23rd Jul 2022

What is a video matrix? What does it do

1.What is HDMI Matrix?

A HDMI Matrix Switch is an electronic switch that route HDMI signals from multiple input sources such as STB, DVR, computers and DVD players, to one or more HDMI display devices, such as monitors, projectors, and TVs.
1.1 All displays share same input source

1.2 Part of displays share different input sources

1.3 Each display select a standalone input source

2. Control of HDMI Matrix
2.1 Remote control/Front panel keypad/RS232 or LAN(TCP/IP)

3. Compatibilities

Before we talking about compatibilities of HDMI matrix, we would introduce EDID first. EDID is short for Extended Display Identification Data, it is a data structure provided by a digital display to describe its capabilities to a video source, so the video source could output a video most suitable for the display. In Tesla smart's matrix, each HDMI input source has a EDID memory presented to the source player. And there is a MCU is always monitoring the routing status of the matrix, once the routing status changes, the MCU read and analyze all the EDIDs of the displays sharing same input and create a new EDID which best describes the displays' capabilities for the display. Finally the MCU save the new EDID to the corresponding EDID memory connected to the input source.