VHD-UHAE2

I gotta say, I'm impressed! I bought this giving it a less than a 10% chance of actually doing what it said it would do. Boy was I surprised when it worked flawlessly out of the box. My equipment: Chromecast Ultra (CU) LG B6 65" OLED Denon AVR-X4000 Receiver The problem: For many sources (like Netflix, Google Play Movies, HBO Go, etc), the Chromecast Ultra defaults to a Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) audio stream. Like many TVs, the LG OLED can't pass DD+ over HDMI ARC. The TV tells the Chromecast that it can't handle DD+ and the Chromecast degrades the audio all the way down to Stereo (not even just regular 5.1 DD, but 2 channel stereo)! The receiver will pass 4k, so I could have plugged the CU into the Denon, but the Denon won't pass HDR video (HDR10, Dolby Vision), so I would get better audio, but degraded video, sigh.... The solution: This box (VHD-UHAE2). I did a lot of searching here and other sites for HDMI audio extractors, HDMI splitters with EDID management, etc. This appears to be the only box on the market with a reasonable price tag that will accomplish what I needed. I plugged the CU into the HDMI input, ran a cable from HDMI Out 1 on the box to the TV and a cable from HDMI Out 2 to the Denon. Bam, I have HDR video from the CU and DD+ to my receiver. All I did was set the EDID selector on the box to 7.1 and I was done. Testing was done streaming Wonder Woman in UHD via Vudu. Bonus - the wall wart to power this thing is actually really small. Think the form factor of a factory iPhone 6s charger, so it doesn't end up blocking multiple outlets when you plug it in.

I bought this device (VHD-UHAE2) for the sole purpose of extracting ARC audio from the HDMI port of a new Sony TV, and feeding the audio into an older surround sound receiver with HDMI inputs but with no 4K video nor ARC support. This is the only product I've found that can provide HDMI ARC extraction and forwarding to a dedicated HDMI output for audio only. It's just the hardware I needed that should have been able to forward HDMI ARC dolby digital plus (DD+), from internal TV apps, to an external audio system. Well, it appears this device's ARC extraction function does not support DD+. Best result is just dolby digital (DD). After fiddling with Sony TV settings (Sony Bravia Sync (aka HDMI CEC) must be enabled, Bravia sync must discover this device, press the device's ARC button, set TV audio output to audio-system), I was able to get HDMI ARC audio extraction to work. However, the best audio over ARC is dolby digital. Test source was a Google chromecast that was feeding video and dolby digital plus audio to one of the TV's non-ARC HDMI ports. The TV down converted DD+ to DD for HDMI ARC, even though the TV supports DD+ over ARC. I believe this device didn't negotiate with the TV via HDMI CEC for HDMI ARC DD+ support. Changing the EDID settings on this device had no effect for HDMI ARC audio. I was still getting DD over ARC even with EDID setting as 2-CH. The EDID settings only seem to pertain to regular HDMI input audio extraction. The next issue I ran into is setting this device for ARC extraction mode is non-persistent. When powering off the TV, the device exits ARC mode after a few minutes, reverting to HDMI input audio extraction. When powering on the TV, the message "Audio system is unavailable. Switching audio to TV speakers." appears on the screen. The only way to get ARC working again is to press the device's ARC on/off button again. This is a major annoyance and flaw especially when this device will be in a non accessible location behind the TV or behind the AV receiver. Device's ARC mode completely blocks HDMI-in to HDMI-out1 passthrough. This limitation appears to be documented in passing in this listing's product images (the photos of troubleshooting instructions). Unfortunately, that means it's not possible to use this device to pass a HDMI source to TV and extract possibly unrelated audio returning from the TV. In other words, when using this device in ARC mode, its HDMI input port is completely useless. Some of my other review notes are: The device actually did work for DD+ audio extraction from its HDMI input port. Device's EDID setting persists even through power cycling the device. Discovered that holding the EDID button down for a few seconds resets the device. There's no apparent way to upgrade, fix, or patch, this device's firmware. Device operation was sometimes flaky. Loss or unrecognized HDMI-audio out sometimes occurred when the AV receiver switches between its inputs. Device was sometimes unresponsive to EDID button presses. Device reset sometimes needed to restore operation. I was unable to investigate these behaviors further. The documentation is incomplete. The enclosed paper instructions were not much more than connection diagrams and information shown in this product's sales description. The device's application/troubleshooting guide (as photos) is solely within this product's listing, which is an unusual and unexpected place to find product documentation. This product appears non-existent (as of this writing) at the u9ltd manufacturer site. Device's physical construction is excellent and is a solid metal box finished on all sides. There's no rubber feet/insulators though, so there's no physical protection for box bottom, or shelf, it's placed on. Overall, in my option, this device appears to be useful as a HDMI input audio extractor, but is not practical as a HDMI ARC audio extractor.

It worked for a couple weeks. I was able to get dolby vision and dolby atmos. Then I started noticing thing. White little dots flickering on the tv screen during movies...and then eventually the picture turning on and off until finally I get no picture at all anymore. Tried new hdmi cables. Didn't work.