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Apr 02, 2025

This $40 HDMI accessory saved my sanity

I recently moved a few of my game consoles to my living room. I used to do most of my gaming in my basement office, but that's also where I spend my day working, so the change of scenery from the bad

I recently moved a few of my game consoles to my living room. I used to do most of my gaming in my basement office, but that's also where I spend my day working, so the change of scenery from the bad screen to the good screen has been a welcome shift.

While my upper mid-range 55-inch Hisense U88H was only released back in 2023, it dropped in an era where not every HDMI port on TVs featured HDMI 2.1 120Hz support. This means that while my Apple TV 4K and Nintendo Switch sit in ports one and two, the third HDMI 2.1-compatible port is taken up by my rapidly aging Polk Sound Bar because it features HDMI-CEC.

This leaves me with one single HDMI port for my other game consoles and docks, including my rather loud Playtation 5, a painfully slow Xbox One X I use pretty much exclusively for playing Rockband 4, and lastly, Jsaux's 6-in-1 HDMI 2.1 Multifuctional Docking Station for my ROG Ally X and Steam Deck OLED. Because I only have one available port and I like to have 120Hz 4K available as a resolution option, this has resulted in me often awkwardly reaching around my my TV stand and moving the lone cable to whatever device I'm using at the time.

This isn't a huge issue, but it's still annoying. This is when I remembered that HDMI switchers are a thing, so I jumped on Amazon and took a chance on a reasonably priced, relatively positively-reviewed option from a company called SkycropHD (I love random Amazon product names).

I've used HDMI switchers in the past with varying degrees of success. I have one set up in my office for my Xbox Series X, Switch, and PS5 Slim, and it works maybe 80 percent of the time. When I bought it in 2020, HDMI 2.1 120Hz compatible HDMI Switch boxes were rare, but they're far more common now.

As far as HDMI switches go, the SkycropHD is one of the most fully-featured out there. It supports 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz. The Switch also features one output port and three input ports.

I like the ROG Ally X, but when it comes to on-the-go gaming, I find myself turning to the Steam Deck OLED - here's why.

While I ended up buying the Skycrop HD HDMI 2.1 switch because it supports HDMI 2.1, it also supports other resolutions, including 8K/60Hz (for the three people that own an 8K TV), the far more common 4K/60Hz, and several other resolutions. The Skycrop also supports HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, VRR, and HDCP2.3. As far as HDMI switches go, it includes pretty much everything you could possibly want in terms of video and audio format supporty. That said, the Switch requires a power adapter, so make sure you have a nearby plug available.

The one output plug runs to your television. In my case this is HDMI 4, the Hisense U88H's only open HDMI 2.1 port. The other four inputs are available for my Xbox One X, my ROG Ally X dock, and my PlayStation 5. You can switch between inputs by tapping a switch on the SkycropHD switch or when using the included controller. There's also a setting to automatically jump between whatever device is on, but I haven't found that it works reliably.

It's worth noting that I've encountered a few hiccups with all of my devices on and switching between them frequently -- sometimes my Xbox One X just wasn't recognized by my TV and the switcher. In regular use where I only have one device running at a time, the experience has been flawless. I jump to HDMI 4 on my TV, flip to the correct input on the switch, and I'm ready to go. I no longer have to awkwardly reach behind my TV console to unplug my lone HDMI cable and plug it into whatever device I want to use.

There are dozens of HDMI switches available on Amazon and they seem to range in price significantly

Using an HDMI switch has also helped me clean up my living room set up a bit, too (who doesn't like a bit of cable management? It fits perfectly on top of my Xbox One X). If you're looking for a way to expand your TV's HDMI ports, or, like in my case, are stuck with one usable HDMI 2.1 port, an HDMI switch is a great option. There are dozens of HDMI switches available on Amazon, and they all seem to range in price significantly. The one I landed on might not be the best one out there, but it definitely gets the job done.

Don't forget to make sure you're using HDMI 2.0 cables if you're looking to get 4K 120Hz output.

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