DIRECTV SENDING SIGNAL TO TWO HD TV'S (1 Viewer)

I purchased an amplified HDMI signal splitter to mirror the signal from the receiver to two HD TV'S. When I plugged the HDMI cable from the OUT on the receiver to the IN on the splitter the splitter turned on. I had not yet plugged in the power adapter for the splitter. The blue and red power lights on the splitter turned on drawing electricity from the HDMI cable. I knew the main cable line from the dish ran a small trickle of electricity to run the LNB's on the dish. I was unaware their was a small trickle of electricity from the receiver running through the HDMI cable to run the chips.


The splitter worked perfectly both my HD TV's received an excellent HD picture. The question I have is it okay to let the splitter draw power from the HDMI cable and not plug in the power adapter? The manufacturer makes no mention of not having to use the power adapter with a DIRECTV receiver.

Just an update the splitter so far works great I am receiving all programming on both HD TV's with the DirecTV receiver set to 1080i. Both TV's can be on at the same time and each displays an excellent HD picture. Not using the power adapter the splitter is drawing power from the HDMI cable.


TV 1 has a 10 foot HDMI cable while TV 2 has a 40 foot HDMI cable. My main concern is safety. If the splitter is drawing power from the HDMI cable, which it is, then you could create a problem feeding the unit electricity from another source. There is absolutely no heat at all when I touch the splitter it runs very cool.

My guess would be your amplifier/splitter is nothing more than a splitter at the moment.


The external electricity fed to the device from the wall is used to boost the power to the signal in the HDMI cables. The lights on the device simply indicate that a signal transfer is taking place.


While it may be unusual for a 40 foot HDMI cable to successfully carry a signal, it's not unheard of. What gauge is the cable?


If you're happy with it as it currently is, then there's likely no need to plug it in, but it wouldn't hurt matters if that's how the device is supposed to operate - besides, that's why you got it, right?

I talked with Technical people at DirecTV who confirmed a small trickle if electricity runs from the DirecTV receiver through the HDMI cable. The electricity runs the chips that provide the copy guard. The Tech people confirmed since the power supply for the splitter was rated at 5V 1A the electricity running through the HDMI cable would power the splitter.


The splitter works perfectly without the power supply connected to the unit. I watched Fox News this morning for several hours over the 40 foot HDMI cable and the picture is rock solid HD quality.


The HDMI cable was purchased on EBay and is listed as 1.4 High speed for 3D as well as PS3 XBox. For my setup I have a 3 foot HDMI cable for the DirecTV to the splitter IN. Then two HDMI cables 25 foot and 10 foot from the splitter out to my two HD LCD TV's. Great picture on both sets.