Nowadays, we all have many devices that connect to the monitor or TV through HDMI, but many times there comes a point where we run out of available ports.In these cases, should you get an HDMI Splitter, or rather an HDMI switch?We tell you how the two differ, and in what circumstances you should use one or the other.They are very frequent, and especially in PC monitors, those that only have one video input.If you wanted to connect both the PC and a console to the same monitor, you would have to be disconnecting one cable and connecting the other every time you wanted to change, so these options that we are going to talk about next would be a perfect solution for you.The word “Splitter” comes from the English verb “to Split”, which means to separate.In other words, a Splitter is a splitter used to split (or duplicate) the signal from a single source to multiple screens.This is useful, for example, if we have a PC and we want to see the image both on our monitor and on a television so that other people can act as viewers.The same would be, for example, if we have an Apple TV and we want the image to be seen on two televisions at the same time.For this reason, an HDMI Splitter will always have a single input or «Input» that will be the video (and audio) source, and several outputs or «Output», which will be where we can connect the screens where we want the image to be seen.Thus, we have Splitter from 1×2 (one input and two outputs) to 1×16 (one input and sixteen outputs), of course going through 1×4, 1×8, etc.The HDMI Splitters do not have any manipulation, that is, they will always emit the signal that enters them through the Input in all the Outputs, without exception.It must be said that there are passive splitters, which do not need additional power, but normally these have limited quality, so normally they are active and we need to connect them to a power outlet.An HDMI switch is just the opposite in the physical sense of a Splitter.It has multiple entrances and a single exit.In other words, it is a switched device in which only one signal is emitted at a time.To give you an idea of ​​what we mean, we are going to use an example that you all know: any monitor or television.Since they all have an internal HDMI switch, this is because they only have one panel and cannot display two video signals at the same time.Thanks to this we can keep different devices connected to the various HDMI ports.Well, an external HDMI Switch is useful if we want to connect the PC or the console, but we lack HDMI ports.It would serve you to connect additional devices to the monitor.Its operation?You just have to press a button to switch between one signal source and another.For this reason, and unlike Splitters, HDMI switches have physical switches or buttons (there are even models with remote control) that are the ones that will allow us to switch between one source and another.In this case, the vast majority of HDMI switches are passive, that is, they do not need additional power.This is so because they do not have to multiply the image in several outputs as the Splitter do, but they simply limit themselves to sending one or another input signal always through the same output, and for this the HDMI itself already provides all the energy that needs to.There are some devices that are capable of working as both a Splitter and an HDMI switch.They are generally scarcer because users either have one need or another, and rarely do both at the same time, and in turn are much more expensive due to their internal complexity.In any case, these devices have multiple inputs and outputs and have a physical button to switch from one source to another.In this case, the Splitter + switch behave as follows: we will select the input source, and whatever we have selected, it will replicate it in all the outputs.What can this be used for?Well, with a combination of the above.Imagine that, as we gave the example before, we want the image that is seen on the PC to be replicated on a TV so that our friends can see it.Well, this device would allow us, at the same time, to do the same with the console by connecting it to the same monitor and the same TV, and allowing us to switch from one source to another with just one button.To summarize everything, we are going to see in which cases you should choose one or another of these products:In short, both HDMI switches and Splitters are used to manage video inputs and outputs so that, for example, you can make the same image come out of a PC on several different monitors or, in the case of HDMI switches, do that you can use several PCs or different video sources with a single monitor.Whatever your need, with these devices you will have it covered, even twice with the devices that act as Splitter and switch at the same time.If your device is of a higher generation than the one supported by the HDMI Splitter or the Switch, then you may find that the signal being transmitted is not adequate.This is because both devices are designed to transmit a signal at a specific speed, which corresponds to the different HDMI standards.It is already known that each resolution needs a specific bandwidth.So it is possible that the sending device such as the console or the PC transmits the signal with a speed and it decreases.The consequences of this?A drop in resolution or refresh rate.So make sure that the HDMI Splitter is of the same generation as the best of your devices to which you are going to connect.There is nothing worse than connecting a 4K console to one of these devices and finding that the graphics on the TV are in Full HD.