AVR & HDCPs

Video issues with AVRs is common for all installers in the AV industry.

AVRs are designed to accommodate the highest audio codecs on the market but often struggle with various forms of HDMI signals. Since bandwidth is difficult to handle, and video bandwidth consumes much more data than audio, some AVR chipsets are unable to process these 4K and HDR video signals.

When dealing with high-bandwidth content, HDMI processing boards in AVRs struggle to move between resolutions and HDCP types. When switching between HDCP 1.4 and HDCP 2.2, users often experience a solid black screen or no signal to their monitor. Even the most high-end AVRs are susceptible to this issue. When a user switches from a lower-resolution source, such as a cable box or NVR camera system, to a higher-resolution source, such as an Apple TV, Roku, or Kscape, they can lose picture and be unable to recover it without power cycling devices in the video path.

The AC-MX42-AUHD or AC-MX82-AUHD are two examples of great solutions for separating video distribution from your AVR audio device. These devices can support up to 8 high-bandwidth video sources in addition to the lower-bandwidth sources. The two matrices listed have two HDMI outputs, one of which can downscale 4k to 1080p while leaving the audio signals unaffected. This allows the customer to send a single uncompressed video signal to their display/projector, while the downscaled port will send HDMI bitstream audio to the AVR while maintaining a maximum resolution of 1080p to save bandwidth and give the AVR a fighting chance.