I have just learned that my dad has about 30 videos he recorded on a Sony camcorder. Most of them would have been at the Galax Fiddler’s convention held every year in Galax, VA. But he also has one of Doc Fucking Watson!
His TV has 2 HDMI inputs, one for cable, one for DVD. Now I know you can get a switch box and connect 2 inputs to 1 HDMI, but you have to press a button to switch. He might forget that.
What if I just got him a simple Y splitter? If the DVD player was turned on, but no DVD playing, if he pressed play on the camcorder, would the TV recognize the signal?
I have him set up now on the Harmony remote, one activity is Watch TV, the other Watch DVD. I am hoping I would not have to add another activity.
What format are the videos on? DVD? Old-fashioned tape? Flash drive?Hard-drive? If they’re on DVD then of course he can just play them in the DVD player, no splitter or switch needed, but I have a feeling the vids are on something else.
If he is very comfortable with only the binary choice of “Watch TV or Watch DVD” then maybe you could arrange to have the blue-grass videos transferred to DVD and he can watch them there.
There’s no such thing as a “simple Y splitter” for HDMI, or pretty much any digital signal, due to the 2 way nature of the communication. A switch is the only way to use the same input for multiple source devices.
You could try this, an automatic HDMI switch. It claims it will switch to whatever device is currently powered on.
That works, thanks. I’ve seen others in the $50 range