day dreaming: run *everything* headless?

[wkearney99]

Running things straight into the TV is fine... unless you have a receiver and you want better audio quality.  Straight into the TV most often ends up negotiating only left/right stereo from the source devices.  Thus if you have a receiver (which can do better than stereo; dolby etc) then you use that to handle the switching of sources.  That way it's the receiver that handles the negotiating.  But there you're feeding only one display.  If you wanted to feed more that one TV, well, things get gnarlier/more expensive.

 

[randyth]

The line that runs to my family room goes into a Denon AV receiver and then the TV is plugged into that.  So, I do have a receiver + speakers still "cluttering" that room.  The cable just plugs right into the TV in the other rooms where I don't care about surround sound.
 
HDMI handshaking has gotten better these days and I don't appear to have any problems there.  I did go out of my way to make sure all the TVs hooked up to the matrix have the same basic specs (1080p @ 60hz) to keep it from trying to dumb-down the signal to the lowest common denominator.
 
-Randy

 

[NeverDie]

Here we use multiple Sennheiser RS 170 Digital Wireless Headphones paired to one base station transmitter.  Sound quality is excellent.  The base station also serves as the docking station for recharging the headphones.  In that sense we would admittedly also still have some minor "clutter," but by isolating  it from the current rats nest of wires that I hope to move elsewhere, I imagine  the little that remains behind will be easy to keep organized and dusted--much easier than now, that's for sure.

 

[tmbrown97]

I'm familiar with the issues that used to exist but the manufacturers are getting better at it - testing the issues and making compatibility better.  The HDCP negotiations are getting a lot better.

 

[drvnbysound]

I don't know if I agree about HDCP issues getting better... here's why:
 
I swapped my Pioneer AVR a few months ago to a new one with more HDMI inputs (3 to 7) and has internet connectivity for streaming services as well as AirPlay. When I change inputs I get this many times:
 

 
Sometimes I get a full page of old school "snow" and the picture never comes up... in the instance above it started that way then "dissolved". If I get the full snow storrm, I've found that I can change inputs, and back again, to force a handshake re-do... and 99% of the time it will work. I contacted Pioneer about it and they blamed my HDMI cable. The same one that had no issues with the previous Pioneer AVR, and obviously still displays video fine... it's the transition of sources that's painful. I didn't know digital handshakes could be so varied ;-)
 
I do have an 50-ft in-wall HDMI cable with a short (~3-ft) extender on the end behind the TV. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to fool with it much yet. I want to get back into my attic and see if I can get some more cable pulled to the TV and remove the extension. I won't say that it's NOT the cable, but it worked perfectly fine for about a year until I swapped receivers - and I stayed with the same brand. My gut tells me it's not the cable... oh and I hate chasing ghosts!

 

[tmbrown97]

Depending on the equipment used, there are some tricks available... one is to use equipment that lets you program and hard-set the EDID; another is to use an HDMI splitter which again handles the handshake and locks it in - then that whole piece can be skipped.  It's a hassle but it does work.  If you think about it, the high dollar installs almost always have high end receivers and/or matrix switchers in place and they get it to work.

 

[drvnbysound]

This is a $700 Pioneer Elite AVR... the one I had before was also an Elite model. Shouldn't be having these problems. Pioneer stated that I could send it into a service center (at my expense) to have the AVR checked out and tested. Unfortunately, with the weight that wouldn't be cheap... that's why I want to play with that cable a bit first just to rule it out before I have to foot a ~$50 shipping expense.
 
I took a fair amount of vacation time the past week and a half with the holidays... and have spent most of the time in 3 co-worker's attics. Not exactly inspired about having to get into mine, but it's a lot better to do it now than July!

 

[LarrylLix]

One tidbit I learned the hard way is you cannot use your TV as an HDMI switch for Dolby surround sound.

After my homebuilding settled down I began t notice the status on my Onkyo receiver was always showing 2 channel sound coming from my Samsung TV. After some research I discovered that the TV will not re-encode the Dolby surround sound for output into an amplifier.

Further research, at that time, showed none of the manufacturers put out Dolby surround sound from their audio output jacks. The TV is considered the end device for HDMI and was never re-encoded for audio outputs. This may have changed but somehow I doubt it.

In short: If you are using your TV as an HDMI switch and running your sound downstream from it you are most likely not getting Dolby surround sound, only a matrix simulation. I am currently having to switch video and audio separately on my system = PITA, but what a difference to have actual Dolby surround sound and not simulated.

 

[wkearney99]

Best bet, pick up a cheap Redmere HDMI cable from Monoprice and string that along the floor between the gear.  That or see if the problem happens with another (more portable) TV and use that with a shorter cable.  As in, try the small TV on the existing cable (if that's even possible) and then, if the problem appears, move it and try it with a newer, shorter cable.  
 
If the problem doesn't appear with another TV on the existing cable then there may be issues with the old TV's handshaking (and the AVR's interpretation of it).  That being the case, an EDID detective in-between might help 'dummy up' what the AVR thinks it's seeing from the TV.
 
The handshaking is getting "different" but I wouldn't necessarily call it better, or even my usual "less worse".  The advent of 4K and a new round of HDMI copy protection has introduced a whole other set of complications.  But, for the most part, if you're not using 4K devices (source or TV) then a lot of the past woes have lessened. But the ghosts are still there, ready to jump up and bite yer ass when you upgrade even the least suspect of the devices...