"Splitting" HDMI is possible - there are some switchers and splitters available - but as mahansm points out and as your own experience with the MonoPrice switcher shows, it is not easy or sure-fire because it runs headlong into HDCP handshake woes on a very large scale. It's why you often see receivers or processors with two HDMI outputs implementing an "either/or" sort of solution where only one output is active at a time. A passive splitter will absolutely fail. A setup like you describe will be logistically disastrous, whereas a universal remote (my wife has been a strong supporter of all three URC remotes I've had in our den over the years - MX-500, MX-700, and now MX-900 with RF base station) would allow her to operate a surround processor like the 997 without you there to drive it. If that's not an option, though, you could always run component and stereo analog to the TV and HDMI to the 997 and then to the TV, but she will need to know how to change inputs on the TV (which would not be necessary otherwise).