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Author Topic: HDMI disembedders Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-03-2014 09:28 AM                        Does anyone have experience with these? I need something that will pass through HDMI and give me 2-channel analog stereo output. This thing seems to do what I want. Is it any good? Are there any better options? This is actually for a conference room at my day job, not a cinema, but someone here must have had to deal with stuff (e.g. Apple TV) that only has HDMI outputs and no analog audio output at all. I don't necessarily care about HDCP compliance for my application, though that would be a nice-to-have for possible future use.  |  IP: Logged Pete Naples Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1565 From: Dunfermline, Scotland Registered: Feb 2001 posted 06-03-2014 12:39 PM                     CYP These have been rock solid for us.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-04-2014 06:14 AM                     What is key about the Atlona product is that is that it will allow one to retain the multichannel lossless audio if it is used in a more complex system. A problem for systems where there may be more than one display is that HDMI is a least common denominator format so that a 2-channel monitor output can force everyone to have to work with a 2-channel source rather than have DTS Master Audio go to the "Theatre" while still having a 2-channel version for a preview monitor. The Atlona piece allows for this. However, if all you need is a 2-channel output and it isn't a multi-output system...then there are a bazillion 2-channel de-embedders out there that should work.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-01-2014 09:58 AM                        As an update on this, I ended up going with the Atlona box on the basis that it was the only unit that I could find that did not look as if it would fail within six months. So far, it has been working fine.  |  IP: Logged Victor Liorentas Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: london ontario canada Registered: May 2009 posted 07-01-2014 10:13 AM                     So what I need is simply an HDMI splitter for my booth monitor.I don't care about the monitor sound.I just want the projectors input to remain stable while I navigate through the menus visually. Will any decent splitter work for that?  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 07-01-2014 08:07 PM                     Yes, should be fine with a splitter... but you will need an HDCP compliant monitor as the player will drop to something like 480i if not.  |  IP: Logged Victor Liorentas Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: london ontario canada Registered: May 2009 posted 07-03-2014 09:26 AM                     Right. Thanks Dave!  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-03-2014 10:23 AM                     Scott -- we've had a few Atlona (and Black Magic) DMB's in our system for 4 years now. Continuous operation. They work okay if all you need is 2-Channel stereo. I am curious... Does your model really down-mix surround to 2-Ch? Could it pass along the intact digital bitstream(s) to another processor for decoding? The ones we have just strip the first 2 channels off, making it necessary to perform the down mix from within the playback device. I'm replacing one of those this summer with a Crestron HD-XSP.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-03-2014 12:49 PM                        I can't necessarily answer those questions right now--this is in a conference room in an office, not a cinema, and it only has one monitor, which is the only thing in the chain after the disembedder. For obvious reasons, something like this only needs a 2-channel sound system, but we had two devices (Apple TV and Google TV (the Sony version)) which do not have analog audio outputs (why do manufacturers do this?). Each of these (and a guest input) connects to a Kramer VS-81H HDMI switch, which feeds the Atlona box (AT-HD-M2C) and then the monitor. I have played some movie trailers on the Apple TV and the sound seems fine. I have not done extensive testing with anything else, since the primary purpose of this setup is for laptop use via DVI and VGA (using a Startech VGA->HDMI adapter). For our purposes, it works fine. I would have preferred balanced outputs and a non-wall-wart power supply, but those are minor quibbles. According to the documentation, it does what Steve says: it gives an audio EDID of 7.1 to the playback device, provides a 2-channel mix on the analog output, and passes the 7.1 soundtrack through to whatever device comes next in the chain.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-04-2014 06:39 AM                     The new Atlona box does indeed do a downmix and leaves all of the high-bandwidth audio in tact for any downstream boxes. It purpose is to NOT contaminate the HDMI EDID with a "just give me stereo" request that ruins the main audio. http://www.atlona.com/HD-M2C.html At the AFI, we had to use two HD-XSPs per theatre so that the preview monitoring system didn't reduce the main audio down to preview needs. If it was designed today, we would have used the Atlona box for the preview system...it is FAR cheaper. On the Crestron HD-XSP...while it is a nice box for professional applications, one thing they forgot to allow for is to set lip-sync delay via touchpanel (or other controller). You can set it via the front panel or via Toolbox but not via a normal Crestron interface. I also think it is silly that Crestron didn't make (and doesn't) make their boxes controllable by normal serial or Ethernet type strings. If all other manufacturers took that approach (keep it all proprietary), then neither Crestron nor AMX would ever have been able to form since they couldn't control anything. Note, I've toyed with using an OPPO BluRay player to do what the HD-XSP is doing...it is about 1/3 the price and only double the rack space...and it plays BluRay, DVDs and streaming media too! Even the high-end version (BDP-105) is about 30% cheaper and has better audio specs than the Crestron. Oddly enough, the lip-sync delay is not part of the Oppo command set either! But it is adjustable via menus.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-07-2014 09:24 AM                     Hi Steve -- Great info there, as usual. Thanks much. You may recall that space is at a premium in the rack for our Lectern sub-system, so if I replace the existing Bluray player, the new one has to be the same size, or smaller. And, fortunately, I can adjust lip-sync delay via the Dolby DMA8plus. So -- for anyone needing lip sync delay -- if you have a DMA8plus, remember that provides an option for cinema playback. (I don't see it helping with a preview system though.) I have 5 buttons programmed for 0 through 4 frames' worth of delay. 1 frame = 40msec. (approx) Thus far, I've probably only needed to use delay on 2 shows, and never more than 2 frames.  |  IP: Logged

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