Play Music and PS3/PS4 on HDTV at the Same Time

[MrEpiK91]

I have a PS3 and I am considering getting a PS4 in the future. While I like my PS3 and impressed with the PS4 so far, I am disappointed that both systems don't allow me to create customized soundtracks like the Xbox 360. So what I would like to know is if there is a way that I can connect my stereo system/CD player to my HDTV and play music from my stereo through my HDTV while playing PS3. Or if there are some other methods I can use to output music and PS3 audio at the same time.

[fastbilly1]

You could take the hdmi from the PS3 and put it into an audio stripper then run that into your stereo. Then leave the audio on the tv and check your levels against each other.

This one should do nicely:
http://www.amazon.com/HDMI-VGA-converte ... B003O55U8K

[DonSilvestre]

I'm not aware of any easy methods to have BOTH playing at the same time, but a lot of receivers (including mine) will let you grab video from one input and audio from another, would just have to go into your receiver settings and adjust it if you wanted to that. Only takes me a few seconds on mine. That's what I do when I want to listen to music while playing a game I know well enough to not want sound on.

[Anapan]

Not terribly difficult - a possible solution:

Get a sound card (USB or internal) that is capable of ASIO SPDIF Optical in and out. If the driver allows it you can have the soundcard real-time mux the 2 audio streams together like nothing, and have your AVR/TV/stereo play the result. If it's not provided by the driver, you can run a freeware ASIO host to do the job. Depending on the soundcard's support it might be as easy as hitting a record/mute button or it might require running a freeware tiny ASIO host program/driver and connecting a virtual audio port from a virtual input to your main output (once set-up it'd be a shortcut you double-click or have your computer auto-run at startup).

You can get these things on Ebay from China for under $50, or pay thousands for a fully featured tube-amp-warmed-juggernaut-glowing studio quality one. Just like HDMI cords - it's all 1s&0s - As long as it's fully ASIO compliant, your 5.1 sound should be properly mixed with your PC's audio easily.

This type of thing isn't something that can be done on cheap consumer-level AV equipment afaik. I'm currently running a USB "CM6631a" $35 USB-Optical bare wafer card because my very old $50 Behringer one had some "judder" and didn't play well with my video player on certain 5.1 video files (driver related I think, tho it wasn't fully ASIO compliant, and couldn't handle the higher quality audio streams anyway - I had to downgrade/lower the bandwidth of the 5.1 stream to play in 5.1 without it crapping out).

[TSTR]

Would that soundcard solution bring up latency issues? Just a thought I had.

This thread reminds me of when the demo for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on PS1 came out. "Superman" got old quick. Solution? Music off in menu, blast whatever you want thru the ol' boombox.

[Anapan]

Should be none, or so little it'd be unnoticeable. That's the reason for ASIO (Asynchronous Input Output), the audio does not undergo any processing if the driver's functioning correctly in the virtual-input output configuration I mentioned.

If you did choose to add processing (say, a VST effect), you control the latency to the millisecond in the host program. The ASIO framework can make the processing happen inside the hardware rather than using your CPU to make sure the processing is happening as close to real-time as possible.
If the VST effect took a lot of processing time, and you turned the latency down too much the output would crap out - pops or glitches...

[TSTR]

Should be none, or so little it'd be unnoticeable. That's the reason for ASIO (Asynchronous Input Output), the audio does not undergo any processing if the driver's functioning correctly in the virtual-input output configuration I mentioned.

If you did choose to add processing (say, a VST effect), you control the latency to the millisecond in the host program. The ASIO framework can make the processing happen inside the hardware rather than using your CPU to make sure the processing is happening as close to real-time as possible.
If the VST effect took a lot of processing time, and you turned the latency down too much the output would crap out - pops or glitches...

Oh yeah, I am aware of all this. Music recording and all that. Don't know why I didn't think it through. I reckon if you have nice enough/proper hardware, it's totes feasible.

[Jagosaurus]

Play your cassettes through your boom box behind you. Problem solved

[Anapan]

^+1 mixtapes rule!

[d123456]

Just get any audio mixer and hook up the analog audio connections