Although it’s currently unlikely you have enough devices to use all the HDMI inputs of your TV or receiver, there’s a good chance that you will as you keep adding devices to your equipment rack.

That’s where an HDMI switchbox comes in handy, and if you’re putting together a home theatre setup that you plan to expand later, installing one earlier will come in handy.

The Aten VS-481 is a fairly simple unit. At the back are three HDMI inputs, an HDMI output and a power connector. At the front is another HDMI input, an IR receiver and four source buttons with accompanying LEDs that indicate signal presence and which input is selected.

Although the case is very solid, most of this weight comes from the chassis; not the electronics. The switching itself is done by an Analogue Devices chip on the otherwise sparse circuit board. Because it’s only electronically connecting wires it doesn’t limit the signal, meaning that whatever HDMI standards are brought out they will be supported.

A credit card style remote control lets you cycle through the inputs or select one of the four directly. As the Aten switch receives basic infra red control information, you’ll be able to program a learning remote control with the relevant commands to switch the inputs.

It’s a little pricey for what it does, but $300 is a much better alternative to spending thousands on a new receiver to replace an otherwise perfectly good one.