HDMI Audio Extractor

It's a small device with HDMI connectors that is used between your TV or projector and the sound system, separating the audio signals from the HDMI cable . For example, you can enjoy the sound via the speaker system without affecting your screen. So, an HDMI audio extractor allows you to output audio from an HDMI device separately. The video signal is passed through unchanged. The HDMI signal at the output of an audio extractor still contains audio. The audio output can be analogue (via Cinch, 3.5 mm jack) or digital (via SPDIF Toslink, SPDIF Cinch, HDMI or Bluetooth). You then connect your sound system to the HDMI Audio Extractor, while the video signal continues to be transmitted via HDMI.

In normal HDMI transmission, audio and video signals are linked. Even a pure HDMI audio device, such as an AV receiver, must therefore be able to process the video data in order to get the audio signal. The demands on the video signal have increased in recent years (new functions are e.g. 4K Ultra-HD, HDR, Dolby Vision) without an audio device benefiting from this. So you could do without video data here, but unfortunately they are transmitted together with audio. An HDMI audio extractor can help here to output the audio signal separately. So you can continue to use an older sound system. Another application is the use of an audio device that does not have an HDMI connection. An HDMI audio extractor supplies the sound to headphones, active speakers, stereo or older surround systems, for example. A digital audio connection (SPDIF Toslink, Coax) or an analogue one (cinch stereo, 3.5 mm jack) can be used for this.

Yes, with normal HDMI transmission, a player sends picture and sound to the end device via HDMI. For example, the signal is transmitted from the HDMI output of a PC or Fire TV to an HDMI input of the television. TVs offer a special feature at the HDMI input labeled HDMI-ARC (or HDMI-eARC). A pure audio signal can also be output at this input, e.g. to a soundbar with a corresponding HDMI ARC connection. ARC means Audio Return Channel, i.e. audio return channel. It therefore does not always work to transmit a signal via any 2 HDMI connections. It must be from an HDMI output to an input. Or if both devices support it, from an input with HDMI-ARC (on the TV) to an output with HDMI-ARC (on the soundbar). Because the audio system also has to be able to deal with the video content, some of our extractors deliver a black screen with the audio signal. Big advantage: All audio formats can be transmitted without the AV receiver having to support the video format.

An HDMI audio extractor takes the audio signal from the player connected via HDMI and outputs it separately. If the player delivers stereo or 5.1 sound (more precisely: Dolby Digital Bitstream or DTS), this can be transmitted via the digital audio output. However, Dolby Digital Plus and higher audio formats are only sent via HDMI and cannot be extracted via SPDIF or jack. An analogue audio output (3.5 mm jack or cinch connections) can only be transmitted in stereo. You can usually set on the player and/or extractor whether stereo or multi-channel sound should be used. The Extractor must support ARC (Audio Return Channel) so that the internal TV sound from the TV and its apps can also be played back via the HDMI Audio Extractor.

The digital audio formats from Dolby Digital are transmitted digitally without loss. So there is no loss of quality. If you need analog sound, the signal is converted in the HDMI Audio Extractor. There is therefore a theoretical loss of quality on the analog cinch or jack connection. It is possible that the player or film could deliver a higher audio format, but your end device or the settings on the audio extractor limit the audio format. Then you don't have the highest quality either. So choose the Extractor to match your other devices. If your sound system only supports stereo and Dolby Digital, a connection via HDMI has no quality advantage over SPDIF.