Rodrigo Alonso
Today, we all have a lot of equipment
, But many times we will run out of available ports. In this case, should you get
Or use
? We tell you the difference between the two and under what circumstances one should be used.
They are very frequent, especially in PC monitors where there is only video input. If you want to connect both the PC and the console to the same monitor, you must disconnect one cable every time you need to change, and then connect another cable, so these options discussed below will be a perfect solution . For you.
The word "splitter" comes from the English "split", which means division. In other words,
. For example, if we have a PC and want to see the image on the monitor and TV at the same time, so that others can act as bystanders, this will be useful. For example, if we have an Apple TV and want to watch the image on two TVs at the same time, it will be the same.
Therefore, the HDMI splitter will always have
o «Input» (input), it will be the video (and audio) source, and
Or "output", this is where we can connect on the screen where we want to see the image. Therefore, we have a splitter from 1×2 (one input and two outputs) to 1×16 (one input and sixteen outputs), and of course it will go through 1×4, 1×8, etc.
HDMI splitters do not have any operation, that is, they will always send out all the signals that enter them through the input, without exception. It must be said that there are passive distributors, they do not require additional power, but the usual thing is that their quality is limited, so the normal thing is that they are active and we need to connect them to the socket.
A kind
It is the opposite in the physical sense of a separator: it has
. To give you an idea, almost all TVs have an internal HDMI switch, so they have several HDMI ports, we can connect them to different devices, but all these ports can be seen on the TV screen.
For example, if your PC monitor has only one HDMI input, but you want to connect the PC and game console at the same time, this method works. The switch allows you to connect both devices to the same display and switch between one and the other signal source with the push of a button. Therefore, unlike the splitter, the HDMI switch
(There are even models with remote control function)
.
In this case, most HDMI switches are passive, that is,
. The reason for this is that they do not have to multiply the image in multiple outputs like a splitter, but only limit themselves to always sending one or the other input signal through the same output. For this, HDMI itself already provides all the needs energy of.
Some devices can use splitter and HDMI switch at the same time. Since users either have one need or another, and they rarely appear at the same time, they are usually scarce, and due to internal complexity, they are much more expensive. In any case, these devices have multiple inputs and multiple outputs, and have a physical button to switch from one source to another.
In this case, the splitter + switch behaves as follows: we will select the input source, and no matter what we choose, it will copy it to all outputs. What can this be used for? Well, combine the above. Imagine, as we did before the example, we want to copy the image seen on the PC to the TV so that our friends can see it. Well, by connecting this device to the same monitor and the same TV and allowing us to use the console at the same time, we can perform the same operations on the console
In summary, let us see under which circumstances one or the other of these products should be selected:
