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Streacom HDMI Audio Mix Cable Review

Final ThoughtsIn all honesty, I have mixed feelings about how effective Streacom’s HDMI Audio Mix Cable is as a product. Yes, it has it’s target audience and situations where it can be tremendously useful, but then again, if the performance isn’t particularly great compared to other methods, it could be rendered redundant instantly.

The build quality of the cable feels very impressive and the instructions are fairly easy to understand, if you can read ‘Chinglish’ that is. An attractive design is another strong point which is always welcomed when looking at a product that will be located near your home cinema pride.

From a performance point of view it isn’t a great product. Then again, it may be slightly unfair comparing this product and it’s 2 channel analogue audio output to the far superior digital audio which was transferred via an optical cable. For folks who are planning on buying this cable but actually have an amp which accepts optical audio and a device which outputs it, we would highly recommend you go down the separate route and use an HDMI cable for video and an optical audio cable for sound. This method will allow you to receive the best of both worlds, albeit while causing extra cable clutter.

From a convenience point of view it is a revolutionary product! The cable has done exactly what Streacom intended it to do. It offers a quick and easy solution to the problem of being able to use a separate sound system with devices such as an Xbox 360 or PS3. You can happily view your content in the HD glory it was intended to be viewed in without sacrificing your good quality sound through the separate system.

From a compatibility point of view it is a mediocre product. We had major initial problems getting the cable set to work with our PlayStation 3 and even when we managed to obtain a scarce amount of sound it disappeared as soon as we launched a game. After disabling every audio codec apart from the basic 2 channel LPCM codecs, we managed to get fully functional sound with our PS3. Switching the TV off to explore the non-display functionality proved that the cables do not output any sound when using a PS3 and switching the TV off.

Moving onto our a HDMI DVD player for testing revealed that the cable set really didn’t want to work with that particular product.

Next in line was our test PC featuring a Radeon HD 5670 graphics card. Set-up was this time very straightforward, just ‘plug and play’. Sound was effectively output via our separate speakers and switching off the TV allowed the sound to still be output revealing that this feature does indeed function correctly. We ran into no problems whatsoever when using this set with our PC. Even the audio featured in the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 game worked perfectly without any modifications. We would gladly recommend using this product with a PC featuring a HDMI output.

Even though the compatibility of Streacom’s HDMI Audio Mix Cable is hit or miss, when you have spent multiple pain-staking hours searching for a solution to your Audio and Video needs, we have no doubt that this product will come as a massive relief!

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