[MovieJunky]

Hello everyone,

First thanks for having a great community and forum.
I've been browsing and troubleshooting through a lot of walkthroughs here and
read many threads without posting.

I recently purchased an HDMI splitter and connected my HTPC running XBMC Frodo 12.2
to my TV and my AVR, which is in turn connected to my projector.
The problem I have now encountered is that once HTPC and AVR are not directly
connected anymore, DTS/DD are not possible anymore through the HDMI splitter.
Playback becomes extremely choppy and debug mode says it runs at 4 FPS,
while my AVR reports no digital signal, just stereo. (for full hardware details look at the bottom)



When I disable having a DTS- and AC3-capable receiver under System/Audio,
playback works fine and is obviously in stereo.

I believe the HDMI splitter prevents or scrambles up the handshake between HTPC and AVR and
this causes these issues. I attached the XBMC log here. http://pastebin.com/gFzWqvkY

This is causing the issue I believe:

Code:

INFO: ADDON: cpluff: 'An unreleased information object was encountered at address 0434DAF8 with reference count 1 when destroying the associated plug-in context. Not releasing the object.'

I hope this is not a logical consequence of using an HDMI splitter and hope somebody might have an idea.

Thanks for taking the time!
-Steve


Hardware Info:

HTPC:
HP N40L Microserver
Sapphire Radeon HD 6450
8 GB DDR3
Running XBMC Frodo 12.2
AVR:
DENON AVR 1612
PROJECTOR:
Epson THW-3200
TV:
Samsung UE40F5370
HDMI Splitter:
deleyCON HDMI Splitter 1 Input > 2 Output (link to Amazon)

[jjd-uk]

It's probably a consequence of the HDMI splitter and I would suspect it's the audio properties of the TV being fed back to the HTPC causing the issue.

What happens if the TV is switched off and AVR is switched on before you boot the HTPC from being off?

[MovieJunky]

That's an idea worth pursuing. The thing about my htpc is though that it's never off, but I will try to do it once and we are all the wiser. My graphic card probably does not know which device to sync up.

[jjd-uk]

The HTPC HDMI will sync to the 1st HDMI end device it see's, if a device is switched off this is signaled by Pin 19.

If with TV off you can get the AVR to sync with the HTPC then a option maybe to tape over HDMI Pin 19 so status changes aren't signalled, see HDMI Pin 19 trick @ HDMI (wiki)

[Jogee]

MovieJunky,

Why don't you move the HDMI splitter after the AVR? That is, split the HDMI coming out of the AVR to your TV and projector.

If you do this, and set your AVR and TV to not use the TV speakers when the amp is on, it should force the HDMI handshake to see only the AVR and it's audio capabilities, no matter what display device you are messing with. You may also have to play with the HDMI CEC stuff as well.

However, you will be trading audio issues for video issues with this change. Hopefully your TV and projector can both do the same resolution. Or that the HDMI splitter is somehow smart enough to account for this.

Otherwise you will have to do as others above suggest -- HTPC on last after you turn everything else on. Or you would be needing to do an unplug and re-plug of the HDMI cable off of the receiver to force a HDMI handshake, if you follow.

Good luck.

[MovieJunky]

MovieJunky,

Why don't you move the HDMI splitter after the AVR? That is, split the HDMI coming out of the AVR to your TV and projector.

If you do this, and set your AVR and TV to not use the TV speakers when the amp is on, it should force the HDMI handshake to see only the AVR and it's audio capabilities, no matter what display device you are messing with. You may also have to play with the HDMI CEC stuff as well.

However, you will be trading audio issues for video issues with this change. Hopefully your TV and projector can both do the same resolution. Or that the HDMI splitter is somehow smart enough to account for this.

Otherwise you will have to do as others above suggest -- HTPC on last after you turn everything else on. Or you would be needing to do an unplug and re-plug of the HDMI cable off of the receiver to force a HDMI handshake, if you follow.

Good luck.

Oh my lord. Why did I not think of that.
This totally solved my problem and I did exactly what you said, move the splitter behind the AVR.
What I had to do to keep the HDMI signal going even after turning off the AVR (to conserve energy),
was to enable the HDMI control in the AVR and disable AC3/DTS again in the settings, so I can now
watch on the TV even with the AVR turned off. Whenever I use the projector now, I just enable those again and happy watching.

Thanks so much for pointing out the obvious. Now I just need to figure out how to use 2 x the same IR receiver on EventGhost,
without having to unplug on and reloading the configuration in EG. Any thoughts on that or should I post in an entirely different section?

Thanks again!
Steve

Edit: How can I give you a +1 for reputation?

[nickr]

Edit: How can I give you a +1 for reputation?

you need to have posted more - at least 10x I think.

[Jogee]

Glad you were able to get it working.

Unfortunately, I have no experience with EventGhost. But I'm sure there's somewhere on the board, and someone, that can possibly answer your question.

Enjoy!