can stop on a source which has no media output present! In this situation, the desired active source may quickly be connected using the supplied remote control.In operation, the switch has worked perfectly, with no perceptible degradation in video quality when routed via the switch. Some other reviewers have noted that the LEDs are very bright, but in my opinion, the only time they are likely to be a distraction is when the media content is Election Broadcasts! In summary, the product is well made, and does what it says on the tin.

I had initially purchased 2 other HDMI splitters. Following are the products:1. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0020426AG/Duronic HDS3 Mini 3 Port Gold HDMI Auto Switch PIANO BLACK 3x1 (3 way input 1 output HDMI Switcher)It was very small, cute and worked. Auto-switched and everything for a size that small was amazing. However, when I connected my PS3, there was interference and the picture kept flickering which was very annoying. For £9.99 it would have been an awesome buy if it just worked.2. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DZIXJAM/CSL - HDMI Switch 3D Ready / Full HD 1080p - flexible 3 port switch | 3 x IN / 1 x OUT | Dolby True HD / intelligent switch- automatic and manual switchThis is a horrible purchase. It just didn't output anything and my monitor kept saying that there was in input feed at all. Tried all combinations of my laptop / ps3 / pc. It did recognize the inputs and the lights were automatically switching, but just no output whatsoever.-----Thanks to Amazon's amazing customer service, I returned both. I purchased the 3 port high speed HDMI is just amazing. I think this just works because it is externally powered and hence no interference. It is slightly expensive at £21.99, but you pay for quality. It auto-switches and detects inputs. When the devices are on standby, the input lights go off indicating that there is no input. When all inputs are off, it switches off the output signal as well and the output light also goes off.I don't write many reviews, but just had to write for this one!!!

My TV monitor only has one HDMI input and I wanted to be able to use it both for my computer and my TV set top box without having to plug/unplug the cables all the time to switch between the two.The Kinivo HDMI switch does the job very well, and there is no (visible) loss of quality, as is the case with some other devices.I only need two input ports but it features three, so if you have three sources that you would like to connect to the same display using HDMI, it's possible.In any case, to further avoid quality problems, I recommend using good quality HDMI cables - they do make a difference.It comes with a remote control that allows you to select the input source directly (1, 2, or 3), up/down buttons, which do the same thing and are a bit redundant and a Memory button which I haven't used so far but I assume it is used to store your preferred input source.The usable range is pretty limited so you must be really close to the device for the remote to work (approx. 1-1.5m).The device is also capable of auto-switching, which to me is a minus, I don't want it to auto-switch to my TV whenever my PC goes into sleep mode.To prevent that, I have to either disable auto sleep mode for my PC (not an option) or to turn off the TV set top box - since it will not detect an alternate active source, it won't switch to it.There is no way of disabling the auto-switch feature, or at least I haven't found any.Also, the device doesn't have a power switch, so to turn it off, you'd have to unplug it.Otherwise, it's a very capable little device, solidly built, that doesn't take much space on my desk and does the job I bought it for, without paying the premium price of some other similar devices.I would have rated it 5 stars if there were a way to disable auto-switching and if the remote's usable range were longer.If you need such a device and you're not bothered by those aspects, look no further, this is it.