HDMI Audio input (ARC) to Roon on ROCK / Nucleus - not feasible (HW limitation)

Feedback Feature Suggestions
1

Hi there,

Some of us are using same audio system for both HIFI and Home Cinema.

One possibility to take benefit from Roon DSP features (sp. Room Correction) and audio path for Home Cinema could be to get Roon Core capable of taking audio input from HDMI interface (Audio Return Channel) connected to Video system. ROCK and Nucleus, since dedicated devices, could be first candidates for feature.

Would NUC and Nucleus be supporting this from HW standpoint ? I imagine a need for managing drift between audio input and output in the exercise.

There is a dedicated thread for Roon as an audio input, now I separated this one since other topic is more around setting Roon as a virtual audio driver or a Airplay/Spotify/etc… endpoint, possibly implying licensing .

2

ROCK or any standard PC would not be able to do this as the HDMI connections are quite specifically ‘video out’. Devices. They cannot be repurposed as inputs or i2S over LVDS or any of the other possible uses of a HDMI connector. I suspect it would need to be done via USB should Roon ever consider and input into their ecosystem viable.

3

Actually, HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) is for the purpose of feeding back audio from a TV that is fed a signal over hdmi.

I have no idea if that could work in this configuration.
And in any case, Roon is currently not able to act as an audio device for computer sources.

4

That is exactly the point: could this audio feedback (connecting HDMI output to an ARC-enabled input) be technically used on a NUC or Nucleus device?

Sure Roon is currently not supporting this scheme, thus post under Feature Request :slight_smile:

5

We are at odds here. Are you talking about taking the output from ROCK and directing it to an ARC enabled receiver? Or are talking about inputting a signal into the Roon environment to then apply various forms of DSP? The former is possible and even already done. But I have a feeling we are talking about the latter which isn’t possible and the limitations are physical because on any computer a HDMI connection is an output only.

6

The latter indeed. Was not sure HDMI was output only on PCs (now was fearing it looking at NUC specs). So feature not technically feasible. Thanks for feedback.

7

Wikipedia on HDMI:

Audio Return Channel (ARC)

ARC is an audio link meant to replace other cables between the TV and the A/V receiver or speaker system. This direction is used when the TV is the one that generates or receives the video stream instead of the other equipment. A typical case is the running of an app on a smart TV such as Netflix, but reproduction of audio is handled by the other equipment. Without ARC, the audio output from the TV must be routed by another cable, typically TOS-Link or coax, into the speaker system.

Henry, are you saying that computers specifically do not implement ARC?