HDMI has become more and more important. Not just because HDMI simplified A/V connections, equally or even more important is the evil HDCP DRM. Without HDCP, the DVD players are not allowing to upscale video beyond 480P; even I have paid the full price for the DVD movie.  Without HDCP, the Blu-Ray players are not able to output HD audio.

Anyway, in order to get upscaled video for my old Mitsubishi VS-60111, I used the HDFury gizmo to convert DVI to RGB. The problem is HDFury only has one input and I have more than one HDMI devices.  Since my old Pioneer AV receiver does not have any HDMI connection, it is obvious I need a HDMI switcher. After searching on the web, I settled on the Monoprice HDMI switcher. At $20+tax+shipping  for a refurbished unit, it is a low cost option with very low risk.

When I receive the unit, the packaging is better than I expected. Although I brought the refurbished one, it came with retail box.  Package came with the following,

• The unit itself
• Power supply
• Remote
• Remote battery

What was really surprising is the unit is made of metal casing instead of plastic that is common to device at this price range.

Setup and connecting the unit is straight forward. Connect all the input and output HDMI and then the power supply and it works! I have tried Toshiba A3 HD DVD; Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-Ray; Oppo 980H DVD and LG RC797T all works without any problem. While some people may prefer auto sensing switch, I prefer the manual remote way of the Monoprice unit as I may have more than one device on at the any given time.

It is very important to note that this Monoprice is a powered switch meaning the input is buffered and amplified. Since some HDMI devices are very picky, a none powered HDMI switch may fail to work. Case and point is after I got the Yamaha RX-V665, I thought I can remove the Monoprice HDMI switch from the signal chain, I was wrong. Apparently HDFury is so picky that the output stage of the Yamaha RX-V665 does not have enough driving capability to drive the HDFury and the TV was not able to get stable video signal to lock on. As soon as I put the Monoprice switch in between Yamaha receiver and the HDFury, the TV picture came back as good as ever.

Bottom, this unit is an excellent value. Even right now I am only using the switch as powered buffer, it is well worth for the price just for this function alone. If you are looking for a HDMI switch, this unit should be a top choice.

Setup for a basic player like the NB530MGX is simple and straight forward enough one probably does not even need to look at the manual.

In my setup, for video, I connected the HDMI port to a powered HDMI switch, which in terms connected to a gizmo called HDFury that convert HDMI to component video and it is connected to an old Mitsubishi VS-60111 using RGB input. Since the Magnavox has component video output and my old  TV and receiver both has component video input, why do I want to go through the trouble to use HDMI switch and converter? The answer again is due to the evil empire of the studios and their HDCP DRM scheme. If the content of a DVD disc is “protected”, which probably include over 99% of the DVD sold in US, the player cannot upscale it through component video. 480P is the max. resolution allowed. This means if you only have an old HDTV that was manufactured before this evil HDCP day; you would not get the full function of this player that you have already paid for. If you think this is bad, the same evil empire is working even to eliminate 1080i component video output even for Blu-Ray playback.

Since my old receiver does not have HDMI connection, I have to use the digital output from the player to the receiver. Again, this means I will not be able to enjoy the full function of even the basic player because the player will downgrade the sound track before it sends to the digital output.

After everything is connected, power the player and the TV screen is….jumping and fuzzy lines. Have no fear. This is only due to the HDFury is telling the player it can do 1080P while as the TV can only do 1080i. No big deal. Just use the “HDMI” button on the remote with the display on the front panel of the player to cycle through and resolution selections and the player is ready to play.

From standby to eject the tray is surprisingly fast. It only took 15sec from the time I hit the eject bottom on the remote till the player wake up and eject the tray. This is much faster than the Toshiba A3 HD DVD player and on par with many low cost DVD players. It is certainly not the snail pace of even high end early Blu-Ray players.

