HDMI cables have proven themselves incredibly useful at clearing up the tangle of wires and cables at the back of your TV or home entertainment setup. This is mainly because they are able to carry both audio and video signals, so you only need one cable rather than two.

Despite this handy benefit, some people still find that they need to use more HDMI cables than they have HDMI ports available. It may be that your TV only has one port, but that you need to connect a Blu-ray player, games console and a set-top box. What can you do to remedy this problem?

There are two solutions to this problem. The first is HDMI switches, which basically allow you to connect two HDMI devices to one TV. They have two HDMI ports at one end and one at the other, which is connected to the TV.

The other solution, and one that gives you much more flexibility, is HDMI splitters. These are compact boxes which have either two, three, four or five HDMI ports, allowing you to connect up all of your devices to a TV with just one HDMI cable port. What’s more, you can control and switch between these devices using the same remote control.