Working with AVR's and HDCP

Video issues with AVRs is common for all installers in the AV industry, every single day the AVPro Edge tech support department takes multiple calls that end up being an AVR as the troubled spot in the installation.

AVRs are built to handle the highest audio codecs on the market, Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, beyond 8 channels audio is a breeze for AVR’s from most brands. However, those same AVR’s often struggle with varying types of HDMI signals. Bandwidth is hard to manage and video bandwidth takes up much more data than audio, in turn some chipset’s inside the AVR’s are not able to process these 4K and HDR video signals.

When dealing with high bandwidth content the HDMI processing boards in AVRs have a hard time switching not only between different resolutions, but most importantly HDCP types. Customers often get a solid black screen or no signal to their display when switching between HDCP 1.4 and HDCP 2.2. Even the highest-end AVRs can potentially experience this issue. When a customer switches between a lower res source like a cable box or NVR camera system, to a higher res source like an apple tv, roku, kscape, they can easily lose picture and not be able to regain picture without power cycling devices in the video route.

An example of a great solution to separating video distribution from your AVR audio system is the AC-MX42-AUHD or AC-MX82-AUHD. These devices can handle up to 8 high bandwidth video sources right along side those less taxing sources. The two mentioned matrices have two HDMI outputs, one of which as the ability to downscale 4k to 1080p but leave the audio signals completely unimpeded. This allows the customer to send one uncompressed video signal to their display/projector, and the downscaled port can send HDMI bitstream audio to the AVR while keeping the resolution at a maximum resolution of 1080p to reduce bandwidth and give your AVR a fighting chance.

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This tech tip has been brought to you by Travis Kreutzmann, Travis is a internal part of our Tech Support team. Trav is only a call away for all our installers in the field, never hesitate in giving us a call when you run into a problem. 605-274-6055