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.

Etekcity® 4 Port HDMI Intelligent Switch Switcher Selector with Audio, IR wireless remote, AC power Adapter, Supports 3D 1080P, Toslink, Coaxial, 3.5mm AUX StereoEtekcity® 4 Port HDMI Intelligent Switch Switcher Selector with Audio, IR wireless remote, AC power Adapter, Supports 3D 1080P, Toslink, Coaxial, 3.5mm AUX Stereo

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