What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

A question about ARC on HDMI with Smart TV's and external receivers (1 Viewer)

NewlyRetired

NewlyRetired

Footballguy
My current setup has my DirectTV and Roku going into a receiver.  The receiver drives the audio to my speakers and sends the video/audio to my TV (tv set to 0 volume).

The new TV I am getting will have Google TV on it so it should functionally replace my old external Roku.

New TV and current receiver support ARC over HDMI.

When I turn on my new TV and access the Smart TV portion, I assume the TV will then drive the audio data back to the receiver using ARC.

Do I need to do anything specific with my receiver or does it just sense the incoming audio data over the HDMI cable and will know to drive the speakers with that data?

 
Do I need to do anything specific with my receiver or does it just sense the incoming audio data over the HDMI cable and will know to drive the speakers with that data?
Click to expand...


No that's all there is to it, the TV drives the bus now where in the past your TV was one of the passengers along with the VCR then DVD then Blue Ray then DVR, etc.  So I did this 3 or 4 years ago and it's odd because it takes decades of logic (to old timers like me) and reverses it but it works wonderfully well.  And, with the newer smart TV, cutting the cable will suddenly make more sense to you (I think.)

Not to go off on a tangent but between losing my satellite signal for 5 days straight last month (light rain, rain storm, heavy wind, very cloudy days, etc.) and losing local channels again because of disputes, I cancelled satellite and went with Hulu Live and then I may switch to Youtube or something else later but it's very liberating, the reception is much, much better and I'm thrilled I switched but I regret not doing a year or two sooner.

 
Sullie said:
No that's all there is to it, the TV drives the bus now where in the past your TV was one of the passengers along with the VCR then DVD then Blue Ray then DVR, etc.  So I did this 3 or 4 years ago and it's odd because it takes decades of logic (to old timers like me) and reverses it but it works wonderfully well.  And, with the newer smart TV, cutting the cable will suddenly make more sense to you (I think.)

Not to go off on a tangent but between losing my satellite signal for 5 days straight last month (light rain, rain storm, heavy wind, very cloudy days, etc.) and losing local channels again because of disputes, I cancelled satellite and went with Hulu Live and then I may switch to Youtube or something else later but it's very liberating, the reception is much, much better and I'm thrilled I switched but I regret not doing a year or two sooner.
Click to expand...
You don't happen to use a logitech harmony remote by any chance?

 
NewlyRetired said:
You don't happen to use a logitech harmony remote by any chance?
Click to expand...


Sorry to get back to you late on this, it's been a helluva busy weekend.  I built a plex server from an old pc I had laying around, I bought new hard drives with the intention of slapping the new hard drives into my gaming pc, cloning them and then jacking those drives into my media server pc, etc. I made it more complex than it should have been and I've been jerking around with that all weekend.  It's pretty glorious though, amazing actually. . . but I digress.

So, short story long is that I did have a Logitech Harmony remote but once I got my new Samsung (I did all this a couple of years ago, so when I say "new" my TV/setup is a couple of years old now) but once I got that, I use the Samsung TV remote for everything so I ditched the Logitech remote.  My brother just got a new TV (he got an LG 4k OLED) and he still uses his Logitech Harmony.  I have to be honest, to me, it's seems clunky and I find that his volume seems to get out of sync between the TV and his receiver.  Anyway, if you look at that Samsung remote my first thought would be "that's a pos, where is everything?"  Trust me, it's all you need and I love the simplicity of it, everything works and it's pretty much perfect.  Since the TV drives everything, it (the TV) controls the receiver volume, inputs, etc.  Again, it's a fantastic design (having the TV in control) because everything is software driven, to me, I find it just works.

On my home screen, I've got about 15 or 20 apps loaded but I mostly used Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, Netflix and tonight I just got my Plex server running so that's on there too now.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sullie said:
Sorry to get back to you late on this, it's been a helluva busy weekend.  I built a plex server from an old pc I had laying around, I bought new hard drives with the intention of slapping the new hard drives into my gaming pc, cloning them and then jacking those drives into my media server pc, etc. I made it more complex than it should have been and I've been jerking around with that all weekend.  It's pretty glorious though, amazing actually. . . but I digress.

