Yamaha RX-V685's USB not working

[Trebdp83]

Oh, forgot to ask if the USB drive is encrypted. Nothing will play if it is encrypted and content containing DRM will also not be playable.

 

[JohnnyGee]

Good new and bad news. The good news is that, after pressing several buttons on the Yamaha RX-V685 receiver's remote control, music made its way through the maze and came of of my speakers. I don't know what I did right, and I might not be able to do it again, but that's, I hope, a useful diagnostic step.

The bad news is that nothing on the television screen changed: no list of songs and albums and artists, no nothing. In fact, I have never seen anything on the TV screen that was generated by the receiver.

Y'all have offered many suggestions, and I will start trying them. Would it be useful if I photographed the back of the receiver as well as the back of the TV and indicated what cable is connected to what? Some of the ideas suggest I've got something hooked up wrong, and if that's the problem I hope those photos would help. I want it to be something simple.

I appreciate your hanging in there with me.

 

[Trebdp83]

Yes, photos will help immensely.

 

[Trebdp83]

I may have been mistaken about the (ARC) port on your TV. It moves around with new models and your TV could very well have it on port #4.

 

[JohnnyGee]

Hello, all,

I do have photographs, five of the back of the Samsung 65-inch QLED television and two of the back of the Yamaha RX-V685 receiver, but I have not attached them (I can if someone wants to see them) because I think, or at least I hope, that knowing what’s connected to what will allow y’all to suggest different ways to hook things up, in case that’s the problem.

As a reminder, at this point I still cannot figure out how to get any message generated by the receiver to appear on the television, which means I can do only very little of what this combination should be capable of.

My first thought is to try the ARC connection, not because I know what I’m talking about but because someone on a different forum suggested it.

Here are the connections from the back of the TV to the back of the receiver, with the label on the back of the TV first and what it’s connected to second. The items below in all caps are exactly how the label reads; the slash mark is where the next line on the label drops down one line.

== USB / (5V 0.5A) == Not connected
== USB / (HDD 5V 1A) == Not connected
== DIGITAL AUDIO OUT / (OPTICAL) == Connected to the receiver’s AUDIO 1 / (7 TV)
== HDMI IN 4 / (ARC) == Not connected
== HDMI IN 3 == Connected to the Roku box
== HDMI IN 2 == Not connected
== HDMI IN 1 == Not connected
== LAN == Not connected
== [illegible] == Not connected

If you want to know more about how anything is hooked up to anything else, please do ask. The back of the receiver, in case you want to know what’s available, can be found at https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/av_receivers_amps/rx-v685_u/downloads.html, and then clicking on the Owner’s Manual size of 17 mb. From there, once it’s opened as a PDF, you can scroll down to find images of the back of the receiver.

I might not have the kind of cable necessary to try your suggestion, but I can get if you describe it thoroughly enough.

I know three apps have been recommended, and I've downloaded all three, but I don't see where I should make any changes on the phone that will solve the problem. If you have any specific advice I can follow, please let me know.

As always, thanks for your interest.

 

[Trebdp83]

You must connect an HDMI cable from the Yamaha’s HDMI OUT #1 port to the TV’s HDMI #4 (ARC) port to receive a video signal from the Yamaha and to enable Audio Return Channel from the television. Better audio playback will be achieved by connecting the Roku to one of the Yamaha’s HDMI IN ports than to the TV port as your optical connection will limit audio bandwidth from the Roku as it travels through the TV to the Yamaha.

 

[Trebdp83]

 

[JohnnyGee]

Trebdp83, I won't be able to try either re-connection till this evening at the earliest or tomorrow at the latest. I'll let you and the others know the results.

Fingers crossed.

 

[JohnnyGee]

Enormous progress. For the first time I saw on the TV information generated by the Yamaha "AV receiver," which I now know distinguishes it from an ordinary receiver. 99% of the credit for the enormous progress goes to ASh, who made all the connections and re-connections and just generally figured this out from this end.

I will tell y'all what's connected to what as soon as I learn it, and I'll tell y'all what progress I've made. I hope someone faces the same problems and can learn from my experience. Among the good news is that it appears almost certain that no defect exists in any of my various pieces of equipment.

ASh has some questions for Trebdp83 and anyone else who knows the answers, and I will ask her questions as soon as I've studied the situation better. Now that my confidence has risen I need to turn my attention to those pesky Middle East problems, and I'll return to this forum as soon as I can.

As always, thanks to y'all for your suggestions and your patience.

 

[lovinthehd]

ASh?

 

[Mark E. Long]

ASh?

Iam thinking it’s the better half with a clearer picture of the function of the units menu and setup .

 

[JohnnyGee]

Hello, all,

I've tried to attach an Excel spreadsheet, which I just discovered cannot have an extension of .xlsx, which is why I've chosen to ZIP it. Please ignore the second tab, or sheet, that I've named HowTos. Well, I can't stop you from looking at it, and I think what's there is accurate, but it isn't finished.

The first tab, named Main, shows the three connections I've made, including the TV, the receiver, and the Roku. Not shown are connections to the speakers, which even I can figure out.

As you will see if you examine the first sheet of this spreadsheet, the suggestion from Trebdp83 was not followed, i.e., the suggestion to connect the Roku box to one of the receiver's HDMI IN ports, which he or she says will not limit the bandwidth. We (ASh) tried Trebdp83's suggestion and something failed. I don't remember what failed, but by connecting the Roku to the TV's HDMI IN 3 the failure disappeared.

ASh is my better half by a lot. Her first name starts with "A" and her last name starts with "Sh," hence ASh.

I intend to keep working on the HowTos sheet till it's finished, but the question I face, which is similar to the question I face regarding the exact three connection I made, is whether there's enough interest in my exact equipment. Presumably some readers have a Roku, and I don't think it matters which exact TV readers have as long as it has multiple ports, but how many readers have the AV receiver that's the subject of the attached spreadsheet? Are there enough similarities between my Yamaha RX-V685 and other AV receivers to make any of this worth the literal and mental bandwidth it takes up on this forum. Please let me know whether I should publish to this forum the finished HowTos sheet.

If you can suggest an improvement to the three connections ASh has made so far, or if there's some aspect of some app you would recommend, please let me know.

 

[Trebdp83]

Try connecting the Roku back into the Yamaha using the HDMI #2 input. Now, using the TV remote control, select the Yamaha as the source to view on the TV. Next, take the Yamaha remote control and look for the "INPUT" button. Press the left or right arrows to change the HDMI input to be used. Stop when you get to HDMI #2. You should see the Roku displayed on the TV if all is connected correctly. Later, you can try using HDMI Control to make these changes automatic using just the TV remote control but that can also prove to be difficult and frustrating to implement.