One thing I'm learning is that I may know my way around a Network, but when it comes to HD and a television setup, I don't know enough. In the last month I've purchased both of the HDTVs, upgrading from two Tube TVs.

This is what I have:

Two HD TVs
- 37" has two Aux inputs, two Component inputs, two HDMI inputs, one PC
- 32" has one Aux input, two Component inputs, two HDMI inputs, one PC

Two Tivo's
- Series 2 single tuner (May be moved to another room)
- Series 2 dual tuner
- Series 3 HD dual tuner (this is on the way now, will have two cable cards)
One DVD Player
One XBox (will probably be replaced with the XBox 360 by Christmas)
One Wii
One PS2 (Honestly won't replace with PS3 until prices drop)

I also have two Aux cable 4x1 switches without a remotes.

What I want to be able to do is this.....

1) Use the best cables possible and get away from Aux possibles, if there is something better. I'm not sure I understand the difference between when I should use HDMI cables vs using Component video cables.

2) I would really like a switching matrix that will allow me to display any of the game consoles, Tivo's (S2 DT and S3) or DVD player on either one of the HD TVs. What I would really like is some kind of 6 x 2 switching matrix. I suppose what I need to figure out first is which components should use HDMI or Component Video and then decide on which devices would still use Aux.

By the way, am I the only geek that has two TVs in the living room, HDTVs at that? In case anyone is curious why I have this setup, my spouse may be playing a gaming system while I'm watching TV or I may be playing a gaming system while my husband wants to play another gaming system or watch TV and we want to do all this while staying in the same room with each other.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Oh and I am looking at buying a Home Theater in a Box, but haven't gotten to that point yet. But, I suppose it should be something to consider with this setup.

How do you decide who gets to have their volume up? Maybe you both wear headphones :D

When you say Aux. do you mean composite?

There are a number of matrix switchers available and all of them are quite expensive.

The good thing about an HDMI matrixer is that the audio and video would be carried on one cable.

Based on your sources you will not only be able to use an HDMI matrix switch. This will be very complicated and expensive.

My suggestion to you is to have a dedicated gaming TV and hook up the game systems to it and then have a dedicated HD tv that just views Tivo material.

I don't know why I always call Composite cables Aux, but yes that's what I'm referring to.

I actually found some different switches online today, and I about fainted at the price on some of them. I think I'm going to get a composite AV switch that's 4 in and 2 out and it's reasonably inexpensive, which will solve most of our needs. We'll daisy off that another AV switch that will connect the Xbox and PS2.

We're going to run an HDMI cable between the Series 3 HD Dual Tuner Tivo to our 37" HD TV and then we're going to use a set of Component cables to go between the Series 3 HD Tivo and the 32" TV.

When it comes to the sound on the TV, whoever is actually watching a show or a movie gets the sound on their TV. Whoever is playing a game gets to turn down the sound or mute it on their TV.

That must be one hectic living room :p

Yes, switches are very expensive. Sometimes they show up in the For Sale section so pay attention for used gear to cut your costs. Either way, it is not going to be a pretty picture wiring wise.

I've already been rethinking how we're set up. I really don't want to bother with the switches, they are expensive, too expensive for me.

Each of our Tivo's and DVD player have two outputs, so we can send an output to each of the TVs and the game consoles will just go to one TV or the other, but not both. Then we can just use the input selection on the TVs to choose what we want. I think if we can watch a show or movie on either TV, it won't matter which TV the game consoles are connected to.

I'll be glad when we get it setup, thinking about this gives me a headache! lol, too much to think about!