Couple questions after getting a bit up to speed here.
1. Is there a list of consoles/devices that have been found to cause trouble with autoswitching? Looks like OSSC, switches themselves (when uplinked/chained), I can confirm the SteamLink box is another that causes issues for me.
2. Looks like the holy grail here is finding a switcher (at a reasonable price) that looks for an actual signal, and not just some power line that may be left hot from devices in #1 (believe this is hot plug detect/HPD). Has anyone tried more pro-level gear, like switchers from Extron, Atlona, Key Digital, AVPro Edge, etc? Considering the Vertex 2 is ~400$ that may be an indicator that you get what you pay for in terms of autoswitching logic, hopefully one of those other brands (or similar) has something similar at a bit of a lower cost -- they have prohibitively expensive devices, but most do have 4x1 switch options as well.
3. Related to #2, if there is a quality switcher as a hub that connects to cheaper switches, that would allow a more optimal star topology compared to the previous daisy-chained topology that has been suggested. That would keep the sync time down with less *hops* from device to TV. It's unlikely based on what we are seeing that we'll get a 8x1 or 12x1 or more switch that autoswitches properly, to handle most of our port needs, but with a quality 4-port switch as a hub connected to 4 other *child* switchers we're at a healthy 16 ports. The rub here is that the hub needs to support the highest resolution/frame rate that we would need, which would be a challenge.
4. Ideally whatever it is also doesn't add lag, but that appears to be easier to find. If a switch claims to do anything on the signal beyond pass-through that would be a candidate to test for lag for sure.
I did a bit of research on some of those pro-level vendors, here's what I found on it:
Extron:They have a SW HD 4K Series of switches (
https://www.extron.com/product/swhd4kseries) but they max out at 10.2Gbps, so that 4K is a misnomer, I think that may mean 4K@30 max. It doesn't appear they autoswitch either.
Atlona:They have a 4x1 called the AT-JUNO-451 that is promising (
https://atlona.com/product/at-juno-451/). It does 4K@60 4:4:4 + HDR. It looks like it has Optical out for return audio, though that doesn't handle most of the newer audio formats so if you need to split out audio another device would be needed if you want support for that. It specifically mentions that it looks for a video signal in addition to the HPD (hot plug detect) signal. Looks like this is going for between 200$ and 400$ on Ebay at the moment, or 400$ new on Amazon/B&H/etc (
https://www.amazon.com/Atlona-AT-JUNO-4 ... B01MYCSQNQ).
Quote:
Reliable Auto-Switching
The JunoX 451 automatically selects an input source based on detection of the 5 volt hot plug detect (HPD) signal, as well as active video. This ensures reliable auto-switching operation for all video sources, including DVRs, DisplayPort / Mini DisplayPort adapters, and other devices that always maintain the HPD line at the 5 volt “high” state but may not be delivering active video.
Key Digital:They have a KD-S4X1 (
http://keydigital.com/product.aspx?ItemCode=KDS4x1) that is 4x1 and looks to support 4K@60 4:4:4. It mentions TDMS re-clocking/signal-regeneration, and a bunch of other things that are out of my area of expertise but sound promising. The one area here is I don't see mention of auto-switching, I'm not sure if I'm just missing that though, may be worth looking into further outside of their product website to see if it has that. This is going for ~150 on Amazon (
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0716Y8HT1/re ... KDbVEKV7SX) so it is more affordable.
AVPro Edge:This one turned up empty, I thought they had a 4x1 at some point though I may be remembering incorrectly, but their website only shows Matrix switches, which unless I'm missing something none of those autoswitch due to the nature of what they are trying to accomplish.
I don't know a ton of other pro-level brands to check out, but I'll keep my eye out, if anyone has other suggestions please share, looks to me like that Atlona JUNO-X is the one to watch for unless the Key Digital turns out to have auto-switching.