Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems UHD722 Limiting 120Hz – HDfury VROOM to the Rescue?

Hi All

In a perfect world, one of the inputs on my UHD722 would support 120Hz passthrough. The PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X can both output 120Hz, and my TV can display it, but the UHD722 is the bottleneck. For a long time, I assumed there was no workaround, but it appears there may be one in the form of the HDfury 8K VROOM.

The VROOM has four HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs and can be configured so that one output carries audio only and the other carries video only. That would allow me to route the VROOM’s audio output into an input on the UHD722 (so the UHD722 can continue feeding my Meridian G68J exactly as it does for my other sources), while routing the VROOM’s video output directly to the TV via a simple 2-in/1-out HDMI switch. The UHD722’s HDMI output would connect to the second input on that same switch. Only the games consoles would have their audio and video split, so the 120Hz video doesn’t pass through the UHD722.

All of this seems straightforward, although I appreciate the VROOM configuration will be fiddly. I’ll make sure the retailer can provide technical support for configuration. Before I go down this route, is there anything I’m overlooking that could cause unexpected issues in practice?

My main concern is how nicely the UHD722 will play with the VROOM, and whether the UHD722 will behave if one of its inputs is receiving an audio-only HDMI signal. Has anyone tested a similar setup, and if so, did it work?

I have a UHD722 and an Xbox Series X. I don't even bother using the UHD722 with the Xbox. I just run a dedicated HDMI from the Xbox to the LG OLED (it has 4 inputs!) then take the TVs optical output into my G65 for surround processing. I used to use a VRRoom but I seem to remember the Xbox HDMI only being 16 bit audio anyway, so I figured micromanaging the audio quality of a games machine was a suboptimal use of my time.

There maybe lip-sync issues as well. The M processor will definitely add a delay.

To be honest, once the simple solution actually worked, I didn't really spend that much time with the VRROOM/722 config. I used to switch HDMIinputs on the VRROOM using my iPhone home screen with some Shortcuts outputting http commands to the VRROOM, but again the complication outweighed the effectiveness. Obviously it was kind of cool it worked.

I doubt if the UHD722 would care about an audio only signal. The VRROOM actually outputs effectively "blank" video with the Audio mixed in. I think in the config you can configure this to be 1080 or 720, but its a while since I owned it and cant really remember. So it will appear to the UHD722 as a valid video signal.

If you make progress, I'd be interested in hearing your results.

Cheers
Greg

Have an Xbox Series X, HD621 and I bought Greg Wright's VRROOM!!!

I have VRROOM connected to EARC HDMI port of OLED and audio/blank video HDMI output of VRROOM connected to HD621.

I had Xbox Series X outputting uncompressed 5.1. 120hz HDR connected to OLED. The VRROOM pulls the sound from TV and sends it to HD621 as do other devices connected to OLED and VRROOM.

This works very well.

The UHD722 should process the output from VRROOM the same as HD621.

Gentlemen, trying to navigate in this world as well.

I really tried to source an updated UHD722 v2 board from ati-amp.com. They own the Momentum Data Systems which produce the HSR-82T HDMI board currently.

I also talked to Meridian and they appreciated the effort but was unable to help. There was a technical reason for this, MOQ’s and something else that needed to be acquired for them to offer this board.

So, what about a HDFury Arcana 2?

Yes looking at the specs, I believe the Arcana 2 will work the same as Vrroom or Vertex 2 with UHD722/HD621.

The Vrroom is the better option for future flexibility.

If the display device has enough inputs for 120 hz devices. This eARC Audio Adapter, Splitter and Extractor works very well to pull sound from display device and send it to UHD722/HD621.

I used it for years before getting a Vrroom. It was only the custom/programable EDID function for inputs on Vrroom that made me upgrade.

Thank you for sharing your experiences and insights. They’ve been very helpful.

I’ve decided to try the HDfury VROOM and will report back once I’ve had a chance to set it up. My main concern is getting the initial configuration right, so I’m currently speaking with a few retailers to see who can offer the strongest telephone support.

It should only be a one-time setup, and once it’s configured correctly, it should run smoothly from there.

HDFury are active on Discord so it would be worth creating an account and joining their channel. Their tech response was pretty good back when I was active in the channel.

They were pretty good at responding either on Discord or on their AVForums product channels (but never post the same question on both!!). There's loads of history to look at as well since the same questions tend to recur. The person who was monitoring the channel when I was setting up the Vertex was very competent but also hilariously direct, so just be prepared for that...
The main thing with these products is that if you just want to split audio off and pass through video undisturbed, there isn't really much set up to do - most of the difficult stuff is if you want to do video upscaling / HDR conversions etc, or the various control mechanisms for other kit.
There are differences between the Vertex and the VRRoom, so they don't read across directly, but in principle you just need to construct a correct EDID for your system, which will be an appropriate video section plus the audio section read from the HD722. There's a documented procedure for this. Then you assign your EDID to your inputs, select whether you want to suppress audio on the video output and job's done for audio.
You may need to do stuff like reading the Dolby Vision code from your TV etc.
Then it's about how you'll do any switching you may need, so remote control integrations etc.

Julian

I decided to go for the VROOM and have been really impressed with it. It does exactly what it’s supposed to by splitting the audio and video over HDMI without any issues.

For my setup, the four inputs go into the VROOM and then:

Audio: VROOM → UHD722 → G68

Video: VROOM → FeinTech SW212 HDMI 2.1 switch → LG OLED TV

All the other inputs on the UHD722 still work as normal. Audio continues to the G68, and the video output goes into the second input on the FeinTech switch, then to the TV.

Setup-wise, I thought the VROOM might be tricky, but in reality only two settings needed changing and it was easy enough to do from a computer. The interface is actually quite clear, and the unit shows its IP address on the front which helps.

That said, I’d never have figured out what to change without help. ChatGPT made it simple. I sent a screenshot and it immediately spotted the issue. The VROOM was limiting things to 4K 60Hz, and I wanted 4K 120Hz (which was the whole point of buying it!). Once that was fixed, everything worked perfectly.

Also, thanks for all your advice. It definitely helped me go ahead with it.