Key Digital Phantom Series Distribution Amplifiers Preview

[admin]

Many installers have problems with HDMI systems when they use an AV Receiver to handle the switching chores. The AV receiver may not handle the EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) properly which can cause intermittent picture or sound artifacts. The main issue is that TV EDID sometimes is misunderstood or misinterpreted by the AVR in between the HDMI source and AVR. As a result the AVR reports wrong EDID data to the source and nothing works. One way Key Digital has found to eliminate or reduce the issues when using AVR's, is to insert a KD-HDDA1x2 Distribution Amplifier between the AVR and the Display. Once KD-HDDA1x2 (or any other of our DA) is inserted, it "buffers" this misunderstanding and provides "perfect" default EDID to the system and both the AVR and the source are happy and signal goes through.


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[AccessGuy]

My Denon 3806 Receiver did have this problem and I had to use an external HDMI switcher, but now that I have upgraded to an Onkyo 5007 (last year's model) I have had no problems switching between 4 HDMI sources into the receiver. The sources are HD-DVD player (Toshiba), Oppo DVD, Samsung Blu-Ray, and Motorola DVR (DCT-6412). I believe many A/V receivers with HDMI 1.3a and higher have solved this particular problem, so no other devices are necessary for them.

[highfigh]

Not sure if it was EDID issues or not, but I'm connecting a Panasonic TC-P50G25 plasma display from DMP-BD65K via a Denon AVR-990 and the picture shows up fine but a large rectangle that looks like a tuner that's off-frequency flashes on the screen about every three seconds. I dropped the BD player's resolution to 720p and it works fine, which tells me it's a bandwidth problem. I'm using a Spectrum HDMI repeater that uses two Cat5e/6 cables, running about 65'. The instructions show that if the individual wires are different lengths, problems will occur, but it doesn't specify what kind of problems. It just has a little picture of equal length ends and another with different lengths, called 'Good juju' and 'Bad juju'.

Personally, I think that if cables need to be terminated using labratory-grade crimpers and conditions that are not easy to replicate anywhere, I don't see it as practical. Not all installers or CI contractors will use the best RJ-45 crimpers, lighting isn't always good enough to see how even the ends are and they really need to make it possible to achieve the cable lengths specified in the manual, ads or labels. EVERY person I have spoken with regarding HDMI passed over anything other than an HDMI cable has said that whatever distance the manufacturer says will work, should be reduced by about 50%.

Tom, Gene and anyone else here who has the test equipment- is there any possibility of testing several of the more common HDMI balun/repeater/extender systems that allow avoiding the need for a $400 HDMI cable when longer distances are required? Custom homes and remodels make it impossible to place the equipment as close to the display as HDMI requires, so these other methods are necessary.