The Best 4K UHD Video Pass Through

Buying Guide

Watching TV with high quality video and sound is an elevated experience that differs considerably from the low quality options available. With the right visuals and audio, you can feel like you’re sitting in a movie theater or immersed in an interactive game. Fuzzy signals, however, can ruin the experience and make it feel like your technology is decades behind where it should be.

A 4K or UHD video pass through is a tech gadget that enables you to pass data through the system without losing any quality. As a result, you can send audio and visual signals from other devices, through the pass through, on to you 4K TV or 4K projector, all without losing any 4K resolution. With a 4K UHD video pass through, the signal can come from the source component to the TV without any alteration. This means that the signals enter and exit with the same quality.

Why should you use a 4K UHD video pass through in the first place? If you want to attach more than one or two devices to your TV, projector or computer, you will need a pass through unless you want to constantly have to deal with unplugging and plugging in devices. Most TVs only come with a few inputs, but you may have several devices you want to connect, such as a DVD player, game console and speaker. If you have 4K or UHD compatible devices, then you will want to make sure that their signal remains that quality while passing through to your TV.

If you’re interested in upscaling your signals, some pass throughs have this feature as well. They have the ability to take lower resolution data and upscale it into 4K UHD signals. This way, you might not need to purchase new devices as long as you have a 4K UHD TV or projector and a 4K upscaling feature on your pass through.

The most important thing to look for when you’re getting a 4K UHD video pass through is compatibility. The audio and video quality of the pass through needs to match your TV or projector. Some pass throughs support multiple resolutions and audio quality, so be sure to check the specs carefully.

• Take a look at how many input ports you will need on the 4K UHD video pass through versus how many you already have on the TV or projector. In many cases, the TV or projector will only have one or two ports, which you can use to connect the pass through. The remaining devices will need to be connected to the pass through instead of directly into the TV.
• Many 4K UHD video pass throughs are manual, which means that in order to switch from one device to another in the pass through, you have to press a button. In some cases, the buttons are directly on the pass through itself and you just have to press which input you want to activate. In other cases, the pass through comes with a remote that lets you select which input to use. If you’re going for the ultimate convenience and want to avoid getting up off the couch every time you want to activate a different input, then go with a pass through that comes with a remote.
• Keep in mind that a pass through, an HDMI switch and an HDMI splitter are not the same thing, though they do have similar jobs. An HDMI switch is used to connect multiple devices to a single device using HDMI ports. Some HDMI switches have 4K UHD compatibility, but others do not. If you want to use an HDMI switch with your 4K TV, then you’ll need to make sure it can handle a 4K signal. An HDMI splitter is like an HDMI switch, but it only has one input and multiple outputs.
• Not sure what kinds of devices you can use with a 4K UHD video pass through? It all depends on the type of pass through you have, but some options include cable boxes, DVD or Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, cameras, laptops and tablets.