hdmi matrix setup

[charles]

The best threads on this seem to be a few years old so bringing it up again for some advice. thanks in advance :-D

I've got 4 different rooms, each with a tv and 5.1 speaker set ups, plus 2 outside zones with 2 speakers.

I have a whole range of sources.. 3 apple tv's, 3 satellite decoders, pc's, xbox's, ps etc.

All equipment bar the consoles are in racks and I would like to be able to route different content to one or more rooms at the same time.

The approach I was going to take was to have an amplifier for each room, and then a number (probably a matrix actually of matrix hdmi switches to be able to route each piece of content to each location (or several at once in the case of music and occasionally video).

Main questions..

1. Are there any good quality matrix switches that already have rs232 drivers for cqc?
2. Do matrix hdmi switches route/amplify multiple routes at the same time? eg route src 1 to out 2+3 and src 2 to out 1+4 simultaneously?
3. Can anybody recommend a top of the line matrix switch that has rs232 control/feedback, even if there isn't a driver for it?
4. Is this a totally hokey way of doing this. Is there a better way, AV experts? :-?

thanks! :-)

[jbh5000]

I have actually been wondering about a similar setup.

In order to keep from spending $10k+ on a huge matrix could you do:


4 different 4x1 matrixes and have each one feed into a 4x4 matrix....then you could effectively have a 16x4 matrix at a much lower cost.

But you would have to strategically connect them because you couldn't use 2 sources from one 4x1 matrix simultaneously.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Would this work?

[sic0048]

That is the problem with a solution that isn't a true full matrix solution. You'll always have sources that are available to only a portion of the possible screens.

Most people end up going with a component (RGB) matrix solution due to costs. You can get a used Extron or Autopatch HD component switcher on EBay for just a couple hundred dollars. They work very well and the signal quality is excellent.

Of course if your sources don't have component outputs (which was rare in the past, but is becoming more common), then you need to get a HD Fury or similar device to convert the HDMI to component video. That can certainly add to the cost. However if you have lots of TVs, it certainly can be cheaper to buy one source device and one HDFury than it is to buy a source device for every TV.

[ellisr63]

I have a Precis 8 source 4 zone for sale... It only does component but, I found a company that makes component to HDMI dongles for it. They are $75-$100 a pop which would mean it would cost about $1200 to do the one I have, but you would have working drivers for CQC.

http://reswitch.com/HDMI.htm

[zaccari]

Ron,

That switch is the other direction from what most people want. The analog output from the matrix switch goes into that box and is converted to HDMI which then is extended to the destination. It solves the problem of those devices that only have HDMI inputs. Most people want to take HDMI outputs from their Apple TV, satellite receivers, etc and downgrade them.

Russ...

[charles]

I was going to order one of these, looks pretty reasonable?

http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI%20matrix%2...204x4.html

and then start looking at the driver

[jkish]

I was going to order one of these, looks pretty reasonable?

http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI%20matrix%2...204x4.html

and then start looking at the driver

Have you seen the one from Monoprice - gets pretty good reviews and a good bit cheaper:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/produc...4#feedback

[zra]

i have the one that jkish posted a link to and it works well.

there is a serial driver(one way, however!) that works reliably.

for the price id reco it!

[zra]

Charles did you end up ordering that Octava? If so thoughts?

[Dean Roddey]

He did. I did the driver for him.