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Help selecting a Matrix Switch!

marinasdaddy
09-15-2009, 09:30 PM
Hello all.. I own a large bar and restaurant with 13+ hd tv's and supplying them currently are 7 cable boxes, and 4 or 5 directtv boxes. We really only use the directtv for Sunday ticket, for the NFL games that aren't being broadcast in our market that our customers want to see. We have two bar areas.. One inside and one out, and the tv's are split between them. This is a business that has grown from small to very big over a five year period. We just continued to add on to our original equipment so now we have a mess of splitters and boxes that becomes a nightmare for my managers and bartenders when it comes time to figure out what games to put on what tv's and which tv's have which boxes connected to them. After this past Sunday, I decided I needed to do something about it. I knew there had to be a better way. So I started looking and found a MATRIX SWITCH. All of my tvs are fed with component video cables, so I'm assuming I want a matrix component switch. I'm not sure that I'm clear on exactly what I'm going to get with one of these though. Here are my questions? 1. Am I correct in my understanding that if I install one of these I will be able to for instance play input from satelite 1 on tvs 1 and 2, while at the same time be able to play input from satelite 2 on tv's 3 and 4, while at the same time play input from cable 1 on tv's 5 and 6 and so on? Or if I elect I can play the same feed on all the tv's that are hooked to the unit? Some of the stuff I've read isn't very clear on what you can do with multiple feeds, can I distribute multiple feeds to multiple tv's at the same time? Question 2. What is the most inexpensive way to accomplish this? I've seen a bunch of different stuff and advice. I'm guessing that I want an 8 x 8 switch. This will suffice for my needs if infact I can use multiple sources at one time. Audio is not all that important to me, as we generally only play the audio for the "big" game that might be on that day, and if it saves money in the switch itself, I can just buy a small seperate switch for the audio correct? SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME THE EASIEST, AND MOST COST EFFECTIVE WAY TO DO THIS. I've seen some sites saying that they reccomend using a composite video switch for bars and restaurants because of not needing the audio.. you simply use one of the audio jacks for one of the feeds and the unit has been wired to accomodate. It said however that there might be a slight loss in picture quality. Anyone know about this.. Because it seems much cheaper... I'm fairly tech savy, but when it came to this matrix switch and what the best way to go is, I'm lost. One other reccomendation I came across was to buy a switch on ebay from "extron" or crosspoint.. they said I should be able to pick one of these up for 100 to 300 bucks used.. anyone know anything of these? PLEASE HELP.. Thank you in advance for anyone that was willing to read through this mess and still have time or patience left to respond... Have a great day...:eyecrazy