![]() ![]() I was also considering whether to keep my receiver to do all the switching but thought this rather defeated the object of de-cluttering my living room. I have the one referred to by jbach in the post above and it works really well. One idea I have is that the Gefen switch requires a 5V power source and I might be able to rig a USB power cable such that I can power the switch off my Home Theater PC and thus avoid needing to use another AC power slot for it. But such is life and the benefits of Sonos currently outweigh the need for this workaround by a slight margin. It feels pretty lame to need to do this because Sonos dropped the ball and invented a product with which there's no compatible TVs available. In theory, I could just leave it set to my main TV device (a home theater PC) and when I want to play a video game I'll manually click the switch on the Gefen unit because I have to get up to pick up the controller or insert a blu ray into the PS3 to watch anyway. I'm eyeballing the $80ish dollar Gefen splitter because they make really top quality products, but it doesn't have any IR remote option. So I have 3 devices but only need a 2-port optical switcher because one of those ports will be this splitter that is both XBox and PS3. I still have a problem of another device to figure out how to work into my Playbar, but this will work to reduce the necessary optical switcher ports by one. Assuming you don't run both your PS3 and Xbox at the same time (which I never have), it won't be an issue. It is essentially an "automatic switcher" because it only outputs whatever signal you run through it. This seems like a fantastic device because it requires no power, is cheap, and is small. I have verified that neither the PS3 nor the Xbox will output a signal when off. However, if you have a PS3 and Xbox 360 like I do, then you should be able to run the optical cables from both into here, and come up with a single output. ![]() Most cable boxes do output a signal when off so they can't be used with this. So it only works if your devices don't output a signal when they are off. The reviews are mixed between extremely happy 5-stars and extremely unhappy 1 stars because people bought them not understanding how they work.Įssentially, it's just mixing the two signals together. I just ordered an optical splitter from Amazon.įrom what it looks like, it allows you to take two optical inputs and have one output. I haven't been on the forums in a few months and a cursory skim through thread posts didn't reveal anything new, although it sounds like Sonos may release a DTS update through software based on some rumors I read on the forums so that's exciting. Or maybe someone will report that Sonos has come out with an official list of TVs that support the Playbar's intended functionality that it was engineered around (re: sending 5.1 out of optical). ![]() If that Monoprice unit comes back, even though it's just a dual unit, maybe I can get away with running two of them, one into the other, to get the 3 inputs that I need. With the ability to manually switch for diagnostic or special use circumstances. I like the idea that whichever of the 4 inputs are outputting a signal is the one that is live. Ideally, whatever I choose, it's automatic with a manual override. I would also consider an HDMI switcher that has the appropriate audio output that parses out the correct 5.1 audio signal. Then when friends come over and marvel at the slim form factor and design of the Playbar, I can point out that they'll need a gigantic A/V receiver in order to get it working properly. As ridiculous as it sounds (and actually is), my best bet may be to buy a cheap $100 to $200 A/V receiver and use that for all my audio routing to the Playbar. I sold my old A/V receiver with my old 5.1 speaker set when I bought my playbar. I'm also debating over whether I should just buy another A/V receiver. It does me no good if it downgrades the signal to 2.x. I need to route at least three inputs, ideally four to help future proof me. So, I'll need to buy an optical audio switcher. 99% chance it will not have it in spite of what people casually report on the internet. I'm buying a new TV soon but based on what research I've done, it's impossible to be certain any TV I buy will have proper 5.1 optical switching. It was from monoprice and the link is dead, and a search on monoprice makes it look like it's discontinued with nothing else up in its place. Someone recommended an automatic 2 input optical audio switcher in one of the original playbar threads. ![]()
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