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I bought an IOGEAR GHDMIAS4 4 Port Automatic HDMI Switch on Newegg.com last week to connect my Playstation 3, Xbox360 and TiVo Series3 HD to my television. My 2005 TV has only one HDMI port.

I’ve been walking around to the back of the TV for over a year plugging and unplugging my three HDMI devices. I’ve been doing this because I’ve read review after review about a variety of HDMI switches that are not able to send a 1080 signal (whether 1080p or 1080i) to the TV from the Playstation 3.

After reading this Macworld review, I decided to give it a shot. With Newegg.com’s 30-return policy, I figured I had nothing to lose. I attached the HDMI switch to my devices. I’ve been fooling around w/ the switch for a while now, and I have to say I’m very pleased with it.

IOGEAR GHDMIAS4 4 Port Automatic HDMI Switch product page

I picked up Rock Band 2 along with a new wireless guitar controller for RB2. The game? It’s awesome! Every song I had downloaded for RB1 works on RB2 (at least on my Xbox it does). The new song list is great, too.

The new guitar is a definite improvement over the first Rock Band guitar. I have the RB wired guitar controller, also. My only complaints about the original RB guitar are 1) it’s wired 2) triggering overdrive doesn’t always work which is a pain. The fret-buttons are much quieter on the new guitar. They don’t go click-click-click when you are pressing them. The clicking is very distracting to me personally. The strum bar provides a little more feedback to your thumb than the old one. Also, the neck is sturdier on the new guitar, while still maintaining it’s even balance and light weight. The vintage sunburst ‘finish’ is nice too with a wood-grain look both on the body, fretboard and headstock.

I’ve had several folks tell me they prefer the Guitar Hero Les Paul or Explorer over the Rock Band guitar. I’ve always preferred the Rock Band guitar; I truly find that the RB device is easier to play and is less fatiguing after a long-playing stint. The Rock Band 2 wireless guitar is an improvement on an already great game controller.