If you have multiple HDMI sources and want to distribute any of them legally to multiple HDTV's in your home, office, or commericial space, you're going to need a PureLink. As many of you have read in the trade press and forums, HDMI is a great format but glitchy. Sometimes it works; other times you have to re-boot your sources. That's a giant pain in the butt so most consumers stick with analog. For 720p and 1080i, that will suffice. For 1080p, you will have to connect via HDMI because of HDCP.... the studios are going to protect the next generation HD content at the highest resolution.
HDMI chips with HDCP repeater functionality did not exist until about 3 months ago. As the world's leading provider of high performance HD connectivity products, PureLink designed the world's first legal HDMI switcher and distribution amp with multiple outputs, all of them HDCP compliant. The PureLink HS-42A ($699 MSRP, shown above) is the world's first 4-in, 2-out HDMI Switching System with discrete HD Audio breakout and HDCP on both outputs. The PureLink HD-150 ($799 MSRP, shown below) is the world's first 1-in, 5-out HDMI Distribution Amp with HDCP on all 5 outputs. Together, they are the first legal means to watching the highest resolution HD content throughout your home.
By legal, we mean legal according the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1997. This is the same law that shut down Napster and Grokster, and led to the prosecution of thousands of consumers for illegal downloading of music. It turns out that the movie industry is just as serious about consumers copying the HD versions of their movies, especially in 1080p. Switchers with one output need only pass-through the HDCP signal; switchers with 2 or more outputs must be actively HDCP compliant, a more expensive but legal means of controlling the HD content in your system. HDM distribution amps are the same. If they don't have HDCP on every output, they are considered illegal circumvention devices, according to the DMCA of 1997.
The PureLink HD-150 is the only legal distribution amp for HDMI in the world, at least that we know of at the time of this writing. We offer consumers a written Certification of Full HDCP Compliance and Indemnification to prove we are legal and challenge our competition to do the same. If you are caught with an illegal version of this type of device, you are at risk of having it seized and destroyed as well as being sued in civil court by Intel Corp., the owners of HDCP. Why risk it? Obey the law, play it safe with PureLink.
