My monitor has two HDMI input. What is the purpose?

My Asus VX239H has two HDMI input, but I don't know why 2 instead of one. Isn't one enough? Or, are other use cases having two HDMI ports?

Solution 1:

Multiple inputs are to switch between multiple sources. For instance, if you have a Playstation and a PC, both can be plugged into the monitor, and switched with the buttons on the monitor. Otherwise, you would have to have an external HDMI switch.

It's common for monitors to have multiple HDMI inputs, and also common to have multiple types of inputs. DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, and composite video are frequently also found. The monitor buttons let you switch between those inputs also.

On a bigger scale, if you had many devices to input audio and/or visual (cable, antenna, tape deck, CD, DVD, Roku, AppleTV, Chromecast, Playstation, PC, etc), then the usual thing to do is get a receiver. Then the receiver is used to switch between inputs.