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Hdmi issue with Bravia

Wallace said:
Yes, a matrix switch. It certainly wasn’t a three figure sum when I bought it. But that was many years ago. It is potentially a solution to your problem though.
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You wouldn't happen to be able to remember the make/model of your matrix switch? If I'm going to take a punt on something like that I'd prefer to try a device that has been proven to work for other folks!

EDIT: As I understand it, it needs to be something that supports switching between multiple inputs and multiple outputs, rather than just 1-to-many. Something like this maybe? Thirty quid we might be able to swallow...
 
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I have checked back through my Amazon orders. It was 2014 that I purchased it and it is no longer available. It is a 2x6 matrix switch and was £91 at the time. I had forgotten it was quite that expensive, but as it is still going strong and works well, I consider it a bargain.
 
antipodean said:
Does the telly not have a SCART input?
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Nope. It does have a 3.5mm AV socket, though finding an adaptor to convert the three AV sockets on the back of the Humax to the 3.5mm format used by Panasonic has proved tricky to say the least. The usual type of adaptor cable sold in many different guises by Amazon and on eBay doesn't work: it's too long (around 17mm rather than the 14mm "mini" plug required for the TV), and the ground connection is on the sleeve (aka ring 4) of the 3.5mm plug whereas the TV needs the ground to be on ring 3, for some unfathomable reason. Finding a product which describes itself in sufficient detail for me to be reasonably confident that it meets that spec took a good couple of hours searching online. In the meantime I have jury-rigged an audio AV adaptor (with the red and white AV plugs) such that I can get video and one audio channel into the TV from the Humax.

As for getting anything other than SD from the Humax in to a modern 4K TV without spending £££ on an HDMI matrix switch or some other intervening equipment solely for that purpose, this looks unlikely. I did actually take the Humax to the shop I bought the TV from and they tried it in all the other TVs in the showroom. It only worked on one of them, a 50" Panasonic from a few technological generations back - and that was out of stock until the end of December. Other solutions are being considered. Push comes to shove we'll get a new PVR and relegate the Humax to recording stuff for ripping on to the NAS. I can't keep faffing around forever trying to get the Humax to work properly: SWMBO needs a TV & PVR or my life won't be worth living...
 
From the results of googling "HDCP HDMI":
https://www.howtogeek.com/208917/htg-explains-how-hdcp-breaks-your-hdtv-and-how-to-fix-it/ said:
Short of buying a new television or giving up on your video game project the only way to deal with your HDCP compliance problem is to buy a cheap HDMI splitter that ignores HDCP requests.

We really wish we were kidding, but that’s the secret media center ingredient that has helped thousands of consumers and the very same secret ingredient that we use here at How-To Geek when we need to take screenshots of an on-screen menu to showcase a product we’re reviewing.

Specifically, we use the ViewHD 2-Port 1×2 Powered HDMI Splitter (Model: VHD-1X2MN3D) ($20) because even among cheap HDMI splitters, there is no consistency to whether they will be HDMI compliant (even, sometimes, among products from the very same company). A little careful reading and using the Amazon reviews search function goes a long way toward ferreting out cheap splitters that other consumers have had success with.
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My LG Smart TV can "see" the Humax as a network connected device so would be able to play the recordings via DLNA.
Not as convenient as direct HDMI but an option if you decrypt your HD recordings.
My memory is fuzzy since it is a while since I tried it but there may have been issues with fast forwarding etc
 
MymsMan said:
My LG Smart TV can "see" the Humax as a network connected device so would be able to play the recordings via DLNA.
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The new TV here can "see" the Humax as a DLNA server, but can't play .ts video files, so no dice there. Oddly, it can't even play the .mp4 video files on our NAS (the documentation seems to imply that mp4s have to have been recorded by a Panasonic device to be playable on this TV which, if true, would be both bizarre and stupidly restrictive). However, if I use the Roku as the media client it works fine, so yah boo sucks.
 
...even among cheap HDMI splitters, there is no consistency to whether they will be HDMI compliant (even, sometimes, among products from the very same company). A little careful reading and using the Amazon reviews search function goes a long way toward ferreting out cheap splitters that other consumers have had success with.
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Yeah, that's not going to happen either because (a) I do actually have better things to do then trawl web sites trying to find evidence that J random HDMI switch will get these two specific devices to talking to each other* and (b) any further faffing about and getting in the way of SWMBO watching and recording TV is very likely to result in a sustained and very noticeable absence of Christmas spirit in this household...

