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Listening to music while watching TV in same room


9800pro

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Ok guys, need help here.

Have two installs where people are asking me can they listen music while watching TV.

I have some vague idea how to do it but don't want to try it out in front of customer.

For instance, yesterday while watching a movie on media player my boss went on in-wall T3 and selected some music.

Music started playing but AVR switched from media player HDMI to HC250 input so i got blank screen.

What is the best way to program "stuff" so i can watch TV/movie/whatever and listen to the music from TuneIn or local storage?

Thx

p.s.

Don't tell me to ask my distributor, im asking here for a reason.

If that's the problem you can P.M. me with solution for above.

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I used to have a receiver that would allow me to stay on a video input but use a different audio source and I loved it. Now I have a separate video line run from my cable box directly to my TV so I have to change inputs on the TV to accomplish this and then choose what ever audio source I want. It's not an automated solution at the moment (however I'm sure I could have my C4 system programmed to do this) but it works for me. Maybe it's the poor man's way to accomplish what you're looking for. :)

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I can do this now too using remotes outside C4, but I'd like to do it through a navigator.  My wife isn't going to use the remotes and she wants no part of remembering what's required to do it.

 

I use it mostly for watching ball games on TV with the audio from radio broadcast.

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In your scenario you probably can't pull this off because both the video and the audio are going through the AVR.  For that to work your AVR would have to be able to play video from one input and audio from another like jayace was saying.  At that point the only way to pull off what you are trying to do is to create independent paths for audio and video in that room.  we end up with this scenario all the time in houses that have video and audio distribution, but I'm sure you're using that receiver to switch both audio and video, and you're also pulling audio through the HDMI cable from the HC250.  If you pass video from the cable box straight to the TV (also like jayace was saying), you could make it work just remember to send audio from the cable box to the AVR.

some other advice....dont ever be afraid to try anything out in front of a customer :) 

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14 minutes ago, jayace said:

I used to have a receiver that would allow me to stay on a video input but use a different audio source and I loved it. Now I have a separate video line run from my cable box directly to my TV so I have to change inputs on the TV to accomplish this and then choose what ever audio source I want. It's not an automated solution at the moment (however I'm sure I could have my C4 system programmed to do this) but it works for me. Maybe it's the poor man's way to accomplish what you're looking for. :)

I did this a couple years ago, Key is that newer receivers do not pass the video of the last video source when changing to an audio source.. IF you have more than one video cable to the tv, then a dummy cable box driver could be added with the connection criss crossed

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As others have said, the only reliable way to do this is with a device that can handle separate selections for audio and video. I've never seen an AVR that will do this reliably.

OTOH, the traditional way of using a video switch and audio switch will work great. And on recent houses we've been using the LU switches without an audio matrix and this configuration works well also.

One issue I've run into lately is in configurations with Sonos and an OSD connected, if the customer selects a Sonos item in navigator the AVR will switch back and forth between the OSD and Sonos inputs. I know director is getting confused, but how do I prevent this?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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I have hc250 connected with analog and hdmi to avr. I have a few ideas, just need to get myself in front composer. For instance i was thinking something like "while kodi plays if selected audio device is Tunein then video device is Kodi"... Of course something like this could only work when selecting music from T3 screens or C4 app.

Keep suggestions coming ☺

Sent from my LG G2

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Ok, here is the setup im using...

Cable box, bluray, Kodi and HC250 are connected to the Denon 3200W receiver with hdmi.

AVR is connected to the TV also with hdmi.

Additionally HC250 has its analog audio output connected to the AVR analog audio in.

As i have found out on one of ours previous installs if you want to elevate HC250 analog audio

  output over hdmi you need to "remove" audio link from hdmi connection between HC250 and AVR.

I will do this with Houselogix-s fake AV matrix driver, component out from HC250 in it and then hdmi out to AVR.

That way when starting music AVR shouldn't change hdmi input to C4 gui but rather stay on input he was.

Situation now is that the music is playing while movie is showing but controls are active for music.

Tricky part is now to automatically switch control back to video device and program few buttons on remote to control music volume.

That way i can watch and control Kodi or bluray or cable box while listening to music and controlling its volume.

I think if i (we) keep expectations normal this could fairly work, just need to get to the customer and try it out.

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Ok, here is the setup im using...

Cable box, bluray, Kodi and HC250 are connected to the Denon 3200W receiver with hdmi.

AVR is connected to the TV also with hdmi.

Additionally HC250 has its analog audio output connected to the AVR analog audio in.

As i have found out on one of ours previous installs if you want to elevate HC250 analog audio

  output over hdmi you need to "remove" audio link from hdmi connection between HC250 and AVR.

I will do this with Houselogix-s fake AV matrix driver, component out from HC250 in it and then hdmi out to AVR.

That way when starting music AVR shouldn't change hdmi input to C4 gui but rather stay on input he was.

Situation now is that the music is playing while movie is showing but controls are active for music.

Tricky part is now to automatically switch control back to video device and program few buttons on remote to control music volume.

That way i can watch and control Kodi or bluray or cable box while listening to music and controlling its volume.

I think if i (we) keep expectations normal this could fairly work, just need to get to the customer and try it out.

There's an article that was recently posted in KB discussing HDMI handling from controllers. It has very useful information.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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  • 1 month later...

I'm upping this because its related (same project).

We are considering ditching Sonos amps and instead go for C4 4 zone matrix amp (C4-8AMP1-B).

So, if i connect HDMI out from HC250 to Denon AVR, analog out from HC250 to matrix amp and zone2 analog out from AVR to matrix amp will i be able to:

- join all 5 zones (4 amp + 1 avr)?

- listen to music in all analog zones while something is playing on AVR?

- listen 2 separate streams (hdmi+analog out)?

Thx guys

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I'm upping this because its related (same project).

We are considering ditching Sonos amps and instead go for C4 4 zone matrix amp (C4-8AMP1-B).

So, if i connect HDMI out from HC250 to Denon AVR, analog out from HC250 to matrix amp and zone2 analog out from AVR to matrix amp will i be able to:

- join all 5 zones (4 amp + 1 avr)?

- listen to music in all analog zones while something is playing on AVR?

- listen 2 separate streams (hdmi+analog out)?

Thx guys

Yes, Yes and Yes.

That is how my system is configured.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The way I set up the ability to watch tv in a room and also be able to listen to music in that same room separately is by creating 2 zones in programming. For example, MEDIA ROOM has TV, receiver, sources, etc and video end point is TV, audio end points and volume are receiver. Then I create a second zone called MEDIA MUSIC or something similar. This room has only audio end points and audio volume connections connected to the same receiver.

Then, client opens media room and selects a video source. Once fired up, client goes to media music room and selects listen to sirius or whatever. This leaves the video on the screen but changes the audio.

I'm not sure if every receiver supports this, but we have been doing this with Denon and Integras without issue. Easy test is to get video playing in the room and manually switch the receiver to an audio source like CD or tuner and see if video remains on the screen. Some receivers have a setting in the HDMI section to allow this as well.

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On 4/6/2016 at 4:18 AM, 9800pro said:

I'm upping this because its related (same project).

We are considering ditching Sonos amps and instead go for C4 4 zone matrix amp (C4-8AMP1-B).

So, if i connect HDMI out from HC250 to Denon AVR, analog out from HC250 to matrix amp and zone2 analog out from AVR to matrix amp will i be able to:

- join all 5 zones (4 amp + 1 avr)?

- listen to music in all analog zones while something is playing on AVR?

- listen 2 separate streams (hdmi+analog out)?

Thx guys

only down side may be a slight echo as the digital may be delayed after being processed by the receiver.

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