Amazon Basics 4K HDMI Extractor Review

[Esque]

Anyone else experiencing unlistenable stutter with this device?

Bought this to use chromecast as a headless streamer to the digital input on my amp.
However I’m experiencing audio stutter at every second.

I’ve tried a different coax cable, toslink out. Analog out, multiple HDMI sources, a few USB power supplies.

I also tried connecting my Mac so I can manually select channels and sample rate.

All result in a similar issue, am I doing something wrong or is my unit faulty?

 

[antcollinet]

If this is also happening on analogue out, with two sources - chromecast and mac -, then it sounds like yours is faulty.

 

[Monster]

Anyone else experiencing unlistenable stutter with this device?

Bought this to use chromecast as a headless streamer to the digital input on my amp.
However I’m experiencing audio stutter at every second.

I’ve tried a different coax cable, toslink out. Analog out, multiple HDMI sources, a few USB power supplies.

I also tried connecting my Mac so I can manually select channels and sample rate.

All result in a similar issue, am I doing something wrong or is my unit faulty?

No guarantees, but this may be a similar problem to the one I described in my earlier post. The fix that I found was cheap enough to try.

 

[antcollinet]

No guarantees, but this may be a similar problem to the one I described in my earlier post. The fix that I found was cheap enough to try.

That is a good shout also.

 

[AudioSceptic]

This is my first 'real' post which I hope may be useful to someone.

I am using one these HDMI audio extractors to stream from Amazon Music Unlimited to a Fire TV HD stick then to my SMSL DAC over coax. This is done 'headless', casting music using Alexa cast from my android phone with no TV or display attached. When I first installed this I was finding that every three or four minutes there was an audio dropout lasting about a second.

After a lot of messing about, I noticed that when I had the output from the HDMI extractor plugged into the TV, for instance for changing settings on the Fire Stick, then the dropouts didn't occur. The solution, as I'm sure many here have already figured out, was one of these plugged into the extractor's HDMI output. No more dropouts.

I must admit, until I had this problem I didn't know these 'ghost' monitor EDID plugs existed, but then you learn something new every day.

Nor me. I wonder if there's anything active in there, or it just acts as a high impedance terminator?

 

[somebodyelse]

Nor me. I wonder if there's anything active in there, or it just acts as a high impedance terminator?

From the description it'll have a cheap microcontroller to send the EDID info, making it look like there's something real connected.

 

[Esque]

My Mac recognizes it as a 1920x1080 display. Ordered the dummy plugs but I’m doubtfull it will have affect.

 

[Esque]

No guarantees, but this may be a similar problem to the one I described in my earlier post. The fix that I found was cheap enough to try.

Update, connected a display to the HDMI output. Same issue, product will be returned.

 

[Monster]

Update, connected a display to the HDMI output. Same issue, product will be returned.

Shame it didn't fix it. It really does seem like the unit is faulty.

 

[mc.god]

Probably I'm just dumb but I can't still figure if the signal sent to hdmi out will remain original video+audio or only video and audio sent out only from cox\optical\analog?
Considering it to route chromecast hd audio to my legacy system, 3.5 analog out will suffice since it would be rarely used and mainly to stream background music, so primary scope will remain watching chromecast only through tv.

 

[Brab]

Probably I'm just dumb but I can't still figure if the signal sent to hdmi out will remain original video+audio or only video and audio sent out only from cox\optical\analog?
Considering it to route chromecast hd audio to my legacy system, 3.5 analog out will suffice since it would be rarely used and mainly to stream background music, so primary scope will remain watching chromecast only through tv.

The unit will output video plus audio via the HDMI out.

 

[mc.god]

The unit will output video plus audio via the HDMI out.

Thank you for the confirmation.

 

[mc.god]

Ok, got one of this, looked inside just to confirm in maintained the hardware configuration, and yes, it appears identical to previously posted pics:

So Semiconn EP92A3E main chip and nice gold plated connectors.

Being interested in the analog output i tried to investigate where DA conversion is done and found this DAC chip that get data from the I2S pins of the main chip:

Very hard to read but it seems to me it says GC4333, that seems to be a Chinese clone iteration of the old TI CS4344, here the specs

https://wmsc.lcsc.com/wmsc/upload/file/pdf/v2/lcsc/2309061000_SX-globalchip-GC4344_C16197182.pdf

Amir got around 10 db worse than specs, I consider it an acceptable performance for the intended scenario. The dac supports 24 bit format but Amir linearity test shows that probably a 16 bit signal is passed from the main chip, i read somewhere that HDCP standard limits analog output t 16 bit 48K, if this is the case (the single 24 Mhz oscillator could confirm it) then dynamic range measurement is pretty good.