* I have to admire their phrase "a little careful reading". As I say, it took my a good two hours yesterday just to locate an RCA to 3.5mm AV adaptor that looks like it has the pinouts this TV needs on the 3.5mm plug. Even so, I won't know for sure until it arrives, and can find a window when I can try it and see.
 
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ejstubbs said:
The new TV here can "see" the Humax as a DLNA server, but can't play .ts video files, so no dice there. Oddly, it can't even play the .mp4 video files on our NAS (the documentation seems to imply that mp4s have to have been recorded by a Panasonic device to be playable on this TV which, if true, would be both bizarre and stupidly restrictive). However, if I use the Roku as the media client it works fine, so yah boo sucks.
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Is VLC available as installable app on your TV since that certainly can play humax recordings?
 
Black Hole said:
HiDef or StDef?
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Both. It tries to play SD content but just it sits there forever saying "Please wait". And this is despite the documentation saying that it can play .ts files - and if you dig into the detail it says that includes MPEG-2 video and MP3 audio (MP3 encompassing both MPEG 1 and MPEG2, the latter being what SD .ts files contain).

HD content it refuses to even try (and yes, it is decrypted).

Also, the Humax doesn't offer content on its USB device via its DLNA server, so that's a big chunk of content I couldn't get at that way even if the TV could play it.

On the plus side, and contrary to what the documentation seems to imply, it turns out that the TV can happily stream MP4 content directly from my NAS after all. So at least I don't have to go to the Roku every time for that.

Black Hole said:
For the sake of a tenner, surely it's worth a try?
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If you mean the device linked from the article you quoted then that link is actually for a product on Amazon US. For some reason when I click on the link it gets munged into a search on Amazon UK to come up with a £9.99 box but that's not the same device. The correct Amazon US link for the box recommended in the article is this, which would be $30+ shipped from the US - and a whole heap of pain to return if it turned out not to work. I did find what appears to be a UK-based supplier here, but that's £39 plus shipping, a total of £47 - more than 25% of the cost of a new 500GB PVR, which is straining the boundaries of acceptability somewhat.

What I did notice is that the ViewHD box is 1080p not 4K*. I think that may be a key factor in finding a box that will work with the Humax (something to do with older HDCP versions is my current guess) and I think I may have found a 1080p device in the UK for a not-too-silly amount of cash (including a £1 off voucher until 5/12/22) that might do the trick. It's an audio extractor rather than an HDMI splitter/switch, but at least (a) it's easy to return if it doesn't work, and (b) there is some evidence both in the product listing/reviews and elsewhere that it should/might work.

I'll keep you posted.

* Reviews of the 4K boxes that I looked at on Amazon UK (before I got bored) all seemed to suggest that the HDCP "bypass" functionality was pretty hit-and miss (and this is borne out by other sources such as this YouTube video). In my experience the 'descriptions' of most of the cheap stuff from China on Amazon and eBay are so detail-free as to be more or less useless.
 
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MikeSh said:
You don't think the thing from eBay for £6.53 all-in, UK supplier, that I suggested is worth a punt?
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As it's a 4K product I'd have my doubts. However, there are 1080p-only devices on eBay - and this one on Amazon for just a few more ££ (and cheaper than the audio extractor I mentioned previously) which has a number of reviews mentioning how useful it is for stripping out HDCP. That could well be worth a punt.

EDIT: This review of the iSolem splitter specifically mentions using it successfully to get an HDR-FOX T2 to talk to a Samsung telly
 
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ejstubbs said:
As it's a 4K product I'd have my doubts. However, there are 1080p-only devices on eBay
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Fair enough, but 4k runs on HDMI and it does say 1080 in the description.

Makes me wonder if this 4k-HD distinction is akin to 'digital' vs 'analogue' aerials. Though 4k needs higher bandwidth, so maybe a 4k device needs a more capable chipset.
 
ejstubbs said:
And this is despite the documentation saying that it can play .ts files
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Remember that the humax actually produces m2ts files mislabelled as .ts, the difference is a 4-byte time code prefix on each frame from the humax,
Some players like vlc can cope but others don't

Does it claim to recognize .mts or .m2ts files?
 
MymsMan said:
Does it claim to recognize .mts or .m2ts files?
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This is what is says in the documentation, verbatim:

  • TS (.mts, .m2ts, .tp, .trp, .ts, .tts)​
Video codec:​
H.264, H.265 (HEVC), MPEG1, MPEG2, VC-1​
Audio codec:​
AAC, Dolby Audio (Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby AC-4), Dolby Atmos, HE-AAC, MP3​
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