Need advice on HT...I am losing focus.

[ace168516]

This is my first attempt at anything home theater related in many years...and it is not really a home theater, more of a wife-centric attempt at sneaking speakers into the living room.  A bit of background...After moving, I lost my basement and have to do all of my tv watching in the living room.  Went with an antenna and the netflix/hulu route for now to try and save some money.  My cornwalls would not fit in the living room, so I moved my Heresy's in there.  My plan was to buy a small footprint reveiver (went with the HK 1510...it is not that great, more fluff than substance, but this was supposed to be simple for my wife) 

 

My TV is above the fireplace, I fished 3 CAT6, power and a coax.  Two of the CAT6 run an HDMI extender that was going to be the source of everything but OTA broadcasts and I figured the tv speakers would be fine.  Tragedy struck in the form of the tuner going bad on my tv before I even got things hooked up.  So I bought a new 4k smart tv that does pretty much everything the rest of the components were going to do anyways, but the sound is horrible...way worse the the old tv...probably due to the small bezel and not having front facing speakers.  So I speed up my plan to hook up my speakers...but now realize I have no way of outputting the sound from the TV (which is now the source for most everything as opposed to several things hooked up to the reciever) to back to the receiver.

 

I find that both the stereo and the TV support HDMI ARC (I did not even realize this existed), however my HDMI extender does not.  I am now at a standstill and have a few options and looking for some advice.

 

I can cut the wall up again and fish a proper hdmi or optical cable to the stereo....I really don't want to cut the wall up again.

I could buy HDMI extneders that support ARC, but they cost more than most of my speakers have and seems like a waste of money.

I could buy Klipsch's finest soundbar and that would be less work than fishing new cables.

I could fix this in some other option I have not discovered but someone on this forum will surely know.

 

Right now I am almost leaning sound bar route since I was not super happy with the receiver to begin with, but I have no clue about soundbar vs. heresy.  Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to the forum!

ACE

[CECAA850]

I've always thought it easiest to use the receiver as a hub.  Run all your sources to it and let it do all the switching.  I don't even have TV speakers hooked up at my house.  All the sound goes through my pre-pro however when watching normal TV, I only use the front 3 speakers.

[wvu80]

I'm a bit confused.  Is Ace's plan to run the HDMI OUT of the TV and into the AVR?

+++

 

BTW Ace, I am totally with you on the WAF.  It's the exact same thing at my house. 

 

Did I ever tell about the time I snuck a Klipsch RW-12d into the living room? 

[ace168516]

From what I have learned, HDMI 1.3 and above has a built in "Audio Return Channel" where sound will pass backwards from the TV back to the Receiver, thus negating the requirement to run an audio out from the TV to the reciever.  However, the extenders I bought are not compatible with the feature, so I am stuck either running an additional cable, replaceing the extenders, or moving to another option.

[CECAA850]

So your TV is actually your audio source?  Do you have any other sources, DVD, Blu Ray etc?

[garyrc]

I don't even have TV speakers hooked up at my house.

 

Same here.  Everything goes through my preamp/precessor, that's where all switching is done, and everything goes through our free-standing Klipsch speakers, and Audyssey room/speaker correction which is built into the pre/pro.  I can select 2 channel stereo from the front, 3 channel from the front, 2.1, 3.1, 5.0, or 5.1.  Someday they will stop building speakers and amps into the larger flatscreens, because they are a low quality way to go, and run the price of TVs up.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Garyrc

[Beechnut]

How about a different stand alone Tuner that you can plug the OTA antenna into, that will do the channel selecting for you? Basically, it's just like the tuner in your TV, but a stand alone device that you can plug into a different source on your AVR. Like a cable tv box, except the source is your OTA antenna.

 

Here are a couple examples. I have no experience with any of them...The thought just came to mind as another way to solve your problem, and they do make them.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/TV-Antennas-Tuners/ci/5192/N/4289363875

ViewTV AT-163 ATSC Digital TV Converter Box and Media Player @ $34.95

http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW180STB-HomeWorx-Converter-Function/dp/B00G5RXM16/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1419524079&sr=1-1&keywords=tv+tuner

Mediasonic HW180STB HomeWorx HDTV Digital Converter Box with Media Player Function, Dolby Digital and HDMI Out @ $28.98

Edited December 25, 2014 by Beechnut

[NBPK402]

How about a different stand alone Tuner that you can plug the OTA antenna into, that will do the channel selecting for you? Basically, it's just like the tuner in your TV, but a stand alone device that you can plug into a different source on your AVR. Like a cable tv box, except the source is your OTA antenna.

