Coming soon: MiniDSP Flex with HDMI input

[kadajawi]

Nubert sells mass market stuff like soundbars, electronic, speakers.
To me, even if Nubert sells only in Germany, they target more people than Minidsp that sell niche products worldwide.
Canton does not sell only in Germany but worldwide.
Anyway, we can only speculate as we do not know real numbers.

Fair enough, but I was looking at the AVPs by these two companies. They may be using parts from their soundbars though... I wonder where exactly the processing happens. I could imagine they'd need a separate chip...

Personally I think a) they might not have expected how difficult it would be for users to get this thing working properly until they were already a bit along the way in developing the device and b) that they didn't want to push back release even further. I'd expect them to be working on a version that does bitstream decoding, but since it's the first of their devices that can do it, it is taking some time. They need to get licensing in order, add the required chip, software, ...

 

[vicenzo_del_paris]

Fair enough, but I was looking at the AVPs by these two companies. They may be using parts from their soundbars though... I wonder where exactly the processing happens. I could imagine they'd need a separate chip...

Personally I think a) they might not have expected how difficult it would be for users to get this thing working properly until they were already a bit along the way in developing the device and b) that they didn't want to push back release even further. I'd expect them to be working on a version that does bitstream decoding, but since it's the first of their devices that can do it, it is taking some time. They need to get licensing in order, add the required chip, software, ...

a) are b) are completely plausible.
But if they do add bitstream decoding, the Flext HT becomes de facto an AVP.
And then need to add more features such as OSD, down/up mixing, more complex routing, ..
A lot of burden out of their original field.
I doubt they do it in near/midterm feature.
Who knows

 

[kadajawi]

a) are b) are completely plausible.
But if they do add bitstream decoding, the Flext HT becomes de facto an AVP.
And then need to add more features such as OSD, down/up mixing, more complex routing, ..
A lot of burden out of their original field.
I doubt they do it in near/midterm feature.
Who knows

Well, yes, but making it an AVP should greatly expand their market. I guess that would be in their interest.

More features... I'm not sure. Up- and downmixing can be accomplished with the Flex HT already, yeah, could it be more comfortable? Sure. And sure, OSD etc. would be nice, but is it really needed? It'd be a minimalist AVP, sure, but why not? What can I do on an OSD that I can't on the small display on the device? For most configuring you'd use USB anyway. It'd be nice if that could be done without an USB cable, but I'd rather see networking support for that (as some of their other devices already have). Not a most though.

The Flex HT meets 95 % of my needs. All that is missing is bitstream support and I'd be covered.

 

[ARNiTECT]

Btw., has anyone received a HT with serial number below 1000? I'm wondering if they really have sold 1000+ units already, or if they have simply added 1000 to the actual number produced.

Mine starts with 100*
...had no time to play with it yet; the home theatre is in greater demand this time of year

As the Flex HT's trigger will start up my poweramp; I've been trying to wire up a little relay triggered by the poweramp's output trigger to switch on fans and other switches/splitters

 

[jaakkopetteri]

Interesting device so far. Got an Apple TV 4K to pair with it (which seems a bit nicer than the Shield Pro!) but so far I've only been able to get 2.0 LPCM out of it and a PS4 through an LG B9. Device Console says eARC is in use and I replaced some of my old cables to have 48Gbps bandwidth throughout. What I find curiois is that the surround test app on ATV makes things go mute. Any ideas?

 

[mdsimon2]

Interesting device so far. Got an Apple TV 4K to pair with it (which seems a bit nicer than the Shield Pro!) but so far I've only been able to get 2.0 LPCM out of it and a PS4 through an LG B9. Device Console says eARC is in use and I replaced some of my old cables to have 48Gbps bandwidth throughout. What I find curiois is that the surround test app on ATV makes things go mute. Any ideas?

https://www.reddit.com/r/htpc/comments/gtcnyu

Michael

 

[jaakkopetteri]

https://www.reddit.com/r/htpc/comments/gtcnyu

Not sure how that's supposed to help since I'm not using a PC with the Flex HT. I tried it anyway with no luck

 

[mdsimon2]

Not sure how that's supposed to help since I'm not using a PC with the Flex HT. I tried it anyway with no luck

The issue described sounds very similar to yours and is being attributed to the LG providing incorrect EDID information.

