I am new to the world of today's A/B switches since the only one I owned some twenty years ago was a manual switch. It seems todays are a bit more sophisticated so any help appreciated.

I recently bought another DVDR and would like to use both in line to feed my TV along with a Home theater so need a A/B switch to route the signals from each feed.

The outputs will be composite and svideo for now. I will upgrade everything in a couple of years.

There will be times when I record on both or watch one while recording on the other, so both will be live and feeding the switch, hence I will need to be able to control the feeds and only allow one output to the TV. I note that some of these sense the signal and send it, but the switch will get more than one live signal so there might be problems.

It would be nice to use a remote to switch the input, so I can tie it in with my Harmony remote.

Suggestions welcome.

You don't say what model/capabilities your set or AVR have. So I'd suggest using one of the multiple inputs on the TV for the various sources and run the audio to the AVR. When you get a "modern" AVR, you'll get multiple inputs in it and would be able to switch the source with the AVR. My GWIII has 7 inputs (IIRC) and it has a 2 tuner PiP. My AVR 6 or 7 inputs so I use a combination of both with HD cable and DVD going thru the AVR to the set but my Tivo and 2 DVDR's connect directly to the set.

YMMV

You don't say what model/capabilities your set or AVR have. So I'd suggest using one of the multiple inputs on the TV for the various sources and run the audio to the AVR. When you get a "modern" AVR, you'll get multiple inputs in it and would be able to switch the source with the AVR. My GWIII has 7 inputs (IIRC) and it has a 2 tuner PiP. My AVR 6 or 7 inputs so I use a combination of both with HD cable and DVD going thru the AVR to the set but my Tivo and 2 DVDR's connect directly to the set.

YMMV

Thanks for the response.

It is an old TV with one composite input and receiver/amp is also limited. I could send audio from the DVRs to the receiver/amp but it does not have any video switching, so still need the A/B switch for video from the DVRs to the TV.

In about two years it will be moot since I intend to completely upgrade everything, so the switch is intrim.

There will be times when I record on both or watch one while recording on the other, so both will be live and feeding the switch, hence I will need to be able to control the feeds and only allow one output to the TV. I note that some of these sense the signal and send it, but the switch will get more than one live signal so there might be problems.

So it sounds like you mean you want an X in, Y out switch box.

That is, for example 3 inputs and 2 outputs.. so each output can take any combination of inputs.

Unfortunately all of these are VERY expensive. A friend of mine built one on his own over 10 years ago
http://www.lyons42.com/PatchBoy/PatchBoy.html

So it sounds like you mean you want an X in, Y out switch box.Didn't sound like it to me - it sounds like he basically needs something to select one of several inputs to his TV.

I have a couple of the RCA VH920 switches described here (http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/Reviews/rca/index-j.html). They work well and can learn IR codes to do automatic switching. They've been around for several years and you may be able to find one at a good price. They'll switch the audio as well, so you could run all of the audio lines from the source units into the switch and then take the switch's audio output and run it to your amplifier.

The main disadvantage with this unit is that it doesn't convert between S-Video and composite. So if your TV only accepts composite inputs then all of the inputs to the switch will also have to be composite. If you have a piece of equipment that only outputs S-Video you can get one of these (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2486497&cp=&sr=1&origkw=s-video+rca+adapter&kw=s-video+rca+adapter&parentPage=search) to convert it to composite before it goes into the switch.