CEDIA 2014

One of the big announcements from Sony’s CEDIA keynote address was that the company’s FMP-X10 4K media player would be updated later in the year to work with other companies TVs, meaning Sony is going to partially unlock its proprietary connection. This is great news for Ultra HD content starved viewers, however it will likely still require a separate HDMI cable for audio from the media player to the processor and for video to the TV. Lame. Fortunately, Krell figured out a way around this.

As I was finishing a demo at the Paradigm booth, Krell’s president, Bill McKiegan, grabbed me and said, “Hey, I’ve got something you’re gonna want to see.” He then covertly pulled me behind a curtain where a Krell Foundation processor was connected to a Sony 4K media player and TV and told me that the Krell engineers had figured out a way to make the player work via one cable.

McKiegan told me that he just told his engineers, “Hey, guys. We’ve got to just figure this out. Make it work.” The company examined the HDMI signal coming from the FMP players and found the key embedded deep within the code, allowing the Sony 4K media player to connect to the Foundation like any other source. No more TV input flipping or separate cable required.

Starting in October, any Krell Foundation will be able to be upgraded at the factory with a new video board and firmware to work with the Sony FMP-X1 or FMP-X10 media servers and pull 4K video and audio over a single HDMI cable. This will allow Krell owners to enjoy the highest quality audio and video signals in the easiest manner possible. Or, pretty much what you’d expect from a flagship company like Krell.