Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems HD621 Set Up Questions

Yes I did read the manual. I was just wondering if anyone tried with no output, in which case the HD621 is in receiver mode all the time, and if it is workable from the point of view of minimal handshaking problems. I guess I should have put it that way.;-)

I also realize that the manual states that you might have to switch between inputs to get the handshake and that this is normal. I just am not sure it really is normal.

I would guess that Radiance have implemented their HDMI protocols correctly. Sorry if it seems that I'm speaking against the all powerful OZ but Meridian is late to the HDMI game. It's their first attempt. Maybe they have some things to fix.

No, this is NOT news to me as I believe that EDID is unique to HDMI (and perhaps DVI) connections (i.e. it is part of their standard) and, simialrly, not part of the SPDIF standard which explains Jim's commentary...

As I have not yet played with audio through the LUmagen I can offer no help here other than from a theoretical perspective and, to that end, can not guess / think as to a reason that your configuration would not work...that said, I would suggest that you e-mail your radiance config file to Lumagen as they will likely be ablet to getyou sorted out...

Hoep that helps...

Works fine in my setup with a display connected or not. Handshaking seems faster than my Octava unit but I haven't timed them

Cliff

Actually that is possible. What you would need is a quality HDMI splitter.

The four items you would be dealing with are:

The HD621
A processor P1 fed by the HD621
Player "A"
"B" the source for different audio

The two basic situations are-

No 1: You want both audio & video from "A". The processor P1 is configured to accept audio & video via HDMI ex the HD621 from "A"

No 2: You want video from "A" audio from "B" using a toslink or coax (or even analog L/R) audio link

"A" would feed into the HDMI splitter

For No 1: Feed one HDMI out of the splitter to one input of the HD621 (associated with the appropriate processor P1 setting for "A" only)

For No 2: Feed the second HDMI out of the splitter to a second input of the HD621 (associated with the appropriate processor P1 setting for video "A" but audio "B"). You will then see video from player "A" and hear audio from player "B".

I'm actually using a modification of this setup with the Bluray player where "A" is the Bluray setting but "B" is Bluray video but coax out of that player for the audio.

Why on earth would I want to use that?

Answer: For DVDs or Bluray discs that only have 2CH recorded on them.

Feed thru "A" to the processor P1 only gives L/R or processed L/R to give synthetic surround. My problem with this is that any synthetic surround via the processor (in my case a 861) gives the ambience ok but messes up the L/R stereo. So the purist (read madness) solution is to feed the coax audio out to another processor P2. The setup is

Digital audio out of player -> external 2CH DAC P2

2CH L/R out of DAC P2 -> analog preamp

Analog preamp has two outputs:
Output 1 -> direct to amps & speakers for unprocessed (read uncorrupted) L/R stereo
Output 2 -> Meridian 861 processor P1 for synthesised surround.

The video still goes via the HD621, but the main L/R goes direct to amps & speakers via P2 while the Meridian P1 looks after the synthesised surround.

Yes it is extreme, but it works like a charm. Waste of effort on movies but worthwhile on the heaps of music discs in the system here. Would also work for CDs to give synthetic surround sound (with video off of course and HD621 not used at all) although I have other options for CDs.

John, the audio nutter

I received my HD621 today but will not have time until the weekend to set it up but I was wondering about the COMMS connection. I have an 800 connected to an 861 and all M digital speakers so both COMMS inputs are being used on my 861. Is it necessary to connect the HD621 to the 861 direct or can I connect it to the 800 ( as there is an unused COMMS input on it) OR can I switch the speaker COMMS that is currently connected to the 861 over to the 800 and then connect the HD621 directly into the 861 OR does it matter as all three units will communicate as long as there is a connection between the three?
Thanks in advance
Joe

You don't have to connect HD621 to 861 direct.
The unused comms on your 800 can be used.
NB! Speaker Comms should stay connected to 861 direct.

Geir

Thanks Geir

Thanks but I think rather than go through that I can use phantom sources to do what I want. I had a lot of trouble with my initial setup so I haven't been able to spend time figuring out how to do the phantoms. To create a phantom is easy but I am not entirely sure how to ensure that I get the audio from one device and the video from another this way. I know you have to use the "last valid" for the source but I'm not sure how you can ensure that the "last valid" is always the audio source you want.

In case anyone is interested, I finally gave up on putting my Radiance before the HD621. I had all sorts of switching problems. My main reason to do it was to be able to run my music server output (coax) through the HD621.

So what I've done now is to run the BR and TIVO directly to the HD621, run the out from the HD621 to the Radiance, run the coax from the music server into the Radiance and then use the second Radiance HDMI out to go back into the HD621 for a third source. Works fine.

BTW. In my mconfig, I inserted the "loop" connection between the HD621 and the Radiance (which is really my music server). I don't know if I really need to do that but I did it anyway and no problems--so far.

In addition to switching problems there seems to have been a problem putting the Radiance between the HD621 and my TIVO because when I tried to set the audio EDIDs for pcm 2 channel and DD 5.1 it wouldn't work. I had to set them to PCM only and the TIVO mixes down DD 5.1 to 2 channel PCM. Jim from Lumagen said someone else was experiencing the same problem with a Sky box.

a. So I would create a phantom off the MS and then in my pronto I would have to program it to switch first to the TV input and then to the MS input. Correct?

b. IIUC One small problem with this is that the music server also has a video source. I don't really use it because I pull up the video interface from the music server onto my pronto. There is no way around disabling the video from the music source?

Thanks.

How is the HD621 best connected to a Meridian G68XXV? Has the G68 the MMHR balanced digital audio RJ45/cat5 input that carries 8 channels?

Does the HD621 take a native DSD signal via HDMI 1.3a or does it have to be converted into PCM?

Roger

Not yet.


No. You can't do any signal processing with DSD, it is a PCM-only audio processor.