Well as it is known LG doesn't provide the correct EDID data for LCPM audio formats back to the devices (That will be fixed until June). But eARC itself works regardless.

It also does not seem to have been fixed -> https://www.reddit.com/r/LGOLED/comments/11tr7fi .

I know there another about this but I've known about this problem for 3 years now and I was wondering if LG has an official support forum where people can post bugs so they at least have a chance of being fixed?

The problem being that EDID that is passed from the TV to any device connected to it does not include the AUDIO FORMAT information from the device on the eARC (HDMI2) of the LG devices.

This seems to affect everything from blu-ray players to PC's to DVD players, so it is not just a 1 type of hardware issue but the issue seems to be with the way eARC is handled. It also does not seem to matter about the hardware connected, whether it is a LG sundbar, or a Sony Receiver, or a Yamaha Receiver, etc... It just does not pass any capabilities of the device on the audio return channel.

This has been a documented problem for like 3 maybe 4 years now and everyone knows about, there are even websites dedicated to help you fix it, but my real question is how does one person submit this as a bug to LG to get some kind of attention to the issue?

Here is one of the websites that are dedicated to explaining the problem and the work around.

https://www.gamerevolution.com/guides/660948-how-to-get-pc-surround-sound-to-work-with-earc

I would really love for this to be fixed as it is really a huge frustration that I can't just use eARC the way it was supposed to be used.

And yes, I have documented this and captured the EDID from the TV on every HDMI port to make sure it wasn't just one channel, and every time LG OLED TV sends the EDID to the downstream device it always reports itself as "2 channel LPCM" , aka stereo, and the only way I have solved this problem, at least on PC's is to capture the EDID from the receiver and add the missing data blocks and force the platform to use my substitute EDID, and as you know, you can't do this on a Blu-ray, or a DVD player, or a game console (as far as I know).

So maybe if enough of you speak up or know how to forward bugs to LG Engineers, maybe it would get a priority and fixed, but as it is now, it is a complete mystery on how to get this problem noticed by LG.

I don't think you will be able to use the same CRU work around on your AppleTV but the issue may force you to use something like the HDFury Arcana.

Michael

 

[staticV3]

Not sure how that's supposed to help since I'm not using a PC with the Flex HT. I tried it anyway with no luck

Here's a relevant thread on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/s/kmim2CmRUK

Apparently the ATV4K will output LPCM 5.1 and 7.1, but some LG TVs will mess up when passing this signal through to their eARC port.

You could try connecting the Flex HT via an HDMI Audio splitter between the ATV and the LG TV. https://feintech.eu/products/vax01202-hdmi-earc-audio-extractor-splitter

 

[jaakkopetteri]

I guess I could try the VAX01202 to remove one variable, but for permanent use I would need one with at least two inputs. VSW04202?
E: Or would I only need the VAX02102 between the TV and the Flex HT for the EDID thing?

Super bummed if I have to resort to gimmicks like this, especially since MiniDSP accept no returns and they still haven't updated their list of compatible devices. It seems LG could also fix things if they just cared enough. Oh well, I've been thinking about a newer (bigger) TV for a while...

 

[vicenzo_del_paris]

Hi,

FYI, there a channel mapping / labeling mismatch between the device and computer :Center and LFE are inverted.
Doing a sweep in REW for center channel is directed to Flex LFE input and vice versa.
Must be a PC driver issue.

 

[kadajawi]

Did you deactivate Atmos in the Apple TV? That appears to have done the trick for me. Also did you try unplugging everything etc.?

 

[jaakkopetteri]

Couldn't make the VAX01202 work at all Tried both modes (splitter/eARC) and all the EDID settings but nothing gave the Flex HT any input. I noticed on the Amazon product page it says "No operation on the HDMI ARC port of a soundbar possible, the sound system must have a normal HDMI input", so I guess that explains it?

Is the HDFury Arcana my only hope?

 

[danstahl]

Couldn't make the VAX01202 work at all Tried both modes (splitter/eARC) and all the EDID settings but nothing gave the Flex HT any input. I noticed on the Amazon product page it says "No operation on the HDMI ARC port of a soundbar possible, the sound system must have a normal HDMI input", so I guess that explains it?

