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HDMI extractor for 5.1 sound from ancient Harman AV receiver?

krabapple

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The DVD player was manufactured September 1999. I know this because I still have it (and it still works!) It has both S-Video and RGB video output and S/PDIF optical output as well as coaxial digital audio output!
Well yes, that would be normal for that time.

On the other hand, my TV had inputs only for antenna and composite video with L/R RCA audio. In 2000, those connections were "standard" on new TVs.
Right, they'd been standard long before 2000 -- since VCR days -- but for some reason you called them 'non standard' at first.




One of the big challenges we have on ASR is that there are many people here who have owned high-end equipment for decades even when a CD player cost more than a car.

That's an exaggeration. There were always new CDPs that cost less than the cheapest new cars. DVDPs started as high as >$1000 at the very beginning (1997) but rapidly came down in price. You could get one for <$100 by 2000.

Again, I lived through this era you talk about. I bought my first stereo (japanese receiver + EPI 100 bookshelfs) as a teen in 1977. I was a grad student/postdoc in the 1990s...far from wealthy. I'm sure there are plenty here who remember owning mass market gear, like I do


People who have been into audio and video for decades, even without sites like ASR, managed to avoid the worst of the equipment out there and don't realize just how bad the average setup was.

Any setup that included digital audio was already an improvement sound-wise compared to the pre-digital era.
 

EdTice

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Well yes, that would be normal for that time.


Right, they'd been standard long before 2000 -- since VCR days -- but for some reason you called them 'non standard' at first.






That's an exaggeration. There were always new CDPs that cost less than the cheapest new cars. DVDPs started as high as >$1000 at the very beginning (1997) but rapidly came down in price. You could get one for <$100 by 2000.

Again, I lived through this era you talk about. I bought my first stereo (japanese receiver + EPI 100 bookshelfs) as a teen in 1977. I was a grad student/postdoc in the 1990s...far from wealthy. I'm sure there are plenty here who remember owning mass market gear, like I do




Any setup that included digital audio was already an improvement sound-wise compared to the pre-digital era.

My terminology was weak. They were included in newer TVs but, at that time, the median age of a TV in service was pretty old. It's an exercise in turning one hair into two. They weren't standard at the time that most of the TVs in use were purchased. Flat panels were available but not affordable. Nobody wanted to buy an old-technology CRT but nobody had the cash for a flat panel. When prices dropped around 2010 or so, nobody wanted CRTs and they became a trash disposal nightmare.

Yes equipment got cheaper, but *good* equipment did not get much cheaper. I actually owned one of these. https://www.ebay.com/itm/-/265515117609 The sound quality was anything but good. As you said they were under $100 in Walmart. In 1996, you could get a CD-ROM drive with a ****** DAC for $100 too. But the median computer wasn't fast enough for MP3 playback!

I'm not disagreeing with you about what existed. But what the average person who is now on ASR had at the time was vastly superior to what the average person of the time had.
 

krabapple

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My terminology was weak. They were included in newer TVs but, at that time, the median age of a TV in service was pretty old. It's an exercise in turning one hair into two. They weren't standard at the time that most of the TVs in use were purchased.

1956: Composite RCA is introduced, becoming a common standard for televisions, VCRs, LaserDisc, video game consoles, computers, and more for the next several decades.

Every home with a VCR -- which were ubiquitous in the 1980s and onward -- had a TV with a composite input. (And RCA L/R audio) . Same for late 70s early adopters.

So how old were the median age TVs you're talking about circa 2000?

No one is talking about flat panels.


Yes equipment got cheaper, but *good* equipment did not get much cheaper. I actually owned one of these. https://www.ebay.com/itm/-/265515117609 The sound quality was anything but good. As you said they were under $100 in Walmart. In 1996, you could get a CD-ROM drive with a ****** DAC for $100 too. But the median computer wasn't fast enough for MP3
You keep offering up boomboxes as examples of home stereo equipment.

Home 'stereo' -- some sort of receiver + separate speakers , typically including a TT and later, a digital player -- was popular enough that there were several actual mass market magazines devoted to it on stands every month. Discount home audio video stores did booming business. Practically every one of my friends, male and female, none of whom were audiophiles...had a 'stereo' of some sort (not a boombox) at home. So did their parents.

I don't know what world you are talking about.
 

ThatM1key

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It seemed like everybody had these and every 2000s kid wanted one:

8267626_ra.jpg


I grew up in 2000s and I've experienced a lot of TV changes. CRT to Early LCD to Plasma to LED to Quantum Dot. Most of them shared the cables.

The thing with AVR Lip sync is it can tuned + those AVR remotes can be programmed to control your TV.

I'm certain that PCs after 1995 can handle MP3 fine. I got some 90s games that used MIDI, which probably used more cpu power (MS GS) than MP3 itself.
 

