A system and a method are disclosed for enabling fast switching in a multimedia interface system having content protection. By using a partial port receiver to decode a portion of the input at input ports that are not being output to a multimedia sink, the design of the switching system is simplified and silicon costs are reduced. Additionally, the switching system and method reduces the switching delay by maintaining content protection signaling with all of the input ports. This eliminates the need for re-authentication when a new multimedia source is selected.