8
votes
How to find AV hardware for specific requirements?
Apologies if this belongs in ~tech, that group is more on topic than ~talk but I think it’s for news and links more than open questions. (Edit: Looks like it's been moved to ~comp, I guess that works too.)
I’m looking for an HDMI switch. It needs to support at least 4K resolution and have at least 10 input ports. It also needs to have Toslink audio out. Remote control support is a “nice to have” but physical buttons are fine too.
I’m having trouble locating a product like this online. Not sure if I’m just using the wrong terms or if it doesn’t actually exist. Can any Tildes gearheads give me a pointer here?
That's a tough set of requirements. Most HDMI switches top out at 8 ports, and the ones that have that many ports don't split the audio. I think unless you look into really high end professional stuff that costs 5 figures, your best bet here is to string together multiple devices.
For the HDMI splitter, instead of using a single 10 port device, you'll probably want to get an 8 port one similar to this, then plug one of the ports into a 4-port switch such as this one, giving you a total of 11 inputs. Then, feed the output of all that through a HDMI audio extractor that supports TOSLink such as this one.
In a perfect world, this will all work, it'll all be HDCP compliant, and you'll have no issues. In my experience though, this world is an imperfect one, and there's at least a 20% chance something here will be incompatible with something else. I'd recommend buying your parts from some place with a good return policy, and factor possible returns into your schedule in case one of these devices doesn't play nice with the others.
Edit: I was curious about that audio extractor and had a closer look at the specs. It says: "3.NOT SUPPORT copyright protected content; Astro game headsets" so I think that implies it's not HDCP complaint. In case anyone needs to play a movie or DRM'd content through this you may need to find a different extractor.
Thanks for the suggestions. Having a dedicated audio extractor is a good idea that never occurred to me! Though I am concerned about the latency that extra hop might introduce, doubly so if I have to daisy-chain smaller switches to support 10 inputs as well. Hoping to use this setup for gaming, so the fewer obstacles between console and display, the better.
The switches should add no latency in theory. The extractor might, but I'd imagine it'd be more likely to impose lag on the audio than the video. Googling shows some people in old forum threads talking about lip sync issues with some HDMI audio extractors. My guess is they'd be decoding the HDMI signal into 5 or 7 channel PCM or reencoding it back into Dolby, or something like that.
This thread claims his extractor is a passthrough device and imposes no lag. I saw a few others saying the lag is around 5ms. Here's a review of a similar device saying it has 1ms of lag, and this monoprice one has a review saying very low latency.
I wouldn't be too hugely concerned with latency unless any of these devices have things like on-screen displays, colour adjustments, etc. Again though, your mileage may vary, and these devices are a bit of a mixed bag. I can't vouch for any HDMI extractor in particular, but if I needed one I'd probably go with the monoprice one.
Not an AV person, but I have reasonably good google-fu. There seems to be a decent amount of 10x1 (10 port), 4K, HDMI splitters|switches, but it's the TOSLINK requirement that seems to be eliminating all your options here. 5x1 is the most I can find on one with TOSLINK: https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Extractor-switcher-Wireless-Control/dp/B073ZGYFS8/
You might want to look at AV receivers as well as simple switches - they'll be more or less guaranteed to have HDCP passthrough, lots of audio output options, etc. on top of simple switching capability. That said, while 6-8 inputs seem fairly standard, I didn't see any with 10 at a cursory glance.
Any chance you could tell us what you're trying to do? I ask at least 80% from curiosity, but it'd also give a guideline on what's more likely to work, and maybe even options you haven't considered. Rough budget would also be helpful - are those extra two inputs worth the jump from consumer world pricing to "professional" with a bunch of features you don't need?
Sure, I'm planning a "home theater" revamp for a very small room. I have 7 HDMI devices I want to switch between with minimal plugging/unplugging once it's all set up. I don't have an actual AV receiver or speakers, just a sound bar with Toslink in (which is more than enough for this room).
I'm asking about 10x1 switches because I want room to grow. If I pick up a couple more devices in the next few years I want to be able to accommodate them easily. I'm thinking maybe I should just settle for 8x1, that'll still leave one available port for the future. If I do end up needing more down the road, I can look into buying a 4x1 switch at that point, and daisy-chaining it.
I currently run Toslink from my TV to the sound bar; the reason I want an audio extractor is so I can play music from a device and keep the TV off.
Edit: Budget is low-ish. I'd rather not spend more than, say, US$200 on this switching setup unless there's a value add to make it worthwhile. (For example the Monoprice audio extractor I was just looking at includes 3.5mm audio out, which means headphone listening could be a bonus I hadn't considered.) Anyway, I'm certainly not looking for pro-grade rack-mounted equipment or anything.
OK, that helps a lot. Since you're going for home media I'd definitely recommend an AV receiver in this situation, even if all you're actually using it for is switching and a Toslink output - it'll give you more room to grow if you do want to change the audio setup, the prices aren't drastically different to larger switches anyway, a lot of them have nice network and streaming features built in (Bluetooth, Chromecast, Spotify, etc.) that you can use for audio without the TV, and perhaps most importantly they're much more likely to have support for HDCP and any other media standards that switches (more aimed at office use) tend to lack.
The good news is that assuming your chosen display supports ARC (audio return channel), you should be able to get 11 simultaneous inputs with an 8 input receiver. You can connect the receiver HDMI output to the display's ARC HDMI input, the receiver's Toslink output to your soundbar, and your current devices to the receiver inputs - so far, so standard. What the ARC connection adds is audio straight back from the display to the receiver (and thus on to the soundbar) - so anything you plug into the display's remaining three HDMI connections will also output sound through the soundbar.
If your devices support CEC, you'll even be able to control them all through the same remote, regardless of where they're plugged in. It might take a bit of up front configuration, and it'll definitely pay to check compatibility carefully before buying anything, but it should all be workable.