AV Receiver - listen to FM tuner while using a different HDMI input?

apukdcfc

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I have the Sony STR-DH820 and its great but is there a way to listen to the built in FM radio while I watch Cable TV or while i play a PS3 game?

I wanted to listen to the local radio football commentary earlier but had to stare at a blank TV screen showing HDMI 1 in the corner!!

I can put freeview on the TV but this is not ideal.

All my sources except the Wii are HDMI (TIVO & PS3) and go through the AMP so to my TV see's everything as the HDMI 1 channel.

Have looked at the manual about 10 times and there is a section on changing inputs and also a 2nd zone but neither seems to work for me.

Any ideas experts? :lease:
 
That's the downside of having an AV amp that switches video as well as audio sources, unfortunately. It would be nice if there was some sort of "hold" button that kept the same video source selected while changing the audio source, but I'm not aware of any amps that can do this.
 
Loads of AV amps used to be able to do this, but since the arrival of HDMI, they can't do it with HDMI sources, presumably because the audio and video are carried by the same cable.
 
I think the issue is due to over use of OSD. Amps with OSD tend to output an OSD video signal in conjunction with audio from inbuilt tuners. Amps without OSD leave the video signal as was.
 
Cheers for the replies fellas!

Might see what sony support have to say about it on their forum.

It'd be nice if they could issue a firmware upgrade with some enhancements like an enhanced GUI that looks more like the PS3/Bravia cross media bar (XMB)

Also I might plug the PS3 and TIVO back into the TV HDMI slots as a workaround. Plus I could then do away with the AMP remote but would I lose some sound quality?
 
Loads of AV amps used to be able to do this, but since the arrival of HDMI, they can't do it with HDMI sources, presumably because the audio and video are carried by the same cable.

Yup... it's not very convenient, but by diving into the menu system of my Yamaha amp, I can select an alternative audio source. However, I can only choose from the non-HDMI inputs. I suppose the reason is that the amp only has a single HDMI input decoder. Maybe it will eventually become economical to include dual HDMI decoders, though for this to actually happen, I suspect it would require more outspoken consumer demand than the occasional forum thread such as this. Ho hum.
 
I think the issue is due to over use of OSD. Amps with OSD tend to output an OSD video signal in conjunction with audio from inbuilt tuners. Amps without OSD leave the video signal as was.

Not sure what that has to do with it. We're just talking about combining the video from one input source with the audio from another. The OSD is superimposed on the video output - nothing to do with the audio at all.
 
Bumping an old thread here, but is this possible?

I'm currently enjoying the Saturday afternoon radio and quite fancied sticking on the PS3 for a bit of silent gaming but I couldn't figure out a way of doing both at the same time.

I only want to pass through the HDMI to the TV while listening to the built in FM tuner.#

If it makes any odds the AV receiver is the Pioneer VSX-923.

Thanks
 
Theoretically, this might work... (But only tried it on an Onkyo, which did work...)
Set the FM to zone 2
Use a pair of phono cables and route the output of zone 2 to the phono input of Video 1
Select Analogue or Pure Direct or whatever Pioneer call it for the HDMI Video 1 input and this should route the analogue audio to the output.

As I say, we did this on an Onkyo receiver, where we need to get audio from a laptop that would only output video from the HDMI, not audio. We ran an analogue cable from the output of the laptop into the amp and could select it alongside the HDMI video.
 
This sort of functionality is now built into my receiver and I often listen to radio commentary while watching football games. Denon and yamaha receivers are good for this.

In the past I did not have that functionality and solved the problem by using an HDMI splitter. You can get a decent one for about 25 quid. Connect the HDMI out from the ps3 to the splitter. One cable then goes from the splitter to your receiver, which is connected normally to your TV, say HDMI 1 on your telly. The other cable from the splitter goes to another HDMI on your telly say HDMI 2.

Then you can select FM radio on your receiver and HDMI 2 on the telly to play the game simultaneously. When you want to use the PS3 normally you just select it on the receiver.

Quick and cheap solution but it means a splitter and another HDMI cable.
 
There is another way of doing it if your receiver has zone 2 capability. I don't know anything about that pioneer. You can select FM radio for zone 2 whilst playing the muted PS3 in the main zone. I've done this in the past as well but it means two more speakers.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, patching in the zone2 to output to the analogue input sounds ideal. I'll give that a go at the weekend :)
 
I have a similar problem as follows:
Purpose: I want to watch a game on TV while listening to CDs/FM Radio/MP3
Location: Ontario Canada
Background: Previously, we did this by watching the game through the component output of the Motorola 630 PVR
(receiving from Shaw satellite dish) while the the CDs/FM Radio/MP3 played through a Yamaha RX-S600 A/V receiver. However, with the current Arris PVR DSR830, there are no component output connections and only one HDMI output. The RX-S600 receiver has the Zone 2 feature, which, in normal operations, act as the rear speakers in the 5.1 surround system. I think I could get sound from them, but would prefer to listen through all the speakers, and not be restricted to just listening to the 2 rear surround speakers.
Question: If I plug the the Arris PVR DSR830 into a 1-input to 2-output simultaneous output HDMI splitter (I see there are both simultaneous and one at a time splitters available), then plug one side of the splitter into an HDMI to Component converter, would it work?
 
Question: If I plug the the Arris PVR DSR830 into a 1-input to 2-output simultaneous output HDMI splitter (I see there are both simultaneous and one at a time splitters available), then plug one side of the splitter into an HDMI to Component converter, would it work?
Most probably not.

The only solution I can think of is to plug the source into the TV and ignore the AVR as a switch. The cause, quite simply, is that HDMI switches are neither designed nor specified to permit this sort of source mixing.
 

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