If you're looking at various forms of digital/HDMI sizes to HDMI then I'd get a fairly simple HDMI switch and a number of adapters. I'd estimate it would cost around £10.

Good gravy, that's a horrible invention. As Ant said that's a few dollars of adapters and a very pricey metal ring. When I read your post I was imagining something where all those would be encased together with a single hdmi out, a many-to-one thing.

Is this for use in meeting/av rooms where someone could bring any sort of device in and then get it hooked up to a display or for your own personal use, where people could bring you any sort of device and you can then hook it up to a display?

But what if they're ionised gold connectors that convert regular bits into hyper-epic bits!

Still twice as much as it should be!

Partly for personal use, but mostly I'd like to get my parents something they can use with their TV so anyone can easily connect a camera/mobile/tablet/notebook/toaster - hence why an uncluttered box would be preferable.

But surely if you're talking about various sizes of HDMI the primary cable would be small HDMI to normal HDMI, so you'd need that cable anyway. A switch box with female other sizes is pointless because you're unlikely to get, for example, a mini HDMI to mini HDMI cable. It will nearly always be a mini to normal sized cable. So what you need is a normal HDMI cable and adapters.

Unless you're talking about analogue to HDMI, then that's a different situation.

Give us an actual example with what you have in mind it actually being used for.

You're right; I've not been thinking this through properly.

I do also want VGA to HDMI though. Options include a simple £18 converter, or a £100 surcharge to get one in the same box as a switch. I don't mind paying for convenience but some things are just stupid. :/

I've never understood why the video adapters and switches between different formats are (usually) so expensive.

And ugly, I've never seen an aesthetically pleasing switch box. :C

My old kvm switch is sort of pretty, in an original iMac frosted blue translucent rounded plastic kind of way  :-/ .

Bonus: it has a big-ass blue led that STAYS ON ALL THE TIME.

(fail)

Sounds about as subtle as Brian Blessed dressed in tartan.

It's pretty ungainly with all the cords sticking out of it. I'm just glad it works. Also glad it has a ps2 output so I can continue to use my filthy old but thin logitech ps2 kb and not a shiny new, thick-as-a-brick Microsoft Office usb kb I had in storage.