EdTice

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It seemed like everybody had these and every 2000s kid wanted one:

View attachment 185308

I grew up in 2000s and I've experienced a lot of TV changes. CRT to Early LCD to Plasma to LED to Quantum Dot. Most of them shared the cables.

The thing with AVR Lip sync is it can tuned + those AVR remotes can be programmed to control your TV.

I'm certain that PCs after 1995 can handle MP3 fine. I got some 90s games that used MIDI, which probably used more cpu power (MS GS) than MP3 itself.
MIDI uses significantly less CPU power than MP3. For MIDI, the entire processing would be handled by the interface (sound card in 1995 speak). MP3 had to first be transformed to WAV before being sent to the sound hardware and most CPUs at the time couldn't keep up. You needed somewhere around 133mhz of processor and the disk had to be able to keep up. It was especially hard because many machines didn't have enough RAM to hold an entire track.

PCs *manufactured* after 1995 can all handle MP3 just fine. But all of the PCs that were manufactured from 1981-1994 and still in use could not. I worked with many people at that time who came up with all kind of justifications that they "needed a new computer" and the only real reason was that they wanted to be able to play music in the background while working!

Somewhere not much longer after 1995, sound card manufacturers started having hardware optimized for MP3 playback where the CPU was no longer decoding to WAV but the unencoded MP3 would get sent to the audio hardware. But by then, the CPUs were so fast that it didn't matter much!
 

EdTice

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It seemed like everybody had these and every 2000s kid wanted one:

View attachment 185308
I owned this particular unit.


I actually had it until recently. When I moved in April 2020, one of the channels stopped working. The CD player never worked reliably (Would have to spin up and spin down multiple times before playing). Wasn't interested in trying to repair it and I took it to the county escrap drop off. Maybe for nostalgia I'll put in a bid.
 

Blumlein 88

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I decided to resurrect this thread rather than start a new one. I recently purchased a 4k projector which was HDMI 2.0b and HDCP 2.2 compliant. My problem is my old Marantz 7701 pre/pro is only HDCP 1.4 which means no 60 hz 4k throughput and no handshake for multichannel sound from a HDCP 2.2 source. This unit here fixed things for me.


ViewHD Prosumer UHD HDMI 4x1 Switch and audio extractor. Currently about $83.

It has 4 HDMI inputs which accept 4 k 60 hz inputs. It has two HDMI outputs. One is a passthrough of the selected input and other can either be for a 2nd monitor or an audio only HDMI extractor operating in HDCP 1.4 for older AV units. In audio only mode it outputs a blue screen at 720 P and the sound format the older units can use. In my case that is usually Dolby Digital Plus. The unit handles Dolby Vision and HDR and any combination of formats that fit within the 18 Gbps format of HDCP 2.2 signals. Does ARC as well.

So this lets me use my new 4k projector in all the video formats it is capable of and yet get the sound out to my old AV unit without having to drop a big bundle on a newer HDCP 2.2 AV processor. Seems to cause no issues with any of the video input formats I've tried so far. I'd prefer not to have the extra box or wires, but it does auto-sensing/switching so once set you don't really notice it is there.
 
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philipus

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Thank you very much for your reply, and my apologies it's taken so incredibly long to get back to this thread. Life has just got in the way somehow.

I looked at the ViewHD piece but unfortunately it is no longer available. I'm curious if it (or something like it) would work between our Apple TV 4K, our old non-HDMI receiver and our Panasonic plasma TV. Trying to get my head around this, I see that the ATV 4K has HDMI 2.1 – does that mean that an extractor that has for instance HDMI 2.0 won't work with the ATV 4K? A basic question, I realise, but I'm trying to avoid having to buy twice.

Cheers
Philip

I decided to resurrect this thread rather than start a new one. I recently purchased a 4k projector which was HDMI 2.0b and HDCP 2.2 compliant. My problem is my old Marantz 7701 pre/pro is only HDCP 1.4 which means no 60 hz 4k throughput and no handshake for multichannel sound from a HDCP 2.2 source. This unit here fixed things for me.


ViewHD Prosumer UHD HDMI 4x1 Switch and audio extractor. Currently about $83.

It has 4 HDMI inputs which accept 4 k 60 hz inputs. It has two HDMI outputs. One is a passthrough of the selected input and other can either be for a 2nd monitor or an audio only HDMI extractor operating in HDCP 1.4 for older AV units. In audio only mode it outputs a blue screen at 720 P and the sound format the older units can use. In my case that is usually Dolby Digital Plus. The unit handles Dolby Vision and HDR and any combination of formats that fit within the 18 Gbps format of HDCP 2.2 signals. Does ARC as well.

So this lets me use my new 4k projector in all the video formats it is capable of and yet get the sound out to my old AV unit without having to drop a big bundle on a newer HDCP 2.2 AV processor. Seems to cause no issues with any of the video input formats I've tried so far. I'd prefer not to have the extra box or wires, but it does auto-sensing/switching so once set you don't really notice it is there.
 
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