UPDATED – SEE BELOW!
I have just installed a Sky HD system for a colleague and hit a really annoying problem.
The Sky HD box puts out stereo digital audio onto its HDMI connector, and provides 5.1 (surround sound) digital audio on separate connectors. This is fine if you are just feeding a TV, but if you are going into an AV receiver to provide switching between different video sources – and to give you surround sound – it is a real pain because:
(a) Some AV receivers won’t let you provide audio separately from the HDMI video signal
(b) Those that do let you provide separate audio and video (e.g. Sony) don’t allow you to use automatic HDMI linking or signalling if you do use separate audio; in other words, rather than using one remote control to control everything, you’re back to having a whole pile of remote controls, one per box, and you need a degree in AV Engineering to work out what controls what!
The grapevine suggests that Sky recognise the limitation of their design and, at some point in the future, will allow you to optionally select 5.1 for the HDMI interface. This may or may not be a software upgrade; nobody seems to know. Until they do fix it, here’s a work-around:
Go to http://www.hdcable.co.uk and buy their ‘DVI to HDMI Converter with Audio’ box (CECD0101B); it’s about £50. Then get yourself a short digital audio coax to coax lead (or optical to optical) and a decent quality short HDMI male to DVI male cable. Wire it up like this:
The hdcable.co.uk box strips off the stereo digital signal from the HDMI cable and replaces it with the 5.1 digital audio from the Sky HD box. The AV receiver sees a normal HDMI cable (carrying 5.1 audio) and can use all its HDMI linking / signalling / etc so you can stick half your remote controls in the cupboard as the TV remote can do all the day to day controlling!
There are several more expensive ways of fixing the problem, but this was the cheapest and easiest that I found and works a treat. I’ve even suggested to the good folks at hdcable.co.uk that they make another version specifically for this SkyHD purpose with an HDMI connector instead of a DVI connector.
UPDATE – January 2012
Courtesy of Mike Spurr (thanks Mike) it now transpires that HD Cable have stopped making this product. Although some Sky HD boxes now seem to have a ’5.1 on HDMI’ audio option, older boxes certainly don’t and there is still a need for something like this if you want to embed the 5.1 audio with the HDMI output.
HD Cable recommended CYP products as an alternative (at a higher cost), and Mike has found this: http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-3638-cyp-au11ca-hdmi-audio-embedder-with-repeater.aspx
It’s actually a little easier to use than the HD Cable product, although it is more expensive, but if your Sky HD box doesn’t offer you the choice and you need to strip off 2 channel and add 5.1 to Sky’s HDMI signal then it seems a good way of doing it:
I do have this problem with my Onkyo amp. I was considering using an HDMI to DVI cable to lose the audio signal and then a DVI-HDMI adaptor so that I can plug this into my amp. I am slightly worried that the amp will see an HDMI input with no signal but refuse to pick up the audio from a separate optical cable from my sky hd box to the amp. Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.
Hi Chris, the honest answer is the unhelpful one of “I don’t know”. However, this is more than merely ignorance on my part; in truth, different manufacturers seem to configure their AV systems differently and it is often difficult to be sure about what they will do in the circumstances you describe without actually trying it; I know the Sony receiver that I mentioned seemed as if it would do what I wanted without the extra box and, if I had designed it, it certainly would have done the switching properly, but in the end its (lack of) logic defeated me and the extra box solution was the best I could come up with. You may find that the obvious advice about reading the Onkyo amp instructions or FAQ/Support website won’t help because the question you want an answer to is just too subtle. I guess an obvious suggestion is to buy the Cable and Adaptor from someone who agrees to giving you your money back if they don’t work, and give it a try. This is where it’s worth paying a bit more on the high street for the luxury of a customer-friendly product returns policy; you could try Richer Sounds who, in my experience, are very good on price AND flexible over things like this. Sorry I can’t be more specific than that!
Thanks for the reply Tom. And apologies for taking too long to get back to you. I thought I would give Onkyo one more try and this time the reply I received sounded right as they also suggested I read page 59 of the instruction manual (which runs I believe to about 180 pages and is not the easiest to understand) I did as the manual suggested which is you have to assign a digital audio input to the HDMI input for the Sky box.By doing this it tells the amp to take the picture from the HDMI but not the sound which then comes in from the assigned optical input. I put the HDMI lead back into my amp did the required assigning and bingo I can now hear Dolby Digital sound from my Sky box. The amp is very nice(TX NR1007 9.2 sound) but is quite complicated to set up.Thanks again.