So, short story long is that I did have a Logitech Harmony remote but once I got my new Samsung (I did all this a couple of years ago, so when I say "new" my TV/setup is a couple of years old now) but once I got that, I use the Samsung TV remote for everything so I ditched the Logitech remote.  My brother just got a new TV (he got an LG 4k OLED) and he still uses his Logitech Harmony.  I have to be honest, to me, it's seems clunky and I find that his volume seems to get out of sync between the TV and his receiver.  Anyway, if you look at that Samsung remote my first thought would be "that's a pos, where is everything?"  Trust me, it's all you need and I love the simplicity of it, everything works and it's pretty much perfect.  Since the TV drives everything, it (the TV) controls the receiver volume, inputs, etc.  Again, it's a fantastic design (having the TV in control) because everything is software driven, to me, I find it just works.

On my home screen, I've got about 15 or 20 apps loaded but I mostly used Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, Netflix and tonight I just got my Plex server running so that's on there too now.
Click to expand...
Does the TV control receiver volume via arc?  If so I assume it is smart enough to not raise the tv volume as well?

Let me make sure I have this correct.

Roku: connect to tv

PS4: connect to tv

DTV: connect to tv

connect tv to receiver via arc.

Use tv remote to select input(roku, PS4, DTV) or use tv’s internal Google TV.

Then no matter what input I choose all audio controls will be driven to receiver to drive the speakers and volume.

Is that correct?

Does ARC power on receiver or do I need to separately power that up?

 
NewlyRetired said:
Does the TV control receiver volume via arc?  If so I assume it is smart enough to not raise the tv volume as well?

Let me make sure I have this correct.

Roku: connect to tv

PS4: connect to tv

DTV: connect to tv

connect tv to receiver via arc.

Use tv remote to select input(roku, PS4, DTV) or use tv’s internal Google TV.

Then no matter what input I choose all audio controls will be driven to receiver to drive the speakers and volume.

Is that correct?

Does ARC power on receiver or do I need to separately power that up?
Click to expand...


Does the TV control receiver volume via arc?  Yes. If so I assume it is smart enough to not raise the tv volume as well? Correct.

Let me make sure I have this correct.

Roku: connect to tv Yes, to one of the non-ARC HDMI ports

PS4: connect to tv Yes, to one of the non-ARC HDMI ports

DTV: connect to tv Yes, to one of the non-ARC HDMI ports

connect tv to receiver via arc. Yes, to the ARC HDMI port

Use tv remote to select input(roku, PS4, DTV) or use tv’s internal Google TV.

Then no matter what input I choose all audio controls will be driven to receiver to drive the speakers and volume.

Is that correct? Yes. It's great!

Does ARC power on receiver or do I need to separately power that up? Maybe? My TV turns the audio device on/off to match the TV but I'm not sure if that's standard ARC or Bravia Sync (sony). The TV also lets me get into the sound bar's menus, edit settings, etc. beyond volume & power but, again, that might be Bravia Sync not ARC.

 
So (for us old school guys) since you plug everything into the TV, does the TV then upscale content?  In the past, I would count on my receiver to do that.

 
VandyMan said:
Does the TV control receiver volume via arc?  Yes. If so I assume it is smart enough to not raise the tv volume as well? Correct.

Let me make sure I have this correct.

Roku: connect to tv Yes, to one of the non-ARC HDMI ports

PS4: connect to tv Yes, to one of the non-ARC HDMI ports

DTV: connect to tv Yes, to one of the non-ARC HDMI ports

connect tv to receiver via arc. Yes, to the ARC HDMI port

Use tv remote to select input(roku, PS4, DTV) or use tv’s internal Google TV.

Then no matter what input I choose all audio controls will be driven to receiver to drive the speakers and volume.

Is that correct? Yes. It's great!

