[Majestyk]

I'm thinking about getting a receiver that has a really dumb design...You can't disable the onboard video processing, which isn't that great. I was wondering if I can use an HDMI splitter to use the receiver for audio and plug the HDMI from my BD player to my TV?


If so, is there a specific splitter I should look for?


Thanks!


Jeff

 

[MichaelJHuman]

I believe some people have done what you say. I am not sure which splitters work best. Mine never worked.

 

[RoboRay]

If you do that, I believe your HDMI audio will be limited to stereo, because that's all the TV will report it is capable of back to the player. You may be able to get multichannel audio by putting the receiver on the primary output of the splitter and the TV on the secondary, but then I don't know if the BD player will be able to correctly determine what resolutions it can send to the display.


Why would you think about getting something with a really dumb design? That's just telling the manufacturer that you think it's a good design and they'll keep doing it.

 

[Majestyk]



Quote:
If you do that, I believe your HDMI audio will be limited to stereo.

Hum...I didn't know audio would be affected. What does the TV have to do with the audio only being in stereo? I'm still sending a video/audio signal to the receiver...In fact, I can still hook the receiver up to my TV, but I want to view my Oppo directly, on another HDMI port.

Quote:
Why would you think about getting something with a really dumb design? That's just telling the manufacturer that you think it's a good design and they'll keep doing it.

Because it's the ONLY receiver that fits the bill. There isn't one other receiver on the market that I can substitute.

 

[RoboRay]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Majestyk /forum/post/18156927


Hum...I didn't know audio would be affected. What does the TV have to do with the audio only being in stereo? I'm still sending a video/audio signal to the receiver...

Due to the nature of HDMI (it's basically a computer network with communication in both directions up and down the chain, not just wires to "send a signal").


When you connect a device to an HDMI chain, the source device (say, your BluRay player) will query the other devices in the chain to determine what their capabilities are. Your TV will report back what resolutions it can accept, and the player will limit your selections in it's setup menus to what the TV can handle.


The same thing happens with audio... If the TV is in the audio chain (which normally stops at the A/V receiver), it will report that it can only handle stereo sound (TVs don't usually have Dolby Digital decoders or 5.1 speaker systems built in). This forces the BluRay player to convert everything to stereo sound and just send that, so you lose your 5.1 or 7.1 channel audio over HDMI.


I'm unsure how splitting the output of the player to both the receiver and TV will work. With my HDMI splitter (which I use to drive two displays), the display on Output #1 determines what capabilities are reported to the source. The display on Output #2 is ignored during this query phase, and if the capabilities of the display on Output #2 are different from the one on Output #1, things don't work right.


In your case, hopefully the source will be able to sort things out. I believe putting the receiver on the primary output of the of the splitter would be more likely to work.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Majestyk /forum/post/18156927


it's the ONLY receiver that fits the bill. There isn't one other receiver on the market that I can substitute.

Why is that? If you list your requirements, we might be able to help you find an alternative you haven't considered.

 

[Majestyk]

Ok, now I get it! Thanks!

Quote:
I believe putting the receiver on the primary output of the of the splitter would be more likely to work.

So if I use a splitter like the 1X2 PRO Series Powered HDMI Splitter, from Monoprice, what would go in the where?