Samsung is finally addressing a confounding issue with the automatic HDMI input switching feature in its televisions — a problem that plagued Nintendo Switch owners in particular.
In a statement to The Verge today, Samsung said it “will be issuing a Firmware update early this summer that will address this behavior and provide the level of convenience that was intended.”
Samsung’s 2016 TVs will automatically switch the active HDMI input to a different one if they detect that the device connected to the second input has been turned on. There is no way to disable the switching, which is separate from HDMI-CEC, a feature of the HDMI protocol that allows for connected devices to be controlled by one remote. Nintendo Switch owners who use a Samsung HDTV have been reporting that their TV will randomly change to the Switch’s HDMI input while the console is in sleep mode.
There’s a 16-page thread on the Nintendo Support Forums about this issue, although the Switch isn’t the only device affected by it. Owners of boxes like the Apple TV have run into the same problem, according to a similar thread on the Samsung forums.
There’s no word from Samsung on whether the upcoming firmware update will add an option to disable automatic HDMI switching or remove the feature altogether. We’ll just have to wait and see how it works when the patch arrives.