No input through HDMI matrix/audio extractor

My installation makes use of a 30 meter long fiber optic HDMI cable running from my PJ to my Vero 4K. Since I needed to output audio to a non-4K passthrough receiver, I used a HDMI audio extractor ( FeinTech VAX01201). So the setup was Vero 4K -> audio extractor using the standard Vero HDMI cable and audio extractor -> PJ with the fiber optic cable. Everything worked fine for months.

A week ago, I had no signal on the PJ. I checked by connecting the Vero directly on the long cable, which worked fine, so assumed my extractor had died. I wanted to change for a multi-HDMI input extractor anyway for my Xbox, so I was fine with it, and ordered a FeinTech VSW04202. Well, I still have no signal on the PJ through the device, and no problem with the Vero directly shooting through the fiber optic cable.

I canā€™t figure out the issue. Can you recommend how to debug?

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To get a better understanding of the problem you are experiencing we need more information from you. The best way to get this information is for you to upload logs that demonstrate your problem. You can learn more about how to submit a useful support request here.

Depending on the used skin you have to set the settings-level to standard or higher, in summary:

  • enable debug logging at settings->system->logging

  • reboot the OSMC device twice(!)

  • reproduce the issue

  • upload the log set (all configs and logs!) either using the Log Uploader method within the My OSMC menu in the GUI or the ssh method invoking command grab-logs -A

  • publish the provided URL from the log set upload, here

Thanks for your understanding. We hope that we can help you get up and running again shortly.

OSMC skin screenshot:

Vero 4K directly on PJ through optical HDMI (working): https://paste.osmc.tv/jowehawiqe

Vero 4K to HDMI matrix to PJ (no input on PJ): https://paste.osmc.tv/jiyakobaja

Vero 4K to audio extractor (previous device) to PJ (HDMi out of range on PJ): https://paste.osmc.tv/ubuqofumeh

Additional info:

  • PJ supports up to 4K HDR, but 50/60Hz in 4K 10bit is limited to 422 chroma
  • The extractor/HDMI matrix devices should passthrough these signals
  • Tested output is the kodi GUI in 1080p60hz (outputmode and hdmimode set to 1080p60hz)

The matrix device is not passing through the PJā€™s video modes (EDID) to vero. Have a look to see if there are options on that switch for handling the EDID.

You might get a picture by setting 422 mode in the video settings or typing this at the commandine:

echo 8bitnow | sudo tee /sys/class/amhdmitx/amhdmitx0/attr

but unless you can solve the EDID problem you will not get 4k video to work. Let us know if you canā€™t solve it with settings on the FeinTech.

OK, thanks. No information on that on their manual, they only say to plug in the display first, then the matrix and finally the source. But I did reboot the Vero multiple times, switched everything on/off and nothing changed. Guess I will contact Feintech.

One question: did you see why with the previous device (audio extractor), I now get ā€œHDMI out of rangeā€? Is the device advertising wrong display info although it wasnā€™t before? Makes no sense to me.

Also, now that I check, connecting directly the Vero to the PJ, the only modes availables (whitelist in system settings) are 480p 60hz, 720p 59.94&60hz, 1080p 59.94&60hz, and:

osmc@osmc:~$ cat /sys/class/amhdmitx/amhdmitx0/disp_cap
480p60hz*
720p60hz
1080i60hz
1080p60hz

All higher resolutions & lower framerate modes are gone. There really is something funny going on. Noticed this just now as the player didnā€™t switch to 4K when I tried playing a 4K file.
Could it be the cable starting to fail?

I suspect with these resolutions being the only ones available, it simply means that the EDID wasnā€™t parsed. Some logs should verify this.

Indeed - could be your cable.
We can try and force some modes if youā€™d like to try and mitigate this, but there is no guarantee that this would work.

I still hope the cable is OK, it runs through walls and is not swappable easily.
Sure, that would be a start. Is there a way to override the parsed whitelist with a custom one? (e.g. do what DrHDMI devices do, but I donā€™t have one)

Yes. Can you connect directly to the projector temporarily so we can get a list of the supported modes? We can then copy and paste that in to a file which the Vero will consult before reading your EDID.

Apologies ā€” looks like youā€™ve done this already. But even directly to the PJ from your previous logs, it isnā€™t looking right.

Iā€™ve looked at this and can see that the mode advertisement isnā€™t really the problem if it works when connected directly to the projector.

Iā€™m not sure how you could get 4K HDR to work properly in the current configuration.

Sam

Sam, there may be a misunderstanding.
What I was originally trying to do is understand why the matrix/extractor devices were resulting in no image on the PJ whereas I have an image when the Vero is connected directly to the PJ.
But, I only checked the GUI. Turns out that even connected directly to the PJ, it seems the Vero doesnā€™t see the PJ modes.
I need to check if thatā€™s the case and understand why this happens now (after months of use w/o issue), and how to solve it without resorting to replacing the cable, if possibleā€¦

Thatā€™s right. Even with a connection to the projector we arenā€™t seeing the right modes. But the EDID is being parsed, which is odd.

Do you have a TV you can test on and upload some logs from so we can check EDID parsing works on that? If it doesnā€™t - it could well be a cabling issue.

The only explanation I can think of is the audio extractor has remembered the EDID (video modes) from the PJ but the extractor-PJ connection has now gone bad.

OK. Right now no spare screens no, but Iā€™ll get one back somewhere next week and Iā€™ll do that test.
Will also get an EDID emulator to insert close to the source and see if that helps.
Will let you know how it goes, thanks for the help so far.

You can achieve the same result as an EDID emulator with some sysfs commands. You need to get a good connection to the PJ first, then

echo save bin edid.bin | sudo tee /sys/class/amhdmitx/amhdmitx0/edid

With the vero back connected through the HDMI switch or audio extractor:

echo load edid.bin | sudo tee /sys/class/amhdmitx/amhdmit0/edid

Iā€™m working from memory - away from home atm - but if you echo foo to /sys/ā€¦/edid it will give you the syntax.

OK, it was the cable.
With EDID emulation I managed to pass some resolutions, but it was quite erratic. For example, true 4K displayed fine but 3840 did not, figuresā€¦ It seems odd to me a cable can ā€œpartiallyā€ fail like this, but as soon as I replaced the fiber optic cable by a new one every single issue was gone.
Blows a bit as I cant ā€œhideā€ the new cable without some serious work, but thatā€™s life. Thanks for the assistance :slight_smile:

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Well, thatā€™s not a simple ā€˜cableā€™. Itā€™s converting an electrical signal to optical and then back to electrical on the other end. So lots of room for partial failure there.