Cables To Go 28731 3-Play S-Video, Composite Video and TOSLINK Digital Audio High Performance Selector Switch (Black)

by Cables To Go

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12 x 6 x 4 inches ; 2.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000234I6C
• Item model number: 28731
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #32 in Electronics > Accessories & Supplies > Audio & Video Accessories > Distribution > Selector Switch Boxes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 3, 2004

Product Description

Why connect and reconnect cables to manually switch between devices. Get rid of the cable hassle, and add flexibility to your home theater system with the 3-Play selector. Plug in this switch and quickly add three toslink, three s-video, and three RCA composite audio/video ports to your system. Great for connecting three of the following: DVD players, satellite receivers, video game consoles or digital video recorders - any devices that have dual channel analog or toslink audio with s-video or composite video. This is an ideal solution for the a/v enthusiast who wants to take full control of an ever-expanding system. Use the wireless remote control or the three front panel input selector buttons to quickly change sources. Input: Three S-Video Female, Three TOSLINK Female, Three RCA Audio/Video Female. Output: One S-Video Female, One TOSLINK Female, One RCA Audio/Video Female. Please Note: This unit does not convert s-video to composite video, or composite video to s-video; the output signal is always the same as the original input signal. For your convenience, the following replacement parts are available for this item: Item #98009 - AC/DC Adapter, and Item #98014 - IR Wireless Remote Control.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome little piece of equipment!, April 15, 2009

By 

Francis Wright III (Forney, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cables To Go 28731 3-Play S-Video, Composite Video and TOSLINK Digital Audio High Performance Selector Switch (Black) (Electronics)

I love it when something works like it's supposed to and this little selector box does just that! I recently installed a Bravia surround sound system that has only one TOSlink (optical cable) port, but I had two pieces of equipment that needed to be plugged into it (a PS3 and HD cable box). I originally looked at the manual TOSlink selectors, but there have been many problems reported with them in both short term and long term performance. The reviews for this selector box were impressive, so I bought it based on that. I've got the cable box and PS3 hooked into it and it outputs to my Bravia surround. Sound quality is unaffected by the addition of the selector box, the sound is just as good as when I had the PS3 cabled directly to the surround. The box even looks nice! The credit card-style remote control switches the selector instantly and has very good range. As has been mentioned in other reviews the selector box can also be easily controlled manually by pushing the buttons on the front of it. Overall I'm very happy with this and feel it is an excellent value for an electronic selector that can be remote controlled.

One thing worth noting, per the instructions the box does not convert signals from analog to digital. In other words, you can't run component cables to the input and expect to output sound across an optical cable. The inputs and output have to match. My setup is all optical, so this wasn't an issue; I just mention this in case someone is looking at this device for that application.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great except for IR receiver., June 2, 2009

By 

The Rocketdyke. "rocketdyke" (los angeles, ca, usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cables To Go 28731 3-Play S-Video, Composite Video and TOSLINK Digital Audio High Performance Selector Switch (Black) (Electronics)

I would give this five stars except for the poor IR receiver that quite often doesn't recognize commands sent to it by remote (included remote or harmony 880) when the remote isn't directly in front of the unit.

I am planning on getting an IR blaster type remote replicator to fix this, but it is annoying that I need another piece of equipment to take care of the shortcomings of this one.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent optical surround sound switch, January 11, 2008

By 

Annie "Amazon Consumer" (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cables To Go 28731 3-Play S-Video, Composite Video and TOSLINK Digital Audio High Performance Selector Switch (Black) (Electronics)

This model has few reviews but is cheaper than the 40324 and that one has tons of rave reviews. The audio ins/outs are exactly the same on both. It's just the video ins/outs that differ. I just needed the audio switching so went for this less costly model and am thrilled with its reliability, quality and digital optical 5.1 surround sound output.

I have a Panasonic SA-HT900 DVD changer home theater (HTIB) and love its audio features, but wanted to upgrade to an upconverting DVD HTIB. Well they don't make the new upconverting home theaters with all the sound features this one has, so I opted to keep it as a receiver and buy a separate Oppo DV981-HD upconverting DVD player and get this selector to switch the one optical digital audio input I have on the receiver between my cable and new upconverting DVD player, and it's flawless.

Setup was a breeze. The remote is so convenient and the size of a credit card. I incorporated into my learning remote too.

Don't let any photos of this unit's back with the strange looking audio plugs scare you. It definitely uses standard digital optical toslink cable and handles 5.1 surround. Those are just the toslink plug protectors sitting in the audio plugs. I pulled them out and am using standard optical cable.

If you don't need to switch component video, save some money and get this model instead of the 40324.

I read so many bad reviews about the passive digital audio switches out there, and most have to be switched manually. This switch is so worth the cost and electricity. It's solid and convenient.

Update 8/6/10:
This switch is still going strong. Now I have all three digital audio inputs in use- HD cable box, dvd player and HTPC all in lovely surround sound! Just wish it was smaller or had a cabled infrared sensor so I could tuck the box away in back. I recently switched my 3 HDMI video inputs into this tiny playing card box sized switch that automatically switches too! Now that switch is cool (and cheap to boot)!