ARC/eARC and Apps on Smart TVs?

[HomeAutomationNerd]

My fancy LG TV's have nice built in apps (Youtube, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, etc). 

Is there a way to get audio from the TV into the C4 system? Would be nice to take sound from the system (XFinity, etc) and be able to pipe it to the audio zones throughout the house. 

ARC/eARC seems ideal, as the TV already has a connection to the EA5. It doesn't seem the EA5 supports this though, which is a bit unexpected. 

Is optical from the TV to the EA5 the only option? As the EA5 doesn't have optical in, that means a Optical/Coax converter, which seems silly... 

[Amr]

You need to connect the TV Audio to your Audio Matrix, then you manipulate this to output whatever with C4, am I clear or cryptic?

[HomeAutomationNerd]

Ok, I get that. Sitting in that cabinet with the EA5 is a Triad 8-channel audio matrix that had optical inputs. I could hook that up. 

That would let me drive the 8 rooms powered from that matrix / amp, but *not* the other channels (bedrooms, outside, etc) driven by other matrix's elsewhere in the house. 

That is, to the best of my knowledge, I cannot take "Input 1 on Matrix 1" and connect that to "All outputs on Matrix 1, Matrix 2, and Matrix 3". Or can I?

[Amr]

Of course you can it’s 8x8 matrix any input to any output or many outputs!

[HomeAutomationNerd]

Of course you can it’s 8x8 matrix any input to any output or many outputs!

 

I don't think we're saying the same thing. On a single matrix, any input to any output (or many outputs) - not problem. 

 

Can I connect an input on Matrix #1 to an output on a totally physically different matrix that's connected only by ethernet? I thought I needed an input processor (HC800, EA3, EA5) to do that. What would I wire up on the connections tab to do this? "Great Room Triad 8x8 Audio Input #1 -> Upstairs Triad 8x8 Output #2" or something like that? I don't think that would work, although I would love to be wrong. 

(Still learning here, so please bear with me... )

 

[Pounce]

You have several audio matrix around the house that are not connected? Curious.

How many TV's do you have and do you want to support this audio distribution from more than one TV location?

[msgreenf]

Control4 doesn't support arc because it relies on cec and c4 doesn't support cec

[HomeAutomationNerd]

My house was wired in a weird way long before I bought it. 

I have:

1. Ceiling/wall speakers that terminate in the media cupboard in my great room. So I've got an TV + EA5 + Triad 8x8 Matrix there.
2. Ceiling/wall speakers that terminate in an upstairs closet, so I've got an EA3 + C4 4 Channel Amp/Matrix in there. 
3. I've another EA5 in my theater (my primary controller), but no Matrix (I use the Marantz there for Audio in that room, and C4 only does Tidal MQA audio streaming via Analog into the Marantz). 
4. For weird runs, I've got the Triad 1 (cheaper than running speaker wires through walls). 

From a speaker-wire / audio zone perspective, I've no centralized closet. Hence I've got separate audio matrixes's. 

Ideally, each TV / Media area could feed into the C4 system. In the absence of that, it would be nice if the Great Room could, as it's centralized. That way when the Football Game is on, or music is playing via YouTube, we could drive it across the entire house (indoor / outdoor). I'm working on the Sharebridge setup now ("Room A", "Room B", "Outside", "Whole House", "Upstairs") which is fun... 

I think the "easiest" would be analog output off the LG, into the EA5's analog inputs. I had assumed the eARC / ARC would "just work" from the LG to the C4, but seems that's not supported. This is low on the annoyance scale, but I like things to be "complete", so I'm trying to finish it...

[Pounce]

There are various devices you can use to split audio off HDMI to PCM. You can also convert eARC to HDMI with an HDFury device. Those Triad 1's output analog I think so you could go from one of those to a matrix. If it were me I'd run wire and centralize the audio distribution.

[Unsocialtoaster]

If you put audio from a video source into a controller to distribute you will get a horrible delay between audio and video due to the encoding of the audio by the controller.

If you can't run wires as Pounce suggests above, you would be better off IMHO taking the audio from the TVs into the audio matrix in each area and tuning them to the same channel if you wanted the football on in different zones.

[zaphod]

I have several instances where I take the audio from the TV and feed this into a matrix amp.  In some ways I prefer it this way as it leads to fewer sync issue, BluRay player or even a Cable box. This also simplifies the wiring as the only audio connection is from TV Out to Matrix input.  You may have to use a dummy audio switch to do this. 

Needless to say I don't have centralized video distribution, my audio is somewhat centralized, but I have 4 channel amps in my pool cabana and office.  I am also going to deploy a 4 channel amp in the Master Bedroom suite so that I can have additional zones in the bathroom and walk in closet.

[RAV]

If your great room cable box is with the matrix, grab it's audio there. And you could add a Roku or similar there, add HDMI switching to share the HDMI to the TV and grab audio from the Roku into the matrix as well. (I know, the apps are in the TV would be nice, but then there's practical....)

If your great room cable box is at the TV, then yeah, you'll need to create a way to get TV audio back to the matrix, or maybe move it and use above.

To get great room around to other matrix's that gets more involved. Any digitizing will create delays.