[mikepurvis]

For a wall-mounted TV, it's still pretty essential to get a single cable run to it, vs needing to plug in each device individually. That said, it's curious how the multiplexing and audio amp functionality ended up in the same box.

Really what it should be is:

- a "remote" multiplexer comes in the box with my TV. It speaks HDMI/CEC to the TV telling it what input is active so that the TV's UI can reflect that and it can do things like switch between movie and game mode picture tuning.

- the former AVR should become a purely eARC box with no buttons, not even a power button— it comes on on command of the TV, and adjusts its amplification volume according to the same eARC signals that a soundbar uses. Any initial calibration or speaker setup is done via a single-use phone app.

[tass]

Monoprice make a HDMI switch that does a lot of this. No metadata for game mode, etc. as far as I know but I have:

TV

Apple TV on earc connection (HomePods for sound)

Blackbird switch with all other devices.

It can automatically switch between everything, but also has an IR remote for selecting an input.

[mikepurvis]

I've had bad experiences in the past with autodetecting switches, especially that tiny square one. But I should give this a shot— it would be awfully nice to just pipe everything directly to the TV and have the AVR in eARC-only mode.

[Arainach]

>Any initial calibration or speaker setup is done via a single-use phone app.

Please no. No more phone apps that are unmaintained, barely work in the first place, and don't work at all within 2 years or when the vendor goes bankrupt. Things should be physical buttons and work offline.

[mitthrowaway2]

Isn't it done this way because your TV might not be the only thing that wants to use your nice speakers?

[mikepurvis]

I guess that's true too, certainly in a living room setting if you've still got a vinyl player or whatever— but modern TVs have the audio streaming apps of course, plus they can be a cast target for anything on your phone.

Maybe it also matters in a home theatre that's oriented around a projector rather than TV.

[hedora]

Our bargain basement projector (for a project; it was under $100) has more smart app bs on it than the TV.

I get the impression everyone eventually settles on a roku ($35, but full of spam) AppleTV (a bit over $100; better in all ways), or maybe goes with the google thing.

All of those cost < 10% the price of upgrading a TV, and all of our TVs have outlasted the (incredibly shitty) software they were bundled with.