Extending the useful life of a non-HDMI receiver
A few years ago I had purchased a Sony STR-KG700 audio receiver for use primarily as a 5.1 decoder in my back bedroom. At the time my house AV system was wired for component video. Eventually I converted the system over to HDMI for simplicity of wiring and to take advantage of the progressive scan HD formats. After the conversion however the Sony STR-KG700 was basically useless as it couldn’t switch the HDMI audio/video. I needed a way to upgrade a non HDMI receiver to both switch HDMI inputs and extract surround sound information carried by the HDMI. My solution was to add the Etekcity® 4 Port HDMI Intelligent Switch Switcher Selector with Audio to the rig and it has worked flawlessly. By adding the Etekcity HDMI switch I can now switch HDMI inputs and the Etekcity switch routes the 5.1 encoded audio to my old Sony via S/PDIF using Toslink or coax in essence converting it to an AVR. So for a little more than $40 I was able to upgrade my non-HDMI receiver to a AVR adding years of service to it’s service life.
From Amazon:
- With 4 Inputs and 1 Output; Supports 3D, HD resolutions up to 1080p
- IR remote with battery, AC adapter is UL FCC certified
- Supports 12bit per channel (36bit all channel) deep color and 225MHz/2.25Gbps per channel (6.75Gbps all channel) bandwidth
- Switch automatically with 4 high speed HDMI inputs into one output (based on active input)
- Supports manual switching using the supplied IR wireless remote or the button on the device
