Two Displays, One Receiver?

wam98674

Distinguished
Aug 26, 2011
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18,510
Before I start, I'm going to state that I do not have a receiver, though I am in the market for one (despite my lack of knowledge behind them)

So recently I learned my girlfriend is going to be moving in with me, which is great, except for one thing: my entire life is centered around pleasing only myself right now so I don't have like extra equipment for her (like extra tv's or whatnot). I have a pc with dual monitors (standard inputs, vga dvi hdmi etc) but I wanted to set up a system that would keep her entertained while I'm on my computer gaming and not bore her to death. Well I managed to scavenge up some bluray player that can handle netflix, hulu, cable and all that but I realized I don't have speakers in my monitors, and this thing ONLY has an HDMI output (which is incredibly stupid in my opinion but that's aside the point, this thing was free and I'm not going to complain about it), and there's no way I can hook this thing up with just an hdmi straight from monitor to audio without a receiver of some sort I'm pretty sure, but I also would like to have sound for when I do things (so I can have two audio outputs at the same time coming through one system). My plan was hook up one of my monitors to this bluray player thing and she can use that to watch movies while I play games, just turn the monitor or whatever (I only use one monitor for gaming). Is it possible that I can hook up both my pc and this bluray player thing into one single receiver and get both outputs through a single audio setup? . Also another question to go along with it is do receivers even transmit video through them to a display or is it strictly audio? And is there a loss of signal or latency (hardcore gamer with enthusiast grade equipment, I like my games looking nice). Like I said, I'm new to these things I don't really know what I'm getting myself into.

And yes I know I can just get netflix on my pc but I was hoping to use something that had a remote she could use without disrupting games. And yes, she's okay with me playing games (so none of that "just pay attention to her" crap)
 
Solution
for starters, i'd suggest organizing your information into easy to read paragraphs, lists or ideas as walls-of-text are harder to read for forum browsers so might not get answered as swiftly.

let me see if i understand you correctly:

-you currently have pc speakers (not a home theater system). correct? 2.1 or 5.1?
-you want to retain the ability to use both monitors for yourself or allow her to use one when she needs to. correct?
-when she is watching video you want sound to play from the dvd player not your pc. correct?

getting analog output from a blueray dvd player is easy. the converter is called a hdmi audio extractor. you can get L/R audio out of it easy. some (the pricier ones which are 5.1 hdmi audio extractors can give you...
for starters, i'd suggest organizing your information into easy to read paragraphs, lists or ideas as walls-of-text are harder to read for forum browsers so might not get answered as swiftly.

let me see if i understand you correctly:

-you currently have pc speakers (not a home theater system). correct? 2.1 or 5.1?
-you want to retain the ability to use both monitors for yourself or allow her to use one when she needs to. correct?
-when she is watching video you want sound to play from the dvd player not your pc. correct?

getting analog output from a blueray dvd player is easy. the converter is called a hdmi audio extractor. you can get L/R audio out of it easy. some (the pricier ones which are 5.1 hdmi audio extractors can give you 5.1).

as for connections, you can likely hook up hdmi from the dvd player to the second monitor and dvi from your pc (use hdmi-dvi cables if you need to on pc side). swap monitor inputs if she needs to use it. that takes care of the video problem.

for audio, its possible to make yourself a 5.1 3.5mm audio switch (to swap between two 3x 3.5mm cable sources. this would work with pc speakers. its possible to use other adapters, but at additional expense. to use this you would of course need a 5.1 hdmi audio extractor on the dvd player.

as for receivers, it would only help you IF you plan to buy some home theater speakers or already have a home theater system that doesnt have the right functionality. yes, video passthrough is an option and you could swap between two sources for both video and audio easily. this might be a good opportunity to upgrade to a nicer sound system if you only have pc speakers now.

its also possible to have sound from BOTH your pc and dvd player at the same time if you used the zone2 features. basically it would play over the standard connected speakers but you can connect two speakers up which would play from a different source. ideally you would have a little space between the sets so sound doesnt crossover (such as just giving her the monitor to use at the other side of the room) but does have possibilities if you do not want to lose out on your own audio abilities.

you using a pair of headphones would also solve the issue of both of you having audio at the same time. if you used open headphones you can still hear some of what is going on around you (closed cans block out noise, open ones do not).

just pay attention to her, problem solved :lol: (you were asking for it, take a joke)
 
Solution

Cristi72

Estimable
Jun 25, 2014
155
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4,710
Hello,

What make/model are your monitors? If your monitors have HDMI inputs, they should also have at least a stereo audio output (some have 5.1 output in SP/DIF form), and you can easily solve the audio problem by adding a stereo desktop speaker set for your better half; you'll use the HDMI output from the BD player and plug the speakers into the monitor.