HDMI Splitters and Switches Fried Hauppauge 1512 5

Posted by JD 05/23/2015 at 13:53

I love the smell of burning electronics in the morning. NOT!

I’ve had an HDMI splitter and Hauppauge 1512 recorder for about 2 yrs. These devices have worked well together and allowed me to push HDMI content to the 1512, a monitor, and a projector all concurrently. Worked nice, but only supported 1 input and only the 1512 only has drivers for Windows (booo).

So I picked up a J-Tech Matrix 4×2 HDMI switch/splitter to better control which inputs were sent to the different outputs without needing to swap cables anymore.

HDMI is a stateless connection, right? Perhaps not. Got everything connected and started having the matrix switch through the different inputs trying to see the output on either/both of the output devices. Didn’t appear that the handshake had worked, so I decided to disconnect the splitter and instead of it being just before the monitor, it would be in front of the matrix switch. As soon as the HDMI cable was connected to the Hauppauge device, I heard a little “Hiss” …. didn’t recognize it immediately, but then saw a little white smoke coming from the 1512 device. It sits along on the rack here – plenty of airflow around it. First unplugged the HDMI cable, but that didn’t immediately stop the growing smoke, so I pulled the power input. That stopped the smoke and hissing, but the 5 seconds probably fried the innards completely. Hopefully, no damage to other connected devices has happened. Don’t know yet.

So … I’m in the market for a

  • linux compatible,
  • USB-connected (can’t use card-solutions),
  • HDMI video,
  • HDMI 5.1+ audio
    recording device that doesn’t cost $2K.
    Any ideas?