HDMI basically has three classes of devices. Source, repeater, sink.

In theory.....

A source is the first device in a chain and is what initiates the negotiations will all other devices in the chain. A source is supposed to deal with every device in a chain.

A repeater is in the middle of a chain. A source can negotiate with it as well as with other devices downstream from it.

A sink is supposed to be the last device in a chain. Typically this would be your display. When your source encounters a 'sink' it considers this the last device in the chain and doesn't negotiate past this.

That is the theory and how things are supposed to be done per the spec.

The reality is that a bunch of equipment doesn't really follow the specs and things get confusing.

Many of the initial problems with HDCP were because sources didn't understand how to deal with one or more repeaters. The sources were coded to handle being plugged into a sink directly and wouldn't output into a chain that had repeaters in it. The lack of compatibility testing when devices first started coming out sort of hide this problem in the sources until repeaters came on market. So you had a source plugged into a display and everythign was fine. Then someone bought a HDMI receiver (repeater) and added it into the chain and suddenly nothing worked. Most blamed the receiver since 'it worked before.' The problem was that most didn't understand that the source was at fault as it couldn't handle a repeater.

So to deal with this some manufacturers strayed from the spec and had devices that were technically repeaters ID themselves as sinks to work around the crappy programming in the sources. This is fairly common. Per the HDCP/HDMI licenses this is a no-no as it prevents the source from seeing the entire chain therefor inhibits the ability of the black flag list to actual work. A black flagged device could be hidden behind a repeater that was actually telling the source it was a sink. If HDMI/HDCP took a hard stand against this they would black flag all the devices that mis-ID themselves.

Per what Jaco said the CLUX IDs itself as a repeater all the time.

This is a problem because the source is going to be looking for a sink. If it doesn't find one it won't output anything. So without a sink plugged into the CLUX you get no audio.

Technically what the CLUX could do is if anything is plugged into the output it should ID itself as a repeater (as per the rules) but if it has nothing in its HDMI output it should ID itself as a sink since it really would be the last device in the chain in that situation. But since it doesn't do this one needs to be able to give it a sink to get it to work at all.

"About how much would a kit cost, and what is the time-frame (if nothing negative shows up)?"

The 3x SPDIF transceiver cards are $165 plus shipping for DIYers. I'll try and get details of the mod in the CLUX up in a few days so one can see what is involved in the modification.

Shawn

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