Does ARC power on receiver or do I need to separately power that up? Maybe? My TV turns the audio device on/off to match the TV but I'm not sure if that's standard ARC or Bravia Sync (sony). The TV also lets me get into the sound bar's menus, edit settings, etc. beyond volume & power but, again, that might be Bravia Sync not ARC.
Click to expand...
I don’t have a Google TV but when you have a receiver with HDMI you can also put all devices into the receiver and send one HDMI out to the TV. If you don’t have a fancy TV it lets you switch TV and stereo at the same time this works great since the input source on the receiver sends the TV signal and does the sound. I have this on my 3rd floor. I don’t think that TV has ARC inputs so I find it way easier to have the receiver handle all switches. I have a harmony remote up there but we don’t use the TV up there as much so it seems to never find the charger. I have a newer TV (reason for not using 3rd floor as it’s bigger) in the family room and use the ARC to control the sound  bar/sub and I love it. I have a Firestick so that remote controls everything, turning on the TV, all the different services and volume on the sound bar which is actually the TV controlling the sound bar.

 
VandyMan said:
Does ARC power on receiver or do I need to separately power that up? Maybe? My TV turns the audio device on/off to match the TV but I'm not sure if that's standard ARC or Bravia Sync (sony). The TV also lets me get into the sound bar's menus, edit settings, etc. beyond volume & power but, again, that might be Bravia Sync not ARC.
Click to expand...
I have a Sony receiver that was designed to work with Sony Bravia's but that was back in 2015.  I have no idea how it will work today with a new Bravia TV but I am interested to try it out.  Thank you for all the helpful information.

I noticed you mentioned to specifically connect items to NON arc HDMI inputs.   Do TV's typically come with only one ARC port?  I know the BRAVIA XR X90J has 4 HDMI ports, two of which are 2.0 and two of which are 2.1 but I can't find the info about how many support ARC.  Hopefully only one does (or if it is more, I can shut off ARC on the ports I don't want to use ARC on.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
lakerstan said:
So (for us old school guys) since you plug everything into the TV, does the TV then upscale content?  In the past, I would count on my receiver to do that.
Click to expand...
yes, the TV does the upscaling.   If the TV is the newest/best component in your system, you can set your receiver to "pass through" the data natively and then the TV will do the upscaling which is it is probably better at if it is newer (or you can do what others are recommending in this thread and that is to make the TV the hub and not your receiver any more)

The less components your data has to go through the better for signal quality.   I am hopeful that when I get the new TV, I will be able to make it the hub of my system and reduce the receiver to do nothing more than drive the speakers with audio that comes in over ARC via the TV.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
NewlyRetired said:
I have a Sony receiver that was designed to work with Sony Bravia's but that was back in 2015.  I have no idea how it will work today with a new Bravia TV but I am interested to try it out.  Thank you for all the helpful information.

I noticed you mentioned to specifically connect items to NON arc HDMI inputs.   Do TV's typically come with only one ARC port?  I know the BRAVIA XR X90J has 4 HDMI ports, two of which are 2.0 and two of which are 2.1 but I can't find the info about how many support ARC.  Hopefully only one does (or if it is more, I can shut off ARC on the ports I don't want to use ARC on.
Click to expand...
I was assuming only one ARC-compatible HDMI port, but my TV is older and the new ones may be different. You should not have to shut off ARC anywhere. Just make sure the receiver is plugged into an ARC-compatible HDMI port. On my Bravia XBR900e that port is clearly labeled.

ETA: picture of X90J's input panel here. HDMI port 3 is ARC/eARC

 
Last edited by a moderator:
NewlyRetired said:
I noticed you mentioned to specifically connect items to NON arc HDMI inputs.   Do TV's typically come with only one ARC port?  I know the BRAVIA XR X90J has 4 HDMI ports, two of which are 2.0 and two of which are 2.1 but I can't find the info about how many support ARC.  Hopefully only one does (or if it is more, I can shut off ARC on the ports I don't want to use ARC on.
Click to expand...
Should only be one ARC port on the TV and the receiver. It should be clearly labeled too.

