New to the forum, thank you for getting a beginner in at ground zero.
I recently moved into a new home and hired an AV guy to install a receiver (which he sold to me),5.1 surround in my living room, and speakers/ TV out on my patio utilizing Zone 2 for playback. Currently everything works as it should. My receiver Zone 2 is set up this way: via the Pioneer app I can use Spotify, Pandora, AudioCast, and the internet radio that is all offered. The AV guy connected my Vizio smart tv to the receiver through the audio outputs so I can push the tv audio out of the patio speakers. This was done as follows: RCA red/white from tv outputs-> to a single coax male-> coax female to wall plate-> coax from wall plate inside through house-> back out to RCA red/white that are plugged into the "CD" input on the back of the receiver. in order to hear the tv or anything playing from it (cable, fire stick, etc...) I choose the "CD" input on the app and presto, audio to match the video feed on the tv. again, it works great!
Here's what I want to do that is different from the current set up... I was gifted a projector and screen. I want to have movie/game night in the backyard for my kids and I would like to utilize the patio speakers vs the impossible to hear projector speakers. I am now aware that the connections on the projector are all inputs so the video and audio needs to come from an external source. this took me a while to figure out. I was plugging in a firestick into the HDMI in and getting video and audio but noticed there wasn't an output that I needed to push the audio back to the receiver. so, my troubleshooting started. I brought the projector inside and started trying to hook directly into the receiver so I wasn't fumbling around with a million cables. I noticed a HDMI Zone 2 output that wasn't being used (which I was surprised that wasn't being used by my current set up). I tried an HDMI cable going from Zone 2 output to the HDMI port on the projector and selecting an source that was working on zone 1 like another firestick. I got no picture or audio. to confirm the projector worked, I unplugged the Zone 1 output that was going to the tv inside and used the same HDMI cable to go from Zone 1 output to the projector and got both video and audio.
I am sorry for the long post but I wanted to give as much information on the front end as I could. I am baffled why I am not getting anything from the Zone 2 output. maybe I have something hooked up wrong somewhere or there is a setting I need to change... either way I am pulling my hair out and before it gets into the 90s here in Texas, I would like to get the kids outside for a movie! please and thank you for your consideration in helping a newb.