Video quality for Blu-Ray is probably as good as can be expected from an old RPTV. What is surprising is the upscaling quality of the regular DVD. We have three players has upscale capabilities, a Oppo DV-980H DVD player, Toshiba A3 HD DVD player and this Magnavox NB530. Both the Oppo and Toshiba have good reputation on their upscaling. In my setup, I think the Magnavox is just as good as the Toshiba and better than the Oppo. But here is the problem of HDCP again. If you do not have HDMI, you will lose this great upscale capability of the player even you already paid for it. The image quality of a carefully mastered recent DVD upscaled to 1080i is very good. Depends on your TV and viewing distance, one may be hard pressed to see the difference between regular DVD and Blu-Ray. Can I see the difference? Yes, I can. Would I pay more for Blu-Ray movie? Well, if it is $1 or $2 yes. But I certainly will not pay 50% more let alone 2X or even 3X more for Blu-Ray movies.

This player does have an annoyances issue on playing old 4:3 “full screen” DVD and that include those fake none anamorphic “widescreen” DVDs. The player will not automatically adjust the aspect ratio and the video image is stretched. You have the manually goes into the setup menu to change the aspect ratio. 

Audio wise, since I don’t have HDMI capable receiver and the player does not have multi channel analog output, I would not be able to test out the lossless sound tack on some of the Blu-Ray disc. As far as regular DVD quality level playback, it is about the same as most average DVD player out there.

This is a Blu-Ray profile 1.1 player which means it does not have network connection for BD Live. Personally after reading all the horror stories on the web about the stupid BD Live, I think I will miss that junk function.

Overall, I would think at $98 is a worth well purchase and I am happy about it. In fact, I feel pretty good I passed Fry’s $199 one day special for the Sony S360 and waited for this one instead.

p.s If you need HDMI cable, don’t wast money on those retail stores want to sale one to you  for $49 or worst. Good quality cable does not mean you have pay high cost. I use one from monoprice.com and only paid $4.74 plus shipping for a good 10ft HDMI cable. You can choose diffent cable color that make cable management easier.

Second, it seems the same greedy studios want to keep the Blu-Ray movie prices high to make extra profit. While I can see the Blu-Ray disc may cost a little more than regular DVD, it should not cost us the consumer 50%, 2X or even 3X more than DVD for the Blu-Ray. Yes, the Blu-Ray pictures may be shaper than DVD with better color too. But, with a decent upscale DVD player that cost as low as $70, average people will be hard pressed to spend more than $1 or $2 per movie for the difference.

Then there is the audio thing. While Blu-Ray supporters will point out that with Blu-Ray not only has better pictures but also has better sound track. While this claim may be true, for most of us it also means we need to spend more in order to “enjoy” this “improvement”. Why? Because most if not all the entrant to mid level Blu-Ray player does not have multi channel analog audio output and they will downgrade the quality before they send out to the optical or coaxial digital audio output. They will only output the “new and improved” sound track over HDMI output, which means unless you have a recent AV receiver at home, you are out of luck. Prepare to spend either for a $300+ player that has multi channel analog output or spend more to get a new receiver. To me, the HDMI or the HDCP DRM behind it is the most evil consumer electronics pushed to the public in recent years.  It is designed to squeeze more money out of consumers.

Good thing is prices for both Blu-Ray, player and movies started to drop more significantly lately. Just last week Fry’s was selling Sony S360 Blu-Ray for $199 plus two free movies for the July 4^th one day sale. I gave it a little thought but decided to pass as even at $199, the price is still too high, not to mention it does not have multi channel analog output and my receiver does not have HDMI input.

As recent as 7/7/2009, the cheapest Blu-Ray player my local Walmart was selling is a Magnavox Blu-Ray player for $168.  This is a lousy price to say the least for a very basic player. But to my surprise, two days later the price for the same player is dropped to $98! Even the sales associate at the Walmart was surprised. Well, at this price point I finally broke down and thought I will give it a try. Although this is one more victory for the evil Blu-Ray alliance, the same Walmart associates commented he is waiting for the price to be $50. Take that.