 
This has already been answered, but wanted to share an  :bag: story from my experience with ARC. My TV and sound bar are cheap models from different manufacturers circa 2012. I had a somewhat complicated setup requiring a Harmony remote. I learned about ARC earlier this year (so 9 years later) and was going to buy some new stuff to take advantage. I told my wife we could simplify the remotes, and would conveniently buy a much larger TV in the process. Then one day she looks at the ports on the old TV and said "I've know HDMI, but what is A-R-C?". Turns out my TV had it all along and I could've got rid of the Harmony remote ages ago. And just like that I lost my excuse to get a bigger TV because the remote situation is much better and 42 inches is big enough. SONUVA!

 
Edit: I see you were talking about using the built in app.

Personally I would keep the receiver as the hub and just connect the tv using the arc port.   

Not all tvs using arc can get you true Dolby digital, so you have to check that. This way your other sources will get the true sound to the receiver instead of the tv driving everything.

My .02

Edit #2: HDMI earc will handle all the new dts, formats etc 

Also I believe HDMI CEC is the on/off you are referring too

 
Last edited by a moderator:
lakerstan said:
So (for us old school guys) since you plug everything into the TV, does the TV then upscale content?  In the past, I would count on my receiver to do that.
Click to expand...
If you have a good receiver you can set it to pass through. I don't upscale at all with the receiver. I let my projector do it

 
NewlyRetired said:
Does the TV control receiver volume via arc?  If so I assume it is smart enough to not raise the tv volume as well?

Let me make sure I have this correct.

Roku: connect to tv

PS4: connect to tv

DTV: connect to tv

connect tv to receiver via arc.

Use tv remote to select input(roku, PS4, DTV) or use tv’s internal Google TV.

Then no matter what input I choose all audio controls will be driven to receiver to drive the speakers and volume.

Is that correct?

Does ARC power on receiver or do I need to separately power that up?
Click to expand...


I couldn't explain any better than VandyMan but here's a good video on YouTube that explains it and then he shows you what's gong on, how it works, why it works, etc. Linkage.

 
I remember back in college I was all up in all the technology for surround sound and stereos and tv's and such. And now reading all of this stuff it makes me want to turtle up and go hide in a corner sucking my thumb.

I hate being old now.  :lol:

 
ChiefD said:
I remember back in college I was all up in all the technology for surround sound and stereos and tv's and such. And now reading all of this stuff it makes me want to turtle up and go hide in a corner sucking my thumb.

I hate being old now.  :lol:
Click to expand...
It's really not much different...lol.

You used to have to run an optical cable from tv to receiver if you were  whatever input to the tv you wanted to output to sound bar/receiver.   Then you had the receiver as a central hub when they started with HDMI inputs. Then smart TVs you needed a way to get the apps to receiver. Optical cable again.

ARC just puts that all back into one HDMI cable.

 
Arc and eArc suck. That is all. All 2019+ gear from differing mfgs and it flat out sucks if you use your receiver as the main hub. Doesn't power on or control correctly. Disabled all that BS and use my harmony. Really wish there was a good alternative to harmony since Logitech killed harmony.

 
Hawks64 said:
Arc and eArc suck. That is all. All 2019+ gear from differing mfgs and it flat out sucks if you use your receiver as the main hub. Doesn't power on or control correctly. Disabled all that BS and use my harmony. Really wish there was a good alternative to harmony since Logitech killed harmony.
Click to expand...
So you say still use optical to get sound to your receiver for smart apps?

 
belljr said:
So you say still use optical to get sound to your receiver for smart apps?
Click to expand...
Nope, use a Nvidia Shield TV Pro connected to the receiver. Streaming from the TV apps is nowhere as close to as a good as separate device, especially the Shield.

 
Hawks64 said:
Arc and eArc suck. That is all. All 2019+ gear from differing mfgs and it flat out sucks if you use your receiver as the main hub. Doesn't power on or control correctly. Disabled all that BS and use my harmony. Really wish there was a good alternative to harmony since Logitech killed harmony.
Click to expand...


Hawks64 said:
Nope, use a Nvidia Shield TV Pro connected to the receiver. Streaming from the TV apps is nowhere as close to as a good as separate device, especially the Shield.
Click to expand...


@ChiefD Don't listen to this guy. He's going all fancy-pants and still using the receiver as the hub for audio and video. ARC is designed for the TV to be the hub. ARC will do exactly what you need if you run all of the video through the TV rather than the receiver, and only use the receiver to get audio from the TV to your speakers. 