Is the HDFury Arcana my only hope?

I believe there are several cheaper options. I purchased this (it was on sale for roughly 50% off on Black Friday) in the (likely) eventuality that I purchase a Flex. I haven't tested it but it should work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNSY3VKW?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

[vicenzo_del_paris]

Couldn't make the VAX01202 work at all Tried both modes (splitter/eARC) and all the EDID settings but nothing gave the Flex HT any input. I noticed on the Amazon product page it says "No operation on the HDMI ARC port of a soundbar possible, the sound system must have a normal HDMI input", so I guess that explains it?

Is the HDFury Arcana my only hope?

VAX01202 cannot work as Flex HT requires eARC.
I ended up using the Feintech VAX04101 and it works like a charm.

 

[dweeeeb2]

VAX01202 cannot work as Flex HT requires eARC.
I ended up using the Feintech VAX04101 and it works like a charm.

I saw this on their website. I take it you are not using the tv apps?

 

[vicenzo_del_paris]

I saw this on their website. I take it you are not using the tv apps?

I don't use anything from the TV (which is indeed an android TV with all possible apps).
My unique source is my media box provided by my internet provider (see it as a APTV like) that outputs LPCM over an hdmi port (ARC capable but meaning less here) and that has also all possible apps+TV channels.
Using Feintech VAX04101, the signal from my box is sent to the TV and to the Flex using an eARC port.

 

[ARNiTECT]

Couldn't make the VAX01202 work at all Tried both modes (splitter/eARC) and all the EDID settings but nothing gave the Flex HT any input. I noticed on the Amazon product page it says "No operation on the HDMI ARC port of a soundbar possible, the sound system must have a normal HDMI input", so I guess that explains it?

Is the HDFury Arcana my only hope?

I am using the Ezcoo EZ-SP22H2EARCO, which converts 7.1 LPCM HDMI audio to 7.1 eARC, as required by the Flex HT. I have it connected to the HDMI audio out from my CXUHD bluray player, which processes bitstream audio from my nvidia Shield and PC to LPCM.
I have the VAX01202 connected to the eARC HDMI socket of my LG OLED G2, which converts 7.1 eARC to 7.1 HDMI audio, required by my CXUHD; however, not DTS/DTS-HD as my TV doesn't pass-through these.
I am using a 4-way HDMI 2.1 switch (EZ-SW41H21) from the sources, outputting to an HDMI 2.1 splitter (EZ-SP12H28S) which sends video to the TV (including Dolby Vision) and bitstream audio to the CXUHD HMDI input.
My PC sends one HDMI 2.1 straight to TV for video and a second HDMI to the 4-way switch to allow DTS/DTS-HD audio to be processed.

 

[dweeeeb2]

I am using the Ezcoo EZ-SP22H2EARCO, which converts 7.1 LPCM HDMI audio to 7.1 eARC, as required by the Flex HT. I have it connected to the HDMI audio out from my CXUHD bluray player, which processes bitstream audio from my nvidia Shield and PC to LPCM.
I have the VAX01202 connected to the eARC HDMI socket of my LG OLED G2, which converts 7.1 eARC to 7.1 HDMI audio, required by my CXUHD; however, not DTS/DTS-HD as my TV doesn't pass-through these.
I am using a 4-way HDMI 2.1 switch (EZ-SW41H21) from the sources, outputting to an HDMI 2.1 splitter (EZ-SP12H28S) which sends video to the TV (including Dolby Vision) and bitstream audio to the CXUHD HMDI input.
My PC sends one HDMI 2.1 straight to TV for video and a second HDMI to the 4-way switch to allow DTS/DTS-HD audio to be processed.

It’s nuts isn’t it. It gets sooo complicated. Glad to hear it works.

 

[jaakkopetteri]

I am using the Ezcoo EZ-SP22H2EAR
I have the VAX01202
I am using a 4-way HDMI 2.1 switch (EZ-SW41H21) from the sources, outputting to an HDMI 2.1 splitter (EZ-SP12H28S)

Bruh.