Hardware Component over HDMI

[Pleng]

A little bit of background (can be ignored)
I am trying to decide which way to go with expanding my current set up. I currently have a TV, a cable box, and a computer which I use to run 3 separate VMs - Work, Personal and and XBMC install (complete with emulators, of course).

The TV has 2 inputs - 1 x HDMI and 1 x Component. The decision I have is whether to beef up the CPU and the RAM on the computer (currently have a quad core CPU and 16Gb RAM - looking to upgrade to a 6-8 Core and 24-32Gb RAM), or to get an Andorid Media Centre to go into the TV and cut the number of VMs I'm running down by 1.


The problem - Component over HDMI
The cheapest solution in the long run would clearly be the Android box, but obviously a beefed up computer has other advantages to go along with it. The big problem I have is the limited inputs on the TV. I know you can buy component over HDMI cables, but I also know that your device specifically needs to support this type of cable. HOW can I find out if a device supports it or not? I can't find anything in the instructions for my cable box, graphics cars, or in the product description for any of these Android boxes that explains if it's supported.

Of course I could 'just' get a cable and try it out with my computer and cable boxes, if it works with one of the devices then the problem is solved anyway and the decision can be made on the other pros and cons. But it's not particularly simple to buy such a cable here. It either means taking a trip to Bangkok, or getting it shipped from abroad - both of which are fairly expensive options (and only ONE of which actually guarantees I'll actually get the cable - shipping here is hit-and-miss)

So is there any resource online with a list of devices that support Component over HDMI? Or does anybody have any experience with Android media centres and can confirm if they support this feature? Or is there some other clue that will let me know if any given device supports it?

 

[trumpet-205]

There is probably 0.1% of device that happen to use component over HDMI.

All in all the cable is a fraud, a non-standardized cable. HDMI wasn't designed to carry analog signal in the first place.

Why not just use HDMI switch?

 

[JustChillin1414]

I didn't read the whole thing, but it looks like your problem is that you only have one HDMI port, I'm currently using this cheap little HDMI switch for all my stuff, and it works well for my needs. I would definitely avoid buying those expensive parts.

 

[J-Machine]

ya cheap is ok here because it's a digital signal. either you will get it all or nothing. Also what could you be using that actually uses all those cores and ram?

 

[trumpet-205]

ya cheap is ok here because it's a digital signal. either you will get it all or nothing. Also what could you be using that actually uses all those cores and ram?

OP mentioned VM (virtual machine/running multiple OS at the same time), where more cores and more RAM do benefit.

I'm guessing OP wants to move toward i7-3930K or similar setup.

 

[Pleng]

I want to avoid a splitter box if possible. I want a way to find out if my devices support sending an analogue component signal over hdmi using something like this, thus making use of both inputs on the TV.

As to what's using all those cores/RAM - I'm afraid it's not very exciting:

My work VM is a development environment which hosts an extremely large SQL Server database, and needs to run several instances of Visual Studio and a single instance of Eclipse, and a mapping server. This machine I allot 2 cores and 8Gb of RAM, but another couple of cores and a few more GB would be appreciated.

My personal VM is an Ubuntu environemt which is used pretty much exclusively for net browsing, email, a little web development, and running a small spreadsheet to show me how much money I don't have! 4Gb Ram / 1 Core

XBMC is running in an XP VM - 2GB Ram / 1 Core

The host OS is Windows 8, which obviously needs resources as well. I will probably change for Windows 7 at some point as this was the best of the three host OSs I tried so far (Win 7 - Win 8 - Ubuntu, in that order)

 

[trumpet-205]

I want to avoid a splitter box if possible. I want a way to find out if my devices support sending an analogue component signal over hdmi using something like this, thus making use of both inputs on the TV.

Problem is, that component to HDMI cable is a non-standard cable. Meaning it is a proprietary cable that only works for a specific device. I can guarantee you none of your modern device supports it. If you still doubt my word then buy the damn cable and learn the lesson first hand.

HDMI can only carry one signal according to its standard, and that is TMDS digital signal.

If switch box is not an option, then you need active component to HDMI converter. Either way there will be a box involved.

 

[Pleng]

Ok thanks for that - I guess that's why there's no mentions of support in device documentation. I thought perhaps a graphics card might have been able to support it, at least. Seeing as some of them can do analogue VGA over DVI, I thought it might have been a similar thing here. I guess it will have to be a switch box then.

 

[trumpet-205]

Ok thanks for that - I guess that's why there's no mentions of support in device documentation. I thought perhaps a graphics card might have been able to support it, at least. Seeing as some of them can do analogue VGA over DVI, I thought it might have been a similar thing here. I guess it will have to be a switch box then.

That is different. DVI can carry both TMDS digital signal and RGB analog signal depending on the socket (DVI-A and DVI-I).

HDMI will only carry one signal, TMDS digital signal.