Hey, newbie here! Attempting to help a good friend spice up his Thai restaurant. Excuse the pun haha! He will get two TVs and wants to show live sports / tv programming, movies etc. Told him he may need an hdmi switch. Showed him some options, both on the higher end switchers and some on the lower end from ebay/amazon. I'm wondering why Amazon has switchers for REALLY cheap. Like $20 cheap! First, is an hdmi switch what he needs? And if so, is it fine to go with those cheap devices? If he can save, great. But he does not want to put out a poor viewing experience for his customers. He has a Slingbox and blu-ray player. Thanks everyone!

What is the distance between the TV’s and the sources?

$20 is such a low cost, why not purchase one and try it out? The major risk is some lost time if the box doesn’t satisfy.

Be aware that there are some licensing requirements when playing copyrighted material in a restaurant.

Be aware of the possible penalties of using programming from unlicensed programming sources. I don't know of ANY licensed sources using slingbox or DVD players that has licensed content.

Do not ignore this issue. It could cost you thousands.

We do restaurants all the time where we mono together the analog stereo outputs of a DirecTV receiver or cable box. This mono feed then goes via a single shielded wire to the amplifiers.

I'm assuming you're using a 70 volt system, so monaural is the proper type of audio to use. If you't not using a 70 volt system, you should educate yourself as to what it is and its advantages.