Monoprice Blackbird 8K Dual Function HDMI Splitter/Switch

I don’t get excited about new products often. But I am excited about Monoprice’s Blackbird 8K Dual Function HDMI Splitter/Switch. Priced at $60 (!!), it gives AV enthusiasts a low-cost solution to allow you to switch between two HDMI inputs and distribute to two HDMI displays. Add some HDMI 2.1 compatibility (with all the goodies), and I think Monoprice has a winner here. Let’s discuss. 

Features

So I have gushed enough about this thing, but for good reason. The Monoprice’s Blackbird 8K Dual Function HDMI Splitter/Switch has A LOT going on under the hood. First off, it delivers HDMI 2.1 at 40Gbps video bandwidth. That means the Blackbird will support up to 8K60 and 4K120. Gamers will be very interested in that feature. For the AV enthusiast, the Blackbird delivers multichannel compressed/uncompressed audio! 

• Switches between two HDMI inputs and splits the signal to two HDMI displays
• Supports video resolutions up to 8K@60Hz 10-bit with the YCbCr 4:2:0 color space, including 8K@30Hz 10-bit with YCbCr 4:4:4, and 4K@120Hz 10-bit with YCbCr 4:4:4
• Complies with the HDMI 2.1 and HDCP 2.3 specifications
• Excellent for gamers, supports Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Fast as Possible V-active (FVA), and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) HDMI features
• Supports HDR, HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and Hyper Log Gamma (HLG) passthrough
• Supports multichannel compressed and uncompressed audio streams, Including LPCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS:X, DTS 96/24, DTS High Res, DTS-HD Master Audio, and Direct Stream Digital (DSD)
• Built-in signal equalizer with retiming
• Advanced EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) management

Who Could Use The Blackbird HDMI Splitter/Switch?

The easier question is, who couldn’t? All joking aside, the Blackbird is aimed solidly at gamers and AV enthusiasts. It has all the next-gen features you could want and a bit more. 

But it could just as easily be aimed at the AV enthusiast who has an older HDMI 2.0 receiver/TV that wants to stream lossless audio from a source back to their receiver. It could breathe a bit of life back into a component. 

Or, for someone who has a newer HDMI 2.1 receiver, but only has a single port. This could add a little bit more functionality to your receiver. Plus at $60, this is a very affordable switch!

Our Take

If it’s not apparent, I am very excited about the Monoprice’s Blackbird 8K Dual Function HDMI Splitter/Switch. At $60, this thing is a no-brainer for someone who needs a next-gen switch/splitter to add to their setup. With a long list of features, it’s going to be easy to add the Blackbird as one of 2023’s must-have devices.