HDMI splitter confusion Help!!

[londonplug]

Hi i dont want to be a pain in the backside raising yet another splitter question but i have looked at alot of the threads and they all seem to concern qustions about splitting a signal from a source to two TVs and in many cases using long runs of cable into other rooms
My question is I have a Humax Foxsat HDR, an Xbox 360, a Toshiba XDE upscaling DVD player {superb bit of kit for the price} each fed by seperate Wireworld Croma 6 and a QED profile HDMI cables to a Samsung LED television we have just bought a Sony Blue Ray BDV E780w suround sound to replace the DVD
The Sony does have two HDMI inputs for us to put the Humax and Xbox into, but this now means that the only way we can now watch TV or use the Xbox is with the suround sound system swithched on. What i would like to do is have a splitter on each of the two sources, each with one HDMI cable going to a HDMI input on the TV and the Other HDMI cable going to one of the HDMI inputs on the suround sound system , the suround sound system also having its own HDMI output fed to a seperate HDMI input on the TV That way i am hoping we will be able to choose between using the sources direct to the TV as we have allways done, or by selecting the suround sound input on the TV switching the suround sound on and veiwing/listening to the chosen source through the suround sound

Does this waffle make any sense and is it possible to do this I allways thought a splitter was a splitter but some costing thousands of pounds and others like three pounds sixty pence i am totaly lost , Help!!

 

[Deleted member 30535]

Not sure I'm qualified to give any recommendations based on experience, but as I am faced with a nearly similar situation, I too have been mulling over splitters/switches.

So, with that caveat, what about a 3 input to 2 output HDMI switch?

e.g. 3x2 Port HDMI Splitter Switch with Remote 1.3b

You connect your three sources to the three inputs, one output to your TV and one to your AV amp. Then any one of the three inputs will always output to both the TV and AV amp HDMI inputs.

Have I grasped the right end of your "waffle"?!!!

 

[londonplug]

Many thanks Mr Incredible in theory that does look like a very good solution and only one splitter instead of two the only thing i am not sure about is it all read swell untill it says {outputs offer simultaneous display only). god knows what that means, still it is not a costly bit of kit and no great loss if it does not work, at least it will clear up the confusion worth the investment i think As i see it when i put the Xbox direct to the TV with a HDMI i get what i have allways got and that is superb picture and just the TV sound,, now if i put the Xbox into the HDMI input of the suround sound system and a HDMI cable from the output of the suround sound into the TV i get what i expected to get and that is once again the same superb picture as before but with suround sound instead of the TV sound {that is turned right down} hence as i thought with just a splitter comming out of the Xbox with one HDMI going to the the suround sound and one HDMI going to the TV there would be no diference as only one route would be in use at the same time in fact your little device here should make it even more straitforward as the unused HDMI would allways be switched out of the system alltogeter hence the same as one direct cable to whatever route is chosen , but from what i have been told and what i have read through you cant do that unless you use an optical cable for sound?? then you will only get stereo and not 5 1 suround sound ????? I may well be thick but as much as i wrestle my brain with it i just cannot see it Why do i need an optical cable??? i have changed nothing apart from constantly pulling cables in and out of the backs of the equiptment i still have as before just one cable in use beetwen the same points and with your peice of kit the unused cable is totaly isolated from the system completely what is the diference between that and one direct HDMI???

The same need for use of optical cables is also mentioned in HDMI Passthrough? thats another what i thought was straitforward turned out to be a mega complicated subject, that was one of the reasons i purchased the system as i foolishly thought the source HDMIs would just connect and "Passthrough" the suround sound and up to the TV while it was in standby and come out of the suround sound when i chose to switch it on, but oh no it dosent work like that GRRRRRR

 

[Joe Fernand]

HDMI audio can be a real pain as whilst your Source device should recognise and adapt to the capabilities of the device it is connected to they often don’t and even where they do with a splitter in the signal path they can be easily confused.

If you connect your Sources as outlined you are likely to be constantly having to go into the Source audio settings to toggle it between 2.0 and 5.1/7.1 via HDMI depending on where you want to view/listen and the capabilities of your TV and Surround Sound system.

To better steer you we will need to know the Make/Model of the TV and Surround Sound system – preferably with links to online User Manuals.

Joe

 

[Deleted member 30535]

@london plug:-

"(outputs offer simultaneous display only)" means that both outputs will simultaneously display the same selected input; you cannot select Source 1 to output to to TV and Source 2 to your AV amp. It's not a "matrix" switcher where you can assign each input independently to an output.

Joe's point about the sound switching is a good one though. I'm sure he'll have a suggestion if you provide a few more details!

 

[londonplug]

"(outputs offer simultaneous display only)" means that both outputs will simultaneously display the same selected input; you cannot select Source 1 to output to to TV and Source 2 to your AV amp. It's not a "matrix" switcher where you can assign each input independently to an output.

{AH Thats OK then as i only want one source and one display at any one time }



Joe's point about the sound switching is a good one though. I'm sure he'll have a suggestion if you provide a few more details!

{Yes i will have to get this stuff together and see what i can post links to or get my daughter to do it she is better at the pc techy stuff than us, HI FI used to be so straitforward but this AV is something else
Many thanks