 
FBG26 said:
@ChiefD Don't listen to this guy. He's going all fancy-pants and still using the receiver as the hub for audio and video. ARC is designed for the TV to be the hub. ARC will do exactly what you need if you run all of the video through the TV rather than the receiver, and only use the receiver to get audio from the TV to your speakers. 
Click to expand...
Always will, why not use the best processing choice for what it is designed for? Maybe if you have one or two sources sure use the TV but with multiple sources there is zero reason to not use the best option for processing, which is a receiver or pre/pro.

 
i have a bravia that is supposed to work with a soundbar via just an arc cable and it did for years then it ran a software update and stopped working so i also plugged in an optical cable and everything works just fine again who knows but that was my experience take that to the bank brohans 

 
just received and set up the new tv on sunday.  same set up as the previous.

ARC from soundbar to tv.

ps4 to hdmi1

Old tv= when i turn on the ps4 (yttv is my platform for live tv), tv and sound bat came on.

new tv= i need to turn on ps4, and turn on tv.  when i turn on tv, soundbar comes on.

I would like to have the old method work with the new tv (turn on ps4... and have that turn on tv and soundbar).

Thoughts?

 
Drunken knight said:
just received and set up the new tv on sunday.  same set up as the previous.

ARC from soundbar to tv.

ps4 to hdmi1

Old tv= when i turn on the ps4 (yttv is my platform for live tv), tv and sound bat came on.

new tv= i need to turn on ps4, and turn on tv.  when i turn on tv, soundbar comes on.

I would like to have the old method work with the new tv (turn on ps4... and have that turn on tv and soundbar).

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
My guess is that the PS4 -> New TV isn't in an ARC/eARC enabled port or that CEC isn't enabled.

 
belljr said:
I think he's referring more to the audio end
Click to expand...
he bold texted audio and video in the response he made so that is why I made my comment about the video.

I agree though.  There can be no argument about who handles audio better, that will always be the receiver.

 
NewlyRetired said:
he bold texted audio and video in the response he made so that is why I made my comment about the video.

I agree though.  There can be no argument about who handles audio better, that will always be the receiver.
Click to expand...
It really depends on mfg, and in the case of native signals there is no processing. In terms of upscaling most TVs can't perform at the same level as a mid/high end receiver. Even my Shield TV (150 box) outperforms the TV's native apps that aren't native 4k.

 
Hawks64 said:
Nope, use a Nvidia Shield TV Pro connected to the receiver. Streaming from the TV apps is nowhere as close to as a good as separate device, especially the Shield.
Click to expand...
It's not even a discussion. I just started using a Roku Stick+ instead of the apps on my Sony TV and I'm angry with myself for using the latter for the last year.

Now I'm wondering if it's worth spending the money on the Nvidia Shield as an "upgrade" to the Roku. I'm tempted now that AppleTV is available on the Shield - it's the best source for streaming content IMO.

 
I could never get my BluSound sound bar to work with ARC - it would always disconnect.

I'd have to clear cache - yes on a sound bar - and reboot.

It's connected to a digital optical cable now.

 
Thanks to everyone who gave advice in the thread.

I picked up my new TV today and everything went as smooth as could be.

I plugged Roku, PS4 and DTV into TV and connected TV to receiver via ARC.

TV turns the receiver on and off and controls the volume.

All inputs to the TV work as expected. 

Harmony still works flawlessly after I adjusted the activities to match the new TV

Set up google TV and got my basics working easily (youtube, netflix and plex).  Will add more apps in time.

And the picture quality improvement from my 15 year old TV is fantastic!

Very happy. :)

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

[icon]
Home Theater : Anyone done a 4-panel Matrix TV?
Replies
48
Views
3K
[icon]
[icon]
Quint
LG OLED TV - Never Again (a rant) *Update & Resolution Added*
Replies
49
Views
3K
Ilov80s
Ilov80s
3 hour lunch
A/V Help- PS5
Replies
8
Views
731
3 hour lunch
3 hour lunch

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top