What other explanation could there be for the price difference?

I don't know, maybe the manufacturer has identified a need and is just taking advantage of the fact that it is seemingly the only switch of its' kind on the market and in turn tacking on a huge markup? Kudos to them. I don't blame them for charging this much, especially if they can get folks to pay it. Supply and demand and all that. It seems that at some point there will be competition, and when that occurs prices will come down, sort of like any other piece of gear. I'll wait, even though my current ARC/HDMI set-up is somewhat less than seamless.

Are there any firmware updates available. Suddenly mine has stopped working all together. I've tried power cycling the unit both with the whole system on, and with it all off as well.

Nothing else in my setup has changed, all still the same equipment and as far was I know nothing else has updated. The TV updated its firmware, but that was several months ago and it was working fine until just the last few days.

If this is still occurring, please reach out to us and open up a support ticket at support.outlawaudio.com