Splitting HTPC HDMI Output

Anybody ever had any success with splitting the HDMI output from their HTPC?

I recently bought a third ViewHD 1-in-4-out HDMI splitter. The first one I purchased to split an Xbox 360 HDMI output to three different HDTVs and to one AVR. It works great.

I was so pleased, I bought the same Splitter to use on my PS3. I use it to split the PS3 HDMI output to my HDTV and my AVR in parallel. This particular splitter works seamlessly in this application as well.

Being 2-for-2, I bought a third Splitter in order to connect my basement HTPC to my basement AVR and my HDTV in parallel (going through the AVR requires that the AVR be both ON and tuned to the proper input before a signal/picture for the HTPC appear on the HDTV, which is not desirable for me). In this application, this splitter does not work. To confirm that it is the APPLICATION of this splitter, and not the third splitter simply being defective, I disconnected one of the two splitters that I know to work and tried it here for this third application. It did not work.



Is there something unique/special about the HDMI output from a HTPC that makes it different than an Xbox/PS3? Anybody have any experience with using an HDMI Splitter with their HTPC?

Thank you!

I'm eager to hear what you find...

Any luck?

Well, I took another shot at this over the weekend myself. I certainly don't understand all the ins-and-outs of DRM, HDCP, "handshaking", and all the HDMI versions (1.3, 1.4, etc), but I thought maybe it has to do with that, somehow, so I picked up Amazon's latest-and-greatest version of the ViewHD VHD-H2YVs (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009YP7Y56/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00, it incorrectly says HDFuryPro in that picture, but the physical device says ViewHD on it), and a Component-to-HDMI adapter (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001IPKJJ8/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00, a cheaper option but it claims to be capable of 1080p), both with optical audio output/input, and had no luck.

The ViewHD HDMI-to-Component adapter was working well. I tried it out by itself. So I'm inclined to think that the problem is not this component. But I can't confirm whether it really is passing 1080p, because the component inputs into my TV aren't able to handle 1080p. It certainly was "HD", though, and I had digital audio.

I'm not sure if a new Component-to-HDMI adapter would help or not. Information is scarce, but the included documentation noted that it was HDMI 1.2. I'm not certain what the "phase shift" issue is, but if I had to guess, the problem I was seeing when I hooked this all together was that. The signal looked "out-of-phase", (again, my best guess, when I'm not 100% certain of what that is). Long vertical stripes on the screen.


Long story short, I hooked these things up between my HTPC and my HDMI splitter, and it was still a no-go.

I'm still eager to find a way to deliver my HTPC signal to my AVR and to two HDTVs in parallel. In the meantime, I'm delivering HDMI to the TV and then TOSlink from the TV to the AVR (so that the AVR doesn't HAVE to be on to use the HTPC, but obviously I lose BluRay audio and can only deliver to one of the HDTVs I'd like to display on). If anybody has any thoughts/suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Edited by psuKinger - 1/30/13 at 9:50am