Majfrizz and Army Guy,
I have had off and on issues with the Pace Matrix and the "receivers" you find at each TV locations. So, I've learned a few things along the way.
First, the HDMI cables that WBGO used for both the sources upstream of the Matrix, i.e. Sat Recv #1 and Sat Recv #2 and even the BlueRay player are pretty cheap and prone to failure. And the same is true of the HDMI cables from the individual receivers at each TV. So, when having various errors like green screens or disappearing video and the annoying HDCP error try a different HDMI cable between the source and the Matrix or between the receiver and the TV.
The real name of the "receiver" at each TV is a "Balun." There are many different kinds of Baluns and the ones for your Matrix are unique to that unit. My RV has 3-TVs so there are three Baluns. In 3 1/2 years I've had to replace one (living room), I've disconnected one (bedroom) and the 3rd on the outside TV has always worked fine.
Jeff at Pace is very helpful... but he always starts with the power supply. And looking at older threads on this at
www.irv2.com it seems some folks found that a new power supply did the trick. But it didn't for me.
Do you have a TV that flashes Green or Blue and loses picture? In my experience this is the Balun failing. After testing it with a new HDMI cable that you know is good between the Balun and the TV the next thing to do is order a new Balun. They cost $50.
The HDMI Matrix is pretty complex device. You feed it video signal via HDMI cables and it converts everything to Ethernet and sends the video, the audio and two way infared remote signals back and forth between the TVs in your RV. If you look on the back of the unit you'll see a LOT of wires. Look at the Ethernet cables they are color coded and marked with tape stripes I, II and III for each TV. The colors are keyed to the individual TV locations. All three Ethernet cables go to each TV and terminate at the Balun near the TV. BUT only two are utilized. The third Ethernet cable is a backup. If one of the "I" or "II" cables goes bad, you can replace it with number "III". The Ethernet cables are all the same, it's where you plug them in that's different. You have a send and receive port on the matrix and on the balun. If cable "I" is in the send port at the matrix, then it must be in the send port on the balun. The same goes for the receive port (it uses number "II" cable). So, if a cable or connector goes bad you simply substitute the unused number "III" cable, of course plugging it in to both the matrix and the balun in whatever port is needed.
The system is really intended to work with Satellite receivers. We don't use Satellite so I have a Roku TV Streamer plugged into the Sat Recv #1 cable. And then use the Matrix to send that output to the living room or outside TV.
When the balun in the bedroom stopped working reliably (flashing, green screens, blue screens, sort of working and mostly not). I stopped using it. I put a Roku TV Streamer on the HDMI cable that was connected to the balun there and used the balun's power output to power the Roku. I then added a $80 Blueray player below the TV too. So, the bedroom TV is totally on its own. With streaming this works great. If you have Satellite it may not work for you.
When the Living Room TV balun began to fail I had to decide how to go forward. I could remove that TV from the "system" and put individual source components at the TV. And, probably with a little work I could separate the outside TV from the Matrix and do away with the system. I strongly considered this and decided to stay as close to OEM as I could AND to find a way to make everything work reliably. I mostly did it for future salability.
The Red and Blue lights on the HDMI Matrix are a harbinger of balun and hdmi connection errors. Sometimes, when the lights don't light correctly or the system seems wonky I just flick the power off and on - rebooting - the whole system and this helps a surprising number of times.
I know this is very long and pretty nerdy but hopefully something in it will help you or someone else down the road.
Linear Mode
