Radiient Select-4 HDMI Switcher

HDMI has been a blessing, but sometimes a curse to early adopters. Now most definitely improving the big picture is the Radiient Select, a four input HDMI switch/repeater that’s worth its weight in gold, let alone its (recently reduced) $299 asking price.

A step up from (analog) component video and optical/coax digital audio connections, an ultra-wideband, High Definition Multimedia Interface carries both audio and video signals in their purest, unadulterated digital form. Better yet, HDMI uses a single, two-way cable terminated at both ends with a slide-on, multi-pin connector. That sure tidies up a home theater array. And in its latest, 1.3 iteration, HDMI adds capacity for two features now starting to pop up in high def disc software, HD displays and A/V receivers: The Deep Color process defines color in higher bit-length words, achieving millions more shades which the human eye is actually capable of differentiating. On the audio side, DTS-HD Master and Dolby Digital TruHD codecs finally deliver multi-channel movie audio (up to 7.1 channels) boasting lossless encoding and sampling/ bit rates that rival SACD and DVD-Audio.

But there’s a price to pay for this enhanced eye and ear candy. Your A/V system will need some upgrading, to accommodate those high def, HDMI signal sources you covet: satellite and cable TV boxes, HD disc players and recorders, the PlayStation 3 game system, plus digital still cameras and HD camcorders. For starters, how will you connect them all to your big screen display or projector, when the set only has one or two HDMI inputs?

My initial effort at integration, feeding HD satellite TV and HD-DVD signals through a first generation A/V receiver featuring HDMI switching, proved a disaster. While I could sometimes hear the soundtrack of the source product, the images blanked out after a second on my connected TV. HDMI has on-going  “handshaking” issues—content guards that often also engage Intel’s HDCP (high bandwidth digital content protection) software. Literally every two seconds, HDMI with HDCP connected products must communicate  back and forth that they’re authorized. And then, for added safety sake, both devices change their data encryption keys. Yes, every two seconds.

Intermediary switching products also need to identify themselves properly and keep the signals flowing two ways, without creating inadvertent road blocks.

Thus, the potential for hiccups in this process is enormous, if the technology isn’t implemented properly. Toshiba’s first generation HD-DVD players with HDMI/HDCP are  notoriously testy, for example, stopping a disc cold if you momentarily switch inputs on the connected TV and interrupt the two-way data flow. In fact, Best Buy has had so many issues with “failure to communicate” HDMI products that the retailer is now forcing all its vendors to submit their HDMI-ready goods for compatibility testing.

While Radiient Technologies’ box can’t fix other products’ design flaws, be assured that the Select-4 switching center won’t introduce issues of its own, and that it performs exceedingly well. One of the first HDMI devices tested and approved by the SimplayHD Labs, this Silicon Valley product was designed by two savvy insiders Jano Banks, co-inventor of the underlying HDMI chip technology (when he worked for for Silicon Image) and David Buuck a mastermind behind the DVDO iScan, a price/performance breakthrough video de-interlacer/scaler.

A snap to install and use, the small Radiient unit juggles four inputs and feeds one output. It automatically senses and switches to a powered-up signal source (HDMI, HDMI with HDCP, DVI and DVI with HDCP). Or, you can control the show with one of the two supplied credit card-sized wireless remotes or with a home theater/automation control system linked to the device’s RS-232 serial port interface.

Better yet, the Radiient box doubles as a cable length extender, performing feats of signal amplification and even data reconstruction that allow you to use input and output cables up to 50 feet each. But it’s no power hog, employing “EcoSmart Technology” to achieve very low power consumption of 1 watt max in standby, 5 watts max when operating. yy