Q:

What happens when you connect two HDMI output devices

With HDMI cables being symmetric and male-male, it is possible to connect two different HDMI output ports to each other, such as a DVD player to a laptop's HDMI output. What would happen if I were to actually connect two devices like this and turn them both on? Would it damage the laptop and/or DVD player, do nothing, cause problems until I unplug the cable, or what? Would it be possible to download drivers to the laptop to actually let me use the HDMI port as video/audio input, and if so, where could I find these drivers?

A:

The two devices will attempt to handshake with each other.  Since they are both output devices, they will not communicate.  Fortunately, no damage will occur, the engineers figured people would attempt to do this.  You can not change an input to an output, or an output to an input.  Their direction is hardware bound, and can not be modified with software.  

