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HDMI A/V Splitter

329 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by mujudu, Mar 26, 2015

mujudu

Discussion Starter · Mar 22, 2015

My video comes from a central location/source. At the destination the user should be able to decide if the audio is played through the TV (headphone) or through the in-ceiling speakers. Is there a way to accommodate this?

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AV_Integrated

· #2 · Mar 23, 2015

mujudu said:
My video comes from a central location/source. At the destination the user should be able to decide if the audio is played through the TV (headphone) or through the in-ceiling speakers. Is there a way to accommodate this?

Depends on how you are getting things around.

I use wireless headphones plugged right into the back of the cable box. I turn down the sound from my main speakers when I don't want to listen to them (after kids are in bed) and I turn on my wireless headphones.

Your listening scenario is a bit vague, so while there may very well be a solution, I'm not sure beyond what I described you are trying to achieve.

Depending on your distributed system, you could make the headphones their own source and run them through a headphone amp or use wireless headphones.

Most headphones don't accept HDMI, but you often run your sources direct to a audio switching using analog audio.

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mujudu

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 23, 2015

Well, my initial post wasn't clear so let me try again. I am going to distribute the video through HDBaseT. I could use the HDBaseT just for the video part and at the source (central location) route the (analog) audio part to the whole house audio distribution system (which bring the audio to the ceiling speakers). However, considering two different paths with two different devices (HDBaseT sender/receiver, audio distribution system) I am concerned about the audio and video being out of sync.

Based on this, I was thinking I need to bring both audio and video through the same path (HDBaseT) and then split the audio and video part at the destination. The video part is not an issue as I can just plug the HDMI output from the wall into the TV. However, how do I get the audio part to the speakers now?

In addition to that, I also want to play music from a local iPhone through the ceiling speaker. But if I can solve the above then feeding in the iPhone is probably not too hard. It's just a different local source.

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FlyingDiver

· #4 · Mar 23, 2015

What sound channels do you want to run through the ceiling speakers? L/R? Surround? Will you still be using the TV speakers when you do this?

You're going to need to either go through an AVR first, or take an output from the TV into a stereo amp, before you can drive those speakers. Which method depends on which sound channels you're trying to get.

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mujudu

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 24, 2015

FlyingDiver said:
What sound channels do you want to run through the ceiling speakers? L/R? Surround? Will you still be using the TV speakers when you do this?

You're going to need to either go through an AVR first, or take an output from the TV into a stereo amp, before you can drive those speakers. Which method depends on which sound channels you're trying to get.

I just need L/R, no surround. Most of the time the ceiling speakers will be used but once in a while also the TV speakers (when trying to keep things more quite without resorting to headphones). I would like to keep things as clean as possible, i.e. no visible local amplifier. As mentioned before, I also want to get local iPhone to play through the in-ceiling speakers (via Bluetooth?).

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FlyingDiver

· #6 · Mar 24, 2015

Well, leaving aside the issue that ceiling speakers are generally a bad idea for normal L/R channel audio, you're going to have to find a place to put some sort of amp. The TV won't drive the speakers directly. You could use a Sonos Connect:AMP, which is fairly small and unobtrusive. Run analog stereo pair from the TV to the Sonos inputs. Then use the Sonos app on the iPhone to play music via Wifi. A Heos AMP from Denon would also work.

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XJBaylor

· #7 · Mar 24, 2015

mujudu said:
I just need L/R, no surround. Most of the time the ceiling speakers will be used but once in a while also the TV speakers (when trying to keep things more quite without resorting to headphones).

Just a random not, but TV speakers are not inherently better for "keeping things quiet." Typically TV speakers are far less intelligible than good in-ceiling speakers, meaning that the in-ceiling speakers can typically be played at a lower db level while still maintaining intelligibility. The only case in which this would not work would be a situation in which the ceiling speakers are bleeding directly into the rooms that you are trying to keep quiet, in which case TV audio would probably work better for you.

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hoyalawya

· #8 · Mar 24, 2015

Assuming that you are using a multi-channel amp. Get something like this - http://www.amazon.com/ViewHD-Extrac...TF8&qid=1427206309&sr=1-1&keywords=VHD-H2HARC - to split the audio + video part. HDMI out from the device goes to the TV. RCA out from the device goes to the multi-channel amp as a source. Get a Sonos Connect to play your iPhone music. Hook the Connect Amp to the multi-channel amp as an audio source.

Or you can get a receiver that is capable to down-mixing HDMI audio to two channel audio, Airplay capable, and can do HDMI passthrough to the TV.

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HockeyoAJB

· #9 · Mar 24, 2015

How many source devices do you have and how many different sources do you want to be able to distribute to different zones at any given time? Distributing one or two different source devices to several zones is fairly simple. Same goes for distributing several source devices to one or two zones. However, distributing several different sources to several zones gets a bit more tricky and/or expensive.

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AV_Integrated

· #10 · Mar 25, 2015

To be clear, I have a 24 zone home system with distributed audio and video. I use the analog output from all of my sources, or convert the digital audio output to analog. There is a VERY slight difference between the HDMI audio and the analog audio, but not noticeable if they are run separately.

So, if I'm listening to my family room in surround sound I can't listen to the same thing in the kitchen without noticing the delay. But, if I run the kitchen by itself and listen to the TV in the family room, then I don't visibly notice any source sync. They are just a few MS apart. Enough to sound almost like reverb when both rooms are running at the same time. I have not tried running the stereo feed through the surround receiver into the family room, that could correct the sync issue.

But, if only running the ceiling speakers, and nothing else, you won't have any sync issues at all.

I run my family room as a surround zone, the kitchen as a stereo zone, and I have two pairs of wireless headphones that are also setup as stereo zones.

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mujudu

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 26, 2015

AV_Integrated said:
To be clear, I have a 24 zone home system with distributed audio and video. I use the analog output from all of my sources, or convert the digital audio output to analog. There is a VERY slight difference between the HDMI audio and the analog audio, but not noticeable if they are run separately.

[...] I have not tried running the stereo feed through the surround receiver into the family room, that could correct the sync issue.

Very interesting! I think my setup would be VERY similar except that I don't have that many zones (maybe about 10). Some questions that come to mind are:

* What equipment are you using, i.e. video distribution, audio distribution?

* How are you distributing your video? Long HDMI cables, HDMI over Ethernet, HDBaseT, or??

* How do you control the sources? Wall control pads? Phone/tablet apps?

* What sources do you have (roku, sonos, dvd, DLNA servers, etc)?

* You said "or convert the digital audio output to analog" and then "There is a VERY slight difference between the HDMI audio and the analog audio". Is that delay due to the conversion from digital to analog or does that delay happen somewhere else (due to going through different pieces of equipment)?

I am simply trying to understand the details of your setup as I think mine is very similar except that I don't have that many zones.

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