Regards Chris
Hi Chris
Sorry for the delay; I have been away. I’m glad you sorted your amp configuration out. I use Sony and, frankly, won’t ever do again. Not only is their functionality very limited – I can’t do the sort of assignment you can with the Onkyo – but the reliability of Sony gear is diabolical! Anyway, you’re sorted now so that’s the main thing.
Thanks for the feedback and best regards.
Tom
OK, I have been doing some research, this won’t be fixed by a software update (certainly on most boxes) because it’s actually a fault with the design of the motherboard.
The chip/processor that deals with AC3 5.1 audio isn’t actually wired into the HDMI output processor – instead is wired to the SPDIF Optical and Coaxial output processors only.
Shame really.
Thanks for the update Matt, looks like the workaround – as so often happens – is the permanent fix!
Thank you very much for this idea which I’m about to try. I have developed a horrible spaghetti solution over the years to get the Sky HD box to work through my AV receiver (Panasonic HTR210 integrated TV stand with speakers) using a separate optical connection for audio. The main challenge is to get everything to wake up with one press of the TV remote control with everything switched through correctly by default. I’ve never been able to achieve this – the state of the art is that I need one extra button press from TV to AV mode on the television, as the Panasonic kit, while well designed (unlike the Sky box), isn’t quite up to sorting everything out with its Viera/HDMI control while being half-fooled by separate HDMI and optical inputs. This solution, which ought to make the Sky HD box look like a well behaved HDMI source, may well be the answer.
I hope you have success, Bill. I use a Sony AV Receiver and TV (never again, I hate their reliability) and the main reason for choosing that set-up was the close integration of TV, AV and Sky; my Sky+ remote controls the Sony’s AV volume so, for normal use, you only need the one Sky remote. It all falls to pieces when you watch a DVD though, as you then need to reset the HDMI inputs with a third remote. Maybe, one day, they’ll all agree a comms standard!
Thanks for the comments.
Tom G.
Hi Tom
The sky HDMI DD separate Box solution looks good, however, it does not appear to be still available as at 02/01/2012
Can you advise where I can get one?
Thanks
You appear to be correct, Mike, thanks for bringing this to my attention. I found other solutions at the same time as I found HD Cable but they were more expensive – for example, Gefen: http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=3570 . I will get onto the HD Cable people and let you know what they say.
Tom G.
Thanks Tom
I recently purchased a top of the range sony KDL-HX923 TV and a BDV-E780W wireless surround sound system. They integrate well together, except that I have to use an optical cable to get DD from Sky => although I sometimes get sound drop outs when switching between sky channels and have to got to another channel and back again to get the sound back. This is very annoying. Also, if I want to watch BBC I Player on the TV I have to turn sky off otherwise the sky sound overwrites the sound from i player source
I don,t think sky have a HDMI DD sound option on any of their PVR HD boxes, although one of thei help pages seems to indicate that they do:
http://www.sky.com/helpcentre/tv/sky-hd/picture-problems/sound-problems/dolby-digital-sound-issues/
screen shots in this official sky link show a “hdmi” sound option which I don’t have on my Sky + hD Box (purchased May 2010) do they now do a sky HD box with HDMI option? Very confusing
Any assistance you could provide on this matter would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Mike
Update from HD Cable, January 2012:
“This is now discontinued.
CYP make an alternative product that can be found here:
http://www.cypeurope.com/Audience/AU-11CA-HDMI-Audio-Embedder-with-built-in-Repeater.html?keyword=embedder
It’s not something we stock, but the CYP equipment is very good. They are more expensive than our older device, but will perform the same function.
It’s always worth being aware that you can only get one type of audio on HDMI, stereo or multichannel. So using this will mean no stereo TV will playback audio.
Similarly, most surround sound amplifiers have audio inputs alongside the HDMI inputs that can be assigned, so this device isn’t necessary in those situations.”
So there is an alternative, albeit at a higher cost.
Hope this helps.
Tom G.