Here are the specs of the unit:

Pretty perfect for my old FHD tv and Chromecast GTV HD, at 320mA it seems i can power it through the TV usb port that is convenient.
Still not connected it, I'll report back after everything is tested.

[EDIT]
Everything hooked up, no surprises, all working flawless as intended, nice add-on to the legacy system.

 

[srkbear]

Ok, got one of this, looked inside just to confirm in maintained the hardware configuration, and yes, it appears identical to previously posted pics:

View attachment 366409

So Semiconn EP92A3E main chip and nice gold plated connectors.

Being interested in the analog output i tried to investigate where DA conversion is done and found this DAC chip that get data from the I2S pins of the main chip:

View attachment 366411

Very hard to read but it seems to me it says GC4333, that seems to be a Chinese clone iteration of the old TI CS4344, here the specs

https://wmsc.lcsc.com/wmsc/upload/file/pdf/v2/lcsc/2309061000_SX-globalchip-GC4344_C16197182.pdf

Amir got around 10 db worse than specs, I consider it an acceptable performance for the intended scenario. The dac supports 24 bit format but Amir linearity test shows that probably a 16 bit signal is passed from the main chip, i read somewhere that HDCP standard limits analog output t 16 bit 48K, if this is the case (the single 24 Mhz oscillator could confirm it) then dynamic range measurement is pretty good.

Here are the specs of the unit:

View attachment 366418

Pretty perfect for my old FHD tv and Chromecast GTV HD, at 320mA it seems i can power it through the TV usb port that is convenient.
Still not connected it, I'll report back after everything is tested.

[EDIT]
Everything hooked up, no surprises, all working flawless as intended, nice add-on to the legacy system.

Which unit are you using, the one that outputs S/PDIF or I/S? Are you utilizing SACD for this purpose? Do you also find that you have to have the multichannel switch engaged to obtain the hi res signal?

 

[mc.god]

Which unit are you using, the one that outputs S/PDIF or I/S? Are you utilizing SACD for this purpose? Do you also find that you have to have the multichannel switch engaged to obtain the hi res signal?

I've got the unit of this review, so the amazon basics with cox\optical + analog 3.5 out.
I was simply referring to the internal conversion that brings analog out at the 3.5 mm since it's the way i'm using it to bring audio from a Chromecast HD to the Denon PRA-1500 pre.

 

[srkbear]

I've got the unit of this review, so the amazon basics with cox\optical + analog 3.5 out.
I was simply referring to the internal conversion that brings analog out at the 3.5 mm since it's the way i'm using it to bring audio from a Chromecast HD to the Denon PRA-1500 pre.

Thanks! I should have clarified that I wasn’t responding to the thread topic of your post, I was just curious what unit you had, and what you’ve encountered with the multichannel button! Sorry I’m terrible about paying attention to the topic at hand…

 

[mc.god]

Thanks! I should have clarified that I wasn’t responding to the thread topic of your post, I was just curious what unit you had, and what you’ve encountered with the multichannel button! Sorry I’m terrible about paying attention to the topic at hand…

No problem, I didn't use the channel switch since analog out only works on default 2ch setting.

 

[carlmart]

It’s not a gamble really because if a HDMI device has audio, then it is required to ( mandatory ) to have a 2 channel PCM (uncompressed stereo) for backwards compatibility.

All other formats are optional. So HDMI can transfer up to 24/192 to 8 channels of uncompressed audio, as well as compressed audio stream, such as Dolby Digital and DTS and all the other multichannel formats like DTS HD Master Audio or even 8 channels of quad DSD.
It is a digital dataset after all; and the format is flagged by a signal bit in the data-stream.

It’s up to the receiving end (AVR, pre-processor, software etc) to decode the stream.

The main limitation is the S/PDIF whether it be coaxial cable or toslink it can only carry 2 channels of uncompressed audio or compressed 5.1 surround sound like Dolby 5.1 or DTS); it cannot support lossless surround formats that require greater bandwidth.

There is no transcoding or decoding in the audiostream from HDMI to SPDIF; hence it’s bit perfect.

But you can select 2 or 5.1 output upfront, both from coaxial and optical.

This is a great device, as it allows you to use any BD player as transport and connect an external high quality DAC, with two channels, and get very high quality audio.

 

[carlmart]

Amirm, why don't you test this unit's optical output, with curves and specs, to see if there's any electrical difference, measurable difference?

On a DAC I had, that had both coaxial and optical inputs, I did listen to both using the same source, and the coaxial sounded better in all aspects. But can't say how and if that difference was measurable. "Sounding different" is not a measuring parameter.

Being so cheap the parts that come inside that converter box, I can't understand why there aren't more affordable DACs available. with HDMI inputs.

 

[mc.god]

Being so cheap the parts that come inside that converter box, I can't understand why there aren't more affordable DACs available. with HDMI inputs.

https://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/detail/id/842.html