Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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192 of 197 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A solid piece in my home theater, October 26, 2007
Well, this is the second time I am writing this review. The first time I was almost finished but accidentally pressed the "Backspace" button outside of Amazon.com's review text input box. You know in a normal web browsing session "Backspace" means go back to the previous page, and that's exactly what happened. I lost all the typing and almost gave up writing it again. However the OPPO HM-31 works so well it deserves a detailed review. Here I try again. Five star for the OPPO HM-31 3x1 HDMI switcher and ZERO star for Amazon.com's review user interface design.
I got the OPPO HM-31 switcher after I bought a PlayStation 3 to watch Blu-ray movies and my receiver ran out of HDMI input ports. Actually the OPPO HM-31 is not my first HDMI switch. I tried other switches (one Terk from Amazon and another from monoprice) but none worked for my setup. My home theater has 3 HDMI sources:
1. A comcast/motorola cable box plus DVR. This device is what causes other HDMI switches to fail. No matter it is on or off, its HDMI output is always alive and sends a video signal (no audio when off). When preset recording starts, the HDMI output actually "flickers" - alternating between good/bad signal before going stable.
2. A PlayStation 3 (60GB). I bought it not for playing games, but for watching Blu-ray movies.
3. An OPPO DV-980H 1080p Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI and 7.1CH Audio. This is a great DVD up-converter. Even though I bought the PS3, I still prefer using the OPPO to watch normal DVD.
All three are connected to the OPPO HM-31. The output of the HM-31 goes into my Onkyo TX-SR604 7.1 Channel A/V Receiver. From the receiver, its HDMI output is connected to a Pioneer KURO PDP-5010FD 50" 1080p Plasma HDTV. The receiver only has two HDMI input ports and that's the reason I need an HDMI switch to get more ports. The TV has more HDMI input ports than I care but it is not a receiver and cannot handle audio for me.
With this setup, everything works well together. The addition of OPPO HM-31 HDMI switch does not introduce any loss of picture or sound quality, nor does it cause any HDMI handshake issues. No matter I watch a Blu-ray movie with the PS3 or play a DVD with the OPPO DV-980H (both set to 1080p), or watch HD channels from comcast, the result is the same as if I directly connect the source to my receiver.
These all seems simple but they are not. When I used a monoprice switch, I often had HDMI handshake issue with my comcast cable box. The TV would display a blue screen with text saying something like "We have detected that the HDMI output has been compromised. Video output is now disabled" . When this happened I had to unplug and replug the HDMI cable to get it working again. With the OPPO HM-31 switch this problem never happened once. The Terk is an OK switch and it got me by, but the constant-on HDMI output from the comcast box totally confused the Terk's auto-switching function. Since the Terk does not have a remote control, I had to walk up to the TV and push the Terk's button. On the other hand the OPPO has a remote and it's much easier to use.
Talking about remote and auto-switching, I recently discovered that the OPPO HM-31 can do auto-switching too, and did it very well. The auto-switching feature was not mentioned in the user manual that came with the box, but the online manual at oppodigital.com talked about it. Following the recommendation on oppodigital.com I put the comcast box on port 3. The always-alive signal from it does not cause any problem with auto-switching since OPPO put port 3 at a lower auto-sensing priority than the other ports. The auto-switching function of the OPPO HM-31 saved me from programming another activity on my Logitech Harmony H-659 Advanced Universal Remote Control (Black). I simply keep using my already programmed "Watch a Movie" activity button for both the PS3 and OPPO DV-980H dvd player. What the button does is selecting the correct input ports on the TV and the receiver. I didn't even program the HM-31 remote control into the Harmony. All I need to do is simply turning on or off the PS3, OPPO DV-980H and comcast box as needed (This task is almost automated by the Harmony, except for the PS3 which uses a Bluetooth remote not supported by Harmony). The OPPO HM-31 is smart enough to know which port has signal and selects the correct port. How does it handle the always-alive comcast box? Well, when both the PS3 and OPPO DV-980H are off, comcast gets selected. Simple!
Overall I am extremely happy with OPPO products. Both the HM-31 and their DVD player work really well. I highly appreciate the company putting out these excellent products. That's why I want to spend the time to write this review - twice, after the first one destroyed by a "Backspace" keystroke.
