I’ve been using my XBMC setup for some time now and quite frankly, it rocks. As noted in previous posts, I’m using the OpenElec distribution on a Zotac ZBOX and it’s almost perfect. Almost. The problem I’ve had is that powering off our receiver or switching inputs causes the sound to be lost on power up. This has meant frequently rebooting the ZBOX – not the end of the world because it boots very fast, but annoying nonetheless. After much research, it’s a software problem with AMDs Linux driver and there’s very little chance of it being fixed so I’d resigned myself to just having to reboot all the time.
Until now. Thanks to a bizarre but outstanding product called the “HDMI Detective“. This product does one thing – emulate to your device that the display (or receiver) is always powered on and sending a device ID. It’s insane there is a market for this but it works very well and 100% solved my problem. No sound loss anymore and no impact on quality – video or audio. The only downside? The cost – it’s around $120! But it’s better than the alternative which was to buy another ZBOX.