Personally I hate HDMI. Specifically for it’s reliance on protected content. It’s essentially DVI + Audio + Protection. Why do I hate it? Because if you buy an HDMI selector, you can’t simply use a DVI to HDMI adaptor to hook up sources such as the PC or the 360 because those devices don’t output protected content, so the TV (and the AV Amp switcher I have) can’t display that source.

My only option is a DVI switcher. One that’s HDCP compatible. That lets me convert any HDMI signal to DVI and send that to my TV, allowing me to mix both protected and unprotected sources. However, this is still no solution for the 360 as it currently outputs over VGA (analogue) and whilst I can (and do) convert that to DVI, it’s not digital, and therefore any HDCP compliant DVI switcher (again £300) can’t cope.

Unless there’s a switch box out there that can cope with DVI, HDCP, and both Analogue and Digital, then in this next generation era I’m stuck with swapping cables.

It’s particularly crap that the Denon amp I have bosts component to HDMI conversion, yet no TV with HDMI will support an HDMI signal that’s not got HDCP, and HDCP isn’t added during the conversion from component/DVI to HDMI. Thus the Denon amp switching is as useless as the TV.

I’m not even convinced there’s any significant picture quality gain over HDMI/Digital DVI rather than analogue component or analogue DVI/VGA. It’s just a fudged up mess that makes owning multiple HD sources impossible to manage.