Recently our help lines have had several people asking this question, and it led me to thinking. DIRECTV’s Gemini Air is a real hit. It’s a small device that’s easy to connect and comes with a great voice-enabled remote. It’s become so popular with “regular folks” that even home theater enthusiasts are taking a look at it. I don’t blame them.
I don’t want to turn anyone off of this article. After all you probably found it through a Google Search because you already have some sort of home theater system. But for those people who found this article another way, I want to define what I mean by “home theater.” There are a lot of ways to define this term and honestly, my definition is pretty broad.
I’ll call it a “home theater” anytime you have a separate speaker system and separate devices. For example, if you have a sound bar and a satellite TV box. I’d call that a “home theater.” Now, we can get into all sorts of discussion of “is this a home theater” or “is that a home theater” but I’d rather be inclusive. If you’re taking the time to choose specific parts including a sound system, I’m inclined to call it a home theater, at least for the purposes of this article.
Generally speaking, today’s audio equipment has HDMI inputs for several devices, and then a pass-through HDMI port that goes to the television. You select which device you want to use with a remote or the front panel of the device and it directs the right sound at you and sends the right picture to the TV.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with connecting a Gemini Air to one of the inputs on an AV receiver or sound bar but here’s what you need to know: it might not work. Or it might work a little and not completely. Here are some of the things that could happen.
Your Gemini Air is designed to work with TVs that support HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2. This is pretty much every TV that’s been made in the last several years as well as most modern sound equipment. But if you have older equipment it might not work. I’ve found the Gemini Air works with even 10-year-old TVs, at least some of them. But if your equipment’s older than 2020 or so, you might run into issues.
I go deep into EDID here, so I’ll keep it simple. In order for your Gemini remote to turn your TV on, it depends on information that comes through the HDMI cable. If your audio equipment isn’t passing that information on properly, you might not be able to turn the TV on with the remote or might get prompted to program it every time.
HDMI ARC and its later relative eARC let you connect something like the Gemini Air to the TV. You then run an HDMI cable to the audio equipment. It’s built into a lot of TVs. This solves a lot of problems. I’ll say 99% of the time this is going to give you what you need in terms of Gemini Air compatibility. However, that 1% of the time, the audio equipment sends false information to the Gemini remote and that causes problems too.
The best thing to do is simply to plan ahead. Have a backup plan for how you’ll wire things if it doesn’t work the way you want. Your TV may support other audio outputs. You may be able to get a “black box” which may solve the problem for you. Such boxes are maybe not so legal, so Solid Signal doesn’t sell them. Whatever it takes, plan ahead and you’ll be fine.
This tutorial will help you program your Gemini Air for most audio equipment. Try it, and if it works for you, you’re all set. There are a lot of options listed. If your specific audio device isn’t there, try another from the same manufacturer. Sometimes trying two or three different models makes sense because one might work better even if it’s not “your” model.
Like I said, using HDMI ARC will generally solve this kind of issue. Look for a port on your TV called “HDMI ARC” and run an HDMI cable to your audio system. You may need to go to the Settings on your TV to enable ARC. Most of the time this works and you don’t even need to program the remote any further.
Let’s make this article a real resource for the home theater community. I can’t tell you which receivers work with the Gemini Air and which don’t, but if you want to post the model of your receiver in the comments and whether or not it works with a Gemini Air, that will help everyone make the right decision!
The post Can you hook a Gemini Air up to an AV receiver or soundbar? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
A quick look at “home theater”
I don’t want to turn anyone off of this article. After all you probably found it through a Google Search because you already have some sort of home theater system. But for those people who found this article another way, I want to define what I mean by “home theater.” There are a lot of ways to define this term and honestly, my definition is pretty broad.
I’ll call it a “home theater” anytime you have a separate speaker system and separate devices. For example, if you have a sound bar and a satellite TV box. I’d call that a “home theater.” Now, we can get into all sorts of discussion of “is this a home theater” or “is that a home theater” but I’d rather be inclusive. If you’re taking the time to choose specific parts including a sound system, I’m inclined to call it a home theater, at least for the purposes of this article.
Connecting a Gemini Air to an AV receiver or soundbar
Generally speaking, today’s audio equipment has HDMI inputs for several devices, and then a pass-through HDMI port that goes to the television. You select which device you want to use with a remote or the front panel of the device and it directs the right sound at you and sends the right picture to the TV.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with connecting a Gemini Air to one of the inputs on an AV receiver or sound bar but here’s what you need to know: it might not work. Or it might work a little and not completely. Here are some of the things that could happen.
It might not work at all because of an HDCP conflict
Your Gemini Air is designed to work with TVs that support HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2. This is pretty much every TV that’s been made in the last several years as well as most modern sound equipment. But if you have older equipment it might not work. I’ve found the Gemini Air works with even 10-year-old TVs, at least some of them. But if your equipment’s older than 2020 or so, you might run into issues.
The receiver or soundbar might be giving EDID issues
I go deep into EDID here, so I’ll keep it simple. In order for your Gemini remote to turn your TV on, it depends on information that comes through the HDMI cable. If your audio equipment isn’t passing that information on properly, you might not be able to turn the TV on with the remote or might get prompted to program it every time.
Using HDMI ARC does work, but sometimes it doesn’t.
HDMI ARC and its later relative eARC let you connect something like the Gemini Air to the TV. You then run an HDMI cable to the audio equipment. It’s built into a lot of TVs. This solves a lot of problems. I’ll say 99% of the time this is going to give you what you need in terms of Gemini Air compatibility. However, that 1% of the time, the audio equipment sends false information to the Gemini remote and that causes problems too.
What can you do?
The best thing to do is simply to plan ahead. Have a backup plan for how you’ll wire things if it doesn’t work the way you want. Your TV may support other audio outputs. You may be able to get a “black box” which may solve the problem for you. Such boxes are maybe not so legal, so Solid Signal doesn’t sell them. Whatever it takes, plan ahead and you’ll be fine.
Program your Gemini Air for your sound system
This tutorial will help you program your Gemini Air for most audio equipment. Try it, and if it works for you, you’re all set. There are a lot of options listed. If your specific audio device isn’t there, try another from the same manufacturer. Sometimes trying two or three different models makes sense because one might work better even if it’s not “your” model.
HDMI ARC
Like I said, using HDMI ARC will generally solve this kind of issue. Look for a port on your TV called “HDMI ARC” and run an HDMI cable to your audio system. You may need to go to the Settings on your TV to enable ARC. Most of the time this works and you don’t even need to program the remote any further.
Other options: let’s work together
Let’s make this article a real resource for the home theater community. I can’t tell you which receivers work with the Gemini Air and which don’t, but if you want to post the model of your receiver in the comments and whether or not it works with a Gemini Air, that will help everyone make the right decision!
The post Can you hook a Gemini Air up to an AV receiver or soundbar? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
