OPPO HM-31 Advanced HDMI 1.3 and 1080p Switch

OPPO HM-31 Advanced HDMI 1.3 and 1080p Switch
by OPPO Digital

Our Price: $949.99
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: CE
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Customers in the UK, buy this product at amazon.co.uk for British Pounds

Digital Photo Product Details

Manufacturer: OPPO Digital
Model: HM-31
Color: Blank
Product features:

Expands a single HDMI or DVI input into three. Connects up to three HDMI devices to your HDTV.
Maintains highest video and audio quality. Supports all HDTV resolutions up to 1080p and 1920x1200 with Deep Color.
HDMI 1.3 certified. Works with HDTV, projectors, receivers, DVD players, cable boxes, game consoles and computers
Remote control included. External IR sensor and RS-232 remote control available for custom home theater installation.
Designed and manufactured by renowned HDMI DVD player expert OPPO Digital, Inc.

Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of OPPO HM-31 Advanced HDMI 1.3 and 1080p Switch

Customer Review: A solid piece in my home theater
Summary: 5 Stars

Well, this is the second time I am writing this review. The first time I was almost finished but accidentally pressed the "Backspace" button outside of Amazon.com's review text input box. You know in a normal web browsing session "Backspace" means go back to the previous page, and that's exactly what happened. I lost all the typing and almost gave up writing it again. However the OPPO HM-31 works so well it deserves a detailed review. Here I try again. Five star for the OPPO HM-31 3x1 HDMI switcher and ZERO star for Amazon.com's review user interface design.

I got the OPPO HM-31 switcher after I bought a PlayStation 3 to watch Blu-ray movies and my receiver ran out of HDMI input ports. Actually the OPPO HM-31 is not my first HDMI switch. I tried other switches (one Terk from Amazon and another from monoprice) but none worked for my setup. My home theater has 3 HDMI sources:

1. A comcast/motorola cable box plus DVR. This device is what causes other HDMI switches to fail. No matter it is on or off, its HDMI output is always alive and sends a video signal (no audio when off). When preset recording starts, the HDMI output actually "flickers" - alternating between good/bad signal before going stable.
2. A PlayStation 3 (60GB). I bought it not for playing games, but for watching Blu-ray movies.
3. An OPPO DV-980H 1080p Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI and 7.1CH Audio. This is a great DVD up-converter. Even though I bought the PS3, I still prefer using the OPPO to watch normal DVD.

All three are connected to the OPPO HM-31. The output of the HM-31 goes into my Onkyo TX-SR604 7.1 Channel A/V Receiver. From the receiver, its HDMI output is connected to a Pioneer KURO PDP-5010FD 50" 1080p Plasma HDTV. The receiver only has two HDMI input ports and that's the reason I need an HDMI switch to get more ports. The TV has more HDMI input ports than I care but it is not a receiver and cannot handle audio for me.

With this setup, everything works well together. The addition of OPPO HM-31 HDMI switch does not introduce any loss of picture or sound quality, nor does it cause any HDMI handshake issues. No matter I watch a Blu-ray movie with the PS3 or play a DVD with the OPPO DV-980H (both set to 1080p), or watch HD channels from comcast, the result is the same as if I directly connect the source to my receiver.

These all seems simple but they are not. When I used a monoprice switch, I often had HDMI handshake issue with my comcast cable box. The TV would display a blue screen with text saying something like "We have detected that the HDMI output has been compromised. Video output is now disabled" . When this happened I had to unplug and replug the HDMI cable to get it working again. With the OPPO HM-31 switch this problem never happened once. The Terk is an OK switch and it got me by, but the constant-on HDMI output from the comcast box totally confused the Terk's auto-switching function. Since the Terk does not have a remote control, I had to walk up to the TV and push the Terk's button. On the other hand the OPPO has a remote and it's much easier to use.

Talking about remote and auto-switching, I recently discovered that the OPPO HM-31 can do auto-switching too, and did it very well. The auto-switching feature was not mentioned in the user manual that came with the box, but the online manual at oppodigital.com talked about it. Following the recommendation on oppodigital.com I put the comcast box on port 3. The always-alive signal from it does not cause any problem with auto-switching since OPPO put port 3 at a lower auto-sensing priority than the other ports. The auto-switching function of the OPPO HM-31 saved me from programming another activity on my Logitech Harmony H-659 Advanced Universal Remote Control (Black). I simply keep using my already programmed "Watch a Movie" activity button for both the PS3 and OPPO DV-980H dvd player. What the button does is selecting the correct input ports on the TV and the receiver. I didn't even program the HM-31 remote control into the Harmony. All I need to do is simply turning on or off the PS3, OPPO DV-980H and comcast box as needed (This task is almost automated by the Harmony, except for the PS3 which uses a Bluetooth remote not supported by Harmony). The OPPO HM-31 is smart enough to know which port has signal and selects the correct port. How does it handle the always-alive comcast box? Well, when both the PS3 and OPPO DV-980H are off, comcast gets selected. Simple!

Overall I am extremely happy with OPPO products. Both the HM-31 and their DVD player work really well. I highly appreciate the company putting out these excellent products. That's why I want to spend the time to write this review - twice, after the first one destroyed by a "Backspace" keystroke.

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Description of OPPO HM-31 Advanced HDMI 1.3 and 1080p Switch

The OPPO HM-31 is a 3 to 1 HDMI switch built with the latest HDMI 1.3 standard. It maintains the highest video & audio quality with resolution support up to 1080p and 1920x1200 with deep color. The OPPO HM-31 supports auto-synchronization, remote control, RS-232 and IR control.

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