The 2020-2021 season has not been the best time in history to buy a AV receiver if what you wanted was to have the latest implementation of HDMI 2.1 to play at maximum resolution and performance on your next-generation console.
Some prominent brands such as Denon and Marantz (and they were not the only ones, since there were also cases in Yamaha equipment) they suffered from an incompatibility problem in their most cutting-edge equipment that caused black screens when connecting 4K sources at 120 Hz.
This year they gave the solution through a free external adapter that fixed the problem, although some users complained that their receivers they only had a full HDMI 2.1 compliant port, something that manufacturers have wanted to solve by announcing the arrival for next month of a curious three port switch.
It is what they have called Denon AVS-3 and Marantz VS3003 and the idea is that the owners of a compatible AV receiver (in principle they do not indicate that it can work with all models even if they do not have HDMI 2.1) can count on three full HDMI 2.1 jacks.
Does this switch or connection multiplier fix the screenshot problem? No, but it can be connected to the SPK618 adapter that the brand should provide to affected users if they wish, which gives us those extra ports at the cost of have a chain with three devices: AV receiver, SPK618 adapter and three-port switch.
The Denon AVS-3 and Marantz VS3003 are compatible with HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronics Control), which means that they turn on and off when they detect an input signal and can be controlled both from the remote control of the receivers and through their own included in the package.
As for the compatible equipment, they are the receivers Denon AVC-A110, Denon AVC-X8500HA, Denon AVC-X6700H, Denon AVC-X4700H, Denon AVC-X3700H, Denon AVR-X2700H / DAB, Denon AVR-S960H, Marantz AV8805A, Marantz AV7706, Marantz SR8015, Marantz SR8015, Marantz AV7706, Marantz SR8015, Marantz SR6015, Marantz SR5015 / DAB and Marantz NR1711.
Price and availability
The Denon AVS-3 and Marantz VS3003 switches will go on sale in October for a price of 199 euros.
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