How do you bitstream audio to either of two HDMI ports

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  • September 20, 2011 at 6:22 am #26324
    kj_mr

      I recently installed a Denon AVR.  It has four HDMI inputs and supports lossless audio.  I have an ATI GC 57XX series with HDMI, DVI and VGA.  The AVR supports audio passthrough but I have to leave the AVR on and also change the config.  I wanted to use the DVI port to pass the lossless audio to the AVR and use the HDMi to connect to the TV.  The purpose of doing this was to simplify (read WAF) the use of the lossless.  IT seems that the DVI doesn’t support audio.  I have stayed away from using AVR’s or other switching elemnets between devices.  Almost always there is some interface bug.  I also rarlely deal with the ATI HDMI handshake issue.  So suggestions.  I am using the TOSLINK for now but I still want a simple way to get lossless audio to my AVR.

      If I purchase an AMD Radeon card with two HDMI ports, will I be able to select with ports gets the audio.  Can you have DTS-MA audio through one connection and the other connection only video.

      Thanks for your help in advance.  I am sure this topic has been covered before so I link is cool.  Thanks

      September 20, 2011 at 11:32 am #31362
      Aaron Ledger

        Is your AVR capable of passing HDMI while in standby? Why not use the AVR for all of your audio requirements? Have you considered an inexpensive HDMI port multiplier like this? One thing I am not sure of is how the port multiplier will report the audio capability to the PC if both display and AVR are active. For that case, you could use an HDMI switch and pass everything through the AVR or pass to the display only.

        September 20, 2011 at 11:38 pm #31377
        kj_mr

          Thanks Aaron.  Yeah, I might have not said that correctly.  My receiver doesn’t support passing of HDMI while in standby, needs power.  The real problem here is simplifying turning on the AVR to use with the HTPC.  I have taught the wife to go to the audio devices and change to toslink so I was hoping all I needed to do now was show her to use the 2nd hdmi.

          I am avoiding switches.  I guess I can turn on the receiver everytime, but then I would have to show how to select passthrough or AVR audio in the AVR.

          I would also avoid port dups.  This just seems to cause bugs.

          Back to the AMD Radeon graphics card with two HDMI ports.  Will both ports have support audio and will I be able to select audio on one port and video on the other.  I really wish mce supported dual audio streams, but I’ve read too many articles on why mce can’t after mce2k5.

          Thanks!

          September 20, 2011 at 11:41 pm #31378
          Aaron Ledger

            Why are you avoiding the use of a switch? Surely a switch that can be controlled remotely with the press of a button is much easier than configuring audio outputs in Windows.

            I have no experience trying to send video and audio out of separate ports of an AMD card. I have used different video cards to do this (e.g. video from NVIDIA card to display and HDMI audio out of a Core i3-530).

            The simplest of all options is to utilize your AVR for all audio requirements.

            September 21, 2011 at 2:27 am #31380
            RehabMan

              Maybe it is time to invest in a good programmable remote?  Forget about teaching the family to use the system… just make the remote do all the hard work.  Just an idea…

              I use a Logitech Harmony, and really you can setup a very easy to use system with these remotes.  Fool proof if your equipment supports discrete commands for power, and input selection (better to not rely on the Harmony’s state tracking system).  Prepare to spend some time getting to know the somewhat annoying programming software from Logitech though.

              I would also echo Aaron’s comment about always utilizing the AVR for audio.  I have setup several remotes for friends, and I always cringe a bit when they ask to have to option of AVR for audio, or TV only for audio.  It just makes the setup more complex (although it is a little simpler with the new AVRs that support standby passthru) than it needs to be and why do people want to listen to their TV speakers anyway?  I usually talk them out of it and get them to go with one simple setup that always uses the AVR for audio.

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