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42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent product - set it up in 5 minutes, works perfectly, November 6, 2007
I purchased this based on a review above. Like a lot of people with flat screen tv's more than a year old, I only had 1 hdmi input to work with. But, my cable box and my dvd player both have HDMI out, and I wanted the higher quality (and single cable) connection. So I bought this.
Packaging is great, set up is almost idiot proof; hdmi out goes to the tv, dvd and cable box goes to the hdmi inputs. Plug it in and you're up and running. Follow the advice of the first reviewer, and put your cable box into input #3, and then you don't have to use the remote that came with it to switch between inputs. You can leave your cable box on...and then turn on your DVD player with your DVD remote and the TV will recognize the dvd player. Then - this is the cool part - when you're done with your DVD, you can simply turn off your DVD player, and it goes back to the cable box (input #3) without needing to manually switch the input via the oppo remote. Very cool.
I've owned an oppo dvd player for a month now, and love it. Wish more retailers carried these products as they're well made, attractive, easy to set up, and inexpensive!
p.s. don't forget to buy extra HDMI cables, as you'll need at least one more than you have now. I bought cables to go hdmi cables - cheap - here on amazon, and they work fine.
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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reliable, simple, up-to-date (i.e., "current") HDMI switcher (1.3 compliant), December 23, 2007
I bought both an Oppo HDMI switcher (this review) and an Oppo DVD player, and they both work very well.
This switcher is essential for slightly older HDTVs (like mine; two years old is now "old" in HDTV (sniff, sniff)!!) that have only one HDMI input. Today's models typically have three HDMI inputs!! So unless you want to constantly change the HDMI input cable on your TV whenever you switch from one source (e.g., cable box) to another (e.g., DVD player), you need an HDMI "switcher" (or "switch box"). Oppo's switcher accepts three HDMI cables as inputs, and then routes them all (only one at a time) to one HDMI input on your HDTV. You can "switch" from one HDMI source to another by either pushing a button on the front of the switcher, or using the small, included remote to do same. (I keep the remote hidden away, as I have small kids who could easily abscond with it to that unknown place where kids takes parents' items, never to be seen again.) In short, this is THE switcher (switch box) to get if you have multiple HDMI sources but only a one-HDMI-input HDTV.
For those not current on HDTV hardware, HDMI is fast becoming the standard, all-in-one digital cable for hi-def signals. It takes a digital signal from a digital source (like a current cable box, satellite dish or upconverting DVD player) and transfers it digitally to the HDTV; no muss, no fuss, and very little strain on the inner hardware of your HDTV. Most other cables (like the annoying five-wire component cables (3 for video signals and two for audio signals)) actually accept an analog (i.e., "old style") signal from a digital source and send that to the HDTV, which must then translate the signal back into digital, thereby degrading (in varying degrees) the original digital signal AND making the HDTV do a lot of internal work with its own hard drive to present the signal (to the best of its capabilities) in hi-def. So bottom line: use HDMI for the clearest, cleanest digital signal transfer to your HDTV whenever available (and the cables need NOT be high-priced Monster cables; more on that below).
Now, one further caveat: not all HDTV cables and switches are the same. The industry body that created HDMI occasionally updates the technology. First came HDMI 1.1, then 1.2 and most recently, 1.3. Granted, the updates/improvements are modest to the regular viewer's eyes and ears, but they nonetheless exist, so at this time (December 2007), you want to get an HDMI 1.3-compliant cable and (when necessary) switcher whenever possible. Bottom line: this switcher is fully 1.3 compliant (Oppo takes this stuff very seriously and apparently prides itself on same), so it is the most current switcher out there.
And P.S.: in my experience, Monster cables do no better than other, less expensive HDMI cables. Just make sure that whatever HDMI cables you get and use, that they are HDMI 1.3 "compliant" (or "certified").
CONCLUSION: simple, niche product, but current with latest, HDMI 1.3 standards and made by a reliable, serious, hi-tech company that makes only the best when it makes a product. Well worth the price if you have an HDTV with one HDMI input but you have multiple HDMI sources.
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