[mythtv-users] HDMI keep alive, maybe via sending silent audio?

[John Veness]

On 16/05/2016 10:03, Simon Hobson wrote:
> John Veness <John.Veness.mythtv at pelago.org.uk> wrote:
>
>> The soundbar has several sockets, including analogue audio inputs, optical input, Bluetooth input, 3 HDMI inputs and one input/output socket for HDMI ARC, the latter of which plugs into the TV.
>>
>> The HDMI ARC socket is used as an output when HDMI 1, 2 or 3 are selected as the current input on the soundbar - the soundbar will play the audio directly from the HDMI 1, 2 or 3 input, and pass the signal onto the HDMI ARC socket for display on the TV. So the soundbar can be used as a switcher as well as speakers, if you run out of HDMI sockets on the TV.
>>
>> The HDMI ARC socket can also be selected as an input on the soundbar itself, in which case it will play whatever sound the TV is generating, for sources plugged into the TV itself, or when using the TV built-in tuner, or smart facilities.
>>
>> According to the soundbar manual, by design it will go to sleep after a few minutes of silence on the currently selected input. This certainly seems to be the case when the analogue audio inputs are used.
> Can it be set to only use the ARC audio channel - even when switching one of the HDMI inputs to the TV ?
> If not, then that's as carp a design as not being able to not sleep on lack of sound. What if someone connects a computer that doesn't do sound out via DVI - my laptop annoying comes from just before Apple started outputting audio to the mini-displayport ?
The soundbar (a Maxell MXSP-SB3000)**was nice and cheap, gives good 
sound, and has a nice lot of inputs, but is otherwise not very 
configurable, so unfortunately it doesn't allow configuring to always 
take the audio from the HDMI ARC socket, independent of the HDMI 
switching capability. (It also doesn't accept discrete power off and 
power on commands, which makes programming a universal remote annoying).

Regardless of the "going to sleep" problem, I wish it could be made to 
always take audio from HDMI ARC, because something I haven't mentioned 
is that when it plays the audio directly from the HDMI input socket and 
passes the picture onto the TV via the HDMI ARC socket, the audio comes 
out slightly before the picture, presumably due to image processing 
delays on the TV. When the TV sends the audio out of its HDMI ARC 
socket, it seems to do so with no delay. Luckily, with Myth at least 
(maybe not other sources) the audio can be set to be delayed, to 
counteract that.

It may be that one solution would be to ignore the three other HDMI 
inputs on the soundbar and use a separate HDMI switcher, plugged into a 
separate HDMI socket on the TV, and use the TV's HDMI ARC output to the 
soundbar, which experimentation is showing that it would not sleep on 
silence.

But that does seem a waste of money, waste of power, another remote to 
deal with, or push me over the limit of number of devices I can program 
into my universal remote. Especially as the soundbar *can* do HDMI 
switching, and *can* seemingly not sleep when my Roku or PS3 is plugged 
into it, even when those devices are paused or in menus.

I'm sure there is a solution, presumably by playing a "silent" WAV file 
on a loop. I'm not sure if I'd be able to play that all the time, and 
have Myth's audio output mixed into it, or whether I would need to 
somehow only play it while in menus or paused. Any ideas, anyone?

John

-- 
John Veness, MythTV user, UK, DVB-T

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