Customer Reviews

RCA HD4DCA Component Video Switcher

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Does exactly what it advertizes. Switches among 4 component video sources with no noticable loss in quality. I was concerned when I ordered it because it did not come with a remote, so I figured that I'd have to push buttons on the unit to make the switch. It solves that problem with a feature that allows it to learn the signal of any button on any of your remotes and use that to switch the source. So, for me, turning on the DVD player causes this unit to switch to the DVD source, etc. Execellent choice for a component switcher.

This thing works as advertised, yes. However, if you have an HD signal fed into a monitor that does not correct the signal automatically, it is junk. That is, if you see an explosion or something bright on screen, the monitor will blink out for a second before coming back. Thats particularly bad if you are playing video games. At any rate, it does do what it is supposed to do, but not well, and not consistently.

No frills, no flash, but it does what its advertised to do.

I have an HD Tivo, AppleTV, HD DVD and Nintendo Wii running through the box and have not noticed any signal quality degradation. The switch has held up for probably more than a year of use, with no problems.

I have it set to select the Wii input by having it learn an unused button on one of my other remotes (the '0' button on my HD DVD remote works well). Were I to move to a universal remote, I'd just choose an unused remote from a device I don't use anymore and have both the universal remote and switch 'learn' commands from it. Honestly I can't believe the other reviewers complaining about the lack of remote- its not rocket science.

The one downside to the switch is no TOSLink (optical digital audio). Pretty much all my devices now only have TOSLink out. There are optical to coaxial converters, but they are bulky with the wall-wort power supplies and just another thing to fail eventually.

Overall I think this switch has awesome bang for the buck.

EDIT: This switch was excellent at its old price [...]. Selling it for over [...] should be a crime.

It does exactly what it's supposed to, in a fairly small package, and I haven't noticed any signal degradation since I've been using it. I've managed to get my DVD and cable remotes to sync up with it, though it doesn't work with my Nintendo Wii (which uses Bluetooth).

My only complaint is that the device will occasionally jump from Input 3 to Input 1 for no reason. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the device, or if it's due to outside RF interference (say, my neighbor turning on her TV). Not much of a problem, since this has only happened twice since I've owned the device.

If you have limited component inputs on your HDTV, this is an excellent deal.

I've had a composite RCA switchbox for many years that I've been happy with (at least for the price), but I'm not happy with this new component one. I plugged my Wii in through it and the picture quality is worse than with the component cables. The biggest problem is ghosting, meaning I see faint repeats of everything on the screen to the left and right of what should be there. This is mostly visible along high contrast edges, but it tends to generally muddy the whole picture a bit.

I tried unplugging the cables that go from the Wii (official Nintendo component cable) to the RCA box and the RCA box to the TV (Phillips cables), and I joined the cables with couplers to bypass the RCA box, and the ghosting was eliminated. I also tried moving the RCA's power chord away from all video cables and onto a different power strip connected to a different wall socket, and the ghosting was not improved. I also get ghosting from my PS2 on another set of inputs through the RCA box. The box is definitely the source of the problem.

On the plus side, this RCA box seems to remember the remote codes you program it with, unlike our old box that needed to be reset every time there was a power failure. If you just need something cheap that does an okay job, you might be satisfied with this switch. I don't usually notice the ghosting when I'm playing games, as there are not usually areas of high contrast, but it's plain as day on the black and white Wii menus, and I do get a sense that the whole picture is a more blurry than it should be.

This switcher does what it is supposed to, switches between 4 component video imputs. It will also switch left/right audio and Digital coaxial audio for 4 components. There is no noticible quality loss or interference that I can see.

The remote learning feature seems kind of useless, it refuses to learn the power command from my cable remote and of course my video game systems don't have remotes. It's easy enought to switch the inputs on the box though.

The switcher works great. I have it programed to the ON bottom of my other units. So when I turn them on it switches to there unit. It is hooked up to my DVD Recorder which allows me to make coping photo DVDS or something on Dishnetwork, my outside ant., or even my old VHS player; I breeze. I just wish it had HDMI imports for all 4 of the inputs, also. It does have one HDMI output. Radio Shack has the same switcher for $21 more than Amazon. Thank you Amazon.

Seller shipped fast, and the price is great.. 5 stars for them.

Giving 2.5 stars for the item itself. It works fine, unless you have a Wii. It works with my (older) DVD player and my Tivo.
When I connect my Wii, it gets very cloudy with streaks going across the screen... making it unusable with my Wii.

So, without a Wii, I would give it 4 stars... it just gets a 2.5 for not working with a Wii. Might not be fair if the Wii is the problem, but this item isn't usable for me if it can't support a gaming system. Not worth the effort to return over fifteen smackers, so I'll keep it.. and maybe find another use for it.

This product was complete junk. It doesn't work the way it is supposed to, and when it DOES work, Half the screen was black. Bigger than I expected it to be and completely not worth the money I paid for it.

This little electronic box is just what I needed to switch between my AT&T U-verse component TV receiver and my DVD player. It's easy to setup and use. Regarding the "Learn" feature which allows you to setup each device (1-4) so that it selects the correct device whenever that unit is turned on with the remote: It is more convenient if you setup your devices in order beginning with #1, otherwise, do to the way the "Learn" feature works, you have to have a dummy setting available for the remote which will never be used in order to progress across the unconnected device ports to the connected ones, for "Learn" feature purposes; believe me, setup your devices in order beginning with #1. Also, if the colors aren't appearing quite natural, and especially if one color is blatantly missing (such as red), then be sure to double check all connectors on the rear and use some force to assure that they are seated; I had a problem with my reds missing and found one connector looked seated properly but when I reseated it, even though the connector didn't seem to move much if any, the reds came back to life; push and twist the connectors to reseat them, for best results. If setup correctly you should experience little or no degradation in picture quality.