# Installation of HDMI Splitters



## billybishop81 (Aug 4, 2008)

Hi I am a Co-Owner of a theater installation company

I have recently be asked at a store to install a 1 in 8 out HDMI Splitter that was supposed to be 1.3a compliant and we could not get digital sound out of it nevermind True HD my question would be "do all HDMI Splitters resist Digital audio or just some?" "could this be a falling unit line?" "do you recommend any specific type of splitter that you found to be a great product?" thanks for any info you guys/girls have.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

The problem may not be the splitter but could possibly be what it was connected to. What are the make and models numbers the devices in question? There just might be something that was over looked.


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## billybishop81 (Aug 4, 2008)

We are using a samsung blu ray player in to a ultralink splitter out to tvs and receivers (yamaha RX-V863 and HK AVR-563 I can't remember the exact modle number of that one)


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

I'm not sure what output options are available on the Samsung blu ray player. Hopefully someone who owns one will chime in here.


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Well, the trouble shooter in me says take the splitter out of the equation and see if you get sound.

Yes?

Put the splitter back in but keep it simple, one in, one out.

Sound Yes? Add more outs.

Sound no? Switch out the cables with some verified to work. Still no sound? Must be a splitter problem. Solution is different splitter.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

Are there any output options on the Samsung to enable both audio and video through HDMI?


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## tbase1 (Nov 10, 2006)

run the out board players hdmi to the spliter inputs and then out hdmi to one of inputs on the receiver. remember which units are connected to what inputs on the switch and make sure you switch the receiver and then the switch. I did this when i had my panasonic SR57 which had 1 in and 1 out hdmi and it worked great. poor mans way to add additional hdmi when you run out of inputs


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## Eric Carroll (Feb 27, 2008)

One very important thing about a splitter is EDID management. If you don't know what this is... well, you need to in order to use HDMI splitters successfully. 

Short course in EDID: every source reads the EDID of every sink to understand what it supports and will tailor the transmission to supported audio and video formats. A "splitter" is actually a multiport repeater with duplicator function (per the HDMI specs). "So what" I hear you ask... 

Let's say you have a 1x4 HDMI "splitter". In this example, you have 4 sinks and one source. When the source reads the EDID, which EDID does the splitter pass back to the source? The answer is "it depends". On what? The splitter implementation - because the HDMI spec does not specifically state what it should do. And there is the problem. 

In short, read the fine print very very carefully of how the splitter supports the selection of EDID from the multiple sinks. Some have a specific port that is used preferentially. Some have a button that can select a port. Some send all of the EDID results to the source and leave it up to the source to decide - which is undefined behaviour in the spec and won't get you the necessarily best result. Some don't do this at all and mess it up as a result.


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## billybishop81 (Aug 4, 2008)

This is all great Info Guys The manufacture say that there unit only supplies digital sound and not HD sound but I am getting only PCM Sound through it the manufacture told me that pcm is uncompressed multi-channel sound and I always thought of it as an uncompressed analog audio left right only and that is the way the system plays it know I go back to the store wed morning and I will have 2 new units there to test now if I get you guys right I am assuming that you are suggesting to replace units if all else fails and all else would be to find out weather or not the system using the EDID is out putting the lowest campatible system possible (Like hooking up a blu ray player to a 1080I and a 1080P it will switch the player to 1080I to make it compatible for all devices) I will try this theroery first and we will see where this gets me if you guys have anything else in though let me know before the morning and I will try them out.


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## Eric Carroll (Feb 27, 2008)

billybishop81 said:


> The manufacture say that there unit only supplies digital sound and not HD sound ...


One option I forgot to mention: sometimes manufacturers hardwire the EDID in their splitter. This is bad, but surprisingly common because it is easy. 

A few extra dollars for a quality HDMI splitter with configurable EDID support will save you massive time, effort and of course, forum posts.


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