XBMC questions for making this part of my home media setup

Discontinued Products USB3-HDMI-DVI
1

Will XBMC play through this HDMI instead of motherboard HDMI? Can I play a movie through this HDMI to TV through XBMC and still use computer/monitor normally? I want to make a computer my XBMC host and play movies on my TV in another room, while still being able to use my computer for other things.

Last question, do I need this http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/prod… to allow my TV remote to control XBMC?

2

Hi Nathen,

Thanks for posting your question here! What OS is the machine running XBMC that you plan on connecting the HDMI adapter to? Currently DisplayLink drivers are mainly supported on Windows only and Mac OS drivers are still in beta. If you plan on using a long USB extension cable, I would recommend adding a powered USB hub in between, to ensure that the HDMI adapter is sufficiently powered.

Thanks,
Ellen

3

Sorry I should have given you more information! It is running Windows 7. My computer has four USB3 outputs so I will use one of those. Then the HDMI will go into an adapter that splits it over two network cables, and recombines them at the TV about 35 feet away.

My main thing is I want to be able to play movies to the TV while someone else is using the computer to surf the net or do other things.

4

Thanks for the additional details. I don’t think the setup you described would work in this case with the USB3 HDMI adapter for a couple of reasons;

DisplayLink’s drivers rely on the EDID information from the monitor to describe the resolutions that it is capable of, in the setup you described EDID info would likely not successfully transmit from the TV all the way back to the Win 7 machine, which can cause various display problems.

Also, some computers enforce Windows Media® Digital Rights Management (DRM), which means passing protected content video through a USB port is not possible, and playing video through external monitors connected via USB won’t work. For example, you won’t be able to play Blu-Ray content on your TV via the computer. This would be the same case with any other USB to HDMI adapter as well since it’s a standard set by the computer and not the display adapter driver.

Hopes this helps, sorry for the potential bad news!

5

Ellen,

The digital content is ok I think. I would be playing MKV video files from my hard drive, not from blu ray media. Does this alleviate this concern?

The part of your response perhaps you could give more detail on is the EDID information from the monitor. The link below is to one of the HDMI-Eithernet converters I have been looking at.

http://www.amazon.com/J-Tech-Digital-…

Is it the HDMI-EIthernet conversion that makes you doubtful, or is is something about the USB3 HDMI adapter that sounds problematic?

6

Hi Nathen,

The conversion plus the splitter is what I think might be problematic when it comes to successfully passing EDID all the way through from the TV to the HDMI adapter. We haven’t known of any past customers with this specific setup. If you do decide to give it a try and it doesn’t work out, we do have a 30 days no hassle return policy via Amazon returns.

Hope this helps, we’d love to know how it goes if you decide to try it out!

Thanks,
Ellen

7

I appreciate your thinking about it. I emailed several of the HDMI to Eithernet folks and asked them about the EDID and if they had more information. I’ll post back anything I find. And end of the day, I likely will try it out.