Thanks for that Jamus! Well soon after I had written to you earlier I decided to have a go at installing the Firestick, where I had suggested..into one of the HDMI input ports on the back of the Zaktor Switching unit. It all started to fall into place and I was on the verge of sending you an "excited" "Robert's Your Mother's Brother" signal (aka "Bob's Your Uncle" !!)
But then.. When I tried to get the sound to work.. well.. put it this way, I cannot get any sound out of it. I have turned myself upside down trying various options. I had thought that simply by replacing a spare BD player, which was working correctly through that Input with the sound all working, it would be a simple case of exchanging one input for another.. But it doesnt seem that way. I have managed to find an IR code in the Firestick settings under a set of "Receiver" Brand names with model selections etc.. (a most comprehensive set of options indeed) that has hooked up with the Z9 and will select inputs, volume etc, but the wretched thing wont co-operate with sound. I have the picture displaying, all the other settings ostensibly in place, but nope! Not a bleep of sound.. It is very frustrating!
Getting on to your Upgrade suggestions.. believe it or not, some years ago, I came within a gnat's willie of buying the 3080 and then hung around a bit, and inevitably out came the 3090. But the job of rewiring this setup due to its position in my lounge is the one thing that has steered me away from it! I have had in recent years 3 back operations and more recently over the past couple years had both knees replaced, so my mobility and desire to spend time up ladders is very much more restricted than it used to be when I first set this up.
You mentioned AC-3.. yes indeed I am aware of the De-modulator issue, but as you say I believe both the 3080 ad 3090 have this built in. I do have a modest collection of about a 100 Laser discs, which I rarely use, but there are just a handful that I cant replace with Dvd's or Blu Rays, so I kind of cherish the facility to use the old ancient DVL-9 combo player! Also that DVD player in that unit will play anything! Especially a disc that gets rejected by my other players, so it has maintained it presence in the system! It was one of the early players which didnt have all the usual "locks and blocks" on it, I suspect.
So.. it is nor so much a case of "back to the drawing board" as trying to fathom out a sound route for the Firestick input. Any ideas?
BW,,
Ivor
The problem you have is that the HDMI switcher is sending both the HDMI video and audio to the projector. There's no analogue audio output on the Firestick, so there's no in-built way of sending the audio independently to the Z9.
There's no way you can get the audio into your Z9 unless you extract the audio stream from the Firestick HDMI output and convert it to either Toslink (Dolby Digital) or RCA PCM stereo signal, but you need a dedicated external device to do it. A CYP AU-11CD will do the job:
AU-11CD - De-embed Audio from HDMI - CYP Europe
I have one of these for a computer task and it works faultlessly.
Regards,
James.