 

Here are a couple examples. I have no experience with any of them...The thought just came to mind as another way to solve your problem, and they do make them.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/TV-Antennas-Tuners/ci/5192/N/4289363875

ViewTV AT-163 ATSC Digital TV Converter Box and Media Player @ $34.95

http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW180STB-HomeWorx-Converter-Function/dp/B00G5RXM16/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1419524079&sr=1-1&keywords=tv+tuner

Mediasonic HW180STB HomeWorx HDTV Digital Converter Box with Media Player Function, Dolby Digital and HDMI Out @ $28.98

I don't see anywhere the resolution of the units... I am thinking they convert the video down to analog low def... Not sure if that is what the thread starter wants.

 

I use the HDHomerun dual tuners but you need a PC for them, but they do 1080P and you can record to your HDD with windows media center. I use a small form factor PC for my main pc, and also PVR functions... i3NUC works fine but there are other models that are cheaper now and just as small.

Edited December 25, 2014 by ellisr63

[Rhetor]

Ran into a similar issue when I cut the cord for OTA . . . all of my stuff (AppleTV, all digital music sources, Roku, Internet radio, computers, etc.) runs through the AVR to theTV except OTA broadcasts even though ai have ARC on the TV.

Problem was solved with an Amazon bought cheap optical cable running it from the TV to the AVR. keep your HDMI the same as now; and then also buy an Amazon optical cable and run it from the ATV to your AVR and let the AVR process the sound through optical while the pic is running over the HDMI.

Your problem will be solved. Sure solved mine for about $12. But, I often try the cheapest solution first.

Sidebar: even though the best OTA digital signal is a program in 5.1, my AVR processes the signal coming through the TV optical into the sound I like, which is 11.1 in the HT. (I really do need to get a second sub, but the one box I have does have 3 opposing balanced woofers in it.)

Edited December 25, 2014 by Rhetor

[mustang guy]

How far is the run for the HDMI? I have a 60' HDMI that works great I bought from Monoprice. Sure you would be pulling a new wire, but it would be better to use an HDMI with ARC than a fiber optic and an older HDMI. You need to think about that 4K TV and the bandwidth it would need.

 

Carl said it first. Every component plugs into the receiver. The only wires going into your TV should be the HDMI coming from your AVR and a power cord.

 

Redmere HDMI cords are the ones I use for very long runs. http://www.monoprice.com/Search?cp_id=10255&keyword=redmere The redmere support both ARC and 4K video signals.

Edited December 26, 2014 by mustang guy

[ace168516]

Thanks for the input...the TV is the bulk of the sources since I upgraded to a smart tv..I used to have a WD Netflix player and a DVD ect...I pretty much only need my PS3 which does my bluray playing and dvd/cd ect.  The tv handles the OTA/Netflix/Hulu and other web/streaming content.

 

As far as I can tell...any HDMI cable should support ARC.  My issue is I bought HDMI extenders to basically make pulling an HDMI above a masonry fireplace easirer...much easier pulling two CAT6 (which feeds the HDMI extender) than an HDMI cable through finished walls with a 9o degree turn at the mantle.  It is the convertors from the CAT6 to HDMI that I believe do not support the ARC channel.

 

The optical cable would also solve the issue and if I have to pull a cable, it is easier to fish that than am HDMI.

 

I like the idea of the external tuner...I can still run other sources through other means.  I may investigate that.

 

Thanks for the help.  I probably should break down and just cut the wall up again...but I am having a hard time coming to terms with that.  I have not noticed any votes for the sound bar instead of AVR, so I am under the assumption everyone believes a pair of Heresy's is the preferred solution.

 

ACE

[Rhetor]

For TV and movies and games run three Heresys . . . one for the center channel. I ran a phantom center for a while, but never cared for it at all myself.

I know your TV is above the fireplace; but you could mount the Heresy above the TV and point it down to MLPs . . . not ideal, but better than no center IMHO.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Rhetor

[CECAA850]

so I am under the assumption everyone believes a pair of Heresy's is the preferred solution.

 

Affirmative.

[ace168516]

Thanks for all the advice.  I bit the bullet and bought a $150 set of HDMI extenders that say they support ARC, and 1080P 3D for 50 meters.  If they preform well, I will update because $150 is quite a bit cheaper than most of the other ones out there if anyone else bumps into an issue with extending HDMI.

 

ACE