HDMI 4x4 Matrix Switch? (ie. what's better than Monoprice?)

I don't know much about the monoprice unit, try googling the manufacturer of the matrix switch, or best to call monoprice..

I was considering the Octava 4 x 4 HDMI Ethernet Matrix Router, since I ran 2-sheilded cat6 lines to every room in the house & I thought it was a good way to go taking advantage of cat6 bandwidth, from what I've read, some people were having having handshake issues with the Octava units, people were getting support from Octava, there might be a thread here with some people talking about the unit, but in the end, I ended up building my own HTPC, and installed a Ceton Quad HD tuner card, and running Linksys DMA 2100 extenders to 4 tv's, and with my decision not to use the Octava, was only that I'm not staying at my current house any longer than I have to, just re-doing the basement to look nice and then consider the Octava option in the next home.... More and more companies are going to have more of something like this in the future....

The Octava 4x2 was in the $250 range last time I looked. Remember they have just-HDMI as well as HDMI/Cat-6 matrix switchers.

For RS-232 you have to leave a gap between separate commands. As long as you got your Baud rate (actually bps) correct, there isn't much other debugging you're going to be able to accomplish.

Octava Inc. Has it's office in Atlanta.

The HDMX44 will cover your requirement for Discrete IR, switch to any port, RS232 and EDID spoofing.

The HDMX44CAT covers all of the above plus adds Extender support over Dual CAT6 and Routed IR.

Joe

I'm working on communicating with the Octava 4x4 using with the RS232 port - Question is it possible to use linux command line (bash) to send commands to the device? I'm having issues figuring out the syntax or structure for the HEX or ascii format

Any advance would be appreciated !

Are you in the US or UK?

Joe

Having used Linux (in a VM setup with Windows XP as a base to CentOS Linux) to send RS-232 recently, it can be a challenge. However, the troubleshooting is fairly straight forward.

There is a program, called SJINN, that allows you to send specific commands to the RS-232 ports under Linux command line. It also gives verbose feedback which was really helpful in troubleshooting. Remember most Linux configurations have the serial ports locked out until you grant permission under the root for the specific users. The other thing I found very useful was to have the old Radio Shack RS-232 tester adapter, which has a bunch of LEDs for each of the RS-232 port signals. RTS and CTS (I believe) needed to be configured properly for the commands to get through. I'm not sure how the Octava handles those lines.

In a pinch, try to find a copy of Windows HyperTerminal to verify that you have the connection and RS-232 command format correct using a Windows machine. Once you do that then it's just a matter of getting Linux to talk. Certainly possible.

Hi,
The RS-232 commands are in HEX format.
You can see the commands here: RS-232 HEX code for HD44CATMX
Any questions you can contact the tech team at info@octavainc.com