CG Holiday 2007 Recommendation: XtremeMac's XtremeHD HDMI switcher

I really love home theater stuff. I’m a nerd for it. And that means that, perhaps like you, I’ve run out of HDMI ports for my gear. My TV has but one, and I’ve got three different devices that vie for it, much the same as how girls vie for my attention.

The solution is the XtremeHD HDMI switcher by the geniuses over at XtremeMac. Looking very much like my Apple TV, the XtremeHD, lack of leading vowels aside, is a simple machine that works flawlessly, and is just what the doctor ordered. For the HDMI situation, not the girls who chase me.

The four inputs are switched to the one output via a manual button on the front or with a very simple, Apple-like remote. What’s really great is that the switching codes the remote uses are part of the huge database of codes the Harmony 520 super-universal remote knows, meaning I more or less have an auto-switching solution.

As far as video and audio goes, you’d be hard pressed to hear or see any difference in the video before or after it’s hit the switcher. It’s all digital, so it goes right through.

I’m using XtremeMac’s HDMI and HDMI-to-DVI cables, and they’re sturdy enough for any high-end system. Forget Monster.

I really like the fact that it stacks perfectly with the AppleTV, a product the switcher is made to compliment. But that’s not the only thing it’s good for, it’s small enough and easy enough to use that it should be part of any multi-HDMI home theater set up.

By way of summary, if you have more HDMI-outs than HDMI-ins, get yourself the XtremeHD switcher. Now if only XtremeMac could make something like this for my love life (I mean besides roofies), I’d be set!

XtremeHD [Product Page]