I like the way EEman thinks!

I have been watching this thread with quite a bit of interest.

Our colleagues at Transformative Engineering (TE) have recognized that there are literally hundreds of thousands of otherwise great processors and AVRs that cannot offer 4-K because they were developed before the flood of new 4K TVs hit the market.

As a result, over the last year TE has labored to develop a compact and highly sophisticated accessory box that addresses this issue by delivering full 4K (with HDR) to the TV while at the same time sending high performance audio to the receiver or processor. The box can take up to four 4K devices.

In their design process TE created an Outlaw version of this box complete with built-in remote codes for the 975.

TE will introduce the box at the upcoming CEDIA and will deliver it this fall.The Outlaw version will be the first to be available.

By the way for those curious our plans for introducing the 976 have not changed.

Peter

Pretty cool. Good way to avoid having to swap out processors just for the video upgrade.

Peter,

Is there anywhere that we can get more info on this unit? If not, perhaps you could answer some generic questions.

If I understand you, this unit would take as input all of my 4K (4K implies HDR as well) sources and then as output send the 4K stream to my TV and also send the multi-channel audio to the processor, (in this case a 975), correct?

If so, I am confused on how the source select would work? As far as the 975 it would simply be seeing a single audio source. Would the 975 actually be sending the commands to this unit to select the source input or will this unit have its own remote codes to be programmed?

Also, once this unit is added to the system will the other native source inputs on the 975 still be available?

What about ARC? Will it come back through this box or will the ARC audio source need to be routed separately to the 975?

And of course, will Outlaw be bundling this up with a 975 as a special offer, please!

Thank You for the heads up. You may have made up my mind for for the upcoming Secret Sale, which hopefully will include the 975/5000 combo (hint hint).

Regards,
Mark

mdrconsult,

Thanks for you interest in the 4K "box".

Even though we were involved in its development, since this is a TE product, we will have to wait until CEDIA for them to officially introduce it and discuss the details of the why's and hows of its operation. (I will also be at their booth.)

What I can say is that while the box comes with it's own dedicated remote if you have a Model 975, our remote codes are already pre-programmed in the box so you would just use our own existing 975 remote.

On its face, the concept of this product is very simple. In execution, it has been incredibly complicated with EDIDs and other firmware.

To the best of our knowledge with the exception of a few 4K Blu-Ray players with two HDMI outputs, we are not aware of any other stand-alone product in the market that can do what this new TE box accomplishes: to address multiple Ultra 4K video sources but simultaneously deliver high performance audio to non-4k legacy processors and AVR's.

Peter

EEman, I found this post from Peter Tribeman, dated 8/24/17.

Yeah, that's it. Thanks. I guess it's not out yet though...

I haven't had any equipment needs or issues for a while, so I have been away from this forum. I recently had a issue (not 4K related), which caused me to purchase the TE HDS-42AVR from Outlaw as an HDMI conditioner. I installed it yesterday.

To answer some questions, the Outlaw version of the device has 4 HDMI inputs that can be selected manually or via the 975's remotes. Input 1 is tied to the 975's TV device code, 2 to the Disc device, 3 to the Game device and 4 to the Video device. On the 975, each of these devices should be set to the same HDMI input (typically HDMI-1) for both video and audio. The Aux device can be set to another HDMI input or analog input . The Aux device and the 975's console output their video on the 975's HDMI Output/ARC input port.

My initial impression has been positive. If anything the Cable TV picture seems sharper but this may be some sort of bias on my part.

edit - A minor nit, but you will need an additional HDMI cable for the HDS-42AVR to 975 link.