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

[John Veness]

On 16/05/2016 12:04, Simon Hobson wrote:
> Yes indeed, you've bought an HDMI switch which "doesn't work" (for at least one definition of "work").
> I'd be inclined to contact the manufacturer (or perhaps the vendor) first and complain that it a) "doesn't work" (as in turns off when it shouldn't) and b) "doesn't work" (as in "the sound isn't synced - don't tell them that you can adjust for it !). The latter makes the product "not fit for purpose" IMO.
Thanks Simon for all your replies so far.

I could contact the manufacturer, and indeed have done so already to ask 
whether the auto-sleep could be disabled, and the lack of discrete 
remote commands, but have just been told that such things will be 
considered for future products, so no help there. The sound 
synchronisation thing I need to do a few more experiments, with 
different sources, before deciding what to do about that. Certainly when 
I plugged my Roku into one of the other HDMI inputs, I didn't notice so 
much of a problem.

But I keep coming back to the fact that I feel like this can be solved, 
in software, in Myth or Linux itself, given that other sources inputting 
to the soundbar don't trigger the problem. My hacker mentality would 
rather solve it that way than have to deal with the manufacturer or 
change any hardware.

I don't know whether the soundbar notices silence by "listening" for 
actual silence, or just because it is getting no audio bitstream. If the 
latter, then sending a load of zero bytes (or whatever is the equivalent 
for silence) should presumably work, but I haven't tried this yet.

John

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

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