The Best Buy-exclusive Rocketfish 4-port HDMI selector is easy to set up, features a great remote, and worked with all our test devices except for the MHL cable. Most people don’t use an MHL cable in their TV setup, but Rocketfish’s high price and lack of 4K support means that you spend more for less. Unless you’re in a bind and need to purchase immediately from a brick-and-mortar Best Buy store, we recommend you save some money and buy our top pick, the J-Tech Digital switcher instead.
This switcher has four HDMI ports, three on the back and one on the front. The front-facing port is nice if you just need to plug something in periodically, like a laptop for a presentation. One major downside to this switcher is its lack of auto-switching. In our tests it was unable to automatically detect devices that were powered on. The best switchers can detect and automatically switch to a recently activated source device.
The Rocketfish took longer than its competitors to switch between devices. On average it took three seconds to change sources, compared with about 2.5 seconds for the best switchers.
The Rocketfish switcher was compatible with all of the test devices except the MHL cable. We plugged and unplugged the MHL cable multiple times and tried all of the ports, but it didn’t work at all. Other devices also had some trouble with the MHL cable, but switching ports usually fixed the problem. Because it didn’t work with all of our test devices, the Rocketfish received a D score in our compatibility test.
This switcher is one of the few we tested that uses HDMI version 1.4a, which means it should support most modern devices and peripherals. It is HDCP compliant and supports resolutions up to 1080p. It isn’t 4K compatible, however. Rocketfish has an even more expensive model that does support 4K resolution, but this is already the most expensive switcher we tested; it's unfortunate that Best Buy withholds this premium feature unless you fork over more cash.
This switcher needs an external power supply to work, but the lights on the device are softer than many of the LEDs on other devices. This keeps the switcher from being too distracting if you have the lights turned off for a movie. The remote is also very easy to use, and we didn’t have to point it directly at the IR sensor to get it to work like some of the other switchers we tested.
If you’re in such a hurry to purchase an HDMI switcher that you have to get one from a physical store, Best Buy’s Rocketfish 4-port HDMI Switcher is an average switcher that works well and is compatible with most devices. However, it is expensive and it doesn’t support 4K resolutions. If you have the time, we recommend that you purchase the J-Tech Digital Switcher online and save some money.
